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Chapter six
A Ghost From The Past
Jack
“Wait…Mi….” is all I can manage to say…ha…it can’t be her, no way, not my home town. “Wait,” I say again as I spin round to take another look, but she’s gone. I try looking for her as I walk back into the pub, but there’s no sign of her. Maybe I imagined it. I run my fingers through my hair in frustration. I can still feel where her hands were, the sensation, that feeling of her hands on me, just like that day back in Ibiza. If it was her, she looked… scared, and so fragile, that’s not the Millie I knew. Well, yeah I only knew her for one day, a fucking great day, but even so, something’s not right, I can just feel it.
“What’s up bro? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Em says when she brings a drink back from the bar.
“Have you just bought those?” I say, taking the focus off me. If it was her, Millie, I need to see her again. Where would I even start to look? Although everyone knows everyone around here. I’m sure I can find out where she’s staying, or maybe I will wait and see if I see her again. The first option may be a little stalkerish, but I need to know if she’s okay. I know it’s an odd way to react…but…that woman has invaded my dreamsbefore; if I can get the real thing again, then I’m going to try. Something just feels off though, she looked panicked, like she was in trouble. I need to find out, even if it’s just to settle my own conscience.
“Yep, why?” Em looks at me in confusion when she realizes, “Oh man, I keep forgetting you just bought this place, oh well I’ll add to your profits.” She laughs and hands me my drink.
“Where’s Dan? Is he not joining us?” Dan is my sister’s soon-to-be husband; that’s one of the reasons I’m back – the wedding and buying this place. It holds a lot of memories. I’ve known Dan for a long time, ever since I can remember. He has been my right-hand man since I made the move to buy my first pub, club and hotels in the UK and abroad. He doesn’t travel as much with me anymore since hooking up with Em, but he’s happy, and most of all, he makes her happy. I’ve met some of the blokes she dated and girls he so-called dated. I’m happy for them, couldn’t get a better match if you ask me. As for me, I’ve been single for a long time, that’s not to say I’ve not had my fun, but it’s never been serious. There was a moment a few years back when I met her, Millie; she just felt different, everything about her was so breathtaking. She was all I could think of, the moment I saw her in that outfit. What was it again? Oh yeah, one of my favourite superheroes, Wonder Woman. Man she looked hot… I need to stop thinking about her, I can feel myself getting turned on already, and this is not the ideal place, sitting next to my sister.
“He’s on his way, don’t worry, you won’t be stuck with just me for much longer, so how long are you in the country for this time?” she says, taking a sip of her wine.
“A few months I think. I’ve got the apartment set up at the hotel. I need to see things through here, then there’s your wedding, but after that it’s back to sunshine and….sand,” I say, grinning.
“You recovered from that well. We all know what you get up to out there. There may be sunshine and sand but there will be sex, lots of it, if I know my brother well enough,” she grimaces a little.
“Please, let’s not talk sex, you’re my sister and it’s weird no matter how old we are.” We raise our glasses and clink them just as Dan walks in. He waves and heads over.
“I’ll grab you a drink,” I say, and head to the bar.
“Another round please Mike.”
“Sure, boss,” he chuckles. “Sounds weird calling you boss, I remember you and your mates coming in here years ago, and even then, you said one day you would own this place.”
“For starters, please don’t call me boss. Only Dan does that; I’ve even told him not to. Are we still on for our meeting tomorrow morning? Say about 11.30?”
“Yep, I’ll be here, ready with the paperwork. Oh we have just taken on a new gal, only part-time, glass collecting, general help where it’s needed, do you want to meet her?” he said, handing me our drinks.
“No, it’s a social visit tonight, I’ll meet them all in a few days when we do the introductions.”
“Right-o, I’ll carry on, see you in the morning.” And he walks away to serve another customer. I like Mike, I’m glad he will be staying on; the punters love him. Easy going, hard-working and a good listener. Everything you could want in a pub manager.
As I head back over, I see Dan and Em are deep in conversation.
“Everything alright? You guys look serious.”
“We’re fine, we were just talking about the girl Dan literally bumped into the other day, when he went to get the keys from Tom at that horrid hotel at the top of the hill.”
“Why, what happened?”
“I think it might be the same girl that rented that dive of an apartment I was telling you about, she sounds similar,” Em says, almost hugging her wine to her.
“Are you going to tell me, or do I have to guess?” I say.
They spent the next fifteen minutes or so telling how Tom had taken Dan’s car keys as a joke. Dan went to the hotel, well if you can call it a hotel, it’s awful. They gave him the wrong room number... and Dan had managed to barge in on this poor girl in her hotel room, managing to knock her over on her ass in the process.
“It was awful man, she was covered in cuts and bruises, some were massive, on her legs, arms and face, and when she realised I was looking at them, she tried to cover herself up and shoved me out the door. I caught up to her later when she came out. I was still there waiting for Tom to come back to life, she said she had been in an accident… but I don’t know, something about her was off, made me think otherwise,” Dan finished and hung his head like he couldn’t wrap his head around it, or figure out what was wrong.
“That is shit, the poor girl, what was her name? Did you manage to get it?”
“No,” she never said, said she had to look for a job, and walked off. Got the impression she didn’t want anyone to know anything about her,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Emilie! That’s the girl that rented the apartment. She moves in tomorrow; we’re meeting at ten, to hand over the keys,” my sister says matter-of-factly. “It was hard getting any info from her. She has no job, and little savings from what I could tell. Only had a small suitcase with her too. Maybe her stuff will be delivered later… who knows,” she finishes.
