“But you’ve not heard owt about the energy-saving potential,” Max put in, disbelief threading through his words. “We’ve not even showed the 3D modelling.”
“Whilst that soundsfascinating,” Harry’s tone did not make it seem like he found any of that in the least fascinating, nor did the fact he was checking his watch for the hundredth time since he entered his stupid Big Dick Energy conference room, “I’m afraid this is all I have time for.” He let his sleeve fall back over his watch, pushed back from the table and stood up in one fluid motion, his team following his lead. There was a chin lift and another ultra-brief moment of eye contact with me, before he swept out of the room followed by his entourage. I hadn’t even managed to get to my feet.
“Oh my God, V,” Max snapped after the double doors had glided shut after the departing team of suited business peeps. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t–”
“This is the most important contract we’ve ever gone for and you’re throwing chairs, soaking our models and sounding like a fucking amateur!” Max was a perfectionist, and he had a quick temper. It didn’t usually phase me. I could normally shrug off his abrasive grumpiness and be the calm voice of reason. But I felt raw after that exchange with Harry.
“I didn’t think it was that bad,” Sundip put in, bless him. The man had to be soaked to the skin by now. Max gave him a dirty look and he shrank back into his chair.
“Didn’t you recognise him?” I said in a low voice, as I started packing up my laptop and gathering the plans we’d spread over the table.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s Harry. Harry from school. The year above us. His dad was one of the maths teachersandyour housemaster. Surely you recognise him?”
Max frowned at me. “Verity, I barely remember any of the bastards that were inouryear except for you and Heath. I wasn’t popular like you lot, or half as social. I’m certainly not going to remember some random bloke in the year above. And I definitely blocked out anything to do wi’ maths.” Max shuddered. He’d never been a very keen mathematician.
“But he–” I stopped and frowned myself. Just because I’d spent so much time with Harry didn’t mean that Max should remember him. It was me who had discovered Harry’s hiding place in the library and me who had kept going back there day after day to seek him out. Harry may have been a massive part ofmyschool experience, but it was no surprise that he hadn’t registered on Max’s radar. “Okay, well hedidgo to school with us and there’s no way he wouldn’t know who I was.”
Max snorted. “You may have considered yourself unforgettable, V, but I’m sure there might have been the odd bloke who managed to slip through that school without developing a fixation with you.”
Freya was ignoring Max and looking at me with her head tilted to the side. “You had a thing with him, didn’t you?” she asked, and I flashed her an annoyed look.
“Oh my God, V,” Max groaned. “Don’t tell me that some teenage bullshit is going to screw my chances of getting the biggest commission of my life?”
“It wasn’t a thing. It was…” I trailed off because, what exactly was it that I had had with Harry? It certainly seemed to have left much more of an impression on my mind than it had on his. If he did remember me and had decided to ignore the fact we had history I shouldn’t really let it surprise me.Hewas the one who had letmedown after all. I’d had a lot of shit going on when I was at school, and for a while Harry had been my safe space. That meant a lot to me, but it was clear that it meant less than nothing to him. I looked down at my hands and saw that they were still shaking, and I tried again to concentrate on my breathing.
No, no, no. Verity Markham was not a shaky, unsure, delicate flower. Our designs were the best. We didn’t deserve to be dismissed like that, and I certainly didn’t deserve to have someone talk over me –twice.Either thiswasrelated to teenage bullshit and Harry was a serious grudge-holder (although why on earth he would be the one to have a grudge against me I had no idea – if anything it should be the other way around), or he was just your average billionaire dickhead not prepared to spend a few more minutes hearing out the ideas of the most environmentally friendly, innovative architecture firm in the country. Whichever it was, I decided in that moment that I wasn’t going to put up with it. I stood up suddenly from the stupid shiny monogrammed black table and stalked to the door of the conference room.
“V, where are you going now?” Max asked.
“Wait here,” I snapped at all of them. “I’m going to show this idiot my own Big Dick Energy and sort out some teenage bullshit. It’ll be in the bag by lunchtime.”
Chapter2
You’re the big man now?
Harry
Christ. Why had I thought this was a good idea? Seeing Verity again was nothing like I imagined. Over the years I’d pictured so many different scenarios, and in all of them I’d ended up brushing her off, dismissing her. She’d see me, no longer a nerd, no longer so gangly that I didn’t have full control over all four limbs, but as the man I was now. A dedicated, punishing gym routine had put bulk onto my previously skinny frame. I’d ditched the glasses for contacts years ago, and my hair was styled – crazy curls well and truly a thing of the past. I was successful now. Richer than all those snobby kids I went to school with. Richer than most people. No longer the charity case, the teacher’s kid. It was supposed to have been really satisfying to confront her with the person I had become, rather than the pathetic boy she knew in school.
But instead of feeling smug and satisfied and all the goddamn feelings I’d waited years to bask in, I just felt… empty. Being in the same room as Verity had made me feel more alive than I think I’d felt for more than two decades. She hadn’t changed as much as I thought she would after twenty years. Her cheekbones were more defined, her figure fuller than that of the slight teenager she was at school. But she still had that same energy about her, still outshone everyone else in the room. Even at sixteen Verity had been perfectly put together: gleaming brunette hair thick and straight down her back, subtle make-up, immaculately turned out. She’d made her school uniform look like it should be on the catwalk back then, and considering how hideous the uniform was that was quite a feat.
Despite being a year above her at school, I’d been in awe of her. She was so charismatic, so beautiful, that it seemed like the whole student body revolved around her. Together with her twin brother Heath, Verity ruled that school and everyone in it. As a shy, introverted nerd of a teenager, she had quite frankly terrified me.
Boarding school is easy for some kids – Verity and her brother sailed into that place like they owned it and never looked anything but totally thrilled to be there. For me, school wasnoteasy. I mostly enjoyed hiding. And my favourite place to do that was in the very back corner of the library, behind the science section (hidden from anyone who actually had a life) where there was an old, tattered leather sofa next to a massive radiator. Downingham was one of those posh, ancient schools, stuffed full of buildings dating back hundreds of years, and the library must have been the oldest of these by far. It smelt of musty books and polished wood. I loved it, but the heating wasn’t great. It was also huge. Nobody really ever made it back to my favourite hiding place where the oldest books were kept, mostly forgotten and unindexed. And from the age of thirteen to fifteen I spent a lot of my time there, completely alone. Then, about halfway through the winter term of my third year at the school, I was ensconced in my corner when light, unfamiliar footsteps caused me to look up from my copy ofA Game of Thronesand into a pair of bright blue eyes.
“Well, this is frightfully cosy,” she said, plopping herself down on the other side of my sofa. I’d seen Verity around school for the past year. She was only fourteen but already so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted out, my shock and general social incompetence making it sound like more of an accusation than a question.
“Same as you I expect,” she said, completely unfazed by my tone. She swivelled and put her feet up on the radiator. It meant she was part lying on the sofa and her glorious hair had nearly made it into my lap. I shrank closer to my side and attempted to keep my poor teenage brain from short-circuiting. “Ah, that’s better,” she sighed as she wriggled further into the depths of the sofa. “This fucking school is always so cold.” I wasn’t sure how she could possibly be cold – she was wearing her blazer, school overcoat, a scarf, even mittens. She shuddered. “I hate the cold. Good spot you’ve found here.”
I stiffened. This had been my sanctuary for the last two years – a place where I could read what I liked without people taking the piss. I wasn’t letting anyone invade it, however beautiful they were.
“This ismysofa.” Yes, I was a smooth son of a bitch back then. It still didn’t seem to faze Verity though. She sat up and turned to face me, her mass of dark hair falling about her shoulders.
