Two weeks later.
Carla was at Ken's, sitting on the sofa holding a fussy Bertie. She was attempting to do some work regarding the Beard Oil business but Peter, who was originally taking care of the young child that day, was called away on business so Carla was left to take care of him.
Unfortunately, Sinead passed just over a week ago. They all knew it was coming but it hadn't made it any easier. It had affected Carla more than she'd thought it would've; her anxieties were getting the better of her but she was grateful she had little Bertie distracting her. Daniel wasn't in a good head space either, as you'd expect. He almost went away for a while, but Peter convinced him to stay put and they were now working on planning the funeral. Carla and Peter reassured him that they'd look after Bertie whenever he needed so at the moment, they had their hands full. They didn't mind though, they absolutely loved looking after him.
"Come on, sweetheart. Settle down now." Carla shushes Bertie, gently bouncing him on her knee as his cries quieten.
"There we are, you just want some attention, don't you?" She chuckles, watching Bertie snuggle into her chest as she leans back into Ken's hard sofa.
She stared down at him, his eyelashes fluttering for a while before closing. She never thought she was able to have such a close bond with a child, especially considering he wasn't her own. But she felt such a strong sense of protectiveness towards him, she wanted to look after him throughout his life. Not to take Sineads place obviously, but be that mother-like figure he's going to miss out on. Someone he can always talk too and open up too.
After a couple of minutes, Carla hears a notification from her laptop that was on the dinner table. She slowly lifts up the nearly one year old and carries him over to his cot that was nearby.
Placing him down in it, she makes her way over to her computer and finds an email from a client.
She frowns, she didn't realise business would be ready to go already since working on Sinead's business. But she presumed it was to do with the email she'd recently sent across discussing matters.
The email stated something about meeting in the bistro to talk about stock. She thought for a moment, unsure.
Eventually, she agreed to meet in the evening and texted Peter.
Carla: What time will you be back? Have a meeting this evening so are you gonna look after Bertie? Xx
Peter: won't be long, on the way back now xx
Later on, Carla was stood watching over Bertie and gently stroking the little blond tuffs of hair.
She was worried about this meeting, she hadn't had a lot of preparation. Unlike with underworld, this was all a foreign language to her and she was still finding her feet. But the client knew the situation she was in so she was hopeful that they'd understand the awkwardness.
"Hey, baby. Sorry I took so long." Peter sighs, walking through the door. "Steve wouldn't shut up."
"Don't worry. I was content with Bertie anyway." She smiles, going over to him and nustling her head under Peters chin.
"Have you two had a good time then?" He asks, he loved this side of Carla. It was something he never had a chance to fully embrace.
"Surprisingly, yeah. He's adorable, bless him."
"I'll tell you what else is adorable."
"What?"
"You with him." He smirks, watching her shake her head slightly and look down.
"Don't be silly."
"Just watching you with a baby is so special to me, Car. You've always got your barriers up, acting like you don't care about babies and that you don't have a maternal bone in your body but you do. You love him, don't you?"
"Of course I love him. He's our nephew!" She chuckles. "And I'm not lying when I say I don't like babies, but Bertie is different. Just look at him."
"I know, love. It makes me think..."
"About what?" She frowns.
"What it could've been like if, you know. If we had our baby."
"Peter. Do we have to do this now?" She shuts him out.
"I'm just saying. Do you ever think about it, about her?"
"Of course. But sometimes it's better not to mourn over the past, that's what Scott told me."
"True. I just love this maternal side of you. Makes me love you even more, and I didn't know that was possible." He says, his voice muffled due to his face being buried into Carla's head as he kisses her.
"Mm. You'll be seeing a whole lot more of it, I think we're going to be looking after Bertie a lot."
"Nothing wrong with that is there?"
"No, I love it. Keeps me distracted, gives me something to do." She replies.
"Speaking of having things to do, when's this meeting?" He questions, releasing her and going over to boil the kettle.
"Erm, half an hour. It's weird you know, I didn't think business would be booming this fast."
"Well, Sinead was good at her job."
"Yeah. I just hope I'll do her proud."
"You definitely will. You already have! She'll be so appreciative that you're doing all of this for Bertie's future. That's what she was scared about, I think. Bertie struggling when he's older. It's always going to be hard for him without a mum. But you're providing for him and that's amazing, love."
"Well, when you put it like that."
"I'm gonna go to Roy's now and get ready. Seeya, baby. Love you." She adds, kissing Peter on the cheek and softly squeezing Bertie's chubby cheek. "Bye bye, little one."
"Bye, love." Peter says.
At Roy's flat, Carla looked in the bathroom mirror and perfected her hair. Her raven locks had a slight wave in, a look she'd been opting for recently. It wasn't normal for her to have her hair anything but straight but Peter loved her natural hair, she thought she'd try and do more things with it and she actually really started to like her hair with more movement. Her makeup was minimal, as per, and she wore black skinny jeans with a black shirt. Matched with her signature leather jacket and ankle books, she went to grab her bag and left to go to the bistro.
Walking into the Bistro, she was greeted by Ryan.
"Heya, Ry." She greets him.
"Alright? I didn't know you were working tonight." He frowns.
"No, I'm not. I'm meeting a client. You know, to do with Sinead's Beard Oil."
"Ah, right. Have you got a table booked?"
"They said that they were going to book it."
"And what was their name?"
"Erm, I don't know." She narrowed her eyes in thought.
"You don't know the name of the person you're eating with tonight?" He rolled his eyes, in a playful manner. "Jesus Christ, Carla."
"The email was sent by the company. They never mentioned a name."
"We have a free table over there," Ryan points to the far corner. "You can go over there and when the client comes, I'll just say your tables been moved."
"Okay. Thanks, Ry. Orange juice when you're ready." She walks over to her table and sits down.
"There you are." Ryan hands Carla her drink a few moments later. "Not here yet then?"
"Nope." She shakes her head.
"Weird. Maybe they're stuck in traffic."
"They better hurry up. I can't be bothered with this today." She groans.
Half an hour later, Carla was beyond impatient. She was extremely fed up and started collecting up her stuff as Ryan came over to the table once again.
"A no show then?"
"Mmhmm. Ridiculous this. They were the ones that were desperate to meet up and then they don't flamin' show up. You wait and see the email I'm going to send to their stupid company." She says, irritably.
"What's their company called?" He questions.
"BPFM."
"Follow me." He frowns.
As the pair walk over to the bar, Ryan looks up this company on the computer.
"Hmm." He adds.
"What?" Carla frowns, trying to get a closer look.
"Well, I could be wrong. But Google says a company called 'BPFM' does not exist."
Carla looks at the computer.
BPFM company in Manchester
No results found
"Oh. I don't know-..."
"Did you get the name wrong?" Ryan asks.
"No. It was definitely that." She tilts her head in suspicion.
"So, what does this mean? What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Maybe it was someone trying to make a joke? But why? I have no idea. I'm going to talk to Peter about it and leave it at that for now because I'm shattered."
"Okay. Seeya."
"Bye, Ry."
Hope you enjoyed this update, who set up this meeting? The company name I obviously made up so god knows what it comes up with if you search it. Leave reviews!