“I can’t believe you think that. Don’t you trust me?” Her lip quivered a little, and then her eyes started to tear up.
“Well, I’m not sure. Am I meant to trust the girl that steals money from my wallet and bunks off school?” His voice came out loudly. Too loudly.
Her face crumpled and a tear escaped her eye.
The guilt punched him in the gut. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout,” he said softly.
“You never mean to shout!” she said, the tears running down her cheeks in stripes. She turned her back on him and folded her arms.
Okay, he hadn’t handled this well. He could see that now, but he’d gotten such a shock. Was she really at this age already?
“I do need a bra,” she whimpered through soft sobs.
He shook his head. He’d really fucked up again. “I’m sorry, I just—”
“Please get out of my room,” she cut him off.
He nodded. “Okay.” He placed the magazine down on her desk again. “I’m sorry,” he said again, although his apology was clearly not having any effect on her.
He walked out of her room and closed the door behind him. Could their relationship get any worse? And where the hell was the manual for this? He needed one. Desperately. He needed to know what to do before their relationship crumbled and disintegrated beyond repair.
He pulled his phone out and typed a message to his mother. He knew Emmy had said she didn’t want to go shopping with her grandmother, but what other choice did he have?
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
Poppy
When he came to fetch me for work, it was clear he was already in a bad mood. I climbed into the car with a smile, ready to happily thank him for the pizza the night before, but when I saw that stern look etched onto his face, my stomach dropped. This look still filled me with such fear and nervousness. We drove in total silence for a while before I summoned the courage to break it.
“Thanks for the pizza,” I finally said.
“Don’t mention it,” he said dismissively.
I continued. “It was very kind, you didn’t have to—”
“I know I didn’t have to.” He cut me off in that gruff voice that had the ability to strike terror into my heart.
I kept quiet after that. We finally pulled into the parking lot and that’s when he looked at me for the first time. I smiled at him.
“Miss Granger, please don’t let anyone into my office today. You let someone slip past you yesterday and it was very inconvenient.”
“I did?” I asked. I had no recollection of this happening. It must have happened when I was typing up that email. “Sorry,” I said quickly. “It won’t happen again.”
“No! It won’t,” he said and then climbed out of the car and closed the door so loudly that it bordered on a slam.
What the hell?
The day pretty much deteriorated from that moment onwards. Maybe it was because I was nervous, maybe it was because he seemed angrier than usual, maybe it was because I overheard him shouting at someone about some kind of late report, maybe it was because I’d eaten too much pizza the night before and my stomach now felt crampy. But in the first two hours of the day I managed to miss a phone call, put another one through to the wrong extension and then accidentally mark something in his diary incorrectly. And by the time lunch came along, I was in such a bloody state that I couldn’t remember if he liked mayo or not. Why couldn’t I remember if he wanted his coffee black or white?
My mind raced as I looked at the foods and finally made my order. It was 50/50 that I’d gotten one of the choices wrong and would probably be crapped on from a dizzy height—again. Ayanda and Juniper sat at a table together talking, and a part of me wanted to join them. I didn’t have many girlfriends; my mom and I had been best friends and I’d never really needed anyone but her. But now that she was gone, I felt alone in this world. There was no one I could just reach out to. Have coffee with. Pick up the phone for a chat.
“Hi, guys.” I waved at them as I tapped my foot on the floor, waiting for the sandwich and the coffee to arrive.
They waved back at me and both smiled. “Bad day?” Ayanda asked as she lifted a cup of coffee to her lips and sipped.
“It will be if I don’t get this back to his office asap.” We all shared a look of understanding.
“He seems worse than usual today,” Ayanda commented. “I heard he made Martha cry earlier.”
