“Thanks, Lots,” Tabitha returned on an eye roll.
“You can always rely on me to bring the honesty,” Lottie said. “Hello, stranger,” she said to me as she pulled me in for a hug. Hugging was clearly the new office protocol. “We missed you.” Lottie pulled back and scanned me from head to foot. “You look hot.”
I blushed again. “Felix has an obsession with buying me jumper dresses.” Lottie’s smile grew huge.
“I bet he does.”
“You’re back,” Vicky said simply. No hug from her, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. Office protocol or not, a hug would be a step too far for Vicky.
“Er, yes,” I said hesitantly. “I just popped in to say hi.”
“I was incorrect and acted on poor information when I lastsaw you,” Vicky continued. Now that I was really looking at her, I could see the subtle signs of stress on her face. Her jaw was tight, her face looked pale. “It was wrong. Very wrong. You have my sincere and deep apology. Had I known you’d be coming in today I would have prepared it in writing.”
I shook my head. “Vicky, it’s fine. You don’t have to?—”
“It isnotfine,” she snapped, shocking me with the uncharacteristic display of emotion. “You were hurt.” She shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, there was real pain there. “I was wrong, and I’m never wrong.”
“Vicky, I?—”
“I’m never wrong except for the one time that it mattered, when it was about someone being hurt, not just about making more money.Thattime I was wrong.”
“Okay, but Vicky it’s over now. And we all make mistakes.”
“Not me. Not until now.”
“Come on, Vics,” Lottie said in a gentle voice. “We talked about this. You need to give yourself a break, right? Maybe now you’ve seen Lucy for yourself you can let this go.”
Guilt swamped me for staying away for so long and not answering messages from everyone. Vicky had clearly been imagining the worst. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, Vicky,” I said. “But honestly, I’m fine. I’ve been writing and it sort of sucked me down a rabbit hole so I could forget about everything else. But I should have let you know I was okay.”
Vicky’s eyes went wide. “You have no responsibility to let me know anything.I’mthe one with the responsibility.”
“Vics, you can’t be—” Lottie started but Vicky cut her off.
“I was in a position of responsibility. I was the boss. I should have seen what was going on. I should have insisted on taking things further when I saw Will with you at the party.” She lowered her voice. “I have difficulty reading people. It’s a problem.”
Lottie sighed. “You’re better than you think you are, Vics.”
“Only because I have you to help me,” Vicky returned. “And youtriedto tell me about him, but I did not listen to you. Unforgivable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare the numbers for the meeting this afternoon. Numbers I understand.” She turned on her heel and strode away from us, her back poker straight and her shoulders stiff.
Lottie sighed again. “She’s taken this hard. I expect that by the time you leave, she’ll have a five-page apology printed out for you.”
“Oh dear, poor Vicky. It wasn’t her fault.”
“Vicky’s hard on herself and she’s not used to making mistakes.”
“She’s lost weight,” I said, and Lottie nodded.
“Vics finds emotions tricky. When she’s upset she can’t really express it properly so it sort of manifests physically. Not eating is one of the ways I can tell she’s upset. She struggles with some of the textures and…” Lottie broke off and bit her lip. “Sorry, I really shouldn’t say too much. It’s not really mine to share, and trust is really important with Vics.”
“Is she still having trouble sleeping?” Tabitha asked and Lottie nodded.
“I’m not sure what to do to snap her out of it, to be honest. She’s never really been this bad before. It might help now that she’s seen you’re okay.”
“I hope so,” I said, watching Vicky behind the glass in her office. She was typing at a furious pace, a look of fierce concentration on her face.
“Maybe your brother should pay us a visit again.”
“Mikey?” My eyes went wide as I looked at Lottie who was grinning. “Mikey was here?”
