My throat burns, the words somehow harder to swallow now than they were when he said them to my face. We spent years at war with each other, we set each other’s blood on fire, and now he just looks right through me. It’s borderline offensive to be reduced to just another background character in his life, especially after the way our last altercation ended.
‘That utter prick,’ Devi whispers. ‘What is it we used to call him again?’
‘The Primary School Prick!’ Raina chuckles. ‘It lost the ring to it after what happened at uni, though.’
‘Yep. That was far too sinister for any nickname. . .’ Kimi sighs.
‘Girls.’
My warning brings them to an abrupt halt, each one freezing in panic and unsure of what to say next. I watch as their eyes cautiously dart between each other, before silently agreeing on a way forward.
‘Sorry, moving on. I hope you slapped him,’ Kimi says.
I shrug. ‘I shut my mouth and avoided eye contact for the rest of the meeting.’
‘Actually, can we backtrack to this meeting for a second. . . Evie Eesuola?’ Devi asks, helping herself to another glass.
‘Oh, yeah– turns out we’re planning this year’s Summer Splash.’
This new collective gasp could power a wind turbine, blowing the last one out of the water.
‘Why, and I cannot stress this enough,whyaren’t you more excited?’ Raina asks.
Kimi claps her hands. ‘I swear this is literally part of your whole five-year plan?’
Honestly, in the midst of all the drama, I hadn’t even thought about my five-year plan. The list that has refreshed itself cyclically since I was fifteen; the list that’s got me where I need to be and will now take me to thirty. Kimi’s right– Evie’s Summer Splash would be the portfolio gold dust I’d need to cross ‘organising an event I can be proud of’ off my list. But the mere presence of Aiden Edwards has wiped all sense and logic from my brain. I have seen him for one day– a couple of hours at best– and I’m already starting to revert to someone I don’t want to be.
‘Maybe you can mostly avoid him. Didn’t you say your boss usually takes the lead on big events anyway?’ Devi asks gently after seeing my expression.
She’s right. Pippa has this fun little quirk where she will ask me to plan out an event, liaise with suppliers, then take my work and pass it to the client ‘for me’. Does she tell them it’s me who did it? I’ll never know. But I would put money on that being a no. While frustrating, it might just be the silver bullet I need to save myself from completely losing my mind this time.
‘Yeah, maybe you’re right.’ My chest already feels lighter.
Maybe, in this less-than-ideal world, Aiden and I can co-exist purely through our bosses. I can go back to burying all the times he made me feel inferior and he can go back to pretending he doesn’t remember the history between us.
Nudge 4
The Group Project
This is never going to work. I am going to kill him. And everyone here will have to watch.
Even now, as we survey Evie’s illustrious grounds, I can’t maintain a normal composure. I’ve been here for three hours, strolling directly next to him, and he has done absolutelynothing. Not a ‘hello’, not a ‘remember when. . .’, no small flinches at my presence. I could be anyone or no one, and I don’t know which is worse. It’s infuriating and embarrassing, and incredibly rude.
‘Are you all right?’ he asks gruffly.
‘What?’ I ask, snapping out of my rage-filled haze.
‘Your hand. It’s going pale from how tightly you’re holding that pen.’
‘Just taking notes,’ I lie curtly.
‘Yeah. . . and lots of them.’
His eyes scan pointedly over my paper full of annotations. It awakens a deeply savage instinct inside me that demands I gouge his eyes out right here on this grass.
The first time I ever really interacted with Aiden, he looked at me not too dissimilarly to now. It was a tale as old as time– I was a quiet, young people-pleaser and he was a disruptive class clown, eager to be everyone’s best friend. The teacher, dying to destroy some formative years, thought,How could I make both of these small children miserable?and ripped us from ourfriends and sat us next to each other, in the hope that my quiet nature might tame him.
‘They’re not dissimilar to the type of notes I took when we were at Winterdown.’ I study him closely, but his face remains neutral. It’s psychotic. ‘You remember Winterdown? The school that we went to? Together.’
