Gold Digger

Lottie

“Yeah, no, they turned us down,” I said to Felix.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

He frowned at me. “Why are you smiling then?”

“Am I?” I reached up to my face as if to check. Lucy giggled from her corner. Since Lucy had taken Felix back, he’d set her up in a corner of his office with a desk for her to write at, but she mostly curled up on the sofa with the many, many blankets and cushions he piled in for her there. Felix’s office was set at twenty-five degrees, but Lucy still had a thick jumper, woollen socks and at least two blankets over her. To be honest, this was a better solution than the one Felix came up with a few months ago when he super-heated the entire office space for Lucy’s benefit. Pete from accounting had to wear actual sweat bands it was so stifling.

Felix crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. I would have found his glare intimidating before, but now that his girlfriend was one of my best friends and I’d seen how much of a big softie he really was, it didn’t have the same effect.

“It makes you a bit of a dick to be beaming away about us losing a massive client to Harry bloody York.”

“Sorry,” I said, pressing my lips together to try and prevent the smile, but it was a losing battle.

“Oh, pish,” Lucy said from her corner. “Let her smile. Who cares about your silly money people? Lottie’s happy.”

“Lucy,” Felix said in a strained tone, clearly scrambling for patience. “They’re not silly money people , they are billionaire businessmen with serious capital to invest. The ROI for the Stantington group would have been—” He broke off as Lucy yawned, and I stifled a laugh. “You can go if I’m so bloody boring,” he grumbled, and Lucy narrowed her eyes at him.

“Fine,” she snapped, starting to push her blankets down. Felix’s annoyed expression dropped, and he strode across the room to pull them back over her and tuck them into her sides.

“I’m sorry, Luce,” he said, contrite now with the prospect of her walking out. “You’re right. They are silly money peeps, and ROI is boring. Please don’t go.”

“Be nice to Lottie.”

“I am being nice to Lottie,” he said through gritted teeth.

“If anyone should understand, it’s you,” Vicky put in, and we all turned to her. She was sitting in Felix’s chair, spinning one way and then the other.

“What do you mean?” Felix asked.

“Well, you smile all the time now too,” she said simply. Felix’s eyebrows went up. “Because of Lucy,” Vicky clarified. “Now Lottie has all the sex and endorphin-releasing activities with Ollie, so she smiles as well. Wow. And here I was thinking I was the one bad at reading people.”

“Vicky,” I hissed, my cheeks on fire.

“And anyway, Lottie told me that the Stantington Group representative was lying. That’s why I didn’t encourage them in the meeting or offer them acceptable terms. And look, their stock value crashed about an hour ago. So, actually, even if Lottie was not smiling because of her happy sex hormones, she should be smiling because she stopped us from taking on an unstable, high-maintenance client.”

“Just another typical day in the finance world, I see,” Ollie appeared in the doorway to Felix’s office wearing his own huge smile; my face could have probably fried a full cooked breakfast at that stage. Without pausing to greet anyone else he came straight to me, wrapped his arms around me, gave me a brief but firm kiss and then put his mouth to my ear to say, “I want to hear more about these happy sex hormones .”

“Ollie!” I protested, giving him a light shove but his arms remained around me. “You can’t just barge in, kiss me and talk about sex hormones. I’m at work.”

“Felix does it all the time,” he argued. “I’ve caught him snogging at work twice in the last month, and he’s the bloody boss.”

“It’s true,” Lucy put in. “I’ve given up telling him off for it.” She shrugged.

“Lucy, you’re not employed here now,” I said, finally pulling back from Ollie but he simply took my hand and held it in his instead.

“I was employed here, if you remember?” Lucy said. “I was a gloriously bad assistant, and Felix was a totally inappropriate boss – complete HR nightmare.”

Felix laughed. “HR loves me now,” he said in a smug voice.

“Only because you made all the changes I told you to.”

It was his turn to shrug. “I am exceptionally good at taking advice.”

“God, you’re arrogant about everything ,” Lucy complained. “You’ve even got to be the best at taking advice.”

“ Si , I am.”

“Well, I can’t afford to be inappropriate at work,” I tried to keep my tone light, but when Felix’s narrowed gaze came to me, I realised that some of the fear may have leaked into it.

“Hey, Lots,” Felix said carefully, “you know you don’t have to worry, right? We’re only joking around. I don’t give a shit if your boyfriend?—”

“Fiancé,” Ollie put in, and Felix rolled his eyes.

