The Fear Of Faith [2]

36. Cal

Tori quickly turned to the doorway as she spoke. 'Okay, I'll go and-.'

'No, Charlie can go,' I interjected, making her pause as Charlie frowned. 'Please.'

He glanced at Tori, who kept her eyes down and ignored him and he looked back at me, shaking his head slowly before pacing quickly out front.

'Tori,' I said, letting out a gentle sigh. 'I know I just said not to mention anything, but I don't want you coming to work feeling uncomfortable.'

'I don't want that for you either,' she said, her voice already sounding emotional. 'I promise you, Cal, that's just how I behave with my close close friends and I've begun to see you as exactly that so it was just an automatic response.'

'I don't care,' I replied. 'I'm not cool with that.'

'I need you to believe me,' she said.

'I don't know what to believe,' I said. 'So from now on, just pretend it never happened, okay?'

'But we won't be the same,' she said. 'Not close like we were.'

'Just because I confided in you about a few personal things doesn't mean we were close friends,' I told her. 'We were friends. I'm not close to anyone right now.'

'We "were" friends?' she asked.

'We're colleagues, okay,' I told her. 'Keep it that way.'

The sound of Charlie coming through with Tori's first client ended our conversation and she quickly nodded before turning to greet the girl. I headed out front and waited at the main desk for my first client to turn up and kept my mind distracted by going through some emails, not wanting to even let the other things I had going on cross my mind for a single second.

My first client arrived and I got right to work, the concentration I was holding keeping my mind focused and free from wandering thoughts. The three of us worked silently, only talking to our clients and each other only when necessary. I knew Charlie was mad at me and Tori felt awkward but it was better for me that they didn't try and converse with me. I was in no mood for friendly chat.

When I got a free hour for lunch, I left the shop and headed down the street to the bar where I had a bottle of bud before crossing the street to Subway, eating in the restaurant and heading back. I heard them both chatting in the back as I entered, moving through to the archway where they both went quiet and moved away from each other as I entered, pretending to be busy.

'So I'm that kind of boss now, huh?' I asked and they both looked up quickly.

'What do you mean?' Charlie asked with a frown.

'The kind where my employees scurry away whenever I enter the room, pretending to be busy as if they were the whole time,' I said.

'We have been busy,' Charlie said, scowling as he turned away.

'Okay, Charlie, you can end your bitch fit now,' I told him. 'You're mad, I get it.'

'I'm not mad, bro,' he said with a shrug.

'Sure you're not,' I said, pulling an uncaring face. 'Anyway, you guys don't need to act all nervous.'

'We aren't,' Charlie said, slowly, through slightly gritted teeth.

'Look, why don't we just focus on making a plan for tonight,' Tori said, quickly trying to change the topic.

'What's tonight?' I asked with a confused frown.

'You forgot?' she asked me.

'Clearly,' I replied.

'It's that art event at Columbia tonight,' she said. 'We're going there to do a workshop on body ink, remember?'