Way to go sister, thanks for the vote of confidence. “There is a position I’d like to apply for.” “Yes?” David raises his eyebrows.
“The Designer role.” I say quietly, my knees jerking.
Samantha looks down at paperwork and frowns. “It’s quite a senior role. Your experience doesn’t seem to match?”
“But anyone can apply right? I can submit a business case with my ideas?”
“Yes.” She shrugs, in such a way that says she thinks I’m wasting my time. “The deadline is next
Monday. Be warned we’ve had 20 applicants already directly from Nexus.”
I narrow my eyes in defiance. Fuck you woman. I’ll show you and Danny Walker that I can do this.
I have 5 days to write the best damn business case ever.
Charlie
My legs are shaking with the volume of caffeine pumping through me. Usually, on Saturdays, I’d be quivering under the covers trying to survive a hangover.
Today I’m buzzing.
I’ve worked all night and this morning on the business case for submission on Monday, and it’s good. It’s not just good; it’s great.
After five years of listening to complaints across the globe, across the timezones, I know what this product needs.
I’ve been so focused I’ve barely thought of Danny. He messaged last night asking me how I was. Text banter isn’t his strong point. His messages are to the point and with purpose, like a newsreader.
Compared to my messages with Cat, where we send each other fifty screenshots a day, even though we live together and sometimes are sitting on the sofa together.
I type the last point furiously and squeal to myself. I’m finished. I can’t give it any more than this.
If they don’t like it, then I’ll take the redundancy and walk away.
Shutting down my laptop, I bounce into the living room.
“Have you finished your paper thing?” Cat licks her lips nervously and darts her eyes between Julie and me.
“My business case.” I grin like a lunatic sinking into the sofa. “Yes, I have.”
“There’s something you need to see.” Julie sits up softly, and my glow diminishes a notch.
I look at her, alert. “What?”
She takes a breath and swipes at her phone.
“Look at this.”
I take the phone and see a picture of Danny. I’m about to say I don’t understand when I read the headline.
Danny Walker leaves Lower East’s side’s hottest new restaurant with bombshell friend.
My heart plummets.
The picture shows him in the back of a car with an attractive blond. She is smiling directly at him, and he looks relaxed.
My mouth falls open. He promised.
“Maybe she’s just a friend.” Cat nipples her lip nervously.
“Friend.” I snort. “How many guys just have friends that look like supermodels?”
I look between them both as their faces say it all and burst out crying. Big thick ugly tears stream down my face. Snot and liquid everywhere, I’m crying from my lungs. From my soul.
They leap up to fuss over me, and I sob into Cat’s chest as she rubs my hair.
“I swam in a fucking pond for that guy,” I wail.
“You’re too attached, Charlie,” Cat says softly. “It’s too soon.”
“I know.” I sob in broken breaths. “I can’t handle this. My heart can’t cope.”
“Breathe,” Julie says firmly. “Wait 30 minutes, then message him. Without emotion. Cool as fuck.” I look up through tear-stained eyes.
“You need to be a player, Charlie.” She snaps. “Instead of becoming an emotional wreck each time you see him with another woman.”
She shakes her head at me like a school teacher. “It’s so unbecoming.” “Fine.” I sniffle.
True to my word to her, I waited 30 minutes before picking up the phone. I’m breathing easier now, although the pain hasn’t lifted. I don’t have a claim on him, we are not together, and he’s not mine, so I need to stop acting like a needy, highly-strung bitch.
Hi. I type. What have you been up to in New York?
I stare down at the phone on the sofa like it’s radioactive. The response sound beeps loud, and the three of us jump.
Boring business meetings. You? I read out loud.
“LIAR,” Julie hisses. “Probe more.”
Did you not get to do anything fun last night then? I reply back, my hands sweating.
The buzz comes in instantaneously.
Not really. Meetings went on late into the night. I read out loud again, this time in a higher pitch.
“Bastard!” I cry, firing the phone back on the sofa. “He thinks I’m a bloody mug?”
“He mustn’t have seen the article” Cat frowns. “I mean, it wasn’t hard to find. It came up on my feed, and he’s not exactly an A-list celebrity.”
I grab the phone, seething. I can’t act like Julie. I’m not impartial. I’m livid.
BUSINESS MEETINGS WITH A BLOND ON YOUR COCK I type furiously and hit send.
“Mature.” Julie groans, looking over my shoulder. “You have blown it now, big style.” My phone vibrates again, but this time it’s his name on my Caller ID.
“Answer it.” Julie hisses.
“What the fuck was that?” The deep voice growls down the phone as I put him on speakerphone.
“Your business meetings.” I burst out. “So you hold your business meetings in the back of taxis with gorgeous blond women? After dinner?”
There’s a pause. “Actually, yes, I do. But how did you….”
He trails off, and I know he is searching the news on the internet.
There’s a long sign down the phone. “She’s my lawyer Charlie. She’s part of my legal team. I have a situation I need to resolve away from the office.”
“I can see why you’d want to resolve that away from the office.” I snap. “How many lawyers are you fucking? Do you have a conveyor belt of blond lawyers ready to go?” How stupid does this guy think I am? “I’m not sleeping with her.”