Blood red love by Dripping Creativity

17 

It was late, the twins were sleeping and Charlie was sitting with her brother and Tyson. They sat out on the patio with a baby monitor and ice tea. 

“Any news?” Charlie asked. 

“No. I spoke to him this morning, trying to convince him to do the right thing, offering to be there with him,” her brother said. Charlie didn’t need to ask how it had gone. The look on Huxton’s face said it all. Tyson put his arm around her brother and drew him in closer to him. 

“Mr Grim said he would have his IT manager look at my evidence and then turn it in to the authorities,” she told them. 

“I can’t understand how he could have screwed up so royally. It’s not like him,” Huxton said. 

“Honey, you know I love him like a brother, but James has always had a tendency to obsess over things. It has made him good at his job. I guess this time his obsession went too far,” Tyson told her brother. Charlie’s phone buzzed, and she looked at it. 

V: Are you okay? There is a waitress here that isn’t you. 

She smiled at the message. She knew Vidar could just be asking for the others, as they didn’t have her number. But it felt nice that he noticed her absence. 

C: I’m fine. My brother and his husband thought it would be a good thing if I took the week off. I’ll be back at the bar on Monday. 

When she had sent her message, she looked up and saw the two men staring at her, both smirking. 

“What?” she asked. 

“Who was that?” Tyson asked. 

“Just one of my regulars. I have been working most Thursdays. He just wanted to make sure nothing had happened,” she 

told him. 

“Mhm, and do all your customers have your private number?” her brother asked, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“They don’t. I helped him with an IT issue he had,” she said. 

“Oh, is that what you call it now–a–days. When your brother and I started dating, we said he was helping me with my lawsuit,” Huxton told her. 

“Eww, gross,” Charlie tried to divert the conversation as she blushed. The men laughed. 

“I’m happy James at least didn’t destroy your last piece of faith in men,” her brother told her. “I was afraid your next date would be in fifty years or so.” 

“You two will make sure I never lose hope completely,” she said. Both men looked at her and Tyson teared up. 

“You’re just so sweet and caring,” he sniffled. 

“Oh, come on, big guy, you will make me cry,” she said. 

“Come over here,” her brother told her, waving her over to the sofa they were sitting on. They made her sit in between them and drew her into a family style hug. 

The following morning, Charlie was preparing the twins porridge when the doorbell rang. 

“I’ll get it,” Huxton called as he came walking out, tying his tie as he was going in to the office. A couple of minutes later, Charlie heard him call again. “Charlie, can you come here for a moment?” She walked to the front door and smiled at the deliveryman standing outside it. 

“Hi?” 

“Charlie Maynard?” the man asked. 

“Yes?” 

“I have a delivery for you. Please sign here,” he told her, holding out an electronic pad. Charlie signed, and he smiled. “One moment, miss,” he said. Walking back to his van. When he came back, he was carrying a large basket that looked like it took all his strength to carry. He looked at her, Charlie elbowed her brother, that was standing beside her, gawking. He woke up and took the basket from the delivery man. “One moment, please,” he said, going back to the van. 

“There is more?” her brother asked. There was. The man came back with a teddy bear, only slightly smaller than Charlie, and a bunch of balloons. Charlie took them from him. 

“This is for you, miss. Have a nice day,” the man said, handing her an envelope and then got into his van and drove off. Both Charlie and her brother stood looking after him. 

“Who was it?” Tyson called from the kitchen. Charlie and her brother looked at each other and made their way inside. “What on earth?” Tyson said. “Who?” he asked. 

1 

“I don’t know,” Charlie told him as she tied a couple of balloons to each of the twins‘ chairs. They were going crazy over the colourful balloons. Her brother had put the basket on the kitchen island. It almost took up the entire thing. Charlie opened the envelope and read the card inside. 

2/5 

‘Thursdays have never been so boring, please get well soon. For all our selfish reasons, we won’t survive another week without your presence. /Thursday club‘ 

Charlie smiled as she read it and she handed the note to Tyson who looked like he was going to explode if he didn’t get to know who had sent her everything. Charlie removed the cellophane from the basket. It was full of fruit, cookies, tea, a wonderful teapot with six matching cups, chocolate, face masks, books, wine and a little stuffed lynx. Charlie snatched up the toy to make sure it got put in her bag for when she went home. 

“Who is the Thursday club and why are they sending you a small boat with treats?” Tyson asked. 

“They are a group of regulars. They must have got worried when I called in sick yesterday,” she said, opening up a box with chocolate pralines. She popped one in her mouth and had to moan as she held the box out to Tyson. He took one and made a similar sound. 

