Colby: Michael Gray

 Michael Gray was ambitious. He wanted to take over the family, in hopes he would lead it to something better. He wanted to save the people he loved from the wrongdoings of Tommy Shelby, the man with the touch of death. He wanted to protect his mother from a certain death because there would be nothing else for her but Death. 

Michael Gray was ambitious. He wanted to prove himself to his family. He wanted to prove himself to his peers, to his friends, to whoever gave him a speck of attention. He wanted to show that he was a man, a leading man and Tommy Shelby was unfortunately like a thorn stuck in his side. Tommy was seen as the rightful leader, the messiah of the Shelby family. They all looked up to him and followed his orders as if he could never be wrong. Michael hated it.  He wanted to take over. 

Michael Gray was ambitious. He wanted Mary's love. He wanted her affection. no matter what he did, she always chose Tommy. He was popular with the ladies, wasn't he? He was desired, demanded, courted even and any other woman wouldn't have made Michael angry. Mary's love for Tommy set him on fire. He hated that she picked Tommy. He hated that she rejected him (no matter how polite she had been when she did that). He hated that she didn't love HIM! Michael lusted for Mary. He dreamed of her at night, fucked her when he was fucking his wife...Daydreamed about her and wished he could have had her. 

But he didn't. 

So if he couldn't have her, then he would make sure that Tommy lost her. Archibald was a mistake but he would try another time. He would try anything to make her fall out of love with the King of Birmingham. Trust Michael Gray to at least try.

A vintage's touch: A woman worth fighting for

Gina watched Mary with a very curious gaze. She sucked at her bottom lip while tapping her fingers against the glass of whiskey she held onto. Her jaw shifted from left to right as she was staring at the woman who had captured the heart of her husband. Gina was everything but she wasn't dumb. When she met Michael he was a dejected man, so miserable and so hurt because he had not been chosen by the family as their new leader and by Mary as her companion. Long before they became lovers; Gina heard Michael lament the loss of his precious Mary and his obsession with the woman didn't stop once he married the blonde American "princess".  He kept a portrait of Mary in his cabinet. A portrait he never managed to throw away. She saw nostalgia in his eyes when he was thinking about Mary and the way he spoke of her to his friend, Archer. Gina was not stupid, she knew that her husband still had unfinished business with Mary, and the second he saw her, he would not be able to resist the urge to talk to her. 

Mary was beautiful, she could concede. She was warm, matronly... and the children around her gathered naturally, comfortable with her presence. It would have been impossible to miss the curves on that woman and Gina briefly compared them to hers, wondering if Michael's attraction to Mary was a fluke or if she was truly the type of woman he was lusting after. With brown skin, luscious brown hair, beautiful green eyes, and beauty spots on her face, it sure seemed that Mary was an exotic beauty. Gina realized that she was almost her complete opposite. Tall, slim, blonde with pale skin and blue eyes, she didn't exactly exude "warmth" when one looked at her. Instead, they could tell she was conniving, cunning, prone to plot against her enemies, and a troublemaker. They could tell she wasn't fully sincere and was a master manipulator. The sight of Mary was upsetting Gina but she managed to keep it to herself and watch her husband instead. 

Michael had tried his best to ignore Mary when he introduced his wife Gina to the family. He tried to avoid looking at her, tried to avoid speaking to her but he couldn't do it. As soon as Mary welcomed both of them, he set his blue eyes upon her, fully smitten over her beauty. He almost lost his words and if it wasn't for Gina introducing herself to Mary, he would have stayed mute in front of the nurse. His heart started to beat way too fast for his liking and his fingers were shaking, forcing him to slip his hands into his pockets to hide it from everyone. During the introduction of Gina to the head of the family -Tommy Shelby- He found himself unable to stop looking at Mary who was sitting next to him. How did she become even more beautiful than he remembered her to be? She seemed to have gained some new confidence and the way she looked at Tom could have stabbed him in the heart if Gina wasn't in the picture. He pretended, fairly well, that seeing Mary didn't disturb him and kept things to himself until the formalities were done, Tommy humiliated him once again and Mary decided to take him to the kitchen before he left. 

