He shoved Carla away so violently that she staggered and almost fell. Regaining her balance, she turned her shocked face to the person behind her.
The woman was tall and slender, dressed to the nines, and had shiny, bouncy blonde hair. Even though her mouth was twisted in outrage and her eyes were narrowed into a furious glare, Carla could tell she was pretty.
Yale held out his hands in supplication. ‘It’s not what you think, Rachel. You’ve got to believe me.’
‘Yale?’ Carla was bewildered. Who was this woman? And who cared whether someone on the staff had caught them snogging? The company might take a dim view, but it was hardly a crime. Yale was seriously overreacting.
He turned to her, the sexy smile gone. In its place was disgust and contempt. ‘Why can’t you take no for an answer? How many times do I have to tell you I’m not interested?’ He brushed past her, saying to the woman, ‘I came up here to use the gents because someone had been sick in the ones downstairs.’
He jerked his chin, and Carla’s confused gaze flickered to a sign at the far end of the room. It saidToiletsand there was an arrow next to it.
‘She must have clocked where I was going and followed me,’ he continued, taking hold of the woman’s arm and leading her towards the stairs. But before he descended them, he paused, turned to Carla and snarled, ‘That’s it, I’m done. No more Mr Nice Guy. I’m reporting you to HR for harassment.’
‘What?’ Carla’s voice was faint. This couldn’t be happening.
Yale shook his head sadly. ‘There’s no point in denying it and pretending nothing happened or that it was a misunderstanding. My fiancée witnessed your appalling behaviour.’ He put his arm around the woman and ushered her down the steps. ‘Come on, darling. I’m sorry you had to see that. What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were in Walsall for the evening.’ His voice faded as they reached the bottom, then disappeared altogether, lost in the laughter and chatter of the party.
Carla couldn’t move. She was frozen to the spot, disbelief, horror, and heartbreak rendering her immobile. Then, as therealisation that Yale had afiancéesolidified in her brain, she slowly sank to the floor.
He had lied to her, had used her, and had toyed with her emotions. He was nothing but a cheating, slimy scumbag.
So why did her heart feel like it had been torn in two?
‘You look awful,’ Vicky announced as Carla slunk into the office on Monday.
Carla not only looked awful, she also felt it. After crying herself silly when Yale had left her alone in the empty room, she’d managed to stagger out of the pub, thankfully avoiding eye contact with anyone, and had made her way home to sob in the safety of her bedroom.
She had continued to weep on and off for most of the weekend, and by Sunday evening she had been a total mess, having not eaten or slept for forty-eight hours. Feeling nauseous but knowing she should eat, she had ordered a takeaway, managed to force about a third of it down, and had then collapsed exhausted into bed.
Getting up for work this morning had been hard, and despite her best efforts, she knew she looked hideous.
‘You shouldn’t be at work if you’re not well, hun,’ Vicky continued. She stroked her bump protectively.
‘What I’ve got isn’t catching.’ Carla flung her bag and coat on her desk and dropped into her chair.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
‘Yes, but not here.’ She glanced around furtively. Yale’s door was open, but he wasn’t in his office.
She dreaded seeing him. This was going to be so awkward, and she felt the first fluttering of anger as she considered the position he had put her in. No wonder the bloody man didn’t want their relationship to become general knowledge. He could hardly have broadcast it, considering he was alreadyina relationship. He had a fiancée, for pity’s sake!
Her anger was accompanied by shame and bitterness. She wouldn’t have gone near him with a barge poleif she’d had the slightest inkling he was taken, and she wondered whether anyone else knew he was engaged. Yale had only been working in the Birmingham office for a couple of months, having transferred from the Leeds branch, but that was no excuse for hiding a fiancée. There’d been no hint of it on the grapevine either, so she could only assume he had deliberately kept it quiet.
Vicky said, ‘Shall we grab an early lunch? You can tell me all about it then.’
Carla guessed that Vicky would be shocked to learn that Yale was a two-timing arsehole. And she would be even more shocked when she knew it was Carla he was two-timing, as she hadn’t told anyone, not even her best friend Dulcie, that she had been seeing him.
Deciding to get her head down and do some work (it would be an excuse not to look at Yale or acknowledge him when he appeared) Carla stowed her bag under her desk and started up her computer. She had got as far as logging into her emails when the phone rang.
It was an internal call and the news wasn’t good. Mrs Bissett in HR wanted to see her.Now.
Carla bit her lip as she felt the remaining colour drain from her already wan cheeks.Had Yale carried through with his threat? She hadn’t honestly thought he would. She’d assumed it had been bluff and bluster in the face of almost being caught in the arms of another woman.
Another woman…Carla never imagined thatshewould be the other woman. It made her feel ashamed and immoral.
Standing up abruptly, she sent her chair scooting backwards. ‘I’ve been summoned to HR,’ she announced when she caught Vicky’s concerned glance. ‘Shit and double shit.’
‘I take it from your reaction, it isn’t going to be good news?’
