Chapter 11
Present Day
Zack
My office had begun to grow more and more cluttered and messy over the last few months. I used to be so clean and tidy, taking pride in the club that I ran, but now those feelings had grown numb.
Nightshapes was one of the most popular dance clubs in town, although our figures had been waning in recent months. Frankly, I didn't care, and felt myself lucky that Crash was so preoccupied with other business concerns to notice.
Since dad died he'd become the head of the family and was responsible for overseeing all of our businesses and assets, yet recently he'd been so consumed by his new hotel and casino project that the club had fallen off his radar.
For me, the fun I used to have running it and the enthusiasm I had for the job had begun to fade. I used to feel proud in my role, like I was some sort of big fish in town, someone to be looked up to, someone who was running a top club at so young an age.
Yet it was all false, and I knew that now. I hadn't achieved anything myself. It was all handed down from my father, and I had nothing to be proud of. Cade, though, could be proud of what he was doing, and a deep feeling of envy and jealousy towards him had begun to invade every cell of my body.
He was the new local hero in town, capable of bedding any girl he wanted. But no, the girl he wanted was Gemma, and that pissed me off more than anything. The irony of it all was that he had no idea I knew her, no idea I harbored these sorts of feelings. If he did, I wonder what he'd do?
I took a drink of whiskey from the cabinet next to my desk and snuffed out my cigarette. I knew I wasn't meant to smoke in here but I didn't care anymore. It was another part of my life that had been getting worse recently, and now I was up to a pack a day.
It was a Tuesday night and that meant one thing – student night. We'd brought it in recently to try to get our numbers back up on what was traditionally a pretty slow evening. Now that word was beginning to spread, however, it had become our most popular night of the week outside of Friday and Saturday.
I'd see Kyle come down sometimes. Ever since he'd started dating Alice he would tag along to some of their student evenings. I knew she was underage, along with her friends, but I still let them in. Frankly, most of the students coming down here probably were too. As long as it kept our profits up, it didn't bother me.
The thud of the club and the relentless sound of chatter and shouting girls invaded my ears as I sat there. It was distant, but endless, and the night was just getting started.
Another 6 hours of this shit. I was growing sick of it.
I reached for a set of earphones and stuck them as deep as possible into my ears, putting on some relaxing chillout music to calm my aching head. I lay back and shut my eyes, the noise of the hectic world around me beginning to fade away.
Peace at last. F*cking bliss.
But, of course, it didn't last long.
A mere 20 minutes into my personal chillout session I felt a large hand shake lightly at my shoulder. I slowly opened my eyes to see Brick, one of my bouncers, looming over me. He was a monster of a man, but had this hangdog expression on his face. I guess the way my mood had turned recently, I couldn't blame him, especially since I'd fired another guy just the week before.
I could see his mouth moving but had no idea what he was saying. I mean, clearly I can't hear you Brick with these f*cking earphones in.
I casually leaned but up and pulled the wires from my ears.
“Brick, do you see these funny looking things in my ears? It means I can't hear you.”
“Err, sorry Mr Logan.”
“Now what's going on?” I asked, semi-irritated to have been disturbed. “This better be good.”
“Yes, sorry Mr Logan, but there's a girl here, says she's a friend.”
“A girl? Do you have a name?”
“Um, yes, it's Ella, I think.”
“Ella? I don't know an Ella. Tell her I'm busy.” Just another girl looking for Cade Logan's twin brother probably.
“Um, yes Mr Logan. I might be wrong, though, about the name. She said she's dating your brother Cade.”
I sat up straighter. “Gemma?”
“Oh yes, sorry boss, that's it. I'm sorry for the mix up.”
Jesus, he was acting timid. Had I really become such a dick recently?
“That's all right Brick. Send her in here.”
Brick nodded his head down obediently and turned towards the door. The boom of the bass and the chatter of drunken students immediately grew louder as the door widened, before being shut off once more as he stepped into the corridor beyond and shut the door behind him.
I glanced quickly around the room and cursed myself for leaving it in such a state. I grabbed a mirror from my desk and checked out my hair, swiping it back and neatening it up a bit. I could feel my heart-rate beginning to rise at the thought of seeing her again. I wish that didn't happen. I wish I didn't have these f*cking feelings for her. I wish we could just be friends like we once were. But no, things had changed now, and there was no going back in my head.
The last time I'd spent any time alone with her was 3 months ago at my birthday. It was that night when my feelings for her were fully reignited and ever since then things had been extremely awkward whenever I saw her and Cade together.
I even felt awkward when he spoke to me about her, something he'd done recently, asking for advice on how to deal with an argument they'd had. My heart had sunk when he'd told me he was serious about her, and I felt myself being torn between the love for my brother and my growing feelings for her.
I could see, as any fool could, that my own personal downward trajectory had coincided with Gemma's reappearance in my life. The irony wasn't lost on me: that this girl who I cared for deeply could have so negative an effect on me.
But it was a problem I had to deal with, and deal with alone.
The door opened ahead of me and the noise of the club spilled once again into the room. Gemma's face appeared, wearing a wide smile.
She stepped in and closed the door behind her, taking a quick look around and sniffing the air.
“You still smoking then Zack,” she said with half judgement and half concern. “Those things will kill you, you know.”
I smiled. “So could lots of things. Live fast, die young, right.”
She laughed and walked around the side of my desk, coming close towards me. My pulse continued to jump.
“As long as you don't die too soon, it's kinda nice having you around again.” She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before turning and retreating back around the desk, clearing a couple of boxes from the chair opposite.
“It's OK, I'll deal with those,” I said, jumping up and rushing round the desk to grab the boxes off of her.”