"You're looking good Michael. You're doing great in New York." She leaned against the kitchen counter and looked at the young man who fetched himself a glass of whiskey to drink. He paused for a while, unable to decide what to say next or what to do. She was so close to him. If only he... If only he could have... 

"Why are you here? I thought this was family only." He forced himself to sound harsh, perhaps in a bid to put some distance between the two of them and be able to look at her He wanted to hurt her, to see her disappointed face so he could have the strength to push her away but she didn't look at him like that. Instead, she simply sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

"I am family."

"It's a dangerous business, Mary. You know that don't you? After barely escaping death because of your first husband, you want to dive back into it with /him/?"

"I know what I am doing and what life I am choosing. You have the same ambition as him...You want his crown and I am not stupid, Michael."

"Watch your mouth, Mary!" He lifted a brow and she crossed her arms above her chest. Her green eyes stared into his soul, forcing him to gulp down his glass of whiskey to find some strength. She was determined, cold, too cold for his liking. 

"What I am saying is..." -She paused for a second, glancing at the door and noticing that Gina was staring at them.- "I did read your letters." 

It sent a shiver down Michael's spine. She read them? All of them? There were a few where he came close to confessing his love for her, others where he was so dejected and angry that he was awful to her, and finally, the distance he tried to put between the two of them once he met and married Gina.  He closed the distance between them, trying to appear taller than he was and more intimidating to her but Mary didn't budge. She looked at him with defiance and didn't flinch. He felt the urge to grab her cheek and force a kiss on her lips. He felt the urge at the pit of his stomach, thundering loudly in his head, pumping through his veins, he still wanted to make her his, even to this day, even if he wasn't...Did he love her? 

He resolved himself into thinking that it wasn't love but lust and that she broke his heart way too hard for him to recover. He wanted to believe that he was trying to hurt Tommy and that Mary was the perfect way for him to achieve his goal. It was easy to say when he was still in the USA. It became harder to just think about it when she was standing in front of him. Mary, beautiful Mary, with a body made for sin and a face carved by the angels. He resisted the urge to steal a kiss because the door was wide open and anyone could have walked in. Instead, he allowed his hand -the one that wouldn't be in full view of the crowd in the living room- to move up and hold a few locks of Mary's hair.  He didn't dare to move closer because if he did, he would have kissed her. Instead, Michael touched her neck, oh so slightly, and that made her shiver and tilt her head to the side, in an attempt to make him stop touching her. 

"You read... All of them?"

"This is a dangerous game you're playing Michael...I answered as politely as I could, so you would know that this... whatever this is you're trying to do couldn't happen." She said, swatting his hand away. Michael growled and hit the counter with his fist. 

"Don't think  I didn't understand where your affection was going. You chose him."

"It's always been him. Polls knew... Lizzie knew...John knew... Hell, even Arthur knew. I made my choice a long time ago and unlike Carter, this time I know exactly who Tommy is and the kind of life I am going to live."

"I wanted to protect you from this!!! You're going to let someone with the touch of Death near you. He kills anything he touches, Mary. He killed John, Grace...He will kill my mother if she stays with him and he will kill you too." She shot him one of her angry glares. She refused to start a commotion that would bring the whole house to the kitchen and add some fuel to the existing feud between Tommy and Michael. Instead, she sighed deeply and waved her hand so he wouldn't try to touch her again. 

"The path both of you have chosen is a path made of death, blood, and grief. You haven't faced what he had to face so you don't know just yet how dangerous the path you're walking is.... but give it time. Give it time and you will see that to wear the crown is to make the hardest choices and take the risk of losing everything! I read your letters and I know what's in your heart, Michael. Let it go! Let me go!" She said, hitting at her chest. "Keep me out of it and if you have issues with Tommy let them be about the business. Let them be about it and nothing else! You're married now, be a husband to Gina, be a father to your future child, build a life with her."

