Love Somebody

Chapter 4: Disagree

Tara had just entered Julie's office with a few of her ideas, as she stopped short. There stood the man that kept her awake at night, and it wasn't a good feeling to her.

“Oh, Tara you are here, that's wonderful.” Julie said and walked over to take Jonesy from the young woman, cuddling the puppy to her chest. “Mr. Levine has told me a bit about his ideas for the video.” she said and smiled at Adam, who had now sat down in front of the desk.

“Ah, well good. I was at Portobello and found a few things that might look good in the house.” Tara said and it felt like she had to decorate a place for him to stay in rather than just the house they used for the video.

“Exceptional. Would you like to show us the ideas you had?” her boss asked and she could feel Adam's eyes roaming over her flare jeans clothed body. With every other guy she would have felt flattered but with him – ugh.

“Sure.” Tara ground out and walked over to the display, showing both, the lead singer and her boss, her findings. She already had gotten the scoop on what the music video would be about two days after the show and Tara went back to Portobello market getting the things she found there. And now she was presenting the nick-knacks to them.

“I'm not really sure, if I like those picture frames. It looks a bit over the top.” Adam said and Tara could see he was pushing her buttons on purpose.

“And I assure you that those are perfect. It's a typical family thing. I mean in the video you're a happy father with a wife and baby girl, so shouldn't there be some kind of evidence that it would seem real.” she shot back and put her hands on her hips, staring at the rock star.

Tara knew her aunt had been wrong. She had tried to get to know him, but it always worked the other way. They were always riling the other up until one of them exploded. And this time wasn't any different.

“Nah, I still think it's too much.” he waved her off and saw the worried look of Julia Dexter, as her eyes moved over to Tara.

The young woman's eyes were blazing with fire as he saw the small smirk crossing his features. Who does he think he is, talking like that to her. “Ye know what, if ye don't want me help with yer shite, leave me alone.” she shouted at him, her Scottish roots making itself known.

Adam stared at her, his mouth slightly agape. There was a tiny part of him that felt a bit guilty for being so mean, but they didn't have a good start and probably would never get past those childish antics. “Yeah, I think it would be better if someone else was doing that.” Adam nodded his head and held out his hand for Julia to shake.

“I'm really sorry for the display Julia, but it seems that Ms Clarke has been very unprofessional in her line of work.”

That was it. She, unprofessional? He was kidding, right? Tara had just opened her mouth as Julia shot her an angry look, telling her silently to shut up. Fed up with all that shit Adam was doing she grabbed her bag, reached for her dog and left the office.

Fuming she walked down the London streets, not sure where to go. Tara was so lost in her angry thoughts that she wasn't looking where she went and bumped into a hard, taller body.

“Oh my god, I'm so sorry.” she said and looked up into a quite handsome face.

“Ah, don't worry. Nothing happened.” the man said and Tara sighed in relief.

She smiled and held out her hand for him to shake. “I'm Tara.”

“Michael.” they shook hands and he grinned down at her. “Can I maybe invite you for a coffee. Then you can tell me what has been going on that had you so deep in thought.

She looked a bit uncertain but then agreed. She needed to forget about a certain musician and what better way to do that, then have coffee with a stranger. “That would be really nice.”

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“So what has you so riled up, that you weren't even looking where you're going?” Michael asked as he brought over their drinks.

“Ugh, there's just this guy at work. He's a celebrity and he thinks he knows my work better than I do.” Tara said angrily, holding her cup of coffee so tightly, that her knuckles turned white.

The man across from her shook his head and sipped on his own coffee. “All of those are the same. They always think that they are better than others.”

Tara nodded and looked over at Michael. “And what are you doing here? You don't exactly sound British.”

“Yeah.” he said and reached for his wallet. He pulled out a picture with another man and a little girl. “We just moved here from Canada. My boyfriend Ray got a job here with a good law firm and I just got back from leaving Laura with her Day Care.”

