Page 12 of Brighter Together

My fingers move before I’ve properly thought through the answer.

Me

I have. I drew the plans for your proposal.

The second I send it, regret punches through me.

Shit.

I put the phone down, only to pick it up again almost immediately. My pulse beats too fast while the moving dots appear, disappear and then appear again.

Lee

You’re lucky I’m not there.

My fingers go cold.

For a moment, the office around me disappears behind another one. Lee’s hand locked around my arm. His face too close to mine. The quiet threat in his voice when he told me to say something again.

Another message appears and pulls me from my thoughts.

Lee

You better make sure he likes YOUR plans as much as you think he will, because if we don’t get this deal it’s all your fault.

And you wouldn’t want me to tell him you’ve been plotting behind his back.

I thought you liked the job at that hotel.

I stare at the screen before locking the phone and putting it face down on the desk.

Then I pick it straight back up to make sure I actually locked it before putting it back.

My eyes go to the door again. It’s still closed, and when I listen properly, I can hear the ordinary sounds of Greenview Manor Hotel carrying on around me. A trolley rattles somewhere downstairs, footsteps pass along another corridor and a someone is talking in a distant corridor.

Lee isn’t here.

My shoulders loosen slightly, although the phone stays face down where I can see it.

His message has dragged too much of Manchester back with it.

My drawings spread across meeting tables while Lee talked clients through them. Dad clapping him on the back afterwards. Projects suddenly becoming mine again the second somebody found a problem with them.

I hadn’t needed applause for every drawing I produced. I’d just wanted my work to remain mine long enough for somebody to know I’d done it.

Leaving should have ended all of that.

Instead, I can still picture Lee blocking the corridor outside Dad’s office after I told them I was done. His face was red, one hand braced against the wall beside me while he demanded to know what the fuck I thought I was doing.

I tried to walk past him.

His fingers closed around my arm and yanked me back. I knew what came next before his fist even connected with my face.

Pain burst across my cheek and my head snapped sideways. For a second, I could only taste blood where my teeth had caught the inside of my mouth.

Lee was still shouting.

I barely heard the words.