"She's not /you/! Don't you think I have tried to forget about you? Mary Colson? You haunt my dreams! you're in my head when I'm awake. Gina is wonderful but she's not you!" 

The confession, the one he was dreading to make escaped his lips and Gina could see the terror on the face of Mary. She guessed right, her husband was still in love with Mary. He still wanted her to be his. What truly motivated him was unknown even to himself. Greed? Lust? Ego? She rejected him while plenty of other women fawned over him. Perhaps he wanted to own her, perhaps he was still lusting after her but one thing became certain in the eyes of Gina, Mary Colson had to die in his heart. If she couldn't be killed in this life, then she would be in the heart of her husband. Gina would double her efforts to make him forget the woman -who clearly didn't want any of this but Gina didn't care about it- and she would succeed. Mary covered her mouth and shook her head. 

"These are the words you're using, but if you truly meant these you wouldn't have sent Archibald Worthington to try and seduce me. He slipped up and mentioned you when he tried to force himself on me. I was disappointed in you, hurt.. because despite everything I still cared for you. I still did... but you sent him and he nearly raped me... now you want to pretend you love me? Do you want to pretend you care for me? Michael, I can't believe you. I realize how stupid of me that was to take you there, I wanted to calm your temper and encourage you to do better for both of your sakes and here you are... telling me... " She shook her head- "I should go." 

She left the kitchen, walking fast, almost running back to Tommy's arms. She left and refused to look back as her heart was racing in her chest and she was afraid of how Tommy would react if he ever heard what happened in that kitchen. She was worried about the future because it became clear as day that Michael wasn't done. He wasn't done. He was just starting.

-TBC-

A vintage's touch: Michael's obsession

 // A little moment between Polly and Mary. 

xxxxx

Polly lit a cigarette. She wasn't feeling comfortable in front of Mary and didn't know how to start the conversation. She was the one who went to visit the Grace Shelby institute, in hopes of sharing a moment with the young woman but upon walking into Mary's office, strength suddenly left her legs. She was worried about her son's obsession with Mary and wanted to discuss the infamous rivalry between Tommy and Michael. It wasn't too late to look forward to a truce between the two men. it wasn't late, was it? The Gypsy princess took a deep breath and walked towards the window of Mary's office. Polly was waiting for her to return from a meeting with the head nurse of the Institute and had been smoking cigarette after cigarette until the young woman came back.  She closed both eyes and leaned her head against the window when the noise of a door being opened forced her to turn around and look at Mary. 

"You're finally here!"

"I apologize for my lateness. We had to review adoption papers for a couple of our children. I'm here now, Polly." -Her green eyes set upon the woman who fully turned around and pinched the bridge of her nose- "Polls... Have a seat, you look pale."

"I'm alright. I'm alright, Mary." -Polly said, her blue eyes set upon the young woman. She was pale indeed. Pale and stressed out but she still wanted to keep a cool demeanor and pretend that she had everything under control. She inhaled some smoke and puffed it out. The endearing nickname the young woman gave her a faint smile "Mary, I'm going to ask you something, I need you to be honest with me."

Mary didn't really believe Polly. She knew the woman enough to realize that something was up. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but since the business was going well, the only reason that could put Polly in such a panicked mood was her son. Did something happen to Michael? Did someone kill the man? Was he in danger? Questions started to fill her mind as Mary walked closer to Mary and gently wrapped her arms around the older woman to give her a hug. Polly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around the chubby young woman. 

