Page 53 of Set Me On Fire

“Can’t stand newfangled things like that.”

What the actual…? Even Mum and Dad had an answering machine on their landline back in the day.

“Right, right, so again, sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you still had that admin position open?”

He sucked in a breath and it felt like my heart went with it, fluttering like a wounded bird. Rejection, that’s what I prepared myself for, but instead I got this.

“Can you start the day after New Year’s Day?”

“New Year’s Day…?” I was so dumbfounded I just stared blankly before the adrenaline kicked in. “Yes, of course, that would be perfect.”

Chapter 27

Charlie

“So how’d you pull up after New Year’s?” Dave asked me with a leer.

In every place I’d ever worked, there was that guy. A total dickhead, but you had to put up with him for the sake of professionalism. I forced myself to smile now. For some reason, that got harder lately. Probably the trauma of having to deal with my nutbag family. I came up with a suitably bland reply, hoping to throw him off the scent.

“Not bad. Just went round to Henry’s with the rest of our team.”

Of course, it couldn’t be that easy, could it?

“Didn’t end up going out afterwards?” Dave scoffed. “Pubs were crawling with girls.”

“What use were they to you?” I asked, starting to stiffen. He watched my spoon move faster and faster as I stirred milk into my coffee. “You’ve got Katie.”

His face screwed up in an expression of disgust.

“That fat bitch?—”

My free hand was out before I could even blink, grabbing the front of his uniform and shoving him against the wall without even sloshing my coffee.

“See, that’s where you made your mistake. ‘We’re just not that into each other;’ ‘We decided to see other people;’ or even ‘She saw what a complete tool I am and dumped my fucking arse’ would have all been acceptable ways to tell me you’ve broken up with a woman that’s far too good for the likes of you.”

“You fucking date her then,” Dave croaked out.

I watched his face turn redder, feeling a strange kind of calm, and considered his idea. Katie was gorgeous, smart too, making a living as a photographer, but… She wasn’t the person I saw smiling up at me. No, it was a whole other temptress in a blood-red dress that haunted my dreams.

And my days too.

“Pretty sure she deserves better than me too.”

That had to be the case, right? Attracting girls took no effort, but keeping them? Sometimes I felt like I was some kind of carnival attraction, fun to ride, but not something you’d waste your future doing.

“You two got time to stand around fondling each other?” Knox marched into the break room with a frown even deeper than the last. Every damn day he was in a shittier mood. Apparently, a foursome wasn’t the team building activity you might’ve hoped it was. “We’ve got trucks to clean.”

“And you’re not my team lead.”

Dave shoved me away and went to face down Knoxy. I knew he was a dumb prick, but I didn’t realise just how dumb until now. My lead was cruising for a bruising, and punching Dave so hard he’d see God was just the kind of workout he was looking for. Of course, that was when Brent walked in, that sixth sense of his putting him right where he needed to be to defuse tensions when they arose.

“Morning, fellas,” he said, conspicuously ignoring the two of them as they stepped back. “Hope you had a good break. Just a FYI, Judy’s replacement will be starting today. She’ll be shadowing Jude for a week or two to learn the ropes, and then she’ll take on the role permanently.”

“A new piece of skirt in the office.” Dave’s grin was nauseating. “Nice.”

“You—” Knox snapped.

“Do realise that we have a HR department?” Brent asked Dave mildly. “What am I saying? Of course you do. They’ve had words with you about sexual harassment in the workplace before. How many written warnings have you got so far?” He made a show of thinking about it, but the old man had a mind like a steel trap.

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