Page 78 of Gold Digger
I looked around at the neighbourhood, seeing the drug deal that was happening across the road, the fight that had started up outside the pub, and I grimaced.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Vics,” I said in my best big brother condescending tone – something Vicky had never reacted particularly well to.
She snorted. “I know a lot more than you, considering Lottie is still speaking to me. If you’re so bothered, then why don’t you just send a car for her every day like you do for Hayley?”
Lottie had accepted the town car for her sister to take and collect from school, but she absolutely would not accept safetransport for herself. It was completely infuriating. The only plus point was that I could actually see her twice a day, even if that meant standing out in the pouring rain just like I was at that moment. At least I had an umbrella, unlike the majority of these poor people.
“Vicky, just tell me if she’s left the office yet or not.”
“She left at the normal time like she always does.”
“Where the fuck is she then?”
“Oliver, why don’t you just call her?”
“I can’t call her,” I mumbled.
“What?” Vicky pressed.
“I can’t bloody call her because she blocked me.”
“Oh wow, that’s… wow. Well, Mike said?—”
“Mike said?” I snapped. “When did you see Mike?”
When Mike had taken Vics home that night I’d been absolutely livid. Who the fuck did he think he was carrying my sister out like that and accusing me of being a shit brother? Okay, so maybe he had a point, but he was the one who’d been turning Vics down and avoiding her for the last few months. Suddenly he’s her knight in shining armour, when he’d made it clear that he wasn’t interested multiple times? I’d had to watch my beautiful sister get knocked back time and time again by that fucking guy. Why on earth was he giving her the time of day now?
“I don’t want to talk to you about Mike.”
I growled low in frustration. Vicky was almost incapable of lying, so whenever she didn’t want to reveal something she’d have to lie about, she simply shut it down. But then I spotted Lottie.
“Crap, Vics, I’ve got to go. She’s here.” I disconnected and shoved the phone in my pocket as I jogged along the pavement towards Lottie’s retreating back. She was completely soaked, herhair plastered to her face and down her back as she huddled in on herself with her head down against the freezing rain.
When I made it up alongside her I could see the blue tinge to her lips and how she shivered in her thin raincoat. She started in shock when I held the umbrella over her head and the downpour stopped hitting her full force in the face. But when she saw it was me, she just gave me a side-eyed glance and ducked around some people coming the other way, so I was forced away from her across the pavement. I swore under my breath as I shrugged off my coat and wove my way back to her. She was ignoring me still, her shoulders practically up around her ears as I settled my coat over them. It was huge on her and almost swallowed her whole, but I needed to get her warm somehow.
“For Pete’s sake, Ollie. Bog off,” she grumbled, but it was a testament to how cold she was that she didn’t shrug out of the coat. I smiled. Okay, that wasn’t the most welcoming greeting, but it had been over two weeks since she’d spoken to me at all, so I considered it major progress. My chest felt tight at her turn of phrase – fully back to swear word avoidance.
“I can’tbog off, Lottie,” I told her the honest truth. “I genuinely can’t think of you walking home alone through all this shit. It’s simply not possible.”
“You found it prettypossiblefor the months you thought I was a grasping bitch,” she muttered, and I absorbed that as the well-deserved blow that it was. We walked in silence until we got outside her building, and then she turned to me, both of us standing underneath my umbrella – the rain pounding down on it still. She looked up into my eyes and sighed.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I don’t mean to keep raking over that old ground. It’s unfair. But Ollie, you can’t keep this up. Honestly, who’s running the Buckingham Empire whilst you swan off to walk me to and from perfectly safe tube stations?”
“Why did you transfer that money back to Mum?” I asked. “Lottie, she doesn’t need it. You didn’t have to do that.”
“You and your family are already helping me and Hayley with the school fees. I’ve saved what I could since working for your sister. I would have paid it off sooner if I could have done.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I snapped. “It’s pocket change to us. Why bother paying it back? It makes no sense.”
Her eyes flashed, and she leaned into me slightly. It was the first real emotion she’d shown me for two weeks. My pulse picked up. Anything was better than the indifference and blank stares she’d given me so far. “It might be pocket change toyou, but it was life-changing to me and Hayley. However, now I don’t want to be obligated to you and your family any more than I already am.”
I huffed out a frustrated breath. “If I had my way, you’d be more than obligated to my family; you’d be part of it.”
She blinked at me. “W-what?”
“The engagement, Lottie.”
“The engagement wasfake.”
