Travis looked horrified. ‘You told me you were alone,’ he muttered under his breath.
‘Duh, I was?’ Katy managed a laugh, her heart beating against her chest. ‘But they came in just before you arrived, and I said I needed the room. It’s fine! It’s only Ella and Zo.’ She shrugged again, rolling her eyes at him, but wondered why he was suddenly acting so sketchy and suspicious. This was not the smooth, confident man she met on that first date.
‘Well, why are they screaming like that?’ Travis pushed, stalking in restless circles. Katy could feel her stomach churning; anxiety flickering through her as her body tightened in response. She could feel the urgent beginning of nervous diarrhoea, especially after the razor incident. Her discomfort seemed to intensify with each of his probing questions; she could feel sweat trickling down her clammy back.
‘I don’t know,’ she said with an idiotic giggle. ‘Will I ask them? Oh, yeah! Maybe they’ve managed to add on a bag for the flight cheaper than they expected.’ She shrugged. ‘Have you seen the price they charge for extra luggage these days? It’s fucking ridiculous. You know I booked a trip on Ryanair once, have you heard of them?’ She was waffling, using any absurd thought for a distraction, ‘Anyway, the fucking luggage ended up costing more than the flight itself!’
Travis was studying Katy, glancing down the hallway, then eventually resting back on her far-too-innocent face.
‘Do you have the same problem with budget flights in the States?’ she asked.
Travis relaxed slightly, smirked, then placed his hand on her face. ‘I don’t do budget flights, babe.’ His mood shifted; his arrogance returned. ‘I just wanted to say goodbye.’ He tapped her cheek. ‘Safe flight. It’s been fun.’ He winked.
Katy stood in complete disbelief. What was happening? Did he know? Was he double bluffing?
‘Thank you,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘Fun, such fun.’
Travis stepped towards the lift and pressed the button, facing the door.
‘Travis?’
He turned back, raising his head slightly.
‘Did you really mean in another lifetime?’ she said, knowing he was a total dick but still craving his affection.
He sighed, gazing at Katy, now with no interest in her whatsoever. ‘Sure, maybe.’ The door opened. ‘Say hi to Nessie for me.’
Katy stood bewildered, shaken and glued to the spot.Why did he turn so cold? Did I lie so much that he eventually believed me and understood that I wasn’t going to be an issue? But what happened to Mr Nice Guy?Replaying him looking down on her. There was something off, completely off. She turned on her heels and thundered to Ella’s bedroom, pushing open the door.
‘He’s in on this!’ She felt weak, totally disorientated, like she had been lied to and manipulated all this time.
‘What?’ Ella jumped off the bed and came over to Katy, rubbing her arms, ‘How do you know?’
Katy glanced at Ethan, who was writing on a piece of paper now. ‘He changed, so suddenly. He was caring at the start, sweet, then I realised he was just trying to get answers out of me. He started asking when we were going home, and all of this – so I lied and told him tomorrow. Then he heard you guys and seemed panicked – as if our presence threatened whatever he was planning – so I made up some story about how you must have got cheaper luggage allowance.’
‘Did he believe you?’ Ella said.
‘Yeah, I mean, I was talking sense, the luggage pricing is ridiculous.’ Katy’s face twisted, reliving the moment, trying to make sense of it. ‘But then he turned into a complete, uncaring prick. Like he had the answers to the questions he wanted and realised I wasn’t a threat, maybe? Everything changed in an instant, and he looked at me like I was dog shit on his shoe!’
Zola walked a few steps towards Katy. ‘You bluffed him, babe!’
Katy shook her head. ‘I didn’t, I just .?.?.’
Ella giggled. ‘You totally did, Katy! You won, you told him we were going home, and we’re not. He won’t expect what’s next now, thanks to you,’ she said with a huge smile towards Zola and Ethan.
Katy was confused. ‘Help me out here. I have no idea what’s going on.’
‘We have a code that’s linked to a member’s ID at Flirtify.’ Ethan’s voice was as deadpan as usual, but his grin was wide.
Katy’s jaw hung open, not entirely sure what that meant, but she could only assume it was positive.
‘Tomorrow morning, before the board meeting, we’re going to sneak into the IT department and run the code against the list of employee names. Then the snake will be exposed!’ Zola clapped and let out a huge whoop of relief.
‘Then we’ll find out the stalker?’ Katy said, her weeks of torment showing.
Ella wrapped her arm around her. ‘Yeah. It must all be related. Katy, we’ve almost got them!’
Katy felt her legs grow wobbly and she crouched to the ground, covering her mouth in disbelief. She then bolted up, ran towards Ethan, flinging her arms around him.
