Free Ellie's Return by Bronagh Pierce Page A

which he could
keep reinvesting.   He had already
invested in various other business start ups, so managing a small new property
business where the assets would not even cover his current wages, was not on
his radar at all. Lola laughed along as he explained why that was not a good
idea for him, but she had already decided that it was going to happen and she
set about ensuring that it would.
    At first she asked Tom to take over
managing the lease on her shop properties, to ensure that they had a shared
mutual interest, that way she could make sure that they were properly looked
after, and he would make her a priority as Ellie’s best friend, but she could
have access to him at all times for that reason. Tom had advised her that he
would extend the leases on very favourable terms rather than waiting until the
profile of the arcade went up any more and she forced to pay too much to renew.
That was a very good start for Lola, as she was sure that it was her presence
in the arcade which was doing wonders for its profile anyway, and it would be
useful for her to get that sorted as she wanted to spend tens of thousands of
pounds on getting the shops upgraded to represent the theme which would provide
the template for a nationwide chain, of which the arcade store would be the
flagship. She set to work on that straight away and was able to consult Tom on
short notice as often as necessary.
    She was angry with Tom for the way he had
scoffed at her for about the suggestion of working for her. Tom had never
entertained the idea of going to university because he was never intending to
be involved in anything but property and he learnt what he needed as he went. He
knew more about his proposed business before he left school than most people
knew after several years of education and he was set on going it alone. He had
saved his own deposit for his own first property when he was old enough to do
so and had worked night and day to get it turned around and sold for enough
profit to buy another, and he had kept on that way until he was able to accumulate
properties for rent as well as selling them. He had a diverse portfolio; there
were a few high profile properties, but there were some he could do without,
bought just before the market collapsed and which he had bought against his
better judgement. These represented only a handful but they had lost money
already, and there were others that were always going to cost as much to maintain
as they earned with existing tenants. The low end of the property was not
awful, balanced as it was with the good end which far outstripped it, but the
good end was so good that the rest of the property looked fairly poor in
comparison, and Tom’s insistence on looking after his tenants rather than
dealing with disasters at an unpredictable time later on meant that he was
limited with what he could do with some of the older properties. Lola was
impressed by the portfolio that Tom had built up and the more she learnt about
it, the more she was convinced that she could get her hands on it.   Ellie was going to be a problem, as she
was besotted with Tom and seemed to be less interested than she ought to be
about his net worth, which seemed very strange to Lola, as she couldn’t see any
other point to him. On the plus side Ellie was also devoted to her and knew
that she had no interest in Tom sexually so she could take advantage of that to
get Ellie out of the picture and take control of Tom.
    Tom had seemed quite independent at the
time, full of fire and vigour and almost unstoppable, but Lola had managed to
dampen that arrogance by pretending to be in need, and Tom was so grateful to
her for her consolation after Ellie’s departure that he was willing to do
anything for her, as though he had lost the most important thing in the world
and was grabbing onto whatever might be left. Since Lola had become a joint
director in the business she had managed to influence the direction of the
business somewhat. Tom