Seeker (5 page)

Willem raised an eyebrow at that. For some reason he felt like he was back in school, coming in with stories of his first sexual conquest and being egged on by the most promiscuous of the class. Only he never did share stories of sexual conquests in school, mainly because he never had any. Knuckling down and getting the best grades was all he cared about back then. Now, he reflected, perhaps Jake had been right, he'd missed a big chunk of the whole teen bonding experience.

“Your laryngitis seems to have cleared up some,” Willem pointed out.

Ste shrugged, and placed his glass of water on the table. “Quick healer, mate, my body hasn't become dependent on drugs to get better. Good immune system,” he said, and coughed. “Still, not completely gone,” he added with a grimace.

“So I see.”

Ste sat down and started leafing through the sheets of paper that were on the desk. “What's next, then?”

“Well,” Willem began, giving up on even considering a fourth chair, “I want you to take notes, make sure we get everything said down. Don't want to slip up on this. I'm still finding it hard to believe that Kurt would try to scam me like this, it's so not a Kurt thing. And yet the evidence…”

“…Pretty much says string the idiot up by the short and curlies,” Ste said, all trace of humour gone. “And haven't you learned from last night that people often step out of character?”

Willem thought back to last night on the webcam, and nodded. Yep, that was definitely new for him. “Maybe, but there are character types that people usually fall into, read about it on Wikipedia. Let me see; melancholy, sanguine…erm…”

Ste nodded slowly at this. “Right,” he said, even slower, “and we all know that Wiki is written by experts in their fields. Only, you know, not. People are not like characters in a book, dude, you can't define them so easily, slotting them into particular personality types. People shift and change their attitudes, their desires, everything, all they need is the right…incentive.”

There was a distant smile on Ste's face as he said this, but Willem wasn't sure he wanted to know the why of that. Instead he kept his tone light. “You really are the insightful professor of life, aren't you, Mr. Krueger?”

“What can I say, Will, I'm multi-talented. And you know, there's plenty going on in my world you'd not believe even if I did tell you. Not unless you experienced it yourself.”

Willem narrowed his eyes. “Is that an invite?”

“Don't know, dude, wouldn't be up to me. I'd have to ask Robin.”

“Right, the mysterious Robin. Anyway, what did you say the other day about your mixer menu?”

“True that.” Ste nodded, lips pursed in thought. His face broke out into a wide grin. “Maybe I'll have to speak to Robin. I know he wants to meet you.”

“You two talked about me?”

A dark shadow passed across Ste's features, but an instant later it was gone. He leaned forward. “Anyhow, I meant what's next with you and Charlie?”

“Oh. Him,” Willem said, waving a hand as if Charlie was the last thing on his mind. Ste was clearly not convinced by this attempt at indifference, so Willem sat down in the chair he'd prepared for Kurt. “Gonna meet up with him this weekend.”

“Ah.” Ste sat back and steepled his fingers, with a smile on his lips.

“Ah what?”

“Nothing, just glad to see you're doing something about this. Been a long time.”

Willem nodded. He couldn't argue with that, really.

“Yeah, that's right. Jacen.”

Willem whistled. “Now there's a name I haven't really thought about in a long time.” And it really had been a long while, Willem realised, a good three years in fact. Jacen and Willem hadn't worked out too well, obviously since they were no longer dating, mostly because Jacen couldn't deal with Willem's commitment to his work. Jacen wanted to go off and do stuff, experience the world a little, and he wouldn't have it when Willem tried to explain they'd have plenty of time for that later when they were financially secure. Jacen had quickly found someone else, quite an adventurous guy from what Willem had since heard. “I wonder where he is now?”

“Probably off doing what you should have done a long time ago, Will,” Ste said, and let out a gentle cough.

“Still not too sure, though,” Willem said, wondering what it was about Ste that made him want to open up so freely. “I mean, Ren's fucked off again and I'm stuck with Curtis tonight. Not that I mind, since I love spending time with him, obviously, and better him being with me than around Jimmy, but what happens when I'm away? She can't just knock on my door whenever, then.”

“So?” Ste held his hands up to ward off the words that were about to erupt from Willem's mouth. “Seriously, it's not your problem. You have your own life, and every once in a while you need to remember that.”