“I never knew you got so close to your customers. I have worked with my clients for years and the most I get if I get the sniffles is a pat on the back,” her brother said, looking at his husband. 

“Yes, well, I always had the best personality of us siblings,” she told him and forced a praline in to his mouth. 

“Oh my god,” he moaned. “What do I need to do to get things like this? I will do it.” 

“I’m going to donate this big guy to the twins. I need to move to a bigger apartment if I take him home,” Charlie said, patting the huge teddy on the head. 

“They will love him,” Tyson said. 

“They are the most spoiled toddlers in this hemisphere,” her brother added. 

“It’s my sacred duty as their aunt to spoil them rotten and when they get obnoxious, I’ll hand them back to the two of you,” Charlie told him, placing a kiss on each of her nephews. Which was tricky, since they were more or less covered in porridge. Her brother snorted. “I’ll put some of this away in the guest room for now. You need to get to the office and my favourite brother and I am going to watch the angels and drink what looks like crazy expensive tea from my new tea set,” she announced. 

“Hear that angels? We need to get you all cleaned up for auntie’s tea party,” Tyson said with a chuckle. “Have a nice day at work. Let us know if the situation changes,” he then told Huxton and kissed him. Charlie took the basket, minus a few things she had left in the kitchen, to her guestroom. She plopped it down on the bed, propped the lynx plushie up against it, and took a picture. When she returned to the kitchen, Tyson had removed the twins from their high chairs and was trying to wipe their faces off as best he could. Charlie started cleaning the chairs and untied the balloons from them. She transferred them to the baby gyms that were placed on the livingroom floor. Charlie returned to the kitchen to boil water for the tea. As she was waiting, Aiden saw her and made cute, grabby hands towards her. She smiled and picked him up while Tyson cleaned his brother. 

“You could come and live with us permanently and help me take care of Liam and Aiden,” he said as a joke as they took the twins into the living room and put them down on the floor. Charlie laughed. 

3/5 

“You wouldn’t be able to afford me,” she joked back. And went to get the tea and some of the goodies which had been in the basket. Tyson had placed the gigantic teddy on the floor with the twins and they were crawling all over it. “How can they be so cute?” she asked, taking out her phone to take pictures. 

“I don’t know, but it’s ridicules how cute they are,” Tyson agreed with her while taking photos of his own. When Charlie sat on the couch, she attached the picture of the basket with the lynx and her favourite picture of the twins with the 

bear to a message. 

1 

C: Thank you for the amazing basket. 

She sent it to Vidar and didn’t expect a reply, as he would be working. The reply came almost instantly.‘ 

V: I’m happy you liked it. It was from all of us. 

C: I will thank the others on Thursday. 

When she looked up from her phone, she saw Tyson watching her with the same grin he had had the night before. 

“You need to tell me who he is,” he said. 

“Who?” 

“The man that is putting that smile on your face. You had it last night as well. And don’t tell me it’s a customer. No one smiles like that because of a customer,” he told her and poured tea for both of them. Charlie sighed. 

“This needs to stay between us,” she said. 

“Sure.” 

“No, Tyson, it needs to stay between us. Not even my brother can know,” she insisted. 

“Oh, I like this. This will be good. I promise you, little sister. What you say stays between the two of us and the angels currently trying to devour a bear’s nose and ear,” Tyler promised. Charlie nodded and told him about Vidar. She told him most things. 

“So, I have been an idiot and developed a crush on my boss, who isn’t my boss anymore, I think, and one of the best patrons of the bar,” she ended the explanation with a sigh. 

“So what?” 

“So it’s inappropriate,” she exclaimed. 

NC 

17 

“Oh please. Do you think me sleeping with your brother while being his client was appropriate? Forbidden things can be s*xy. Sneaking around adds some spice,” her brother–in–law told her. 

“That’s my brother, so gross. But even if I buy it. I don’t think he has any interest in me.” Tyson laughed. 

“You have much to learn, cricket,” he told her. 

“Grasshopper.” 

“What?” he asked. 

“It’s grasshopper and not cricket, you idiot,” she told him and laughed. 

“What ever. The point is that people who like to be in control, like you brother, resort to ignoring things that make them uncomfortable. Your brother did it with me. I had to practically strip down n*ked and give him a lap dance before he showed how he felt. But when they let go, all that pent up frustration makes for some hot s*x,” he told her.” 

1 

“TMI! TMI! Think of your children, for god’s sake!” Charlie shouted. Tyson laughed. 

“Even if they could understand me, they are too enamoured with the bear and the balloons to care,” he reassured her. 

“Let’s change the subject,” she said, shaking her head.