"I will.  Ask me anything you want." -She said, tucking some hair behind her ear-

Polly pinched her lips together and averted her blue eyes from Mary's face to her soft smile. She sat on the chair and slowly fidgeted with her cigarette. The nurse had never seen the woman be so nervous. She could see that Polly was trying to find the right words to say but she couldn't, so Mary put her hand on the older woman's knee and gave her an encouraging smile. Polly nodded and took a deep breath before she finally asked. 

"Michael....Do you still hear from him?"

"I haven't heard from him for months now, Polls. Why are you asking? Did something happen?"

"No... No... Michael is alive." -She pinched her lips together and inhaled some smoke.- "I just wanted to be sure that he wasn't writing to you. He tends to be.... stubborn." -She chose her words carefully, not willing to start an argument with Mary. The young woman remained silent for a minute. She looked at Polly and furrowed her brows at the mention of Michael's letters.-

"Stubborn...Yes." -She crossed her legs and slowly started to tap onto her knee.- "He hasn't written to me for months. Besides, if he really did, Tommy would know, wouldn't he?" 

Polly nodded, Tommy would have known. He knew everything from the conversations people had in Birmingham to the content of letters people sent or received. He knew everything. He even knew that Mary had not written back to Michael. Polly knew that her son was still writing to Mary, but she also knew that Tommy being silent about it wasn't exactly good news. The Gypsy princess wanted her son to survive, but she also didn't want Tommy to die. She was put in a very tight spot, which led her to shake uncontrollably. 

"I just want-- I just need Michael to move on, you know? I've talked to him already, and I've advised him to stop writing to you."

"And did he listen? uh? He didn't. He never does, Polls." -Mary's tongue was harsh, she furrowed her brows and closed her legs. -" Let's not beat around the bush shall we? You and I both know Michael used to be infatuated with me, years ago."

"Mary... there's..." -But Mary shook her forefinger and tilted her head to the side. Her face had lost its warmth and she was tense. Mary's face was closed off, cold, and focused. She had been avoiding the topic for far too long now.-

"No, we have to talk about it Polls! I... I used to be something he wanted to have. He came at me and tried to win me over but it didn't work. I expected the letters to stop coming once he met Gina but they didn't. He kept writing to me and I didn't know why. I thought he was obsessed with me, but soon enough, I realized that he didn't... I realized that it wasn't me he was obsessed with, it was Tommy." -She furrowed her brows and set her bright green gaze upon the older woman- "He is obsessed with Tommy. This is the truth, the only truth."

"He.... oh my god! Mary, I can't sleep. I was afraid that Michael would eventually try to reach out to you in order to get back at Tommy." -She sighed and took another puff of her cigarette.- "I didn't know how you'd feel about it. Tommy and Michael are at.... odds with each other." -She chose her words carefully, unwilling to talk about what she saw in her dreams and in the cards. Mary wasn't aware of her vision, but she knew that the two men weren't on good terms.-

"Polls... listen...I only wrote to Michael once, right after he settled in America. I wished him well, and good luck with his endeavors there. Since then, I didn't write to Michael because I knew what that could become.  He knows I'm living with Tommy. He's warned me more than once about Tom's unavailability. He told me that I would be unhappy around Tommy because he would never let me in.  Still, I didn't write back to him." -She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.- "He's not right, though. Tommy isn't....He won't let me in. No matter what I do, he won't let me in."

Polly sighed and as she blew her smoke away, the brunette felt her body relax a little bit. Mary, even now as they were discussing her relationship with Tommy, still believed that he had no feelings for her. Polly had already tried to convince the young woman of Tommy's affection, but it didn't go through her thick skull. Could she blame the girl? Could she really blame Mary for doubting her? Tommy loved Mary, Polly could tell, but there was something stopping each other from making the first move and confessing their feelings to the other. Perhaps, given the particular situation they were in, Polly was relieved that Tommy wasn't open about his feelings. She stared at the young woman, fidgeting with her cigarette as wild thoughts crossed her mind. 