“That's a selfish attitude there, Ste.”

“Probably, but as someone once said, once in a while you need to give yourself permission to be selfish. You can't carry everyone all the time. Eventually you'll buckle, and I hate to break this to you, Will, but you've been buckling for a while now.”

Willem let out a breath of air. The truth coming from Ste was too much, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear it anymore. If this had been Jake then perhaps it would be different, since Jake had been there forever, but Ste, as much as Willem liked him, was still the kid he'd hired back in '96. Hearing such personal observations was breaking a wall that Willem didn't think ought to be broken. Yet at the same time he knew he could not talk to Jake about any of this; even now he could hear Jake's response, and Willem wasn't ready to be slated by Jake for finding love.

Whoa. Willem turned away from Ste, no longer able to take the inquisitive looks, and wondered where that had come from. Love. That was a big admission, but was it actually true? Is that really what he was feeling?

The answers to such questions had to be put aside, cause at that moment there was a knock on the office door. Kurt had arrived.

Willem stood, all business, and opened the door. “Hi, Kurt,” he said, offering his hands, “thanks for coming. Erm, on your own?”

Kurt nodded abruptly, but didn't take the proffered hand. “That's right, I don't need no witness. Ain't done nothing wrong, have I?”

“Right,” Willem said, wincing internally. He never noticed before just how council estate Kurt's accent was. “Well, if you'd like to take a seat?”

Willem felt strange; the formality was too forced, and he didn't like it. He'd known Kurt for years and now he was treating the man as if he was a stranger who'd just come in for a job interview. He moved to his own chair and watched Kurt sit, noticing the look of distaste that passed between Kurt and Ste. This was going to be fun.

* * *

As it turned out, fun it was not. Kurt, although no doubt thinking he was being helpful, had proved to be nothing but obtrusive, his chav accent grating on Willem's nerves with every word uttered. He could give no good reason as to why the paperwork was missing, and refused to admit that he deleted the original document, despite Ste going into extreme detail on how it was clearly removed on purpose. Willem got lost on that technical stuff, but Ste knew his shit and it was clear from the look of anger in Kurt's eyes that he'd been found out. Ultimately Willem decided to suspend Kurt on full pay while the matter was investigated further, and pointed out that external investigators were being called in, since he no longer felt he could deal with this impartially.

Kurt had stormed out, putting up a front of arrogance, claiming they could investigate all they wanted since he had nothing to hide. Although his colourful language indicated he knew he was screwed and could probably be done for theft and possibly fraud, since somewhere along the way wages had been lost and yet clearly paid out to someone.

A tense atmosphere was left in his wake, and although Ste attempted to lighten it with a few gags, Willem just wanted out. But he knew that he couldn't go anywhere, since he had some paperwork to fill in before heading downstairs to run the shift. The only other person who could do so was at the hospital with her daughter, and so he was stuck on shift until half five.

“Maybe you need to give Charlie a ding?” Ste suggested.

“Why?” Willem said. Well, snapped. He knew he was snapping, but couldn't really help himself. “I can deal with things without consulting my boyfriend.”

“Hmm.” Ste chewed his bottom lip, his raised-eyebrow look never wavering. “Yes, I got that after years of seeing business man here. But I was more thinking that perhaps you need to chill out a bit, and talking to your fella might do that for you.”

“You know what, Stephen; I don't need your advice. I'm the boss, you're the employee, let's keep it that way yeah?”

“Sure,” Ste said, and calmly stood up. He gathered his things together, all the while making sure he didn't look at Willem. Once he reached the door, he looked back. “When you've worked out what's actually bothering you, you'll know where to find me. Later.”

Once the door was shut and Willem was alone, he slammed his fist on the table. “Fuck!”

For a while he sat there, looking at the closed door, his mind racing through all the things that were ticking him off. As usual the business with his sister was up near the top; like a constant itch he couldn't reach, her situation bugged him. Kurt's own activities also kicked him in the teeth. Never before in his professional life had something seemed so personal to him. He didn't understand why Kurt would do whatever he did, and it didn't seem too likely that Kurt was going to tell him, either. Hopefully the investigation would uncover that truth, and even if it did Willem didn't suppose it'd make things better. Kurt had gone against him, and that smarted.

