Candy [THOMAS SHELBY]

Chapter Twenty-Three

It turned out that Josephine's brief trip through the rain wasn't as harmless as she originally thought was as she was now dealing with a cold. Ada had dropped Karl off at her friends before she left for work, not want to risk getting her son sick so Josephine was left alone in the house, nearly completely over her cold.

She had just gotten comfortable in front of the fire, wrapped up in the blanket with a book she had purchased not that long ago and a cup of tea when the doorbell went off repeatedly along with a series of hard knocks. Groaning, Josephine left the couch and wrapped the blanket around her shoulder before shuffling towards to door, grumbling and rolling her eyes when the person harshly pounded on the door again.

Josephine opened the door, sighing when she saw who was behind it, "Ada isn't here."

"I'm not here to see Ada."

"Then why are you here Tommy?" Josephine asked.

"Can we have this conversation inside?" Tommy tilted his head to the side.

Josephine glanced behind him and saw that it was raining yet again so she nodded and opened the wider for him.

"Want some tea? Just made myself one, there should still be some hot water left." She asked as she wandered into the kitchen.

"No thank you." Tommy followed behind her.

Josephine made him a cup of tea anyway, placing it on the kitchen table in front of him when she had finished making it, "Too bad, you can't survive on just whiskey and cigarettes."

Josephine had momentarily left the kitchen to get her cup of tea from the living room before coming back and sitting opposite Tommy.

"Why are you here then Tommy?"

"You haven't reported back to me about what's happened with Alfie Solomons and the Black Country men so I had to come down and see what was happening myself." Tommy took off his cap and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I didn't know I was still working for you."

"Why wouldn't you be?"

"Well after our little...talk a few weeks back, I assumed I was no longer working for you." Josephine hesitated mid-sentence trying to find the right word for whatever happened between them.

"So you just stopped doing what I asked of you and didn't even bother to double check with me?" Tommy was mildly irritated at the prospect of something going on in Camden in the two weeks where he had no-one keeping an eye on them.

"I've known you for pretty much my whole life Tommy and despite that, I have no idea how your mind works or what goes through your head. Trying to guess what your reaction would be or what you're planning to is futile. My train of thought was that because I confronted you, upset you and most likely disrespected you, you would be mad and angry and that you would no longer want anything to do with me because you don't like it when someone goes against you. I can't read your mind, Tommy, me not contacting and assuming that I no longer worked for you was the safest option in my opinion." Once Josephine started, she couldn't stop and she ended up rambling.

"You think I would physically hurt you?"

Josephine shrugged.

"If it's any consolation, I wouldn't."

"You also told me that you wouldn't betray or cheat on me but you did." Josephine mumbled

Tommy stood up sharply, "We're not getting into this again. Not right now."

"Fine okay, sorry."

Tommy sighed before he took his seat again, "You're still working for me, I won't let you go without a job and struggle for money."