Page 71 of Strictly the Worst

“Okay.”

He disappears, as do Lindy and the ladies, who all blow me a kiss as they walk away. I turn to the security guard. “Nobody is allowed in there without my express permission,” I tell him.

“Fine by me.” He shrugs.

“Good. I’m just going to make a call. I’ll be back in five minutes.” I give him a glare. “Nobody.”

“Sure.”

Striding across the lurid carpet I make my way to a quiet corner and unlock my phone, pulling up Tessa’s name on the screen.

It goes straight to voicemail this time, not even ringing. Jesus, I need to talk to her. The only thing that’s stopping me from getting on a flight to New York right now is my brother and the fact that I love him to fucking heaven and back.

“Carmichael,” I say into the phone. “It’s me. Stop ignoring me. Call me back.”

But she doesn’t.

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

TESSA

“So is everybody clear on what we need to do?” I ask, looking around the team. We’re all seated around the large oak table in the boardroom of Hampshire PR. There are donuts and coffee and everybody’s in a good mood because we’ve received the official notification that the Exuma contract has been signed by all parties. Which is great, but I need them to concentrate now because winning the contract was easy compared to the work ahead of us.

“Of course,” Gina murmurs, smiling at me. “And I’ll send out a reminder to everybody in an email. With a tracker they need to update daily.”

“Thank you.” I give her a smile because she’s such a life saver. “And remember that drinks are on the business this Friday night.” Roman has already given me the go-ahead to put money behind the bar. I won’t be going but Gina will arrange it, then type up the invoices and make sure everything’s done properly.

I go to shut down my laptop, and suddenly everybody stops talking. The sudden hush makes me frown, and when I look up Linc is standing in the doorway, his eyes on me.

He doesn’t look happy. Which is good, because I don’t need anybody in this room knowing what happened while we were away. He tried to call me a few times over the weekend but with my newfound decision to move on I ignored them all.

Everybody starts to crowd around Linc, the conversation starting up again. But he ignores them, opting to walk over to me.

“Can I have a word, please?” he says.

There’s an edge to his tone that sends a shiver down my spine. “I’m busy,” I tell him, because I’m a coward at heart.

“You’ve just finished a meeting,” he says, his gaze still on my face. “I heard you.”

“You were waiting outside?” I frown.

“I would hate to interrupt you,” he says. And I know in my heart he’s talking about all those ignored calls. And messages. Okay, so there were more than a few. But I’m also kind of annoyed because he doesn’t get to call me like all is fine after radio silence for over a week.

“Give me a minute,” I say. “I need to go to the ladies’ room. I’ll come to your office.”

“Oh no.” He shakes his head. “I’ll come to yours.”

“Yours is more private.” Whatever he wants to say to me, I don’t want my staff overhearing.

“And if I go to mine, you won’t come. So I’ll be waiting for you in your office.”

“Fine.” I sigh. “Whatever.”

I turn to the left, heading for the ladies’ room, while he turns to the right, presumably heading straight for my office. I should have told him to take my laptop, because I’m going to have to put it on the bathroom counter.

Making a note to clean it thoroughly with one of those handy wipes that Gina keeps in her drawer, I set it down and stare at my reflection in the mirror, wanting to silently scream.

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