She smiled seeing the happy family. She would never have guessed that Michael was gay, but still. “And Laura, is she your...you know?”

He nodded his head and smiled. “Yeah, Laura is my own. I met her mother in college and we hit it off pretty well. Claire knew about my sexuality and then when she got pregnant it was the most wonderful feeling I ever felt. But there were complications during her delivery and Claire died. I was a single dad and then Ray came along.”

“I'm really sorry about that.” Tara said and reached her hand out to lay it on his own.

“How about you? Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked and could see her frown.

“No, and I'm quite happy with that. The last guy I dated was a fucking pig. He cheated, drank, spread rumors about us and sometimes he got abusive. I left him back in Scotland.”

“Oh no, I'm sorry about that. But he can be glad he is away from you.” Michael said through clenched teeth.

She smiled at her new friend and wanted to say something when her phone rang. Christie's number showed on the display and she excused herself.

“What's up?”

“Tara, I need your help. Adam talked about the video and the woman with the baby they had planned couldn't show up because her daughter got sick. Do you know someone on such short notice that has a baby girl?”

Tara thought on it and then turned to Michael. “Hold on a second.” she told Christie.

“How old is your daughter?”

“She will be eighteen months in a few days.” he said and gave the smaller woman a questioning look.

“I got someone. Meet you tomorrow around noon.” she said and hung up.

“Michael I need your help. The celebrity I was ranting about is here to make a new music video and the baby they needed for it got sick. And I wanted to ask you if maybe Laura could take her place. You'd be a live safer for us.” Tara pleaded with him.

“I...Well we'll just meet up and I'll think about it.”

“Thank you, I knew we could be great friends.”

Michael just nodded and looked after Tara who stormed out of the coffee shop with her little puppy in tow, who had happily lain in the large bag she brought with her.

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The next day had begun rather slow for Tara, meeting up with a different client, who was by far nicer and easier to work with then Adam.

Mrs Slater had wanted some changes for her house, as now her eldest son moved out to go to Cambridge University. Which meant redecorating the whole house a new.

Then a knock sounded on her door. Looking up, Tara found Christie standing there smiling at her. “Hey, now about your help that I needed.”

“I thought we would meet at the coffee shop.” she said confused.

“Sorry.” Christie shrugged a guilty look crossing her features. “I couldn't wait that long. But, did you find someone?”

Tara nodded her head. Grabbing her bag from the ground she walked over to her friend. Let's go, I'll call your savior and you can meet with the little angel.”

Her co worker nodded her head and together they left the office.

A short time later both women met up with Micheal at the coffee shop they went to, the day before and Tara was glad that he agreed to do it. She could see him sitting there with his daughter sitting in her stroller.

“OH.MY.GOD!” Christie exclaimed seeing the man sitting there feeding the baby. “Why didn't you tell me that you met such a hot hunk?”

“Chris, shut up. We just had a coffee because I literally ran into him after my fall out with Levine yesterday. And besides it could never work. He's gay.” Tara said and could see how her friends face fell slightly with her mouth agape.

“Wow, well that explains it.” was all she said.

The smaller woman moved up to the father and daughter and greeted him in a friendly manner, introducing Christie to Michael. Her friend proceeded to explain what would go on with the video as Tara had opted to quite before it got too nasty, giving Chris everything she needed.

“So my daughter will be seen all over the world?” Michael asked as he rocked her on his knee.

“Yeah, but no one will recognize her, because there won't be any names.” Christie explained to him.

He thought a bit more on it and then softly nodded his head. “If it helps you guys, we'll do it.”

“Oh thank you so much.” her friend said and pulled him into a tight hug, while Tara reached for the cute baby girl.

Laura was a sweet angel. She never even uttered a nasty sound, just smiled and giggled. Laura was absolutely happy with sitting on Tara's knees hopping up and down.

She looked over at Michael and silently thanked her knew male friend. The only thing she was concerned over, was seeing Adam again, which really wasn't something she was happy about.

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