Always Eli by Charlie Novak
Chapter Seventeen
Tristan
“If you can just signand date at the bottom, I’ll be able to get the formal application started for you. It should take about three to four weeks.” I slid a small stack of papers and a pen across the polished meeting room table towards Mr. and Mrs. Shipley, my last clients for the afternoon. They were an older couple moving up from Cheltenham to be nearer to their adult daughter and her family, who were just in the process of purchasing a very beautiful Grade II–listed house in a village north of Lincoln. The house had some beautiful original features, and I’d spent several hours staring longingly at the pictures on the Green & Wodehouse website.
Not that I didn’t have a very nice house already, but I’d always liked beautiful old houses.
“Thank you so much for your help,” said Mrs. Shipley as she took the pen from her husband and began to print her name in neat letters. “We haven’t moved house in such a long time.”
“My pleasure.” In all truth, they hadn’t needed a lot of help or a large mortgage, given how much their old house had been worth. But they’d been extremely pleasant to deal with, which made everything so much easier. I took the finished paperwork, double-checked everything, then returned one copy to them for their records and slid one inside a paper folder for myself. “That’s you all sorted then. I’ll let you get on with your weekend, and I’ll give you a call as soon as I hear anything.”
I shook their hands, then directed them out of the meeting room. Eli’s head turned as I walked out, giving me a little smile as I answered Mr. Shipley’s question about liaising with their solicitor.
“Go well?” Eli asked as the front door closed behind the Shipleys. It was already dark outside, thick clouds darkening the late afternoon and threatening more rain. I was glad I’d brought my umbrella.
“It did,” I said, walking back to the conference room to collect my laptop and papers. “And that’s my last meeting done for the week.”
“Congratulations. Would you like a celebratory biscuit?”
“If there’s one going.”
“Pamela,” Eli said, rolling his chair away from his desk and leaning back in it, craning his neck. “Can Mr. Rose have a biscuit?”
Pamela rolled her eyes and grinned, reaching under her desk for the teddy bear tin. “I don’t know why you’re asking me. I think Tristan’s been indoctrinated into the secret biscuit club by now.”
“You are a darling and an angel.” He took the tin and popped open the lid, holding it out to me.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell a soul,” I said, crossing my heart. “And I’ll bring more biscuits for the tin on Monday. What sort do you like?”
“Anything chocolate,” said Eli, picking out a bourbon biscuit.
“I wasn’t asking you, monster.”
“So rude. And after I introduced you to the secret biscuits.” He grinned mischievously. “What terrible things are you going to tell Dick about me tonight?”
“I’m not going to say anything,” I said.
Eli twirled his chair and handed the tin back to Pamela. “Tristan is having dinner with my brother this evening and leaving me all alone. I’ve suggested he tell Richard all sorts of delightful lies about me just to annoy him.” Pamela raised an eyebrow at Eli over her glasses. “What? It’s fun.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Pamela said to me. “This one is nothing but trouble.”
“One hundred percent, but that’s what makes life interesting.” Eli laughed.
“I wasn’t going to,” I said to Pamela, ignoring Eli.
“Harsh. But a good life lesson. You shouldn’t listen to me.” Eli shrugged, but the gleam in his eye caught my attention. We both knew what it meant: here I didn’t have to listen to Eli at all, but when we were alone, in my bedroom, things were very different. I coughed. Fuck, I wished it was tomorrow already. Eli was coming to mine to spend the day relaxing before he had another show at The Court. I wasn’t sure what his plans were, but I knew they were going to be fun. We’d hardly had any time together since last Sunday, and I was feeling the separation. It was one thing to see each other at work, but we had to be professional there. I couldn’t just sink to my knees and beg him to use my throat like I was some pretty fuck toy.
“What time are you meeting Dick?” Eli asked, derailing my train of thought just in time.
“About seven.”
“Good, that gives me three hours to come up with some spectacular lies.”
“And where will I have heard these ridiculous rumours?” I asked, shaking my head with a smile. “I don’t know your family that well. None of them would have told me.”
“Oh, I’ll think of something. A friend of a friend.” He winked. “By the way, what are you doing for Halloween?”
“Nothing. When is it this year?”
“Thirty-first, same as always,” Eli said. I raised my eyebrow. “It’s a Monday, sadly, but the Saturday before The Court is holding its annual Halloween show and party. You should come. I’ll be performing, obviously, and then I’m DJing for a while, but I can escape to see you.”
“Er, sure. I don’t know what I’d wear though.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done a Halloween party. I didn’t know if I’d ever been to one. Maybe when I was in London? Some of the guys in my department liked to go out because it meant lots of girls in barely there costumes, but that had never appealed to me. They’d taken me to a strip club once and had bought me a lap dance as a joke to help me loosen up. I’d just given the girl a very generous tip and we’d talked about the stock market for twenty minutes. Then she’d given me the number of her brother, a history teacher, in case I fancied meeting someone who I might be interested in.
“I’ll find you something.” Eli turned to Pamela. “Want to come, Pamela?”
She laughed. “I think I’m a bit too old for that now.”
“Nonsense.”
“You let me know next time you do one of your variety shows, and I’ll bring the girls down. We haven’t been in a while.”
