Chapter 10 - Life

Erin almost had a heart attack when she strolled into her office at OUT and found Cam asleep on the desk a week after being told that Cam was not going to be in much at the moment. The shock of blonde hair poking out from under the black leather jacket Cam used as a blanket was the giveaway.

“Cam?” she whispered as she approached her. “Cam?” Just as she reached out to gently nudge her boss, there was movement. “What are you doing here?”

“Not moving,” Cam groaned, pulling the jacket completely over her head.

Erin chuckled. “You’re going to get a backache. Go lay on the couch.”

Cam sat up, her hair spiked and scruffy in its new style. “I think I got three hours last night.” She picked up the mug she used most often and looked inside at the cold dregs. Placing it back down, she scrunched up her nose at the lack of caffeine. “Seriously, the kid’s lungs are showing no sign of slowing down.”

“Colic isn’t fun. I remember my baby brother doing the same thing. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep?”

Cam snorted. “Sleep? If I went home all I’d end up doing is letting Michelle sleep, which I will do as soon as I am finished here. I think she is exhausted, but she won’t take a few days off from it.”

“She’s a mother. There is no time off from it.” Erin laughed. “Look at the state of you.”

Cam rubbed at her face. Her eyes itched from tiredness. “You’re right. As soon as I am caught up with all of this.” She lifted a pile of paperwork and dropped it back down onto the desk. “She’s got her brother visiting with Dylan and Zac, so they will keep an eye on things until I can go home.”

“We can manage without you,” Erin argued, “I can do that paperwork. I’ve hired someone to help out behind the bar.”

“I know, but it’s other stuff too. Things I thought I’d have had done, but with the twins coming early, it all got put on hold and now I have to deal with it or…”

“Or what? What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“OUT will be shut down,” she said, sitting back in her chair and puffing out her cheeks. “There are a ton of new regulations, and I need to make sure that all of our paperwork is tip top.” She pointed at the paperwork. “Who have you hired?”

Erin picked up the phone and dialed down to the bar. “Can you bring up two coffees when you get a chance?”

“Thanks. I think I might just need an intravenous drip from now until that kid is old enough to marry off into someone else’s care.” She smiled and leant forward in the seat. Pulling her jacket free, she dropped it down on the floor beside her. Erin picked it up and hung it on a hook.

“Ha, you wait. When that really does happen, you’ll be chasing them off.”

Cam chuckled. “Yeah, you’re probably right. So, how’s things here? Anything else I need to know? Who did you hire?”

Erin finally sat down in the seat opposite Cam. “Well, the band nights are going well.” She ignored Cam’s smug ‘I told you so’ look and carried on. “Olivia is working well; she has some ideas to run past us today if you’re up for it. And the new chick, Kim Dyke, like that’s her real fucking name. I’d have hired her just for that, but she is actually capable too, so...”

“Oh, apt. Yeah, I can spare the time later.”

The loud, confident knock on the door came seconds before it opened and Olivia Copeland entered carrying a tray with two mugs on top of it.

“Two coffees as requested,” she said, smiling at them both as she set the tray down on the desk. She made room for Cam’s mug by moving the empty one onto the tray as Erin thanked her.

“I was just telling Cam that you had some ideas to run through,” Erin said as she turned to Olivia. “Grab a seat.”

Olivia pulled over a chair. “Yes, I have been thinking a few things over these past few days and…” She smiled at Cam and then Erin. “I think they could be viable.”

Cam surveyed her. She was impeccably turned out in grey slacks with a crisp white blouse and heels that didn’t need to be that high as she was already a tall woman, but it gave her a stature that made her stand out. “I’m always open to new ideas, Olivia. That’s why I hired you.”

“If you both have some time later, I was thinking about the dead time and how we could utilize the bar to bring in a higher revenue.” She spoke with confidence, and Cam was reminded why she liked her.

Picking up her coffee, Cam took a quick sip as she sized her up. “I can be free in an hour?” She looked towards Erin, who checked her watch.

“Gimme half an hour and I can join you.”

“Great, shall we say 11 o’clock in the bar?” Olivia offered. Standing, she reached down and picked up the tray when Erin and Cam both nodded. “Fantastic.”

When the door closed behind Olivia, Erin waited. “She’s nice,” Cam said. “Eager too.”

“Yeah, did she tell you she lived in London? Spent the last decade or so there working for a modelling agency until her relationship broke down and she decided it was time to head home.”

Cam nodded. “Right, I see you’ve been getting acquainted.”

“She has a girlfriend, as you already know.” Erin eyeballed her before she leaned forward. “Guess who her ex is?”

Cam took another sip of her drink and shook her head. “No idea.”

“Ava,” Erin said as though Cam should know instantly who that was. Looking across the desk at the blank stare Cam wore, Erin huffed. “Seriously? Ava, Ava Janko?”

