‘This is insane!’ Zola laughed.
‘This is overwhelming, no?’ I replied, keeping my voice low. ‘We haven’t even discussed what we’re doing. What type of app are we making? What’s its name? What are its functions?’
‘Whoa, calm down, Ella,’ Zola murmured.
‘Calm down? Zola, we literally have a team of people relying on us here!’
‘Babe, you’re panicking. We’re recreating The Dicktionary Club, just like we pitched, remember?’
‘But even better!’ Katy grinned.
Neither of my friends seemed in any way fazed, but I felt a wave of anxiety rush through me, remembering how awfully that turned out the last time for me. I mean, sure it was a massive hit with the women of Glasgow, but it basically ruined my life, my career, and my relationship. What if this went the same way, but on a much larger scale? What if we pissed off the wrong guy on our new app? A politician, or a sports star? A musician, or some hotshot lawyer? We could be extradited from the USA, couldn’t we?
‘Look, we got this. We know what we’re doing. Just stick to our teams, we’ll all do our own little bit, then we can reconvene.’ Zola rubbed my shoulder, calming me down slightly.
I spotted Katy glaring at Travis as he passed through the corridor opposite with his head low. ‘American women need this app, Ella,’ she said as soon as Travis was out of sight. We’re basically like Batman – well, Batwoman, I guess – a group of hardcore vigilantes, coming to save their love lives from imminent disaster!’
There was a quiet moment between us. Zola and I stared at Katy, who eventually turned to us when she noticed we hadn’t responded.
‘What?’ Katy asked.
‘Too far again, babe. Always too bloody far!’ Zola shook her head.
‘Ella, shall we head to my office? I have a group of staff there waiting to begin,’ Britney said, piping up beside me. Her face was deadpan. I couldn’t tell whether she was resting-bitch-face dour or if she hated me already.
‘Sure.’ I smiled at my friends as they scattered off to their own teams.
‘So, how long have you worked at Flirtify?’ I asked as I jogged behind her to keep up.
‘Quite some time, now.’ Britney sounded completely indifferent to my efforts to chat.
Great, I thought.I’ve landed an Ice Queen. We continued in silence until we reached her spacious office. The door was slightly ajar and I spotted a cluster of people gathered around a desk.
‘OK, Ella, this is the PR and marketing team,’ Britney informed me as we entered.
I examined the young, sharply dressed team in front of me.
‘Nice to meet you all,’ I said, spotting an empty chair and steering towards it.
Britney tittered, and it wasn’t a friendly sound. ‘Can you lead, Ella? This is your pitch, after all. Tell us about this app and what you need from us.’
Shit, she definitely hates me, I thought.
‘Sure,’ I replied, deciding it was not the time for a seat.
What do I even say?I felt totally unprepared. I headed up to the front of the table, where the group were glancing between me and their notebooks.
‘Well, hello, everyone. I’m Ella. And I’ve been asked to come over to the States to redesign, relaunch, a website my frie – my colleagues and I developed back home in Glasgow. We called it The Dicktionary Club and—’
‘You realise that name won’t stick here?’ Britney interrupted.
Nods of agreement from the group in front of me.
‘Do you understand?’ Britney asked.
I hovered, not knowing if she was addressing her minions or me.
‘Yeah, totally. It’s too long,’ one of them stated, with an unimpressed glint in her eye.
