Chapter 3

• "I don't like this colour Joe." I pointed to the chart he laid out on the table for me, "The lime is horrible. They want summery colours, not something to blind their eyes."
• Joe nodded, "Alright, how about a mustard?"
• "No." I said walking around the table, mustard was not a 'summer' colour. Not the tone that came to mind when I thought about mustard anyway. I looked out of the high rise building down onto the street at the view of cars and busy city dwellers rushing to where ever they need to go.
• "Think more sunflower if you want yellow, more pink, more green, more bounce." I pointed out.
• "I'll look into some sunflower shades." He said.
• I could hear Joe clean up behind me from our meeting and checked my watch, perfect, I had ten minutes till I had to meet one of my clients, maybe I could make a quick coffee. My brain was still throbbing even after I took a few more panadols which was strange. Shouldn't the tablets have kicked in?
• "Um Aedan?"
• "Yes?" I asked turning around and staring at the bright blue eyes of my worker.
• "What about that favour I asked you about?"
• I nodded, "I'm thinking about it."
• We spent a few more minutes talking about the plans before he left and I walked out to the staff room for that coffee. There were a few workers that were on their break but it was mostly empty which let me enjoy the limited peace that I got. I stirred in my milk as I saw the receptionist walk in smiling, "There is a "You know who I am," at the main desk Miss Hart." she said shifting on her feet pulling her tight skirt down.
• I frowned, a know who I am?
• "Who?" I asked washing my spoon.
• "He's about five eleven, grey eyes and actually between you and me is pretty h-."
• "Oh." I said, "oh." I lifted the glass to my lips smiling, "Send him to my office." this was going to be entertaining. I took my own sweet time to go to my office, talking to people on the way, going back to the kitchen to reheat my coffee, taking small sips before I neared the red door that was slightly open, I bet he was sitting inside irritated.
• I opened the door and sure enough he was there standing over my bookshelf holding something. I cleared my throat striding in and he turned around his grey eyes reminding me of a storm, oh boy he was angry. In jeans and a white shirt, it seemed he finally found that leather jacket that was thrown over my desk. Picking it up I hurled it into the seat and sat down, "Now, what brings you here."
• "You know what." He said, ooh, he's using his angry voice at me. I turned in my chair leaning back so I was comfortable for this conversation, "No, not really."
• Sterling strode over in two easy steps, his palms slamming onto the table as he leaned over, "You cancelled the card."
• I cleared my throat, well the news did reach him faster than I thought, it had only been half a day.
• "Not cancel." I said, well that wasn't possible as the manager said he wanted both our signatures, of course mine was signed and it was waiting in my bag for his, which I will con out of him one way or another, "Froze."
• "I don't care, make it work." I flinched as the card was thrown at me and I looked at the white and yellow card on my lap and picked it up, well now I had access to both cards, this was pretty good. I quickly placed it in the top draw and shut it close.
• "It won't work for a week." I said
• "Why not?"
• "Because I said so." It took a lot of strings to make it happened, and a lot of...excuses, such as I lost my bank card and couldn't let anyone use it and I needed it froze as I got my replacement but I was going out of town so I had to get it once I came back.
• Okay fine, a lie. Which I don't do but sometimes you just had to lie for good reasons, and this was a good reason, so, it was a great reason.
• Sterling threw his hands into he air frustrated running it through his thick black hair, "What about my cruise?" he was acting like a toddler.
• "That's a shame, I guess you need to reschedule it or maybe find a job to get some money to go on that cruise." I reached for my coffee.
• It was actually pretty disgusting to see a grown man throwing a fit, god, not manly at all.
• I jumped in my seat, nearly spilling the coffee, as his fist came down onto the table, "You've messed with the wrong man Aedan,"
• He was so close I could smell the chewing gum.
• "That really scares me, now if you go I can get back to work too earn some money."
• He opened his mouth to say something and then decided not to, thank god. He made a deep noise from the back of his throat scratching his strong jaw before turning around grabbing his jacket.
• Good riddance.
• I now had both cards, and the upper hand.
• * * *
• My stomach grumbled as I walked out of work. I barely had time to eat all my lunch, all I could fit in was nibbled here and there and now I was starving.
• Perhaps I shouldn't have had that much coffee either as my stomach was slightly in pain. Maybe this coffee obsession was getting a bit out of hand, I really shouldn't have that much coffee.
• I could either drive through and pick up some...fast food that was mainly junk or go home and cook something, Emilia usually didn't work for dinner, I was usually home fairly early to cook and do some more work.
• Work. I looked at the pile of bags on the seat next to me all containing different blueprints for the interior decoration project, as great as it was having so much to do, sometimes I think I love work a bit too much that the relationship was unhealthy.
• I was aware of that but at the same time I had all these projects I had committed to and because of delays and all these other issues they were now all happening at once rather than the planned schedule making me really overwhelmed.
• I felt like I could cry behind the wheel because of how stressed I was feeling, and I had no one to help.
• I didn't have time to go through take out and wait for food, maybe I can go home, cook and eat and work at the same time.
• As I drove into our drive way I noticed there were other cars there and frowned, who was it? It wasn't till I saw the number plate I sighed, great, I wonder what excuse he came up with now.
