Lie To Yourself

4

Without an answer Tony stood up and held his arm out towards the door. Given how small the office was we'd need to get out before he would be able to manoeuvre around to get himself out.

Me and Tim looked at each other with a small frown shared between us as we followed Tony across the Timber Yard and into the steel shed Warehouse. It looked like a converted barn. Well as converted as removing the animals, i'm not sure much else was done to it.

We passed through a cloud of smoke as a series of men, old, young we're all chain smoking out of the side of their mouth whilst chopping wood.

I could feel their eyes on me, probably thinking that I was lost. I kept my head forward not even giving them the satisfaction of my eyes on theirs, they don't deserve that.

We finally reached the back of the warehouse, it was dark, dingy and I'm surprised anyone could do any work in here, let alone the company accounts!

"Brooke, this is Tim and Kate, they wanna speak to you"

"Katie" I interrupted

"Yeah that's it, Katie" Tony looked really annoyed now.

Brooke turned around from her PC. The light of her machine highlighted her features. She had a dark brown shoulder length hair, brown eyes like dark marbles and the pinkest lips I have ever seen. There is no way that she's not wearing lipstick.

"Erm hi guys" Brooke stuttered, almost scared of our presence.

"Hi Brooke, nothing to worry about we are just here to spend some time with you and figure out if we can help Logan Timber" Tim assured her. He must have felt her nervousness as well.

Brooke darted her eyes to Tony and he just looked at her sternly. Tim must have noticed it too.

"Brooke, is there a cafe or restaurant near by that we can take you too to go through your duties and processes? As you can see there's not much room here for my PA to take notes and it's really important for us to be able to do this" I can see what Tim is doing and Tony isn't going to be happy.

"Yeah there's a restaurant down the road, you could follow me there? " Brooke was so nervous.

"It's okay, you can jump in with us and guide us" Tim was really guiding her through this.

"Okay, let me just log off and I'll follow you to the car" she gave a small smile.

I could hear her and Tony crossing words, more so Tony than Brooke as we headed to the car.

"Nice move" I whispered to Tim.

"She's not going to be fucking honest in front of that twat" he was mad!

Shortly after we got the car we saw Brooke emerging. She was dressed in jet black skinny jeans and a teal cable knit jumper. She has a nose ring that I was surprised I didn't notice in the warehouse. Then again it was pretty dark.

I opened the passenger door for her and I sat myself in the back of the car.

"You trash Brooke?" Tim asked

"Yeah I'm all good. So if you come out of here, turn right and then at the roundabout take the first exit" she had visibility relaxed as soon as she was in the car. Odd really considering we were strangers.

Tim followed her directions and we soon came up to a car park for "The North One" which was more of a local pub than a restaurant but neither of us were bothered.

"What would you like to drink Brooke?" I asked as we walked over the cobbled car park.

"Could I have a Diet Coke please? I can pay." She muttered

"It's fine don't mention it. Tim, coffee, black one sugar?" I questioned

"Yes please Katie" very professional Tim.

I went to the bar, ordered their respective drinks and myself a latte.

Walking back to the table I passed across the drinks to Tim and Brooke. With those cheek bones she really is wasted in a dark warehouse I thought to myself.

"Thank you" Tim and Brooke said in tune and Brooke blushed.

"So Brooke, how long have you been working for your uncle?" Tim started easy on Brooke.

"About 2 years, I started when I was 20. I was at university doing my masters In business administration but Tony offered me a really good wage and I couldn't afford to turn it down at the time. What turned from a part time very quickly turned into full time. I wasn't getting paid for quite as well as he told me I would but kept piling on responsibility and responsibility that I've not done before. Shit I'm so sorry, I don't know why I divulge d that much information" Brooke genuinely looked disgusted in herself.

"Hey don't be sorry! We're here to help Brooke, where not here to judge you" Tim looked at her in a way only he could.

"When do you think the business changed? And started losing money?" Tim asked in a non pushing type of way.

"I honestly don't know, we still have a lot of customers and uncle Tony pays us pennies to be honest. We used to have two people in accounts but he decided we didn't need them so he let them go. Maybe I'm messing up on the accounts. I honestly don't know, I don't have the experience to deal with the systems and spreadsheets and all of the information I get passed is usually on empty cig packets so gets lost." Brooke really is going through it.

"I see, what are you hoping we can do for Logan's Timber Brooke?" Tim's questions continued

"I don't know, I'm not really sure what you can do for the business anymore. Uncle Tony is stubborn, and doesn't see any wrong in his actions. Ultimately I just want to make my mum happy. She thought she was doing the best thing to get me this job but little does she know it's a living hell." Brooke really is opening up.

Tim and Brooke were going back and forth for what seemed like hours. I was struggling to keep up with my notes. Brooke's drink looked like it needed refilling.

"Anyone need another drink?" I offered.

"To be honest I think we have everything we need. Thank you" Tim smiled answering for us all.

I nodded as I gathered up my Mac and put my coat on. We all headed back to the car and I once again opened the door for Brooke.

We rode back in near silence to the Timber yard. When we were going through gates, Brooke looked straight at me through the rear view mirror.

"You know your notes, will Tony know I've been slagging him off" she looked worried.

"Don't worry, the notes are not for Tony" I smiled at her.

"Thank you both, and thank you for the drink, I better get back to work" she very quickly hopped out of the car and headed towards her make shift work space.

"Katie, get in the front passenger seat, I'm just going to say bye to Tony and then we will head off" Tim instructed.

Not five minutes later Tim was pacing back to the car.

"Jesus Christ" is all he said when he turned on the engine.