She'd need to talk to her son, to make sure that he would definitely move on from Mary. She'd advise him to stop writing to her, for his own protection but also for hers. She'd try to make sure that Tommy and Mary, since they're stubbobrn and unwilling to give into the other, would not become an item. It hurt her because she wanted Mary to be happy and to finally embrace her new life with Tommy but she needed her son to be alive, so.... so....she simply looked at her and put her fingers on her chin and lips. Polly decided not to reply to her, mostly because the conversation would become moot, instead, she resumed smoking. 

-TBC-

A vintage's touch: A game of thrones

// I love 

There was a kingdom and there was a king. Birmingham was Tommy's Kingdom and he was the one who wore the crown. Everybody knew about the Peaky Blinders and everybody knew about Tommy Shelby OBE. Michael didn't find sleep that night. Gina was sleeping next to him, relieved and satisfied after the demonstration of love that her husband gave her. Michael couldn't sleep mostly because he couldn't shake the immense rage he was feeling towards Tommy fucking Shelby. Michael felt robbed of his promising life. He had a future, he was destined for greatness from birth. Michael was a Shelby, the son of the Gypsy princess Polly Gray. He was clever and cunning and on top of it all, he had guts and a vision. He could have led the family to new heights. Polly warned him before he went to the USA. There would be a war between Tommy and him. One of them would die but she couldn't tell who. Michael was certain that Tommy hated him from the moment he knew of his existence. Tommy and his mother were close, and Michael suspected that he saw Polly as a substitute for his late mother. In a way, Thomas had stolen his life and refused to give Michael what was his due. He couldn't bear the thought of having Polly share her love and affection with someone else and that could explain why he was so hellbent on destroying Michael's life to the point of starting a war. 

Michael tilted his head to look at his beautiful young wife who was baring her back at him. He told her before that he was with her when they were in bed. He told her that he was fucking her and when she wasn't home, he was thinking about her. Lies! Lies! He was lying his ass off. He liked Gina. She was gorgeous, she was wild and she knew how to talk to him and stroke his ego. She was the one who made him feel invincible as if nothing could ever happen to him. She was the one who made him realize that he had something to bring to his family and that he should be the Future of the Shelby Family. Yet... Yet, Michael couldn't help but covet Mary. When his cock was deep inside Gina, he imagined that he was with Mary instead. When he was holding her neck while his hips snapped hard into the slender blonde, he was thinking about the curvy brown nurse of  Birmingham. Mary drove him crazy! Mary caught his attention in a way that no other woman could. It was something about her voice that sent shivers down his spine when he heard her. It was sultry when she spoke, soft and silky when she sang and he had wished to listen to it when he had her. He imagined her moans, he imagined his fingers holding a fistful of her brown locks, and he wanted to lock his blue gaze into her green ones.  It was something about her curves. Most women he knew were slim, especially the ones of his childhood village. They were skinny and most looked alike but Mary stood out. 

She should have been his. Michael knew it! He saw her first when Tommy had only eyes on Grace. He was the first to see Mary's true potential. Her beauty, her charm, and how good of a wife she could be. He was the first to be smitten with her voice and genuinely fell in love with her upon meeting her. Tommy knew, he even teased him about it but you know, in the way Tommy always did -without really caring about who Mary was- But she was too closed off and worried to give him a minute of her time. Mary didn't see Michael as a potential suitor. She laughed with him, she teased him, she talked to him but she wasn't with him. She rejected his demands. She never went on a date with him, somehow, he felt that she didn't see his worth. Instead, Tommy came through. Tommy, with Grace dead, decided to set his eyes on Mary and he convinced the rest of the family to root for them and make sure they ended up together. Tommy, again! Tommy the King! Tommy the fucking God of the Peaky Blinders and the Shelby Family! Michael couldn't help but clenched his fists and roll on his sides so he wouldn't look at his wife. She couldn't see how upset he was, not after such an intimate moment together. she would ask him questions, and he didn't want her to be upset with him. So he hid. 

