‘Let me guess, he got mummy to rig the system?’ Oliver guessed.
A humourless laugh punched from my chest. ‘No. He rigged the system himself. Over the last month I worked there, I had people coming up to me complaining that I wasn’t responding to emails and that my work was being handed in late and it was subpar at best.’ Anger rose in my chest, clogging my throat making it difficult to breathe. I swallowed past the obstruction. ‘I was confused, everything they were saying didn’t make sense. I never received any emails and the project I was supposed to be working on got pushed back.’
Something clicked in Oliver’s head. ‘He didn’t…’
‘Oh, he did. Turns out myboyfriendhad been going into my laptop after I’d fallen asleep and been deleting things. The project hadn’t actually been pushed back, he’d just blocked all my communications from the author, so it looked like I was being lazy and not doing my job properly. Needless to say, he got the promotion. Half an hour after he got the job, he broke up with me.’
He swiped a hand down his face. ‘Fucking hell. That’s why you got fired?’
‘Yeah… but their contempt towards me might have more to do with how Ihandledbeing fired.’ I chewed the inside of my cheek.
‘Do tell.’ His eyes sparkled.
I inwardly groaned. ‘Look, I’m not proud of my actions. In fact I bitterly regret them, but I have the tendency to listen to Rosie and it very often leads me down very dangerous paths.’
‘Oh, this is gonna be good. Lay it on me, love.’
I ignored the butterflies that took flight in my stomach hearing him calling me love.
‘Well after I found out that Charlie had been using me and basically sabotaging my career, and in general being a right dick… I….’
He narrowed his eyes at me, unable to mask his anticipation. ‘Spit it out.’
There was no getting around it. I let my head drop between my shoulders and blurted it out as fast as I could. ‘I may have stuck half a dozen dildos to his car and written out the words “giant knob with a tiny dick” in shaving cream on the bonnet.’
Oliver stared at me unblinking. ‘You…’ He started, like he couldn’t quite grasp what I’d said.
‘Yes.’ I confirmed.
He leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath, as an expression crept over his features that bordered on impressed.
‘Damn. Remind me not to get on your bad side.’ He shook his head in disbelief and then went back to his burger. I stared open mouthed at him.
‘That’s it? You’re not gonna say anything else?’ I said, stunned at how easily he had accepted what was no doubt the most childish response to being humped and dumped there ever was.
He frowned, mouth chewing through a large bite of his burger.
‘What do you want me to say? I applaud your ingenuity.That’s some serious level pettiness. I tip my hat off to you.’ Driving his point home, he reached up and actually lowered the bridge of his ball cap at me.
I expected laughter. Jokes. Mocking. And Oliver had once again thrown me a curve ball in his response. I sat stunned. Mentally shaking myself when he cocked his head at me, bemused at my odd behaviour.
‘You got something to ask me?’ Coming back to reality, I picked my phone up again and started scrolling through my notes.
‘Yes. Um, let me see. Okay…Is there anything, in particular, you’d rather not discuss or at least keep vague?’
The pint that was halfway to his mouth paused. He took a quick sip and put it down, drawing his lower lip into his mouth. ‘I don’t want my dad or brother dragged into it.’
I cocked my head to the side. ‘They’re your family. It’ll be a little hard to keep them out.’
‘No. Now drop it.’ His voice was filled with warning. His blue eyes turned ice cold.
‘Okay…’ I let it drop and continued to scroll, feeling the heat of his stare on the top of my head. ‘The whole point is to get across your side of the story, so we’ll have to talk about Ashley and the, uh, altercation.’
Oliver’s eyes danced around the half-empty pub like he expected her to pop up out of nowhere from me simply saying her name.
‘That reminds me.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’m gonna need you to sign an NDA if we’re going ahead with this.’
My mouth opened in surprise at his sudden shift in conversation. When my brain had finally caught up, I shrugged. ‘Of course.’