And now he was in an odd position with Ste. They'd always got on well, never been especially close, but the way he had snapped at Ste was totally out of order. The guy had helped him out with the Kurt problem, and had, apropos of nothing, helped him get his head around his relationship with Charlie. Maybe Ste had overstepped the bounds slightly with his advice on Willem's personal life, but he couldn't deny that Ste was spot on.

He really was buckling.

Ste had also been right about the temporary fix. Later, when things had calmed down, Willem would call Ste and apologise for being a jerk to him. But right now he had another call to make.

As he speed dialled Charlie's number he glanced up at the clock on the wall. Charlie was in work, but hopefully he was on a break. That was the problem with Charlie being a manager in a pub, his breaks came at random times and if ever Willem wanted to call him he just had to chance it. More often than not he ended up leaving a message; Willem just hoped that this wasn't going to prove to be one of those times.

It wasn't.

“Hey, lover boy, you all right?”

Upon hearing Charlie's light voice Willem decided that, yes, he was indeed all right. Now.

* * *

Jake noticed her long before she noticed him. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not, but maybe all these men in dusty jeans and hardhats looked much the same to the casual viewer. He didn't think he particularly looked much like the other guys on the site, but hey, he never really looked at them through the eyes of a woman before.

He got Mike to cover for him and jogged offsite to meet Amy, who was looking around with a small paper bag in one hand. Standing on the edge of the work site Amy looked very out of place, in her smart Armani suit. That he had a girlfriend who worked as a Futures Trader impressed the guys no end, not that many of them understood what that job actually entailed, neither did he really even though Amy had tried to explain it to him, but it sounded mightily impressive nonetheless.

“Hey, darling, what brings you to the cesspit?” Jake asked, as he leaned in to kiss her.

She pulled away and blew him a kiss instead. “That's the best you're getting, mister, while you're covered in that muck.”

Jake looked down at himself. “Don't know what you mean, I'm just like every other Joe here.”

Amy raised any eyebrow. “That's why I'm not a Joe.” She handed the brown bag to him. “Anyway, thought you could do with some sarnies to tide you over until this evening. Grown man like you needs to keep his strength up; stamina might be useful tonight.”

Jake liked the sound of that. Despite what he'd been telling the lads since he came back to work after the weekend, little had happened between Amy and he since Friday. And, unusually for him, he quite liked that. They'd spent a lot of time just talking, going for walks, and even, God help him, visiting the Natural History Museum. That there was an intellectual inside Jake was of no surprise to him, but that Amy brought it out so easily did surprise him somewhat. The lads wouldn't believe him even if he did tell them the truth about the weekend.

Tonight, however, seemed to be the night when Amy and he connected on a different level. Unless, of course, his stamina was needed for some excruciating visit to the gym. With Amy anything was possible.

“That's very sweet of you,” Jake said, taking the bag. “Let me guess; ham, cheese and tomato?”

“With just a hint of pepper.”

“Perfect. How long can you stay for?”

Amy checked her watch. “I can't, got an important meeting. But I had a few minutes, so…”

Jake smiled. “You thought you'd pop over and see me with the sandwiches as a good excuse?”

“Who said I need an excuse?” She turned away, but glanced back quickly. “Be seeing you tonight.”

Jake watched her walk away, certain she was intentionally sassing for him. It was a gesture he heartedly approved of. “You better believe it,” he said to himself.

* * *

Willem's short chat with Charlie did the trick, just as Ste had said it would, leaving him in an effervescent mood which carried him nicely through the following shift. He quite enjoyed the actual work, interacting with the customers. It had been a while since he'd done some proper hands on work at his shops, so it was nice to just chat and talk about coffee instead of looking at figures and planning for a new shop in a busy train station. Of course being the big boss did come with a few cons, in particular an edginess to the staff who acted in a very stilted manner for the first hour or two, while he sought ways to convince them that he wasn't here to watch them and that they really should act as if he was just another of the guys. Eventually the message did get through, and he finally saw the real world according to the staff of Coffee @ Town's End. And he liked what he saw. The staff were great at their jobs, always friendly and welcoming to the customers, but clownish in equal measure behind the scenes. It was a work ethic he wholly approved of; if work wasn't fun then there really was no point to it.