The Other Side of Greed by Lily Zante

Chapter Twenty-Four

KYRA

Brad has a girlfriend, and she nearly died. He’s upset and distraught. I wish he’d told me before I’d asked him if he wanted to get something to eat. I feel like a fool. He went home, and I returned to the factory and made myself busy here.

I feel silly for asking him out to lunch and drop my head in my hands, feeling the urge to disappear..

The storeroom is clean and neat, and I’ve made a list of things we need to get for the next food night. I’ve done everything that needed to be done. What I didn’t want to do was go home, where I would have only the four walls and my thoughts.

It’s humiliating.

And now he thinks I made a pass at him. Of course he didn’t want to get something to eat with me.

He has a girlfriend.

And she has been badly injured.

I try to force myself to focus on work and to deal with correspondence and emails. Because I want to erase every shred of emotion and feeling I have about Brad.

It’s been there for a while, creeping up on me like poison ivy. I don’t want to find him attractive, but I do. I don’t want to hear my heart thumping each time he comes close to me, but it does. I don’t want my breath to catch in my throat when our hands brush as he hands me a box, or a pallet, or something. But it does.

And now he’s all broken and vulnerable. I’ve never seen him looking so weak before. He usually wears his cockiness like a badge of pride. There’s something vulnerable about him. I can see it, because I’m a sucker for wanting to fix all broken things.

It’s what I do. I’m a fixer, and maybe that’s what I saw in him today.

Sucker, that I am.

I should have known that a guy like that wouldn’t be single. It was obvious. He looked so upset, as if he was close to tears and just about managing to hold himself together.

Even last night, he wasn’t the usual caustic, snarky Brad I have come to know.

Stupid.

That’s what I am. Stupid. Having feelings for a guy who isn’t even available.

I tell Fredrich and Simona about Brad not coming in for a few days, and I mention that he’s devastated because one of his close friends, I don’t say girlfriend, was badly injured in a car accident.

“He did seem quiet on Saturday night,” Simona comments.

“The dude wasn’t himself,” agrees Fredrich. “I was starting to think he didn’t want to be there.”

“The accident hadn’t yet happened then, I don’t think.” But he had been somewhat pensive that night.

“It hadn’t?” Simona frowns, an unanswered question in the lines on her forehead. Something had him feeling down and we all noticed it.

I can’t stop thinking about his girlfriend and my mind goes into overdrive as I slice the letter opener through the envelope.

Maybe Brad and his girlfriend had an argument, maybe that’s why she got angry and drove carelessly? Maybe that’s what caused the accident. Maybe he blames himself, and that’s why he’s so upset and feeling so low.

What an idiot I’ve been, getting high on his aftershave. Thinking about him when running this business should be the only thing on my mind.

I have received a price estimate for the ceiling and the roof. I had a couple of companies come in last week to take a look and give me rough quotes for what it would cost to fix them. I groan loudly, staring at the figures in the letter.

Fredrich walks over to my side. “What?”

“It’s the quote for getting the roof fixed.” At this price, I will happily put up with having buckets dotted around the office to catch the rain. “What if we moved? What if we found a better building, a bigger building with more land?” I throw the idea out there for Simona and Fredrich to ruminate over because this is painful, paying this much money just to get the roof fixed.

Brad is right. We should at least consider it. We would be better off finding a building that is everything we need.

“Move where?” Simona asks.

“Move why?” Fredrich wants to know as he walks back to his desk.

I run Brad’s ideas past them.

“Brad suggested we do that?” Fredrich raises his arms and folds them across the back of his head, looking pensive.

“He’s not wrong about the factory. You could have died when that plaster fell on your head.” Simona still worries about that. I’ve caught her staring up at the ceilings more often than not.

“With the amount it’s going to cost to fix the roof, I’m not sure it’s worth it.” I tap my fingers on the letter opener. “Maybe I’ve been too stubborn by insisting we stay here.”

“But the strip mall store owners don’t want to move.” Fredrich’s voice is abrasive and it’s clear that he doesn’t like this idea.

“They don’t have to move,” I counter. We’ve all been in this fight together, and we’ve successfully managed to hold our own and hold off the last few times when there was talk of developers being interested in this area. “But we need to do what’s best for us. Redhill is the biggest factory here and we are still growing.”

“They won’t have a leg to stand on if we move,” Simona reminds me. I’m all too well aware of how a lot of the smaller businesses around here look up to us. Redhill has clout because of the publicity we garner, and the recognition for the work we do. This comes from celebrities like Elias backing us. Because of this, we’ve been able to prevent investors from pushing us out and taking over. If we move, the rest of the businesses will move. They’re here because we are.

“We have to do the right thing for us,” I maintain.

“Since when did you think moving was the right thing for us?” Fredrich asks, walking over the window. “You’ve always wanted to stay here. You said this area was up and coming, and we have so much land for potential. You know exactly where your self-funded business units will go. I don’t understand it.”

My brows push together. “Understand what?”

“Why you’re all of sudden talking about moving someplace else.”

“We should consider other alternatives. Why have the expense of building when we might find bigger premises?”

“But you always said we should stick to our guns. Land developers have come and gone, but we’ve never caved in.”

Deep down, I know he’s right. Why am I even considering it? “It’s something to think about,” I throw back. “Brad suggested it as an option.”

“So now you’re taking advice from him?” Fredrich’s tone catches me off guard. It startles me. There’s a hint of menace in it that I don’t like.

“He’s got ideas. Isn’t that why we hired him?” I try to keep my voice calm. “That chunk of plaster missed my head narrowly but consider how much worse it could have been if it had fallen on an employee. We’d get sued.”

“We have insurance.”

“But we also have a lot of rebuilding to do,” I reply.

“Why have you changed your mind all of a sudden?” he wants to know. “Is Brad giving you ideas?” His tone startles me because until now, I didn’t know how against the idea Fredrich was. I was against moving too but it seems that Brad is making me change my mind.

I put the letter away. “Brad has other things to worry about. We don’t need to worry about this now. It was only a suggestion.”