“Not a clue, who is she?”

Erin rolled her eyes and let her head fall back as she sighed in disbelief. “She’s like the hottest woman ever to come out of Serbia. Tall, chiseled cheek bones… Oh come on, she’s on almost every magazine cover and then every tabloid. She’s a wild chick. Parties all over the world, and isn’t discreet about it.”

“So, she’s an arsehole that cheated on Olivia?”

Erin leant back in her chair. “Well, when you put it that way.”

* * *

When Cam came down to the bar at 11 a.m., she found Olivia already waiting for her, sitting by herself in one of the booths as she read through something on a tablet. On the table in front of her was an A4 sized notepad, a pen, and a mobile phone. The rest of the table was covered with plates. Each plate contained a sandwich or a salad, slices of cake, and various other dishes that smelled pretty good to a hungry, tired mother of two.

On seeing her, Olivia stood and indicated that she take the seat opposite. “Please, help yourself to anything that looks appealing.”

“It all looks appealing.” Cam grinned, reaching for a tuna sandwich. As she bit into it, Olivia explained exactly what it was.

“Tuna fish, with thinly sliced celery, a smattering of capers, mixed with parsley and cottage cheese, before finally being drizzled with lemon mayo.”

She smiled up at Erin as she too arrived and took a seat next to Cam. “This is really good,” Cam said, chewing the last morsel.

Once Erin had made her choice, Olivia began. “Okay, so look around,” she said, doing so herself. “An empty bar, in one of the busier parts of town. There are several larger offices in the area as well as a reasonable amount of footfall as people move around. So why not open properly for lunch?”

Cam and Erin turned to each other before both turned back to Olivia.

“See, each of these dishes is simple, tasty, healthy, and affordable.” She ticked off each attribute on her fingers. “And each of these dishes has a great markup. Plus, you already have staff working through the day, so it would be very cost effective.”

Picking up a fork, Cam dug into a salad. When she was finished chewing, she grinned. “We already do lunch.”

Olivia raised a brow. “Can I be frank? Do you see the tables filled with hungry diners at any point of the day between now and, say, three p.m.?”

Cam looked around. “No.”

“That’s because we don’t offer the kinds of things that the business world is looking for,” Olivia said confidently. “We have the space to offer brunch meeting, lunch meetings, fully catered for.”

Mulling it over for a moment, Cam looked at her. It was a good idea, no, a great idea. “Okay, let’s give it a go.” She put the fork down when her phone began to vibrate against the wooden table. Michelle’s name flashed up on the screen and she smiled to herself. “Two minutes, I just need to take this.” Erin slid out from the bench to let Cam exit. “Hey, Babe.”

“Cam?” Michelle sniffed. She could hear Darcy screaming in the background.

“Michelle? Are you okay?” She searched her pocket for her car keys.

“Cam, I can’t…can you come home?”

“I’m coming, what’s wrong?” Turning to Erin and Olivia, she mouthed, ‘Sorry, I have to go.’

“She won’t stop, I don’t know what to do…I’ve tried so hard but I just… I can’t do this.”

“Sweetheart, where is Maria?” Cam was already pushing the door open. Her car was parked right outside. Lights flashed and the alarm beeped as she pressed the fob to unlock it.

“She’s in the kitchen,” Michelle cried. “She hates me.”

“Maria doesn’t hate you,” Cam said, not understanding where this was coming from. She climbed into the car and held the phone in the crook of her neck while she pulled her seatbelt across and clipped it in. “I’m coming now, okay? Stay on the phone with me.” With the engine started, the phone connected to the car, and she dropped the handset onto the passenger seat.

“The baby, she hates me,” Michelle clarified as the screaming got louder in the background and blared out of the speaker system. “I don’t know what to do.”

Cam put her foot down and drove as fast as she could get away with, but this was LA and traffic was always a problem.

“I’m a terrible mother. She hates me, Cam.”

“Just…where’s Robbie?”

“They left half an hour ago. Robbie thought maybe Dylan was too excited for them and that was why Darcy was crying, but it’s not. It’s me. She hates me.”

Cam was at a loss what to say; her wife was struggling. “She doesn’t hate you; she’s just fussing and pushing her boundaries, and she has this…colic, it’s not you, you’re a wonderful mother.”

Michelle’s voice grew quieter as if she suddenly had a thought that made sense. “No…I think she’d be happier if I wasn’t here.”

Cam felt her heart race. She had never heard Michelle talk like this before. It scared her. “Babe, I’m almost there, alright? Just breathe, sweetheart. I’m coming.” The cars ahead were slowing down, red brake lights flashing up like fireflies. She wasn’t almost there.

“I have to go,” Michelle whimpered and hung up.