“Fiancé wants to be a pest. It doesn’t reflect on you, and you know your job’s secure, right?”

“Yes, sure, of course,” I answered too quickly. Felix crossed his arms over his chest and Ollie gave my hand a squeeze.

“I’m serious, Lots,” he said, clearly starting to get annoyed now. “You’re one of the most important members of the team.”

I sighed. “Okay, Felix. I get it.” I resisted the urge to roll my own eyes. I was unqualified for this job. The only reason I was even there was Vicky. My position was in no way secure. Nothing about my life was ever secure.

Felix opened his mouth to say more, but Lucy cut him off. “Drop it, Felix,” she said in a soft voice, her gaze fixed on me. Luce could often retreat to her own little world, but when she was focused on the world around her, she was surprisingly observant.

“Right, anyway, are we prepping for the meeting now or what?” I put in. “Harry will be here in a minute.” Harding Moretti meetings with Harry York were still often tense due to both Felix and Harry leaning towards dickhead tendencies. They got on better than they used to, but they could still rub each other up the wrong way. So invariably I needed to be there to cut the tension, or they wouldn’t get anything done.

“Hi all,” Harry said as he casually strode into the office, ignoring Felix in favour of making a beeline for Lucy. Harry was a massive L P Mayweather (Lucy’s pen name for her fantasy books) fan.

“Harry!” Lucy said, her face lighting up.

“Hey there, little genius.” Lucy was still on the sofa, so Harry leaned down to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“York,” Felix snapped. His hands were balled into fists, but he knew better than to drag Harry away from Lucy – he’d had a long period of silent treatment from her the last time that happened. “You can’t just bowl about my office like you own it.”

“Well, nobody was in the conference room,” Harry said, straightening in his own good time from Lucy. “Not my fault if your organisation is sloppy, Moretti.”

“Sloppy? Jesus, you’re one to talk. The Lexington deal last week was a complete shitshow.” Harry had turned fully to Felix now. Both men had their hands on their hips. Things were about to deteriorate. I opened my mouth to speak, but my phone vibrated against my hip. Frowning, I pulled it out, and my heart sank when I saw the number on the screen. Mumbling to the others that I had to take the call (Harry and Felix were well into their argument now, so they barely noticed), I pulled my hand from Ollie’s and stepped towards the door.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Miss Forest.” I recognised the school administrator’s nasal, superior voice. “I’m afraid there’s a problem with Hayley.”

“Is she okay?”

“Well, it’s quite serious, but obviously, with Hayley’s difficulties, it’s hard to ascertain?—”

“What happened?” I snapped. “Is she okay?” In my panic, I’d stopped walking, so I was still in Felix’s office, and my voice had risen to a near shout. I was too worried to notice the silence around me, but I did feel Ollie’s large hand on my back.

“There was an altercation. Hayley is perfectly fine – just a few bumps and scrapes. One of the other children, however, has a bloody nose.”

I felt like I was going to be sick. “A few bumps and scrapes?” My gentle Hayley had been hurt.

“Yes, she’s absolutely fine, but unfortunately, she needs to be collected. She’s quite beside herself.”

“She’s hurt?” My voice came out as a strangled whisper. I couldn’t process anything. All this time and effort keeping her safe, and she’d been hurt anyway. I shook my head in denial and I was about to reply when the phone was snatched out of my hand.

“This is Oliver Harding the Duke of Buckingham, Miss Forest’s fiancé and Hayley’s other guardian. We will be at the school in twenty minutes. Please keep the child safe until we arrive.”

“All the children are kept safe here,” the officious bitch snapped.

“Clearly not,” Ollie said in a low voice, shaky with fury as he hung up on her.

“Okay, baby,” he said to me as he turned me towards him by my shoulders. I blinked up at him. My eyes were stinging. Hayley had been hurt. “We’re going now.” I nodded, still feeling numb with shock. “It’s going to be fine. We’re going to sort it out. Hayley will be fine.”

“Right,” I whispered. He nodded, then tucked me under his arm to steer me out of the office.

“Oh, sugar,” I said, turning to Felix as I left. “The meeting, Felix, I?—”

“Fuck the meeting,” Felix said, and I nodded, but my heart sank. The irony was that the more Hayley needed me, the more I had to flake out on work, but also the more I desperately needed the financial stability of work.