‘You just nothing.’ My self-control slipped through my grasp. ‘You’re not my girlfriend. You don’t get to dictate who I do or do not talk to – we are not actually in a relationship, remember?’
The words hung in the air around us, casting a pall over the whole table.
Was it my imagination, or was the restaurant somehow … quieter than before?
I glanced around, tension sharpening every one of my nerves, but no one seemed to have heard. Thank fuck – I did not want to know what Derek would have to say about me revealing to the world that the whole Patrick-Tetlow-dating-Jessy-Donovan thing was all fake.
But when my gaze turned back to Jessy, my stomach lurched.
She was pulling on her jacket.
‘Jessy –’
‘I’m tired,’ she said curtly. ‘I’m going back to the hotel.’
‘Jessy – fuck, I’m sorry, it’s just –’
‘You just nothing,’ Jessy said brightly, though her eyes were far too brilliant, glittering far too brightly. Was she – crying? ‘You’ve made it perfectly clear what this is all about for you, and since we’ve gone over our quota, you don’t have to worry about seeing me again for almost a week. Have a good one.’
FOURTEEN
Take me to the woodland where the fairies whisper, whisper all the secrets I never told them …
–from ‘Folktale’, by These Exiles
‘… AND AS PART OF our ecological initiative here at GSR Financials …’
I was trying to listen. I really was. But how long did a lecture about new printers actually have to take?
Sabbatical or not, I’d been called in for an important team meeting that, apparently, I absolutely had to be there for – at least, that’s what Karun’s curt voicemail had said. As far as I could tell, it was a never-ending lecture about the planet and how we should take care of it. Which was obviously a good thing. I liked the planet; I wanted it to continue. But I really was not in the mood. I hadn’t been in the mood for anything recently.
I wonder why that is …
As carefully as I could, not wanting to draw Karun’s beady eyes to me, I glanced at my phone. The lock screen said 10:41a.m.
Seriously? Only forty minutes?
‘… and as you can see from this pie chart,’ Karun saidsmugly, as though he’d been the one to formulate the pivot table that had generated the data, ‘we’ll enjoy a full two point three per cent …’
You’d think after weeks off I’d be itching to get back to work, back to the routine of my own life, but it was all just so … so dull. My mind wandered, and this time there was little I could do to keep it on the topic of printers, even if I’d wanted to.
Not with the memories of my argument with Patrick still echoing between my ears.
‘You’re not my girlfriend. You don’t get to dictate who I do or do not talk to – we’re not actually in a relationship, remember?’
My stomach twisted: those words had hit me hard. I’d barely been able to hold my tears back as I fled the table. I was still reeling days later, the emotional bruise still twinging in my chest.
Patrick. The lack of him these last three days had been painful. His absence brought into stark relief just how much I’d got used to having him around. How much I’d let him into my life and I hadn’t really noticed it – until he wasn’t there.
‘… efforts companywide are conglomerating at this synergising point to elevate our initiative by a factor of …’
Why hadn’t he messaged me? Heck, why hadn’tDerekcalled me? Surely this radio silence wasn’t good for our image.
Ugh, I hated this – who was I, pining after a guy who couldn’t even answer a reasonable question?
I’d promised myself I would never be that girl. Not again.
And yet here I was, missing him.
