‘Mm,’ agrees Kat. ‘Some of the revenge ideas were getting quite dark by that point and Cal didn’t want to see you end up in jail.’
‘Ha ha, that’s right!’ Ellie says cheerfully. ‘Jan said I could go back to hers but I’ve a cat allergy and she always seems to have the neighbours’ cats staying over.’
‘And I offered you a place at mine,’ adds Kat.
Ellie grimaces at me on screen. ‘Kat lives in Hampstead,’ she says, pulling an about-to-be-sick face. ‘You know I can’t go further north than Camden.’
‘You made that abundantly clear on the night,’ Kat rolls her eyes. ‘Said you’d combust if you had to hang out with the “yummy mummy set”.’
‘It’s okay, boss,’ Ellie says, patting Kat affectionately on the hand. ‘You totally used to be cool.’
‘You said that as well!’
Ellie shrugs. ‘So basically, it was Cal’s or bust. And he was so kind about it all. He listened as I plotted Meteor’s unfortunate demise, he gave me a box of tissues to wipe my snotty face on. He insisted I drink some water and made me a vegan cheese toastie as a midnight snack because he was worried I’d consumed only alcohol all day, which actually wasn’t true because I’d also had three flat whites, even though Cal said that didn’t count. He gave me paracetamol and tried to offer me an old T-shirt to sleep in but I was like, ew, no way, because it was some tragic music band from, like, 2010 or something. I wasn’t in that bad a state!’
My eyes flick back over to Callum, who is now helping the old lady with her luggage, and my heart squeezes painfully.
‘Cal insisted on giving me his bed for the night,’ Ellie says. ‘He slept on the sofa in his living room. I’ll never forget how thoughtful he was, actually. So, sorry to say, babes, but you got that all wrong. Like, drastically so.’
My jaw’s on the floor. I stare and stare at Ellie, as if the longer I look at her, the more clues I’ll get that she’s fibbing. But it’s so clear that she’s not.
She’s right, I have got it drastically wrong.
All this time I thought Callum was pretty low and it turns out, once again, I’ve misjudged him.
My gaze tracks back to him now, moving over to greet Clio and Brody as they pull up at the gate.
‘Oh. Shit,’ I say.
‘Indeed,’ says Kat. ‘Sounds like you’ve got the wrong end of the stick.’
‘Just a bit.’ I wince.
‘Well, it’s a good job you’ve got a nice long flight to make it up to him then, isn’t it. Remember, Nina, I want you two sympatico by the time you get back to London. Okay?’
I grimace.
‘Yass, go off, Nina,’ chips in Ellie.
‘Ciao for now,’ says Kat, hanging up.
THIRTEEN
I am reeling after that eye-opening chat with Kat’s PA and the discovery that Callum is not a festive letch after all. In fact, I should one hundred per cent be apologizing to him. I got him wrong again. Not only do I find myself looping this same bloody Monday, but now I appear to be revisiting Callum’s flaws and discovering that they’re not actually flaws after all?
So annoying!
First, I learn that he’s not the nepo baby I thought he was. Instead he had a similar upbringing to mine and finding that I have that in common with my work nemesis has been like spotting a fleck of gold in the soil. By which I mean, oddly compelling, as if I want to reach out and grasp the gold, but I won’t because I know I’ll get muddy. And now it turns out I totally invented his role as villain at the office Christmas party, when in reality he’d really looked out for a vulnerable member of the team. It’s exasperating to say the least to learn that once again, I’ve got him wrong.
I gratefully accept a glass of plane wine and knock it back in one go.
Is it possible that I’ve got Callum Bangallwrong?
Now it’s my turn to snort with laughter. Of course I haven’t!Sure, two of the things I found most annoying about him have recently been debunked, but let’s not forget the fact that he was incredibly rude to me about my job the day we met. Let’s not forget how he dismissed my entire career and all of my hard work as nothing more than ‘frothy’. That alone is bad enough.
‘Laughing at your own jokes again, Moss?’
I turn to glare at the man who remains my rival.