• Of course he had to go call my parents every time he wanted something, because he knew they were my weak spot.
• Arsehole.
• I grabbed all my work carrying them in both hands as I kicked the car door shut not even bothering to lock it, no one wanted to steal such an old car that had more service problems than an old person. Walking up the stairs I realised the main door was slightly open, of course, he never locks and closes the door properly.
• Walking in I could hear the slight chatter, and of course the smell of food made me walk into the lounge room and not upstairs to dump all my things.
• "Aedan finally you are here, what time is it?" My mum stood up from the couch with her glass of hot fruit tea and I dropped all the heavy bags onto the chair rolling my shoulders, "Don't you have a watch?" I asked.
• "Don't be rude." I could hear my fathers voice. Well really you're the rude one rocking up past ten on a weekday just because a grown man was throwing a fit.
• What's that wonderful smell, I was hungry. I walked towards the kitchen hearing my mum say something but of course my mine was purely on food. There was food, glorious food, well, pizza but that will have to do.
• "What are you wearing, why are you dressing like a man?" the questions were non stop.
• I paused as I took out a plate and looked at my neat attire, "This is female clothes?"
• "A suit?"
• "A female suit." I pointed out, besides it wasn't even masculine, I bet a man wouldn't wear this shade of grey or the cut, and the blazer screamed female and had gold buttons. It was neat and perfect for my work.
• I couldn't wear skirts and risk flashing everyone when I bent over to pick something nor would I wear it when it was so cold in the morning and night.
• "How about a nice dress?" my mum asked.
• "No." I piled some pizza onto my plate going to sit on the bar stool, "What are you doing here?" I asked.
• "What you don't want your mother to visit you? Oh so grown up aren't you."
• I rolled my eyes as I bit into the still warm pizza my stomach grumbling as a thank you and wiped my mouth with tissue before I spoke, "No, you just were here a few days ago," when I had to make the stupid excuses for Sterling who was too busy spending my money on fish eggs.
• "Well your husband has brought something to my attention." she took a sip from her tea, her eyes locking in with mine the entire time.
• I scoffed as I took another bite, an awfully large bite, of course he did, probably whining how he couldn't go anywhere cause I cut off the money. This was going to be fun watching him suffer.
• "That you work too much." she said after her long sip.
• I choked on my pizza and looked up at her, he said what? What about the credit card?
• "I do not!" I said, even though the pile of work was staring at me from it's designated corner.
• "You're coming home at ten, what type of wife comes home at ten deserting her family for those stupid houses you colour in."
• "Design mum, I design them." I wiped my mouth with a tissue sighing, of course she never understood how important interior designing was. She just thought design was important in fashion. But what confused me was what Sterling said, what was he playing at?
• "Either way this isn't acceptable, and you are over working so he suggested a nice cruise for you both. He said that you deserve a holiday for all your hard work."
• Aha, found it. Now that he couldn't go on the cruise he thought saying it was for us would open the wallets on my parents. That scoundrel. Why can't he just ask his parents, he was loaded as well, pretty sure his parents had more than us.
• "I'm busy."
• "That's exactly the point, far too busy. When was the last time you and your husband had a nice dinner together." mum asked.
• Never because he was too busy eating food off a stripper's body and using my card to pay for that as well. Not that she would believe me even if I said so, because Sterling was such a good boy in their eyes, when everyone else knew the truth, he wasn't good. He was bad, really bad.
• "Next Friday, your father and I are going to make sure you get on that vessel."
• Oh, we'll see. That still gave me more than a week to find an excuse out, I'll just stay over at Nelly's or something. I had work to do, three big projects but of course my mother the esteemed housewife who doesn't even do any housework would know about "projects".
• Flicking her dark brown hair out of her face she walked back to the lounge room and I picked up the other slice ready to take a bite when it was rudely pulled out of my hand and I looked up my mouth still slightly open.
• "What?"
• "Don't you know its rude to eat someone else's food." Sterling's grey eyes had a certain glint to them, probably thought he won. Not so easy.
• "What?" I asked as he took a bite out of my pizza, I should have spat on it.
• "This is my dinner, go get your own." I raised an eyebrow, "You're going to eat three whole pizza's to yourself?" yeah right, that was going to happen.
• "Oh honey don't you know what a big appetite your husband has?" the way he said it, sounded...odd. But before I could say something I heard the sound of mums high heels and looked over my shoulder, "Well we have to go son, we'll come again this weekend."
• "Of course Harold, see you then." Sterling said as I narrowed my eyes at my parents. Back this weekend? Why?
• "Aren't they just cute." I could hear my mum say as they walked towards the door and I turned back glaring at Sterling who had demolished my slice and had that audacity to lick his fingers, what a pig.
• "What are you doing?" I asked him.
• "Eating."
• "No, why are you going and complaining to them. If you want money, use your own or your parents, don't bring mine into this."
• He frowned at me before leaning over and pulling the pizzas towards him, "Well don't eat my dinner then."
• "I wonder how you're getting your dinner every other day?" I pointed out. Using my money, and here he was not letting me eat pizza which I bet he bought from my change lying around in the house. He picked up all three boxes and started walking outside and I stared at his back till it disappeared.
• God I just want to slap him.
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