Past Hurts

-Five-

Four months later

"Fuckin' hell, you look like a movie star. Thought Greta Garbo had walked through the bloody door for a minute then, didn't I?"

Evelyn rolled her eyes and blushed, failing to bite back a grin at Alfie's over the top exclamation. She had only been to the hairdressers on her lunch break and while her hair was slightly shorter and had that lovely shine and bounce that could only come from a professional doing one's hair, overall she looked pretty much the same as she had when she left an hour and a bit ago.

"Don't she look stunnin', Ollie?" Alfie smirked.

"Erm... yes?" Ollie frowned, looking completely confused.

"Oh fuckin' 'ell, Ollie," Alfie tutted. "You're tellin' me you aint never made a fuss of your Lottie when she's been to the hairdressers? Disgrace you are to manhood. Surprised she aint kicked you out or somethin'. Everyone knows women love a good fuss when they've had their hair done."

"Don't worry, Ollie," Evelyn smiled at him. "Alfie's just being an idiot as usual."

"An idiot," Alfie scoffed. "And to think I was gonna suggest you go on home early and find yourself a nice fella to take you out for dinner to show off that fancy new hairdo."

"I'm not interested in any fellas," she mimicked his accent on the last word with a cheeky grin. "There's only one man for me."

And with just a gentle tap on her knee, Cyril came bounding over, tail wagging excitedly and jumped up to wrap his two front paws around her neck like he was giving her a cuddle. She beamed happily, giggling when he licked at her face.

"Well if he's your man you can take him out for a piss and a shit, can't you?" Alfie decided. "Maybe let him have a walk 'round the block too, yeah? Oh and maybe for a run around the park?"

"Can't Ollie do it?" she asked. "I've got a mountain of paperwork because I have a twat of a boss who can't be arsed to do even a little bit of his any more."

"No Ollie can't bloody do it," Alfie muttered, reaching into one of the drawers for Cyril's lead. "'Cause Ollie's got a twat of a boss who needs him to sit in on a meetin' with that insufferable idiot, Tommy fuckin' Shelby."

"Well I could sit in the meeting instead?" she offered.

"No," Alfie's tone left no room for argument, causing Evelyn to roll her eyes at his sudden mood change and get up to snatch the lead off of his desk with an exaggerated huff of irritation.

He would never voice it aloud but the reason he was so desperate for Evelyn to leave the office for the afternoon was because he didn't want her around Tommy Shelby because he was fairly certain that last time they had come across each other, that bloody pikey had been making eyes at his secretary and it weren't right for a man to be doing that in a professional setting. Yeah, that's what it was. Women wanted to be treated equally and Alfie prided himself on trying to keep up with the modernisation of the times so on Evelyn's behalf he was going to ensure that she wasn't there just for Tommy or any other of his business associates to use as something to eye fuck during it meetings.

It most definitely was not because he had a bit of a thing- and by a bit it actually meant fucking humongous- thing for Evelyn and he found himself disgustingly jealous. Nope. It wasn't that at all.

"So what excuse are you going to give Evelyn to get her out of here again before Shelby arrives? Because we both know she'll have Cyril walked and back within here before it starts just to prove a point," Ollie commented, rifling through one of Evelyn's desk drawers for the chocolate bourbons she always kept in there now.