“Oh, so she wasstaff.Not exactly a favour she did him then, more a term of her employment.”
Wow. Tabitha was a bitch. I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, but there was simply no getting away from this fact. I looked left and right, trying to see an out as I felt my pulse beating in my ears. Felix was still engulfed in people. Someone bumped into me from behind, and I flew forward a step. Unfortunately, it caused the contents of my glass to fly out over Tabitha’s shirt.
“Oh shit,” I said in a horrified whisper. “Tabitha, I’m so sorry.” I started trying to dry up the champagne with the sleeves of my jumper, but Tabitha shooed me back, her face red with fury.
“You are such an unrelenting idiot,” she muttered, holding her soaking shirt away from her skin.
“Ah, Tabitha,” Vanessa, who worked in the publicity department of Moretti Harding, came up and kissed Tabitha on the cheek followed by David, a sort of colleague I’d exchangedthe odd greeting with over tea in the break room. “How are you, darling? Christ, what’s happened here?”
I started to edge away, but Tabitha stopped me in my tracks. “Lucy happened,” Tabitha snapped. “Did you guys know that she’s Felix’s nanny’s daughter? Apparently her tenuous connection to Felix gives her the right to work at one of the top companies in the country and throw champagne over unsuspecting, connectionless employees.”
“TBea,” David’s voice held a note of warning. His brows were lowered, and he looked supremely uncomfortable with her tirade. “Hey, Lucy,” he nodded awkwardly towards me. “I come in peace, and this shirt is new, so…”
I smiled at him. “Don’t worry, I’m unarmed.” I said, waving my now empty champagne glass (at least I didn’t have to drink the stuff anymore).
“Oh hi, Luce,” Vanessa said, giving me a friendly smile. “Thanks again for helping out this week.” I’d taken a panicked phone call from Vanessa a couple of weeks ago about the publicity campaign for a new Moretti Harding housing development just outside London. She’d wanted me to pass a message onto Will, but I realised that with my experience with advertising, I could actually help her myself. So that’s how I ended up sorting some of the ad copy for the campaigns they were running.
Tabitha’s eyebrows were in her hairline. “Lucy helped you? Seriously?”
“Er… yes, of course. Lucy’s really creative.”
Tabitha rolled her eyes then gave me a fake smile. “Maybe you might like to put the same effort in at your actual job, Lucy?”
“Oh wow, look at the vultures descending on Felix,” Vanessa said in an obvious attempt to change the subject. “I don’t think he’ll be coming up for air for a while.”
They all started talking businessy, financy, property stuff and, as was my way if faced with a situation I couldn’t deal with, I zoned out.
“What do you think, Lucy?” Tabitha’s voice snapped me back into the room, and I blinked.
“Er… what?”
“What do you think about Dyson?”
“Oh…” Why was she asking me about hoovers? God, how long had I been daydreaming? “Well, Mum’s got a handheld one. She uses it for the car mainly. Swears by it.”
David’s shoulders started shaking, Vanessa was valiantly holding back a smile, but Tabitha didn’t bother. She openly laughed at me. “That’s interesting info, Lucy,” she said through her amusement. I felt my cheeks start to heat. “But I was actually referring to the crash of their stock last week and how it should influence the market.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, bit of a dunce when it comes to all this finance stuff really.”
“Yes,” Tabitha agreed. “Which begs the question: why are you working in a job that you have no interest, no aptitude and no talent for?”
“TBea, that’s enough,” David snapped, the amusement now leaving his expression.
“It’s a fair question,” Tabitha said. She looked furious. But it wasn’t like I could explain that I just wanted to potter up to London, see if I could make some new friends, come out of my shell a bit and gain a bit of confidence so that I wasn’t stuck as a recluse in Little Buckingham for the rest of my life, never getting to meet any of my readers.
University hadn’t really been an option for me after school. Mum didn’t have the money to afford the fees, and I wouldn’t have managed working as well as doing a degree. Also, at that stage, I just didn’t want to leave home – my friends were allstaying in the village, and I’d never been particularly outgoing. I wasn’t ready for independence at eighteen.
In fact, it was becoming increasingly obvious that I wasn’t ready for it at twenty-seven. Perhaps I should have set my sights much closer to Little Buckingham. Looking back, I don’t know why I decided on the nuclear option of London. But Mum had been so keen when I brought it up. And when she’d suggested asking Felix for a job, I’m ashamed to say I jumped at the chance. Maybe, I thought, now that I was older, I might stand asmallchance with him. Maybe he wouldn’t just see me as a quirky kid anymore. Looking around the room at all the glamorous women I felt really stupid. I was living in cloud cuckoo land if I thought Felix would ever look twice at me.
“Yes, well,” I said in a small voice, avoiding eye contact with the others. “I can see how that’s annoying. Erm… sorry, guys. I’d better be going. I’ve, um… got a thing. So…” As I shuffled away from the group, I heard Vanessa call my name, but fortunately it was easy enough to slip unnoticed through the crowd. Now, if I could just find the bloody exit that would be great. I was starving as well. The only thing that had been offered to me here was tiny little food on trays, but it was all fish eggs and fancy scallops – not a sausage roll or a Wotsit in sight. I started to scan the crowd, looking for Felix so I could say goodbye, but then slammed into a large body and nearly fell backwards.
“Look who’s come out to play,” Will said. I took a quick step back from him, but my retreat was hampered by the crowds around us. “Still rocking hobo chic, I see, Mayweather?” As he leaned in then to speak into my ear his hand came up to grab my arm, and his voice became a harsh whisper. “Where are those tight little skirts from earlier, huh? Back to hiding the goods away, are we?”
I yanked my arm down, dislodging his grip. His face darkened at my rejection, settling into a familiar scowl. I felt ashiver of fear go up my spine. “Got to admit it’s a bit galling that an incompetent, scruffy little upstart managed to get me in the shit. Couldn’t just serve the tea without making a bloody scene, could you? Had to make me look bad.” He grabbed my arm again, squeezing tightly through my jumper. “What’s your hold over Felix anyway?” I was backing away from him now and trying to shake my arm free, but his grip was too tight.
“What are you doing?” At the sound of Victoria’s commanding tone, Will dropped my arm and retreated as if I was radioactive. We turned to see her and Lottie right next to us. Victoria was wearing a beautiful jumper dress with a slight gold shimmer and high-heeled boots, and Lottie was in one of the formal business dresses that she seemed to cycle regularly (her wardrobe didn’t seem to be nearly as extensive as everyone else in the office). Both of them were scowling at Will.
“Don’t know what you mean,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and clearing his throat. “Luce and I were having a chat.”