“I shall, and I shall get you a good table reserved too,” Eli said. Then he did a slight double take. “Pamela, do you mean to tell me you’ve been to The Court before and never told me?”
“Of course I have.” She gave Eli a mischievous smile of her own. “I was the one who helped Phil buy it back in 2004 when he moved back from Manchester. He’d been dreaming about opening his own place instead of running someone else’s, and that old place was perfect for it. He’s been telling me about you for years, although not as Eli. Took me a while to figure that one out, but I didn’t want to say anything in case you wanted to keep it a secret. Some queens are quite protective of their privacy outside of work since not all employers are so good about it. But Holly and Andrew won’t give you any trouble. I’m sure Holly would try and work a positive angle on it for the business.”
“How… What…” Eli stared, struck speechless. I chuckled quietly to myself. Then Eli seemed to do some mental calculations and looked shrewdly at Pamela. “Brother?”
“Cousin. But we’re very close. I introduced him to his husband. He was my neighbour’s son when I was growing up.” Pamela grinned. “We used to go to all the parties back in the day. The stories I could tell you would make your hair curl.”
Eli smiled. “One day, I’m going to need to buy you a drink.”
Several hours and one slightly exhilarating drive in the pelting rain later, I found myself sitting opposite Richard at our usual table at The Red Lion.
“How was your week?” I asked, taking a sip of the large pint of Coke I’d ordered.
“Not too bad. Had parents’ evening for the year eights.” Richard sighed. “Had one mum complain at me for forty minutes because she thinks her son should be in the top set, and I had to explain to her that if he actually bothered to pay attention and stopped trying to light shit on fire with a Bunsen burner, then he might spend more time in the classroom and less in detention. But she thinks he’s an angel, so what the hell do I know.”
Sometimes I didn’t know how Richard did it. Teaching teenagers seemed like an absolute nightmare, especially when there were chemicals involved.
“But,” he continued, a soft smile coming onto his face, “one of my year thirteens applied to Oxford for chemistry, and she’s got an interview. First in her family to think about university, and I’m so proud of her. Just got to get her there now. Apparently her Nan gave her fifty quid for some new interview clothes—she’d been saving just in case. They’re going to hit town at the weekend.”
“That’s amazing. It’s been a while since I did mine, and it was for a totally different subject, but if you need any pointers about the interview process then just say. It’s probably changed a lot though.”
“Cheers,” Richard said. The waitress appeared and slid our food onto the table. Today I’d gone for their homemade lasagne that oozed cheese and sauce and a bowl of thick cut chips I could dip in it. It had been one of those weeks. “Bad week?” Richard asked, grinning and nodding at my food.
“Just very long.” I gave him a short summary of work, minus the details of lunch with Eli, the secret biscuits, and my evening helping him with his drag competition application at The Court. The video had turned out really well. Eli had forwarded it to me after Orlando had finished it. I’d saved it on my phone and had re-watched it several times, enchanted by Eli’s personality.
“What are you doing this weekend?” Richard asked when I’d finished.
“Er, not too much.” Except spending as much time as possible in bed with your brother. “What about you?”
Richard smiled broadly. “Ruby and I are going down to Burghley House for a food festival. You should come with us! You can stay at mine if you don’t want to drive all the way back, and Indy and Solo can come too since it’s all outside. I know it’s a bit short notice, but it’ll be fun. And we haven’t spent any time together in ages.”
Buggeration. What on earth could I tell him? I couldn’t exactly say I didn’t want to go because I’d rather spend my time getting my mind melted by his little brother. The very same brother he couldn’t stand. I supposed I could see Eli tomorrow and Richard on Sunday. That might work at a push. I could tell Richard I was seeing someone, but then he’d want to know all the details, and it would be so awkward to tell him I didn’t want to share. I couldn’t even tell him Eli’s name.
“Um.” I speared a chip with my fork and dipped it into the lasagne, trying to buy myself some time. “Are you going both days or just tomorrow?”
“Think we were just planning on tomorrow. Why?”
“I promised Alexis I’d give her a hand moving some bits around. She wants to experiment with the layout of her sitting room, and I’ve been roped in to help with the furniture.” It was a reasonable lie, and something Alexis would get me to do. “She’s got this big new client she’s starting work for next week, some Hollywood star, and I think she’s nervous.”
Richard nodded. “She does this every time she’s anxious. Do you remember the time she made you move everything around in her craft room?” he said. “But that’s great for her business. Maybe she’ll get some more recommendations out of it. Not that it sounds like she needs them.”
“Yes. It really is.” I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Now I thought about it, this was something Alexis had done before. Last time she’d had a big job to do, she’d made me repaint her bedroom with her, and the time before that, we’d spent the whole weekend re-organising her kitchen and dining room. It was like she had to get all her nerves out on her own house first as if it were a test run of her abilities. But I’d seen her finished work, and it was always amazing. She didn’t need to be worried. “Maybe we could do Sunday instead? We should be done by then. Her sitting room isn’t that big.”
“Perfect,” Richard said before launching into an explanation about the event and what time we could go.
I speared another chip on my fork, only half listening. At some point I wasn’t going to be able to keep my relationship with Eli a secret, and I didn’t know how I was going to begin to explain it. I just hoped when we got there Richard would be willing to listen in the same way he always did when I needed him.