“Let’s nail this fucker.”
“I’m not sure, Julie.” I slump into the sofa. “I just want to forget the whole ordeal.”
She smacks her lips, not content with my answer. “You do realise that dirty fucker is fucking her right now?”
“Don’t,” I whimper, clutching my arms to my chest.
She tuts. “You’re letting him treat you like a whore. Didn’t he say you looked like a stripper?”
“She’s right,” Cat interjects. “He tries to get rid of you from the company, then he plays you for a fool, coming round for a quick bootie call.”
“To be fair, I got more out of it tonight than he did,” I meekly pointed out.
“We know, we heard.” Cat groans.
“Sorry.” My cheeks colour.
“Nonsense.” Julie snaps. “He would have fucked you if he had the chance, but you saw the message. Do you want to be the one-hour booty call? Do you?”
“No,” I reply in a small voice stubbing my toe into the carpet.
“I gotta admit, Charlie,” Stevie shakes his head. “There’s no dressing it up. It sounds like you were a stopover. You have to admire the guy for stamina. Two in one night at his age”.
“Thanks, Stevie.” I prod him hard in the ribs. “Nice to see you admire your new boss so much.”
I’m so stupid. What did I think was going to happen? I’d lift up my skirt, and he’s mine forever? I know his reputation. From Tristan, from the media, for christ’s sake. From my own eyes. I’ve seen him at parties. So why did I ignore the facts?
“What if he tells the management team?” Stevie asks. “I better not be implicated in this; I’m an accomplice.”
My eyes widened. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh please,” Julie sneers. “He wants a side fuck. Now you have consented, he’ll disclose whatever it takes to cover his own back. It’s always the women that end up being disgraced. No one will take you seriously at work. You’ll always be known as the girl who slept with the boss, and he’ll be the stud.”
Would he?
The small voice in my head reminds me of his reputation.
“You might never work in this town again!” Cat adds dramatically, and I throw a cushion at her.
I open and close my mouth staring between the three of them. “What would we do? You know, just to scare him and make him realise I’m not a pushover?”
Julie sits up in business mode. “Well, if you let me, I could go after him for indecent exposure. You did catch him masturbating in public. Although the grey area is that you burst in through his door, so we might have a hard time arguing it was in public.”
“Also, we need to prove intent to cause distress by the act.”
I cock a brow. “I wouldn’t exactly say I was distressed by it.”
“No,” She sighs. “You stayed and watched the show, which weakens our case.” “Also, you invited him into your bedroom and up your skirt,” Cat points out.
“Irrelevant,” Julie snaps back. “She was vulnerable after his act of exposure, and he seduced her.”
“Look,” she says impatiently. “When I’m at work, I’ll send you enough ammunition that he’ll realise you’re not a soft touch. Think of it as a legal rough up from the heavies.”
“I’ll read it if only for entertainment value. I doubt I’ll act on it.”
Stevie covered his eyes with his head, groaning. “Keep me the hell out of this. Some of us want to keep our jobs.”
“What’s his deal anyway?” Cat looks at me curiously. “He’s so moody all the time. At the party, he had a permanent scowl on his face.”
“I feel a bit bad sharing this” I start, rubbing the rim of my wine glass. “It’s a pretty sad story. He grew up in a rough council estate in Glasgow. His dad was a proper scally. Disappearing for days then when he did come home, he would be so high on drugs he’d beat their mother.”
“Then one day, when he was about 15, Danny came home and found his mum not moving in the kitchen in a pool of blood. His dad had shot her in the face then shot himself.” They stare at me, transfixed.
“Christ, no wonder he’s so… dark.”
“So his teens were pretty fucked up,” I continue. “He went to live with his gran or someone in some remote village in Scotland.”
“Then he went to England to uni when he was 19 and met Tristan. They became really close, and he started coming over to our house on weekends. Mum felt sorry for him after what happened and was happy to get to cook for someone else.”
“When I was growing up, he was always there. He became a bit of an extension to our family. Tristan even made him godfather.”
“And you are godmother.” Cat muses.
“Kinky,” Julie smirks. “So you’ve known him since you were 10, huh? I dread to imagine the wild teenage dreams with that walking around the house.”
“I wouldn’t say I know him,” I reply. “I only know his back story from eavesdropping when I was younger and Tristan telling me the tame snippets. I was never allowed to ask Danny outright.” “But you used to fantasise about him, right?” Julie questions.
“Of course” I roll my eyes. “Mega crush.”
I shudder for a moment. “When I was 13, he took a girl round to our house for dinner one day. I went to my room and had a massive hissy fit. The whole house could hear it from the dinner table. Danny had to come up and tell me I was still his favorite girl.”
“Thinking of it, we had a better relationship when I was 13,” I added wryly. “He used to buy me
little gifts.”
“After the dry humping debacle where I made a total tit out of myself, he grew more distant with me. In the last 10 years, he’s been speaking mainly in grunts and monosyllables to me.”
Julie shakes her head. “You’ve liked this guy for nearly 20 years. You are supposed to move on from your first crush.”
“This is why your love life is suffering now,” Cat adds. “You are comparing everyone to him.”
I take a large slug of wine. “I can’t seem to act rationally when he’s around. I turn into a quivering emotional nutcase.”
My phone bleeps on the sofa.
Don’t play games with me, Charlie.