He hid like he hid his true plans from his mother. Polly couldn't be brought into this war because she sat in the middle of it. While her loyalty was to her son, he didn't want to put her through the pain of choosing between him and the other Shelbys. He held no grudges against Arthur, Ada, and Finn. He wanted them alive, they were his family after all. The only one he wanted to overthrow was Tommy Shelby. He expected his deal with Archibald to be a good idea and to help sort this situation out. Archibald would take the Gin Distillery from Tommy, he might even shake things up with Mary and take her away from Tommy. It was a risk, something that didn't sit well with him, that she would fall for Archer but at least she wouldn't be with Tommy, and Michael was fine with it.  He was fine with it. He was fine, right? He was his own person. He proved he could handle himself well. He married into one of the biggest crime families and Uncle Jack was not to be trifled with. He had power through alliance. He had a legitimate business in the USA and he helped his family to earn money. lots of it. So much so that they could burn some of it at their leisure and would still remain rich.  But he was using drugs and he was drinking too much, and he was partying with his wife. Was he miserable? 

Well, yes. He was, because, despite all the power and the booze he could have access to, he was missing something crucial. He was missing his home. He wanted to come back home and settle in the UK. He wanted to go back home, to his mother and step up as the next heir of the Shelby empire. He wanted to go back home and to listen to Mary's voice, to use her as he wished so she could pay for all those years she had been ignoring him. He wanted her, not because he loved her -that love was dead and gone by now- but because he thought he deserved her and he should have. He wanted her to become his and to keep her around him. She'd been pining over Tommy for years, eh? why wouldn't she do the same for him then? why wouldn't she? He wanted to go home. That's what he wanted and that was what he would manage to have. Tommy is damned.

-TBC-

A Vintage's touch: The Nightingale and the Young Wolf -

"Do you know that you have the most beautiful smile I've ever seen?" 

Michael remembered the coy smile she gave him after he told her that he loved her smile. She had that special way to blush and shake her head while her lips would curl into a lovely half-smile. Years later, Michael still didn't forget her. He wrote letters to Mary in a bid to hear from her. For a couple months, he hoped she would write back. He hoped she would at least be friendly to him but he understood why she wouldn't. After all, Tommy Shelby didn't like him. Tommy and his toxic charisma convinced everyone that Michael had to leave The UK to hide in America. Tommy didn't trust him, and even worse, started to treat him as if he was a stranger, which didn't sit well with Michael. He was as much as a Peaky Blinders as Tommy was but for some reason, he was denied to be taken seriously. Michael was obsessed with Mary, something he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't /Love/ -That died really fast and he fell in love with Gina-, no, she embodied all the things Tommy had and shouldn't have. She embodied his cousin's influence and power, a destructive force that could hurt those around him. Mary could have been his wife, back when he was still in love with her. She was too infatuated with Tommy to acknowledge him. She was blindly following that man who had brainwashed her, to realize what she could have had. An honest man, a man who spoke his emotions, a man who could have made her happy. 

"Michael Gray, you are a man full of ambition." -She told him once, and Michael could see the warm smile she had on her lips-

Even now, as he was talking to his friend about Tommy's gin distillery, Michael couldn't help but be plagued with memories of Mary. He wanted to go back to Birmingham, so he could face his cousin, suggest a new direction for the family to take, and also see Mary again. He remembered the way his heart pounded against his ribcage when the woman first sang at the Garrison Pub. His skin was covered in goosebumps. His face was red from a slight blush on his cheeks. She was beautiful, even in her everyday outfit. She was gorgeous, even with her waitress apron on. She was beautiful given the passion she had when she was singing that love song. Michael had never seen a woman like her, an angel according to him. She was someone who shouldn't be involved in "sports". She shouldn't take part in the criminal activities of the Peaky Blinders, he wanted her to remain oblivious of what they were doing, for her own protection and disagreed with his cousins about it. 

