Fiancée for hire (wlw)

CHAPTER 18 - MY LIGHT

(Tw, depression, mentions of mental illness.)

Willows pov

"Thea! How are you feeling?" I asked on the phone, it was so comforting to hear Althea speak. "I was discharged yesterday so I came to pick up the keys like you asked and..." she says, sounding kind of nervous. "And what? Why do you sound so..."

"Something happened to the store... and... it's bad willow, i'll video chat you and show it," Althea says. As the camera turns around I can see that the whole store is a mess, there are broken pipes bursting from the walls and water flooding the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Willow, the whole place is flooded. It's gonna take a few weeks if not months to recover it from all of the damage." I gasp and sigh, Evelyn was still standing in front of me worried.

"I don't care." I say bluntly, holding the phone on speaker so Evelyn had heard the whole conversation. "What?! You can see this place, right? It's gonna take ages for it to be usable." Althea says sadly.

"And lots of money too." The doctor from before says, why was he with Althea? "The average-looking doctor is right, coffee machines, fridges, showcases... they aren't cheap, Willa." Evelyn says in a sad tone.

"No, no. You guys are misunderstanding me. I told you I brought a coffee shop, I never said I was going to keep it as one." I say, Evelyn looks slightly taken aback and Althea smiles as if she was proud of me.

"Well, why didn't you say so?! What are you going to turn it into?" Althea says as she holds the camera to face her and the doctor, I still have no idea why they are together.

"I don't know yet, I haven't decided but I have a few ideas. Also, I will need help, are you up for a new job, Thea?" I say as I look at the phone.

"Depends, how well does this job pay?" Althea says in a playful but serious tone, Evelyn and I both chuckle. "Significantly more than our old job ever did, all I need is for you to hire a clean-up crew."

"Done, I'll do it right away." Althea smiles down the phone. "Wait!" Evelyn grabs my phone and turns it to face her. "Althea, I know who attacked you," Evelyn says in a calm tone, whereas Althea looks shocked.

"His name is Nathan Brady, his partner, Daniel Moore, tried to attack us a few days ago," Evelyn says, her tone was oddly calm and it was very attractive.

"Shit! Are you guys okay?" Althea says worried as she holds the phone to face just her. "We are fine, except Willow has a huge bruise, and Daniel isn't okay. He was arrested and gave up Nathan's location for a lessened sentence."

"Will he get it?" I say nervously, what if he came back and tried to attack us again? "No- I made sure of it. But Nathan and Daniel won't be a problem for either of you anymore." Evelyn says.

"I have a feeling they were more interested in Billy anyway." I chuckle. "It's true, I guess Billy borrowed some money from... y'know, a made man." I gasp. "But they are in jail now, and I'm sure the money billy got from the sale will go into their boss's pocket."

"One less thing to worry about, at least, I better get going though- Nate and I are getting lunch before his break ends." Althea smiles.

"Have fun, you two." Evelyn says before hanging up the call and handing me my phone back. "So, care to tell me what you have planned for the place?" She smiles.

"Nope, not yet. Thought you wanted the story of how I ended up as a crappy barista?" I say in a playful voice.

"I do! But it's kind of cold in here, let's go to the stables lounge." She smiles, I guess she isn't immune to the cold after all, we walk to the lounge together and she grabs some blankets before we sit down together, she then lays the blankets over us both.