“Really, Felix,” said Vicky. “I do think we should wait for Lottie.”
“I’m not being taken in again!” Felix bellowed as the twosecurity guards that I recognized from downstairs came into the room. Dave and Riley were nice guys. Dave was a single dad and Riley liked to restore old motorbikes. But now here they were, summoned to throw me out of the building. To be fair, they both looked extremely uncomfortable.
“Er, Luce,” Dave said, shooting a quick look at a still furious-looking Felix, who just crossed his arms over his broad chest and nodded for them to get on with it.
Riley cleared his throat. “Want to come with us, love?” he asked gently. Too shocked to move, I sat there dumbly for a minute but then flinched when Riley touched my elbow. Oh my God, I was going to be forcibly ejected from the building. Me, Lucy Mayweather, official goodie-two-shoes and teacher’s pet, was practically under arrest.
“Er… don’t worry,” I said in a small voice. “It’s okay, Riley. I can stand up under my own steam.” I levered up out of the chair, wincing at the pain in my shoulder again then I thought I’d try one last time. “Felix, if you’d just listen to?—”
“I’ve heardenough, Luce,” Felix shouted, his face flushed with anger and his hand slicing through the air again. I snapped my mouth shut. Right, well then. I’d had quite enough of arrogant tossers who felt they had the right to be randomly angry with me for one day. I turned and walked away from him. Dave shot forward to open the door for me.
“I’ll need to pick up my?—”
“You’re not pickinganythingup,” Felix snapped. “Take her straight outside the building. No stops.”
What? I needed my notebook, and my bag was by my desk; it had everything in it. This stupid outfit didn’t even have pockets.
“But—”
“Out!” The word cracked across the room, and I flinchedback as if he’d hit me before spinning around and running out of there.
I slowed to a walk on the way to the lifts. I was in a bit of daze. Dave and Riley shifted awkwardly next to me. When they asked me if I was okay, I didn’t really have the strength to answer. After reaching the ground floor, we walked in silence through the lobby. I was still too numb and shocked to speak. They took my swipe card at the exit, and I just handed it over without any protest. It was only when I was outside on the pavement, and the freezing wind whipped my hair in front of my face that I realized I hadn’t been able to grab my coat from reception. My phone and wallet were still in the building, and my fingers were rapidly turning a ghastly white.
“Mikey?”I said through my chattering teeth. Thank God I remembered his number. I’d been so shocked and numb after I was thrown out that I hadn’t been able to come up with a plan quickly enough. Then the cold had been so extreme, the shivers so violent that it seemed to cloud my thinking even more. I’d never been the most practical person anyway – I definitely wouldn’t survive in the wild.My little dreamerwas what Dad used to call me. Well, being a daydreamer is not helpful when you need to think on your feet before your hands freeze off. Seeing as I had no phone, no money, no coat, I didn’t really know how I could get home.
After the humiliation of trying to get back in the building to at least get my coat, and being turned away by the doorman who told me it was “more than his job’s worth”, I started walking in the direction of home. Half an hour of walking later, huddled over with my hands tucked under my arms and my head ducked against the cold wind, I realized that this was not agood plan. In fact, I was in big trouble if I didn’t get warm very soon. My fingers had never looked so blue before – it was starting to get scary. So that’s when I swallowed my pride again and ducked into a café that looked friendly from the outside. The staff seemed a little scared of this shivering weirdo who was asking to use their phone – I must have looked a right state.
“I’m in a bit of a pickle.” My teeth were chattering so hard that it was difficult to get the words out in a coherent fashion. But once they got a look at my hands, they were quick to set me up on a table next to a radiator, give me a cup of tea and lend me a phone.
“Luce, is that you, love?” Mikey’s strong voice made me feel better. Relief washed over me. My big brother would sort this out. “You okay?”
“Er… no, not really. C–c–can you come get me?”
Mikey lived in Little Buckingham, about an hour outside London.
“What’s happened?” he said, and the concern in his tone made my throat close over. For the first time that day, I let the tears fall. Unfortunately, that meant getting more words out was even more tricky, but I knew I had to tell him everything.
Chapter 23
Unsafe work environment
Felix
“I said leave me alone,” I muttered as the door cracked open. In general, this had been working. Everyone was treading on eggshells around me, but if that kept all the bastards away, I was happy. I just wanted to be left to wallow in this misery on my own. So what if Lucy had turned out to be just like that cheating bitch, Lydia? I’d get over it. I refused to acknowledge the small issue of my broken heart. That would make me weak, and I’d learnt long ago that weakness of any kind was not to be tolerated. No, Lucy hadn’t broken my heart. I was just pissed off. How had I been gullible enough to let this happen a second time? Another wave of fury washed over me. I was going to focus on that and not the dull ache in my chest or the throbbing behind my eyes.
The most galling thing was the fact I couldn’t get Lucy’s shocked expression out of my head or how devastated she looked when I asked for her to be removed. I hadn’t slept at all last night. Christ, she’d let me down in the worst way, and I stillcouldn’t help worrying if she was okay, which was absolutely ridiculous.
My father’s laughter from five years ago rang in my head again after I’d found out what he’d done:
“Well, you’ve learned a lesson there, haven’t you, boy? Trust is for the weak, and love makes you a victim.”
I gritted my teeth, but then, just like before, another voice followed my father’s:
“It can feel scary to trust people, Felix. But if you won’t take the risk, you’ll never be truly happy. You have to live life with an open heart.”
Henry Mayweather believed in the essential goodness of people. My father would have called him weak too, but I knew Henry had been anything but.
“The police are here.”
