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Liam North
"That's not good enough, do you hear me? There's got to be somebody," Liam said through gritted teeth into his phone. He wasn't in the habit of being an asshole to Percy, his assistant, but on days like today, it was hard. Patience was a virtue and being virtuous was something nobody had ever used as one of his descriptors. Percy was a decent assistant, sometimes a very good one, but he could be sensitive to Liam's tone of voice. That was shit that Liam didn't have time for, especially not now. He needed to find somebody, and he needed to find her fast.
"I understand, sir, I absolutely do," Percy answered so quickly that it came out in one long, indistinguishable thing. Liam shut his eyes, flexed his jaw, took a deep breath. Take a deep breath, om; the yoga crap his sister was always trying to get him to join played in his head again and again, like it was daring him to really lose his shit.
"Great, good. Glad to hear we're on the same page. So, then you're going to find me someone, right?" Liam asked in his most patient voice.
“I want to, sir, but there’s just nobody available,” Percy answered cautiously.
“See, that’s where we have a problem. There has to be a female in this city who doesn’t have plans tonight,” Liam shot back.
"Sure, of course, but none of the women on your Rolodex. Unless you're suggesting, I go out and grab some random woman off the street, I-"
Percy was trying to make a point, and sarcasm was something Liam wouldn't normally tolerate. Percy knew it too, and by the time he got towards the end of his sentence, he was losing some of his indignant steam. Liam didn't deliver his standard dressing down though, not this time. This time, Liam was just as likely to give the poor guy a raise as anything else. Not for his brilliant problem-solving skills, because they weren't, but for triggering the idea he should have thought of while still inside the shop. Inside the shop, where the answer had been standing off to the side and waiting for him to go.
The woman trying to hide behind a display of old instruments that nobody in their right mind would ever buy, hadn’t been as inconspicuous as she would have probably liked. Truth be told, she was the opposite; completely conspicuous because she looked so totally out of place. Liam would have bet money that she had never been inside of a pawn shop before. She had the look of a corn-fed girl straight off the farm, if people still did that kind of thing. Her hair was tied in a thick blonde braid that fell halfway down her back and eyes peering out from underneath her thick bangs were wide and blue. Jesus, they displayed the kind of innocence and naivety men like him knew straight away. She could be taken advantage of too easily, and certainly men would want to take advantage of her, with the body she was sporting. She was on the thicker side, but her curves could send a man into cardiac arrest. Even with the high-necked, rather demure dress she was wearing, Liam couldn't help noticing the tits and ass on this one. The sweet, innocent air about her only made the sex pot figure more tantalizing. If he had been his younger self, say twenty-five instead of thirty-two, he would have forgotten all about his business and done his best to cheer her up.
“Might still do it,” he muttered to himself.
“What now?” Percy asked desperately on the other end.
“Nothing, I’ve got to go.”
“But, boss! What about-?”
"I'll call you later if I need anything. Good work." Liam hung up the phone before Percy could either complete his question or ask what the good work was about. He could imagine what a frenzy this confusion would likely have Percy in, and he smiled to himself as he re-entered the pawn shop. The geezer behind the counter didn't look pleased to have him back again so soon, but he soon would be. Liam was in the habit of making deals, and this one was more in the owner's favor than in his own.
"Back again, eh? What's the matter, forget part of your deal?" the older man asked grumpily. He was looking at something when Liam walked in and now whisked it away as deftly as a pickpocket in a Dickens story. Before the bell over the door rang the guy had actually been smiling, for Christ's sake. Liam didn't have to be a genius to surmise that that rarely happened. Now he was all scowls, and Liam couldn't help it; he laughed out loud. The man bristled, and Liam checked himself, but the urge to bust a gut was still strong.
“Sir, I don’t know how you stay in business with a bedside manner like that,” he said, still chuckling a little despite his best efforts.
“Thanks for the input. Now tell me what you want,” the man growled, more surly than ever.
“I want to know what business that young lady did with you,” Liam answered bluntly. He’d never seen much of a point in beating around the bush, especially when it came to getting what he wanted.
“Don’t see how that’s any of your business. I didn’t tell her what you were doing neither.”
"I doubt my business had any bearing on hers. That might not be the case for me so if you wish to make a sale, I suggest you answer me. Was she selling something or buying?"
“Selling something, okay? Jesus, you’re pushy. Anyone ever tell you that before?”
“Plenty of people,” Liam answered without missing a beat, “and it’s never made any kind of impression. What did she sell?”
“Seeing as I don’t expect you to let this go, I might as well tell you. It’s a ring. A right nice one, too. Seemed sad to be letting it go. I might have felt sorry for her if I still had a heart.”
“I’d like to see it, please,” Liam requested. This was going better than he could have hoped for and the whole plan, little more than an inkling when he’d started the conversation, came more clearly into focus. This thing was going to work, like most things he decided to inflict his will upon. The guy brought his new prize back out and set it on top of the smudged counter. Even somebody who knew nothing about expensive things would know that this was something special and Liam knew plenty about expensive things. Jewelry was something he knew more than a little about and the piece he was looking at now was truly fine.
"Right. I'll take it," he said, reaching for the ring without waiting for an answer. The owner blanched and clutched onto it like it was his mythical cornerstone or something. When he got a look at Liam's expression, he cleared his throat and put his hands back behind the counter.
“You can’t just grab shit,” he grumbled at Liam without making eye contact, “that’s not how this works.”
"I'll tell you how it works. You give me a price, and I pay it. It's separate from our other arrangement, and I need it to be quick."
