Page 25 of Shout Out To My Ex

‘You might change your min?—’

I cut her off by forcefully closing my bedroom door. I rest against it, moments from the evening flickering through my mind and making my stomach lurch. I didn’t eat anything at dinner except that bread roll – only I’m not remotely hungry. Just shellshocked.

What the fuck have I said yes to?

8

POPPY

I’m reading an email from a potential client when the phone on my desk rings. ‘Hi, Anita.’

‘Poppy, I have Ms Bliss on the line for you,’ she says. ‘I’ll just put her through.’

‘Poppy?’ says Cassie.

‘Hey, how did it go?’ I ask. Elle and Leo’s meeting was last night.

‘Er…’Uh oh. ‘I’d tell you “not well” but that would be a massive understatement.’

‘Oh no, what happened?’ I cast my eyes around the office for Nasrin but can’t see her.

‘Let’s just say that we’re going to need a Plan B. And fast. Before Fashion Week.’

‘Right.’ Nasrin comes out of the bathroom and I wave her over. ‘It’s Cassie,’ I mouth. ‘Cassie, can I pop you on hold for a sec?’

‘Yes, all right.’

‘What’s going on?’ asks Nas.

‘The meeting between Elle and Leo didn’t go as planned and Cassie wants a Plan B.’

‘Fuck.’ She turns and scouts for an empty meeting room. ‘Come on.’

I follow her into the room that looks out over the Thames, close the door, and tap a button on the console in the middle of the table.

‘Hi, Cassie, I’m here with Nasrin. Want to talk us through what happened?’

‘Sure, but I’ve only got a few minutes before Elle comes back. The long and the short of it is that he’s turned into a massive prat, the meeting dredged up a lot of deep-seated anger, and Elle wants nothing to do with him.’

‘Okay,’ I say, my eyes flicking towards Nasrin. She nods at me. We’ve been in similar situations with clients before. Even though there’s obvious panic in Cassie’s voice, this is likely just a minor setback. But still, we need to respect the client and not patronise her.

‘And you know how he’s showing at Fashion Week?’ she adds.

‘Yes,’ we say together. It came up when we were deciding when and how to plan the surprise reunion. The three of us agreed that staging their initial meeting as an ‘incidental run-in’ in Paris would be less than optimal – Elle would be focused on her show and, as Cassie indicated, more than a little stressed out – which is why we went with last night’s meeting.

‘He’s invited her to watch. His show.’

‘Right,’ says Nas. ‘And?’

‘She told him to bugger off, but I think I’ve talked her into going.’

‘That’s promising,’ I say.

‘Well, yes and no. I’ve had to promise my first-born child in return.’

‘Ouch,’ says Nas.

‘The favour aside, Cassie,’ I say, ‘I’m putting that in the plus column, okay? So, let’s address the three points you made earlier: he’s a prat, she’s pissed off, and she wants nothing to do with him. First off,weall know that Leo made a massive sacrifice for his sister, so it’s possible he’s?—’

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