“Whoa, what you got in here?” she joked. “Your personal porn stash is it?!”
“Very funny Gem. No, nothing so exciting. Just some boring business files.”
I walked over to the side of the room and placed them on top of several other boxes that had begun to accumulate in the corner.
“Nice place you got here,” she said, her tongue firmly in her cheek, “real homely!”
“Yeah, well, it's not all glamor down here. This is where the real work takes place.”
I moved back around to my chair and sat down again, resisting the temptation to light up another cigarette.
I refilled my glass with whiskey and reached for a spare from my bottom drawer.
“Fancy a glass?”
She eyed up the bottle. “Sure, why not.”
I poured another glass and slid it towards her through a gap in the piles of papers covering my desk. She took a sip and coughed, bringing a laugh from my lips.
“Yeah, I didn't take you for a whiskey drinker. You want me to add some coke to that?” I spoke sarcastically, as I often did when I used to tease her.
She stared me down through squinting eyes, making me laugh once more.
“All right, all right, so what are you doing here Gem?”
I leaned back in my chair, my heart-rate now back to normal.
“No reason,” she said, entirely unconvincingly, “I was just working late so thought I'd come down and see where you work. There's lots of temptation down there on the dancefloor Zack. I hope you keep your hands to yourself!”
“Try to,” I said dryly. “So you just came down to check I wasn't hooking up with some innocent student, is that it? Cos I can tell you Gem, the students I see in here are far from innocent!”
“I'll bet. It was the same at my college. You never went in the end did you?”
I shook my head.
“How come?”
“Dad. He wanted us all working for the family business so from 18 I was working down here, being groomed to take over. The same happened with Crash and Kyle and Jude.”
“And Cade?”
“Yeah, he worked here with me for a while, until dad told him to focus only on his boxing. I guess dad thought he'd be better served winning acclaim for the family than being stuck running this club with me.”
“God you make it sound so awful,” she said lightly. “Surely it's not so bad running this place?”
I shook my head. “I guess I've just worked here long enough. There's other things I want to achieve.”
“Oh yeah, like what?”
“I dunno, I'm only just 23. There's a whole world out there.”
“I know what you mean. Sometimes you wonder whether you're in the right job.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
She took another sip of her whiskey, grimacing slightly as it slipped down her throat. “So are you looking forward to Cade's fight next Friday night?”
Not really.
“Absolutely,” I said with feigned enthusiasm, “can't wait. It's the shot he's been waiting for. And you? You used to him punching people for a living yet?”
“Err, not sure I'll ever get used to that to be honest. So how's his training been going?”
“Hasn't he told you?”
“Well, no, we're not seeing each other at the moment.”
My heartbeat jumped. “What, you mean you're on a break?!”
She laughed. “Oh, no, we're just not seeing each other until after the fight. His coach says he's got to abstain from...you know.”
“Right, say no more. I don't wanna hear about your sex life thanks.”
“So basically, yeah, I was just wondering how his training was coming along?” She had this inquisitive edge to her voice that she was trying to hide by being casual. I knew her too well to miss it.
“Yeah, it's going well. I train with him sometimes. Despite the smoking I do like to keep myself in shape.”
“Oh, right, so you go down to the gym with him? I'll bet he's down there all day, everyday, right?”
“Erm, pretty much, yeah. He starts training ridiculously early, at like 6 AM or something stupid like that. He's pretty much living down at the boxing club right now.”
A sort of semi smile appeared on her face as she sipped her drink again. “Well that's good to know, that he's taking it seriously and everything.”
“Oh, yeah, definitely. If there's one thing in life that Cade has always taken seriously it's his boxing. Can't say the same for his girlfriends, or lack thereof.” For some reason I was finding it hard complimenting Cade without some sort of dig at the end.
Gemma didn't react or rise to the comment. She seemed a bit lost in her own thoughts now.
“So how's work going,” I asked, dragging her attention back to me. “Still finding it – how did you put it last time – 'boring as f*ck'?”
Her face screwed up slightly at the mention of work. “Horrible,” she said, “my boss is a nightmare.”
“One of these Devil Wears Prada types?”
“Basically, yeah. She's so manipulative. I really don't like her.”
“What's her name then?”
“Martha Banks.”
The name rang a bell somewhere in the back of my head. I was sure I'd heard it before. Probably an associate of my father a while ago.
“And what's so bad about her?”
Gemma was shaking her head in disgust. “It's hard to explain really, without you understanding my position at work. She's just this ruthless 'screw anyone over to get what they want' type, you know.”
“Yeah, I know the sort. My father was pretty much like that.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah, I guess you've gotta be if you want to be as successful as he was. Manipulation kinda comes with the territory sometimes.”
Her voice dampened a bit. “Yeah, maybe. God help me if I ever turn out like that.”
“Gem, you could never be like that. You're a doll, always have been, always will be.”
Her face softened as she looked at me. She looked a bit drained, as if she hadn't been sleeping that well. “That's sweet Zack. You always were so sweet.”
“Sweet. I haven't been called that in a while.”
“Well it's true. That part of you hasn't changed one bit.”
She smiled again and then glanced at her watch.
“Hey, look, I should probably go. I've got lots of work on this week so...”
I stood up as she did. “Oh sure, it was great to see you though Gem.”
I walked round the side of the desk and we spontaneously hugged once more. She clipped into my arms like the missing piece of a puzzle. It just felt so right.
“I guess I'll see you at the fight next Friday?” she said, slipping out of my embrace and looking up at me. Despite the worn look in her eyes she still looked gorgeous.
I nodded. “Yeah, I'll look forward to it.”