It didn't cross his mind until that damn bell rang again that he might be too late. He didn't know the woman who'd sold the ring and he had no reason to believe, that she would stick around after making her sale. People rarely hung out at the scene of a place where they'd done something unpalatable. It wasn't like it was going to destroy his life or anything if she wasn't around, but he'd still need to find a date. That, and he would have this very pretty but basically useless ring. When he didn't see her at first, he prepared to enact Plan B and quickly headed to his car, but then he heard a low, pitiful sniffling sound coming from the alleyway.
“Excuse me ma’am, are you okay?” he asked, rounding the corner to find her with her back against the building’s brick, her face buried in her hands.
"Oh! God, don't sneak up on people that way. What's wrong with you?" she half asked, half shrieked. She looked at him with those wide, innocent eyes and he realized that she was more than just pretty. She was beautiful. She was beautiful enough that for a second, he forgot what he'd come after her for in the first place. The little trails of mascara slowly running down her cheeks was what snapped him out of his temporary idiocy. He liked to think of himself as a tough man, and many people he worked with would probably say he was an asshole. Still, he hated to see a female cry. He'd always hated it; it filled him with a combination of helplessness and anger that made him want to put a fist through a wall. And she was looking at him like he was crazy. All things considered, this wasn't the best start.
“Sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he answered, taking a step back. People didn’t often talk to him with anything other than respect. He couldn’t remember the last time somebody chastised him for any reason. And “miss?” What the hell was that about? He hadn't ever referred to anyone as "miss" in his life. She wiped at the mess under her eyes and, unbelievably, smiled a little. It was a pathetic smile given her current state, but he was still impressed. The kind of woman who could rally, then. That boded well for him and his plans.
"It's okay," she said uncertainly, "you just startled me."
"I can see that," he said with a smile. Now that she had a friendlier tone, he was getting that feeling again – that winning feeling, the same one he got every time he closed a deal at work. He was one of those men who was primed for success, and he could almost always feel it coming on.
"What is it that you want?" she asked, not unkindly, taking a couple of small steps in his direction. He watched the way her body moved without letting on that he was looking, a talent any man with halfway decent game had by his teens. It wasn't the most gentlemanly thing in the world, but Liam doubted any red-blooded male would be able to help himself from looking. Her breasts moved easily as she walked, and he could immediately imagine their weight cupped in the palm of his hand. If he could get her to agree with his plan, he thought it would do more than fill a role that needed filling; he thought he might enjoy it, too.
“We’ll get to that,” he answered, smiling brightly.
"Will we? That sounds awfully cryptic," she answered nervously. She took another step towards him, and he caught a whiff of her perfume, something sweet and floral and light. If she noticed him noticing it, noticing her, she showed zero sign.
“First, I have something for you. I thought you might want it back.”
As the woman watched, Liam pulled the ring out of his pocket. He didn't even know her name, but his heart swelled when he got a look at her face. Never before had he seen such naked gratitude on a person. It was immediately followed by confusion and maybe even a bit of suspicion, but that look of gratitude was what stuck.
“I don’t understand. Why do you have that?” she asked, utterly perplexed.
“I saw you come out of the shop,” he confessed, wondering for the first time if there was anything about what he’d just done to feel awkward about, “you looked upset.”
“I guess I didn’t hide it very well,” she answered bashfully. “Everything always shows on my face.”
“I talked to the shop owner, asked him what your business was.”
"And he just told you, huh? I don't know why but I figured places like this kept things sort of private. Stupid of me, I guess," she said, shaking her head. She looked on the verge of being disillusioned, so much so that Liam almost laughed. Not because he wanted to be mean, but he couldn't think of another person he'd met who was this naive about the way these sorts of things worked.
"You would think," he answered, keeping his face expertly composed, "but you can be rest assured that I mean no harm."
“Thank you, but I don’t understand why you would but it.”
“To give it back to you, of course.”
"But you can't!" she cried, "Why would you do something like that? You don't even know me!"
“It’s not to pry into your life, so there’s no need to worry about that. I know people break up and it’s hard. I wouldn’t presume-”
"No," she interrupted, "it's not like that. No breakup. I wasn't married. The ring belonged to my grandmother. She left it to me. When she...you know."
“Christ, I’m sorry. I just assumed.”
“Don’t be,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.
“Anyway, I wanted to give it back to you,” he said easily, extending his hand to her palm out with the ring glittering even in the dull light. “Here. Take it.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you do that? You don’t even know me?”
“I told you, you looked upset coming out of the shop.”
"I'm sure a lot of people do. I can't imagine you buy everyone's things back. I mean, that would be insane."
"You're right; I don't. I have to admit to you here, I've got an ulterior motive."
He held his breath a little after saying the words, waiting for a reaction he couldn't predict. A lot of chicks would flip out at this point, thinking he was a pervert and maybe giving him a good slap in the face. He wouldn't blame them, either. This woman surprised him, though. Her eyes got huge, her mouth opened, and she started laughing. She laughed hard enough that her whole face flushed, and Liam got his first glimpse at what she looked like when she was happy.
“Sorry, did I say something funny?” he asked, momentarily caught off guard.
“No,” she said, visibly struggling to get herself under control, “I mean yes, but I don’t mean to be rude. I’ve just never had anyone say anything like that to me before. It sounds like something out of a spy movie or something.”
"I'm glad I cheered you up some," he said, his own smile back in full force. "Now tell me, do you want to hear what I have to say?"
