poison - j.b.b

Twenty-eight

It had been a week since Celia had last seen James. Wanda had been helping Celia scrounge the bottom of the pot for money. She needed to pay for Maeve's funeral and she didn't have nearly enough money so her friend was helping out. They pushed back the funeral to a few weeks later because of the lack of money. Steve and Natasha offered some money but she didn't want their blood money that had passed through him. She was stressed to a higher level than she ever had been before, especially with working a new job too. She continued to do her past job for extra income and had to balance the two jobs in her schedule.

She had just finished off a meeting when her phone rang. She answered with a formal 'hello' and sighed in relief when she realised it was Emma, the funeral director.

"Hi, Celia, I see you paid for roses so I just want to check what colour, there wasn't a specification but I thought I'd run it through you." the woman spoke, the sound of her pen clicking in the background. "Roses?" Celia asked, her brows furrowed as she threw off her blazer jacket. "Yeah, it was the last thing paid for," Emma spoke, just as confused as Celia. "I haven't paid for anything yet."

There must have been a problem with the system. "Everything has been paid off Miss Blue," she confirmed with Celia making her even more confused. "Right." She mumbled wondering who had paid the thousands of dollars. "The colour, Celia." "yes, sorry. White would be great thank you."

"Wanda, someone paid for the whole thing." She instantly called Wanda, praying it was somehow her money. "Someone paid full price for that? I know you're persuasive and all but that couch had its time Celia. I'm surprised anyone bought it." the redhead rambled, taking a bite out of something halfway through her sentence. "Not that! The funeral. It's fully paid for." Celia explained, fed up with her friend's oblivion. "That's great, right?" Wanda asked. "yeah it's great unless he paid for it." Wanda muttered a small 'oh' before sighing. "Either way, it's paid for now. It's not like you can just give him back the money"

"I'll find a way to. I don't want his money." Celia spoke as she slipped into jeans. "You know we can't pay for it anyway. You don't have to thank him or talk to him but we should be grateful it's sorted." Wanda tried to reason, knowing that Celia would give him back the money. "It's the least he should do. He's the reason she's dead." Celia mumbled, reminding herself of how much she despised him.

"I know," Wanda whispered "but we can't do anything to change the past." "and that doesn't change him being a murderer." Wanda sighed, knowing there was no getting through to her. "I'm gonna go. Enjoy your shift." Celia spoke before cutting off the phone.

She shoved her car keys into her pocket as she left the car. Anxiously, she walked to the entrance of the building. Time seemed to go extra slow as she waited for the elevator to reach her desired floor. Her bag felt heavy as she held onto it tightly. She muttered a polite 'hello' to the receptionist before heading straight to his office. Without knocking, she entered the room only to see Steve sitting in James' chair.

"I wasn't expecting visitors," Steve spoke, his brows arched in confusion. "Yeah well, I wasn't exactly coming to see you," Celia mumbled as she fumbled through her purse. She marched forward and frustratingly threw the envelope onto the desk. "What's this?" Steve asked, tilting his head to look up at her. "Money." she clarified as if it was obvious. "Well i can see that. What's it for?"

"It's almost a third of the money I now owe James. Please let him know that once this money is paid back I want nothing to do with him. Oh, and that I'm not some fucking charity so I don't want nor need anything that he has touched or even been near." her face heated up at the lack of oxygen from speaking so fast. "Right. Anything else?" Steve smirked, a laugh threatening to leave his lips. "This isn't funny. I'm serious." Celia glared at him as he stared her down.

"Not at all." "right well that's everything. Make sure he gets the money." Celia turned around and left for the door before Steve spoke. "He misses you," he spoke softly. She continued to face the door, unable to turn around and let her emotions slip. "Yeah well, he should've thought about that before doing what he did," she spoke before leaving, slamming the door behind her.

She walked back to her car, the weight a little lighter on her shoulders. Her phone had died on the journey there, so she plugged in her phone and began to drive home. The streets were pretty empty today.

She parked up in her drive and unplugged her phone. Her notifications seemed normal. She had a message from Wanda, complaining about this old woman that can never decide what to have. Below it was a notification from her banking app. She thought maybe she did pay for it and now she's in debt but she was wrong.

J BARNES SENT $3500 TO YOUR ACCOUNT ENDING IN ****

"There's no way," Celia muttered to herself before opening the app. She breathed in deeply before plugging her phone back in. A scream could be heard from the inside of her car as she hit the steering wheel. Composing herself, she turned back on the engine and pulled out of the drive. Again.

"The bitch is lucky I don't want his money or he would definitely be paying for petrol money," she muttered to herself as she turned left.