Competition

Chapter 2- Small Talk

I walked Lou upstairs to my office. The club wasn't crowded right then since it was still pretty early and Lou had no problem following me. The stairs were steep and the halls pretty small since not many people came up here or had a reason to. Once I was at the door of my office, I unlocked it and motioned with my hand for her to go in.

She walked in and noticed that there was no one in the office but an empty desk and paperwork spread out on it. She looked back at me over her shoulder. "Welcome to my office, what did you want to talk about?" I said in a cool manner knowing that I threw her off her balance even if it was just the slightest.

Lou rubbed her tongue on the side of her mouth and half smiled and smirked at me. She raised her eyebrows surprised by my actions. She was somewhat proud of me and also intimidated by my moves.

"Sit, please" as I motioned to the chairs across my desk as I began to sit down in the chair behind my desk. She sat down and crossed her legs while resting her arms beside her. She learned a bit forward and spoke to me.

"Look, I know your club must be struggling to stay alive right now unless you're some wizard of some sort. But things are not going well for me and I have been in this business for a while now." She was saying so much to me right now, it was difficult to focus on her words rather than her face and lips. I gave little facial expressions because I was too embarrassed to tell her that my club was going down too.

"My options are to either drive you" she pointed at me "out or to have a sort of alliance to help eachother out" Why would she want to help? I have never talked to her before nor was a close friends with anyone she was friends with. I tried to wrap my head around this and think of a mutual we had, but no one was popping up.

Wait. We do have a mutual. Tammy. I was friends with Tammy some before she moved and settled in to start her family. Lou must have heard of me through her. That has to be the reason she would want to help me.

Lou was still talking, shit I hadn't comprehended anything since I was thinking. "So I'll give you time to think about my offer and you can respond within the next week. How does that sound?"
And with that Lou was done and I have no idea what is really going on.

"Are there any papers that state your proposition?" I asked mainly for me and not legal reasons because I still wasn't quite sure what was happening.

"Yes, of course. I'll bring them over tomorrow. Does that work for you?"

"Yep that's fine" I need to stop getting in my head and be present.

"Alright, then I guess I'll be going now" I don't want her to leave though, not just yet. What do I do?

"Well would you like to stay for a drink or something? I can get you anything and I have some food too downstairs if you're hungry" I sound desperate, fuck.

She raised an eyebrow at me. Decided whether or not I'm worthy to eat with her. She looked away slightly as if I was interrupting her time and she had other things to do.

"Sure, do you have fries?" I was surprised that she wanted to stay and she could tell by my smile that I had to stop from spreading all over my face.

"Yeah, I have fries."

We walked back down to the main part of the club and got us a table. I asked one of my workers for two sets of fries so she wouldn't be eating alone. I wasn't very hungry but I didn't care because I want her to be comfortable and most of all I want her to like me. Why? I don't even know yet.

I sat down across from her and I couldn't help but stare at her beautiful eyes and lips. She noticed and smiled and looked down at her hands.

"So what do you do besides run a club" I asked to fill the silence between us.

"A lot of things, I just finished a big project me and my friends were doing"

"What kind of project?" Was I asking too many things?

"A little bit illegal project" She smiled and laughed a bit at herself.

"I'm not going to snitch on you, I have stolen some things here and there myself" I wasn't lying. Me and Tammy stole many things actually even though she told me she was done. I know she would never be done. I also continued to take things that weren't mine too after she moved.

"Tammy had told me about that, that's why I don't mind letting you know about the project"

Our fries just arrived.

"Oh, has she" I picked up and ate a fry.

"Yes, she spoke about your adventures together"

"So you think I'm a criminal now?" I was playing with her and she knew it.

"I do" Both of us were smiling now."But so am I"

"Is that why you want to work with me?"

"It has something to do with that, but also, I have been working alone for quite some time now and having a partner would be nice" Partner, I liked how she said that but I know she only meant business partner. And I forgot that she wanted to be a business partner because I had zoned out earlier.

She finished her food. "Well thank you for the fries and I hope you'll consider my offer, I'll be back tomorrow to drop off the papers" She got out her wallet to pay.

"It's on the house" I smiled at her and blushed and looked away so she couldn't see my face get red. She smiled back at me and we walked out together. I waved as she got on her motorcycle and she waved back just before riding off.

I went back inside and got ready to continue working that night. I couldn't help but think about her as I was tending to other customers.