“Apparently a car is picking me up at nine. Elliot says so. That’s Alfie’s security, right?” She waved her phone at me with a message on it apparently from Elliot.
“It’s half-eight. We slept in. We’ve got time to eat though if you’re hungry.”
She groaned once more and shook her head. Then she disappeared into the bathroom.
Half an hour later, we were in the driveway, hugging each other tight as Elliot put Keira’s bag into the truck of the car.
“Talk to Alfie,” she said. “Don’t let it fester.”
“I will.”
She lowered her voice. “And don’t take any more shit from Julia.”
“Promise.”
Elliot gave me a wave. Never one for small talk, especially when he knew that Alfie and I were at odds. I watched Keira go with a pang, wishing already that she’d come back.
I took a deep breath as I faced the day. I felt like I had too many problems to deal with at once and a bit of compartmentalising was in order. Alfie I would tackle this weekend. My father was a problem for another time. Today, I had work to do.
Sid and I worked like dogs. This project wasn’t coming together as well as the last one. No matter what I did, it didn’t look the way I wanted it. If Sid was annoyed by my perfectionism he didn’t show it.
As the day drew on, I was getting worried. If we didn’t finish it today, I’d have to stay the weekend to make sure it was ready for Monday. That meant I wouldn’t get to see Alfie to talk everything through. I sighed in frustration, resisting the urge to punch the lop-sided elephant in the face.
“Lola,” a smooth voice called, disturbing my thoughts. I turned to find Julia Whitmore striding into our work tent. “I’ve come to check on the progress of your next piece? It’ll be ready for Monday?”
“Yes. I need to tweak it here and there but it’ll be ready.” I began talking her through the specifics of the sculpture but she cut me off.
“I don’t need to know all of that. Have a description written and email it to me so I can pass it onto the presenters. They need to at least pretend they know what they’re talking about.”
“Sure.” That was fine by me, the less I needed to talk to her the better. Julia didn’t say anything else but didn’t move to leaveeither. I got the feeling she had something to say in private. “Sid, why don’t you go take your lunch break?”
“Um…okay.” He raised his brows at me but left without questions.
A smug smile spread across Julia’s pretty face. “So, did you enjoy yourself at the club?”
I knew it. I knew she didn’t give a crap about the project. She could have found out if it was ready with just a phone call. She just came down here to mess with me.
“Muffin said she met you. She said she didn’t think much of you but I have to admit, I was jealous I didn’t get to see you myself.”
She took a step towards me.
Don’t take anymore shit, Lola.I heard Keira’s voice in my head, giving me the confidence I needed to stand up for myself.
“Julia, this is not appropriate,” I said, forcing my voice to be steady. “In fact, beyond inappropriate, it directly violates club rules to discuss club activities outside of said club with members that you don’t have that prior agreement with.” I knew it for a fact. Alfie had told me so.
Julia raised her eyebrows, looking highly amused. “Did you just admonish me? That’s adorable.”
“Would having your club membership revoked be adorable too?” I snapped. “Or perhaps I could be extra cute and have you fired?” I didn’t mean it, having her fired would be bad for the show but she didn’t need to know I cared about that.
She raised her hand and pinched my chin as if I were a child. “You can’t do that, sweetie.”
I shoved her hand away. “Are you sure?” I stared her down, holding my nerve. I wasn’t completely sure Alfie could have her fired but then again, he had connections everywhere. Hell, the head of the network could be a club member for all I knew.
“You think Alfie Tell would go to that trouble for you?”
“Alfie Tell went to the trouble of having this entire production moved to my hometown just so that I’d be closer to him. So yes, I think he’d have no problem banning you from his property if he thought you weren’t behaving professionally around me.”
Julia finally took a step back. Her eyes swept me over as she reassessed me. “You didn’t seem like the type to hide behind a man.”
