‘No, you’re one hundred per cent right. But, if you are honest, we need to be realistic that a working relationship with them would be next to impossible once you spill the tea.’ I shrugged.
‘This is such a great opportunity for us, Katy,’ Zola reminded her.
‘I’ve been majorly fucked over, Zo!’ she snapped back.
Both Zola and I agreed that our friend was in an impossible situation. Part of me hoped Katy could just forget the night with Travis had ever happened, so we could take whatever opportunity came with Flirtify, but another part tugged at the injustice. My friend had been played by exactly the type of man we’d created the website to avoid – the kind of man who deserved to deal with the consequences of his actions. The kind of man who belonged in a dicktionary. Mr Travis Mason needed to learn that he couldn’t go around hurting women like this.
‘OK,’ I said after a long silence. ‘If you want to tell Fee and clear the air, we’ve got you. This isn’t your fault, Katy, and you shouldn’t be penalised for him not being able to keep his dick in his pants. But .?.?.’ I paused. ‘If you want my honest opinion, I’m still not sure that I would. I mean, we’re skint, Katy, and fuck knows how much a deal like this would mean for us financially. That’s if Travis doesn’t insist on pulling the deal, of course. And even if we forgot about the money for a second, working with Flirtify would look fucking amazing on our CVs when we’re pitching to potential clients back home.’
Katy’s face saddened. I knew she felt like she needed revenge, but I wondered if taking the cash and being in constant display around Travis’s wife and family would unsettle him enough to constitute her own unconventional form of payback. Plus, I knew I had taken a massive gamble on coming here. I didn’t want to return a few days later, even more penniless than before, for this trip to be all for nothing.
‘Yeah, I mean, I do see your point, Katy.’ Zola huffed. ‘But there is no way they will take us on if you reveal what Fee’s hubby was up to, so it’s one or the other. We will do whatever you think is right, babe.’
‘Thank you.’ Katy nodded, looking slightly more relieved. ‘Just let me have a wee think about it.’ She was always the most caring person and I knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she kept this a secret. She would never treat anyone the way Travis had treated her, and his wife.
‘But if I tell her, I want to do it in style.’ Katy preened. ‘I need to get out of this dress. I feel like Julia Roberts inPretty Woman.’
I laughed. ‘Why don’t we go shopping?’ I suggested, ‘Clear your head?’
‘Ooh! Sephora’s just around the corner, too. We could get our makeup done?’ Zola said, wide-eyed.
‘Yes! Come on then! Let’s shop.’
I stood up, tugging on Katy’s arm. She finally managed a laugh as we made our way towards the shops, planning and plotting how she could confront Travis and spill all the beans on the night’s events to his wife.
*
It was ten to two when we walked back into the Flirtify headquarters, bags in hand. Katy had bought coconut-scented face wipes to scrub her noon in a McDonald’s bathroom, then changed into a burgundy midi dress with a cool slashed boat neck. She also bought huge new shades after having her makeup done pristinely by a lovely girl at Sephora, with whom she had overshared her whole first-night-in-New-York ordeal in full-on detail. She exuded confidence as she strutted in, looking like an entirely new person, but I knew her well enough to know that, internally, she was in turmoil. Katy didn’t do well with rejection and she seemed to really think she and Travis had something.
For the second time that day, we headed through security and handed in our passes.
‘Sorry, wait one moment, ma’am.’ The security officer held out his arm, blocking Katy from entering the building.
‘What? What is it?’ She pulled her shades down.
‘I have to check something.’ He began typing and peered closely at his computer screen.
‘This is because of him, isn’t it?’ Katy snapped. She was talking to Zola and me, but her voice was so loud it echoed across the lobby. ‘He’s blocked access in case his truth is revealed to the world. I’m not having this, Ella.’ Her voice was angry, but I could hear flickers of more vulnerable emotions tremble around the edges of it.
‘Calm down, Katy,’ I said quietly.
‘Look what he’s done.’ She held her hand up, and I glanced around at the queue forming behind us. ‘This is supposedly the home of free speech. He’s taking away my First Amendment rights. I have the right to free speech, mister!’
‘Jesus, calm down, Martin Luther King Jr.’ Zola tittered. ‘Is there a problem here, sir? We have a meeting in five minutes. We really do have to get up there.’
The broad security guard huffed, turning his computer screen around. Spread across it was a photograph of Katy taken that morning with huge hair and pale, crusty-looking skin.
‘I’m working out if you are who you say you are, ma’am,’ he said.
I began to giggle looking at the photo. It really was a shocker. ‘She is. She just had a bad .?.?. well, a terrible hair start to the day. But come on, you can see it’s the same person, no?’
The noise in the lobby was increasing as we held up the entrance, as the guard continued to squint between the photograph of Katy and the glamorous version of her standing before him.
‘OK, on you go, ma’am. Next time, get that hair under control. Next!’
Katy’s jaw was gaping as Zola and I laughed, pushing her towards the lifts.
‘What a cheeky cunt!’ she practically screeched as she pressed the buttons.
