“Don’t worry, I can handle Nick Anderson. And John can fill in for you.”
“Right.” Her smile was fixed now and looked like it might actually be hurting her face. Her eye twitch was going crazy. The woman was furious.
“Er, this is… a lot,”I said. My voice was muffled by the pile of clothes that Tabitha had just dumped into my arms and which came up above my mouth. “I don’t think I’ve ever tried on this many clothes before in my life.”
“Clearly,” she snapped, gesturing towards me and my general attire, her lip curling just slightly. “Could we hurry this along, please?Youmay not care about your job, butIwas integral to the Anderson deal, and I don’t appreciate being chucked out of the office to baby you through a bloody shopping trip so that fucking prick John can take all the credit.”
“Oh no,” I said as my stomach dropped. “I’m so sorry. That’s really shit of Felix. I–I can manage on my own. You might catch the meeting if you hurry back now.”
She narrowed her eyes at what was visible of me behind the pile of clothes. “Are youreallythis dense?” I swallowed. My throat felt thick, and I had a terrible feeling I was going to cry. Tabitha hated me now, and I couldn’t blame her. She was theonly person I’d had much contact with since joining the office (apart from Will, but he didn’t count), and it was clear she was not going to be open to a friendship. I blinked rapidly, hoping to push back the tears. Tabitha sighed again. Her expression had softened, just a tad.
“Look, if I go back now, I’ll arrive at the meeting late. That’s worse than not showing up at all.” She moved to me, laid one hand on each of my shoulders and turned me around towards the changing room then gave me a little shove forward. “But I would very much like not to miss the rest of the working day, so if you could hurry it up, that would be great.”
“Yes, sure, of course,” I said, rushing forward, glad that I was now facing away from her, and it didn’t matter that a tear had made it down my cheek.
What followed was an exhausting hour of ruthless efficiency. I’d been poked and prodded and forced into all manner of outfits. When I almost fell arse-over-tit in the heels Tabitha picked out for me, she conceded that I might need to go down by an inch or two.
“But you can’t gotoolow,” she warned me. “You’re short.”
I blinked at her – okay, five foot two is not exactly supermodel height, but I wasn’t a total pee-wee.
“And any lower than three inches would look out of place.”
She was right there. But weren’t women supposed to be liberated now? Why were we still forced into these contraptions, making walking an exercise in balance and stamina?
When it was time to pay, Tabitha brought out the company credit card, but in an unusual display of assertiveness, I made her put it away, insisting on paying for everything myself and then wincing at the cost. But there was no way I was letting Felix absorb the financial burden of replacing my crappy wardrobe. Even if I hadn’t wanted said crappy wardrobe replaced in the firstplace.
On the ride back to the office in Felix’s town car, I swallowed down my nerves and attempted to break the stony silence.
“So, um… do you like working at Moretti Harding?” I forced myself to ask in a small voice. Tabitha spun around from staring out of the window and levelled me with a condescending glare.
“Like it?” she asked in an incredulous tone.
I cleared my throat and bit my lip. That had been the most innocuous question I could think of, but it was still being met by open contempt.
“You don’tlikea job like mine,” Tabitha said slowly as if she was explaining how the world worked to a backward five-year-old. “You work your arse off, claw your way through the shit, put up with all manner of crap to drag yourself up the corporate ladder.”
“Oh, er… right. That sounds… fun.”
Her eyebrows were in her hairline. “Fun? Are you insane? Of course it’s not fun. I work with no natural daylight; the entire office staff is poised on the edge of a panic attack the whole time. I have to fight constantly against the horrific boys’ club culture. Fun does not enter into it.”
“Maybe you could suggest some changes? Brighten up the space a bit? Doesn’t the company have a whole interior design team? Maybe there’s a way of bringing in some light from?—”
“Lucy,” Tabitha said in a dry tone, cutting me off. “Stick to staring off into space and squeaking like a little mouse when someone asks you a basic question, okay? You know nothing whatsoever about business.”
“Okay,” I whispered, feeling small and stupid again. Forgetting that my old jumper was now stowed away in one of the many shopping bags, I tried to pull the sleeves down to cover my hands and push my thumbs through the small holes. Butencountered the cuffs of the silk shirt I was wearing instead and had to sit on my hands for the rest of the car journey to keep them warm.
I shivered. This clothing experiment was all well and good, but if I died of hypothermia it would all be a big waste of time. I envisaged Felix looming over my dead body, berating me for my inefficiency and lack of ambition as I slowly turned blue. My snort of suppressed laughter was met by a glacial look from Tabitha, so I shrank further back into my seat to avoid angering her further.
Not for the first time I wished I’d never agreed to this plan. But Mum had been absolutely insistent that I work for Felix.
“Such a lovely boy,” she’d told me.
Hetty Mayweather might be the last human being in England to call Felix a lovely boy. As one of the most ruthless and intimidating men in London, he was anything butlovelyor aboy.
“He’ll look after you in London,” Mum had assured me. Yeah, right. If you could call looking after someone criticizing them for their many shortcomings daily and forcing them into a load of uncomfortable, cold clothes, then Mum was right.
Chapter 3