Archer listened carefully to Michael's explanations. Ultimately, he didn't want to start a beef with the Peaky Blinders. It would quickly become a problem for his business and he didn't want to have them as enemies. However, he also knew that things were rather calm for everyone in the United Kingdom, communists were the biggest fear the country had to deal with so far, business was booming again and with the American Prohibition era, it was even sweeter to smuggle alcohol to the country. Thomas Shelby's Gin was known to be a good one, not too sweet and not too expensive so women could drink it all day long without making a mess of themselves. It was a good business and something Archer was interested in taking. Of course, he couldn't confirm that Tommy wanted to sell it, but he would try and make a first good impression so that when Tommy would sell his business, he would remember him. 

What he didn't know, however, was what followed. After debating with himself, Michael couldn't help but mention Mary. He needed to know what she knew. He needed to have a connection, to learn if Mary was really under the influence of Tommy or if she made her own decisions for herself. Perhaps, he wanted to know if she was married, perhaps was he trying to rekindle their friendship...or more. He was confused and despite his best attempt, he couldn't help himself but tell Archer about her. He wanted to reach out to her, perhaps.... perhaps what Michael? take her away from Tommy in whatever way you could find? Make sure she only saw you? What about Gina? Archer noticed his friend's reticence in showing him a picture of Mary, but after a while, he convinced the young man to show him who this woman was. It didn't disappoint, upon seeing the photograph, Archer's gaze grew intense as he was interested. She was indeed a rather beautiful woman, one he was eager to meet. He couldn't really perceive Michael's intentions about her, maybe some concern, maybe some "friendly" feelings he felt for her because they've been in each other lives for years. 

Perhaps he was worried. Either way, he requested his friend to meet with Mary and have a conversation with her on his behalf. That was the only thing he wanted, but Michael soon realized given the gaze his friend gave him, that there might be a genuine interest in the woman.  He bit his inner cheek, cursing himself for suggesting this idea and potentially losing Mary to someone like Archibald.  There was a chance he succeeded in courting the woman. Archibald was a handsome man, tall with broad shoulders and black hair. He had deep blue eyes, and little sideburns, and wore suits really well. He was a rich man, one of the most sought-after bachelors in the UK and he was rich. Mary might not care about money as long as she had a roof above her head and something to eat every day, but Michael knew that women liked to be comfortable and a rich husband might actually feel tempting. Michael cleared his throat and nodded at Archibald.

"So... What do you say about my project? Would you go to Birmingham and meet with my cousin?"

"I think I will. I am interested in all the quality products I could find. If what you say is true and your cousin's gin is actually the best in the market right now, I am interested in buying it." -Michael sighed in relief and smiled at the idea that his plan was moving forward. - "I agree on your terms. I would buy it, you would be the owner, but I would be the one to distribute it. 50/50"

"No. That's not what we agreed to. It's a 70-30 or you drop it." -Archibald lifted a brow, and contemplated his friend's refusal to give him half his share- 

"MMhhh... Michael, you are my friend. I can agree to this 70-30 thing you want, but if I do agree, I will take the girl. I don't really believe that you are just a friend of hers. I believe, however, that you want her for some reasons I don't have. I agree to 70-30 but I will take this Mary Colson for me. She is sweet, isn't she? She is beautiful, isn't she? Well... I buy this Gin Distillery, you get the most of it, and I get to become richer and with a beautiful girl in my bed." -He outstretched his hand towards Michael who swallowed a lump. Why did he care anyway? He was married to Gina and what he wanted was to take things off of Tommy's hands. So what if she fell for  Archibald? Why should he care? - "Deal?"

"Deal!" -he shook Archibald's hand but he wasn't sure about his decision to involve a friend in his business. Perhaps this was a mistake, and perhaps it wasn't. All he hoped for was for Tommy to not make the connection between Archibald and him. Yet.-

-TBC-