Page 46 of The Worst Guy Ever
Hattie
SomehowI’vemanagedtoescape the aftermath of the wedding with just a medium sized hangover which I’m certain could be fixed with coffee and a bacon roll. Alas, the energy to make either escapes me. I’m also lonely as hell, so I get up and trudge through to Megan’s bedroom. She’s awake, but reading, and scoots over to make some space for me.
“How are you feeling?” she asks.
“Been better.”
“Me too. I didnotneed that last gin and tonic.”
I snuggle down on her pillows and try to find my voice. “I think I know why I’m being shafted at work.”
She puts her book on her nightstand and turns to face me. “Why?”
“I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want to stress you or Kara out right before the wedding, but on Friday I was excluded from a client meeting and Lawrence went instead.”
“Ugh, Lawrence,” she mock retches but it’s a bad move. A real retch quickly follows, a disgusting one that sets me off too and we both start laughing, gulping air to stop ourselves from being sick.
“So I was furious, and I tried to get to the bottom of it, but Andrew wouldn’t give me a proper explanation. He said he’s going to find me something more challenging. And then he told me to, get this,‘be nice’.”
“Uh oh. Nobody tells Hattie Buchanan to be nice.”
“Exactly. Anyway, they never came back from the meeting, which means they all went to the pub, and yesterday I watched Lawrence’s stories and he’d posted a load from their night out like a twat. But in one of the group photos I think I recognised someone.”
“Who?”
I bury my face in the pillow. “A guy I hooked up with last year.”
“Nooo. Who?”
“His name is David, that’s all I knew. But I did some internet stalking and found out he’s the new marketing director at Spirited.”
Saying all of this out loud makes me feel even worse. What a mess I’ve made for myself.
“Oh Hattie, darling. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I think if he knows who I am then maybe he asked for me to be taken off the project.”
“Can he do that?”
“Men can do anything they want, Megan. They’re awful. I don’t even know for sure it’s him but from the way I thought I was about to shit myself I think it might be. And there’s no way I can go in on Monday and say‘oh by the way I think maybe I shagged the client’s new director, has he happened to mention it?’They’d have even less respect for me.”
She strokes my hair, knowing full well there’s nothing she can say to make this better.
“Also…” I pull the covers up over my head. I have to tell her, but I can’t bear to look at her when I say it. “I very nearly almost slept with Rob last night.”
“What?” she sits bolt upright. “How? When? And why didn’t you lead with that?”
“When you rang me I was at the hotel in Kara’s honeymoon suite. She told me I could stay the night since they went to the airport early.”
She frowns. “Why didn’t I get the offer of a night in a luxury hotel?”
“Shit, sorry. She said she wanted me to have a rest after all the work stuff.”
“That’s fair enough, you have been working so much.”
“Anyway, turns out Luke had said the same thing to Rob. So just as I was getting comfy, he turned up.”
“Oh my god,” she lies back, kicking her legs in the air. “Only one bed! This is a romance book.”
