“You know I can actually see it?”
“See what?”
“That…” he lifts a hand and rubs his thumb and forefinger together, like he can’t quite pin down what he wants to say. “Certain Marine Biologist look.” He grins. “It’s… like practical geek isn’t it? Lots of highly durable fabrics.” He looks around again and then grins at me. I glance over at the table where my tutor usually sits, but he’s not there today.
“I’m sorry Billy. I’m being a bit bitchy.” He smiles now. “So how are you?” he asks next, sipping on his coffee and staring at me. “How’s life treating you?”
“I’m OK.”
“How are things?”
I’m about to answer this when I realize he’s not finished. “…With Lily?”
So then I change my answer, looking left and right to make sure no one can overhear. “They’re OK.”
Eric keeps his eyes on me the whole time. “Just OK?”
I don’t know what to say to him. I don’t know what he wants. The truth is things with Lily are amazing. But that’s private. I don’t want to tell him that.
“That’s good. In a way,” he smiles now. “It’s probably better if things don’t go too far beyond ‘OK’, if you know what I mean.”
He flashes the smile again.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He looks back at me, and his face drops when he sees mine. “Oh shit. She’s really got to you, hasn’t she?”
“What?”
“Lily. She’s…” He stops, thinks for a moment, then goes on. “Billy, on a scale of one to ten, how smitten would you say you are?”
I don’t answer, but I can’t keep a look off my face.
“Oh Christ. That looks like an eleven Billy, or even a twelve. This is bad. Very bad.” He takes in a deep breath, like he’s calming himself down, then continues. “Look Billy, I came here to warn you not to hurt her – I’m very protective of my Lily – but I see now I’ve got this the other way around. She’s more likely to hurt you.” He sighs. I don’t get it.
“Why would she hurt me?”
It’s like he doesn’t hear me at first, then I notice Lawrence, my tutor has come in, and Eric’s eyes are scanning him up and down.
“Why would she hurt me?” I ask again.
Eric turns back to me. “Huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
Eric waves a hand, he looks distracted. “Oh, it’s all this family business stuff.” He gives me a half smile, like the sort when you’ve discussed something for too long and it’s gotten boring, but I don’t have a clue what he means.
“What family business stuff?”
Now Eric frowns. “The takeover. Well the takeover attempt.”
I’m still lost, and it must show on my face.
“What takeover?”
Now he looks shocked. “You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Oh my.” Eric shakes his head. “What do you talk about in those quiet moments in between…” he stops. “Or maybe there are no quiet moments…”
“Eric, can you just tell me what this about.” And finally that stops him messing about.
“OK. Billy. I’m sure you’ve noticed that Lily’s been distracted in the last few days. The reason why is her uncle, who owns one of the biggest rivals to Fonchem – that’s her dad’s company – has issued a hostile takeover bid to Fonchem. It’s all over the financial press.”
I look a bit vacant.
“I guess you don’t read the financial press,” he goes on under his breath. “Not enough fish in it.” Then he sighs. “A hostile takeover is where one company makes an offer to the shareholders of another company to buy the shares, and replace the board of directors against their wishes. Lily’s uncle wants to take over Fonchem, and kick her dad out. That’s why she’s upset.”
He tells me more about it too, but the thing that worries me the most, is I didn’t even know she was upset.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The two final spot balls on the table were right over the top pockets. They prevented any other balls being sunk there, and if the other player got a chance to come back to the table, he would pot them easily. Worse, that was almost bound to happen, because the black was up that end too, meaning the only way for the kid to pot it – ginger haired, twenties, kinda geeky-looking – would be to bounce the black off the top cushion so that it landed in either the middle pockets or down the near end. The kid weighed it up now, pretending to be more pissed than he really felt at the bad luck that had left him in this situation. There was nothing riding on it. It was just a few games of pool with his buddy, another geeky looking kid who swigged Budweiser and began to grin as he watched, knowing the game was going his way.
The kid whose shot it was bent down to take it. He didn’t see the line, even a pro-player wouldn’t. He was just going to punt it hard and hope for the best.
“Hundred bucks you don’t make that shot.” The words came from neither of the two players, but a handsome, blond-haired man, taller and bigger built than either of the kids playing.
“What?” Ginger hair stood up from the table, sounding scared.
“Hundred bucks. You. Don’t. Make. That. Shot.”
“What?”
“Is that the only word you know?”
“What? No. Heck. No. I just mean I don’t wanna bet with you.”
“Why not? You a pussy?”
Ginger hair looked to his friend for support, but he’d backed away, happy this wasn’t happening on his shot. “No. I’m just… I’m just playing a game here.”
“Yeah, well I’m playing a game too. Come on. Hundred bucks.” James smiled, with a bit more warmth in it, and he pulled a wad of notes out of the pocket of his jeans. He
