Eddie sat in one of his vans outside the block of flats and stared up at the window. His hangover was kicking in now, and he needed something to take the edge off. Glancing out of the window to make sure there was no one around, he took the little bag of coke out from inside his pocket and poured some onto the back of his hand before snorting it. He didn’t bother to use a rolled-up note. Seeing some residue left over on his skin, he licked the back of his hand. Almost immediately he felt less foggy.
He’d rung the number stored in his phone three times and there had been no answer. He had no choice but to go to the door and sort it out in person.
Getting out of the van, Eddie pointed the fob at the door and hit the lock button before heading into the building. He climbed two flights of stairs before reaching the door. Standing outside, he balled his fist and rattled the wooden surface.
‘Fuck off,’ he heard a voice from inside.
‘We need to talk. Let me in for a minute, please?’ he said, trying to make his tone sound calmer than he felt.
A few seconds passed and as he raised his fist to pound on the door again, he heard a click and it opened. Eddie stepped inside and closed the door behind him before making his way through to the lounge.
‘Boys not in?’ Eddie asked.
‘They’re at their grandparents’ today,’ Scarlett said. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’
‘Why aren’t you at the salon today?’ he asked, looking at Scarlett as she sat back on the sofa, sipping on a glass of wine. He looked down at his watch. It wasn’t even midday yet. What the hell was she playing at?
‘What’s it to you?’ she slurred, not meeting his eyes.
‘Erm, I’m you’re employer and you didn’t show up to work. You didn’t even let Arabella know you were taking the day off.’
Scarlett pulled a face that told Eddie this wasn’t going to get resolved the way he’d hoped. Her eyes focused on the television but when Eddie looked over, he saw it was switched off.
‘Look, Scarlett, I’m just going to be blunt with you here. You knew I was in a relationship when we first met. I told you straight up I had a girlfriend who was in prison. You said that didn’t bother you, and that you wanted the same as I did. It was only ever sex with us, you knew that. So, I don’t get why you’re being so fucking unreasonable about this?’
Scarlett snapped up at him, getting to her feet in an instant, albeit swaying a little. ‘You don’t seriously think I’d want to work for you and that girlfriend of yours, knowing the company you keep? I mean, gangsters, Eddie. You think you’re one, don’t you? Wee Eddie the gangster.’ She sniggered. Eddie bit his tongue. He didn’t want to say anything about Jake or Roxanne and fuel her fire. When he didn’t respond, she continued.
‘You think I’m being unreasonable? Eddie, you bought my place of work. You could have at least given me advanced warning. How do you think it made me feel when I found out? All of a sudden you rock up to the salon with your bit of fucking skirt and tell me she’s my new boss! And you think I’m the unreasonable one? You just came into my life and fucked everything up. I told you about my brother, you gave me a fucking shoulder to cry on and then you shat on me from the greatest of fucking heights. You should have pulled out of the sale when you realised I worked there.’
‘It was too late by then, Scarlett. We went over everything and you said you were fine about it.’
Scarlett swayed again, her wine sloshing out of her glass and dripping onto Eddie’s shoes. Glancing down at them, she sniggered and then before Eddie could stop her, she threw the remaining wine in the glass over his face.
‘Well, I’m not. You’re a selfish, self-centred fucker, Eddie Corrigan. You deserve everything that’s coming to you.’ She jabbed her finger into his chest and Eddie caught her wrist, squeezing it tight and shoving her down onto the couch.
‘Shut your mouth, Scarlett.’
‘Ha,’ she laughed. ‘What you going to do about it? Tell Arabella? Sorry, I should really be calling her Miss MacQueen. That’s what you want me to call her, isn’t it? She is my boss. Well, I wonder what my boss would think if I told her I was fucking her man when she was in prison?’
‘I said, shut your mouth, Scarlett.’
‘What, you think she wouldn’t believe me? Come on then,’ Scarlett grabbed her phone from the arm of the sofa. ‘Let’s give her a call and see what she has to say about it?’
Eddie lurched forward and grabbed the phone from her hand before launching it across the room. It slammed against the back wall and fell to the floor, the screen shattered to the point where it was unreadable.
Leaning down, he saw that the action had given Scarlett a fright. Her eyes glistened behind pooling tears.
‘Now you listen to me, Scarlett. If you think I’m going to let you ruin what I have with Arabella then you’re sadly mistaken. I’m not putting up with this shit.’
Tears spilled over her face. Eddie had never noticed how pathetic she looked until now. What had he been thinking, getting involved with her? At the time he’d thought it would be a laugh. Buying the salon hadn’t been intended to upset Scarlett, he’d just seen an opportunity. It just so happened that he’d been involved with Scarlett beforehand.
‘You’re a bad bastard, Eddie. You know that? She needs to know what kind of man you really are. And I’m going to make sure she knows about what you got up to when she was behind bars. You don’t get to do this to me, not anymore.’ The words were hissed through the gaps in her teeth as she threw the wine glass at him.
At that point his anger began to cripple him. He couldn’t let her do this. If she contacted Arabella, if she told her that he’d been having it off with Scarlett then bought the salon she was in charge of, he’d lose her.
‘Shut up, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘You’re drunk and I’m late. Get a grip of yourself, eh?’
‘What? You think I won’t do it? Go on then, try me,’ Scarlett said, getting to her feet and heading towards the door.
‘Where are you going?’ Eddie followed her out to the hallway.
‘I’m going to work, I’m going to tell her everything.’
Eddie rushed ahead of her, blocking the door so she couldn’t get out. She stopped in front of him, her eyes bloodshot with tears. She hesitated and for a moment he thought she was going to relent. Go back to the lounge and finish her sad little bottle of wine. Then out of nowhere, she slapped him so hard his ears began to ring. It did little to knock him off balance, but the anger he felt was like a volcanic eruption.
He lifted his own hand in retaliation. Knocking her to the ground with a dull thud, he kneeled down over the top of her and grabbed a fistful of hair. Her mouth was bleeding but he chose to block it out.
‘You’ll be sorry you done that. You’ll be sorry you ever fucking met me.’