Hostile Takeover

Chapter Six

It was Saturday evening. The wind was strong and still had a bite to it being late September. Gray took the last sip of his beer and looked out of the expanse of the ocean. Sim and Taryn were so lucky to live here. It didn't matter what time of year it was, Byron Bay was always beautiful. He was just lucky that he had his own private jet and could fly up here whenever he wanted.

Suddenly, Gray felt the cold press of an icy can against the exposed skin on the back of his neck. He jumped ten feet in the air and gasped loudly before he spun around and snatched the offending can of beer from Sim's fingers. Sim was grinning boyishly.

"Isn't that trick a little old?" Gray said.

"Never," Sim said.

Gray shook his head.

"Sweetie, leave Gray alone," Taryn said as she joined them on the verandah.

Sim cracked open his own can and took a long swill before he said, "just testing him."

"Testing for what?" Gray asked.

"Signs of life."

"Yeah, thanks. That's everyone."

"Everyone what?" said Sim.

"Everyone thinks I have no heartbeat, my best friends included."

"Hey, not me!" Taryn said. "I just wish you would open up to me a bit more."

Sim rolled his eyes. "Come on, Gray, let's get out of here before Dr. Taryn tries to solve all your problems."

"Where are you going?" Taryn asked.

"Down to the shed."

"Oh," Taryn said and smiled mysteriously. "I think you'll like what's in the shed."

But before he had time to ask, Sim was heading off in the direction of the shed. Gray had no choice but to follow if he wanted to know what the hell these two were on about. He trailed behind Sim through their yard which was just as magical as the rest of the place, the type of garden where kids could run around and be entertained for hours.

"When are you and Taryn going to have kids?" Gray said.

Ahead of him, Sim stumbled and Gray realised only then that maybe he should've thought about his question a bit more before he just went and blurted it out.

"Doesn't look like we can," he said before he kept walking on.

"Shit, sorry man. I shouldn't have asked. I guess everyone is right. I really don't have a heartbeat."

They had reached the double doors of the shed and Sim keyed open the padlock. "It's okay. I would've told you eventually. I... we're still just trying to process it all." Sim opened up the doors but didn't immediately step inside. He turned to face Gray instead and took another sip of his beer. "We've been trying for a while. Eventually, we gave IVF a go but Taryn had a bad reaction to the fertility drugs. Really bad."

"How bad?"

"She almost died."

"Fuck. When did this happen? And why didn't you tell me?"

"It was about the same time Quinn moved out."

"You could've told me," Gray said.

Sim just shrugged. "You had enough shit going on. We both did. Figured we'd talk about it eventually."

"How is Taryn?"

"Grieving. Throwing herself into her work. That's why I got this."

Sim stepped further into the garage and pulled at a large drop sheet draped over an object. Gray pretty much guessed there was a car underneath, but his eyes widened when he saw what type of car- an old Mercedes.