Page 110 of Unapologetic Love Story

Pepper’s breath hitched and she dabbed at her eyes. ‘You’re trying to cheer me up.’

‘It is your birthday, Pep. So, you can sit in here and cry over a guy. Or you can go down and remind him exactly who it was he liked all those years ago. Tastefully. Respectfully. While being nice and polite to the woman he’s brought with him.’

Pepper made a snarling sound. ‘Do I have to?’

‘Yes. That woman has done nothing wrong. Be a gracious hostess.’

Raina helped her friend get to her feet and they looked at one another. Raina dabbed some tissue under Pepper’s lashes, wiping away any trace of smudged mascara. She fixed her hair. She helped reattach the armour like a knight’s squire before a joust, stopping the outer world from spotting a single flaw in the metal. She was readying her friend for a type of battle, and she was behind her should the lance strike too hard.

As they left the bedroom and set off down the long corridor to the top of the stairs, they spotted Ottie coming from the opposite direction. Her stride was determined but slightly off balance. She swayed and tripped up a little, and seemingly took no notice of either of them. She went straight to the room Raina had walked into earlier, the room where the couple had been enjoying each other. She banged on the door with such fury it made Raina and Pepper freeze.

‘This isn’t good,’ Raina whispered.

‘Can’t help you, not listening, love the drama,’ Pepper muttered back.

‘We should go.’

‘Nope. I live here now. Number One Messy Drama Street. Occupant: me.’

Ottie still seemed oblivious to the two of them as she finally kicked the door open. She grabbed hold of the handle and leaned into the unlit bedroom.

‘Fuck you for doing this here,’ she gurgled, her voice a mix of anger and pain. ‘Take her out to the fucking car if you have to. Or the bushes. Just not somewhere that actual people might see.’

Raina ached for her. A part of her wanted to storm into the room and drag Seb out herself. When he emerged, doing up his belt and completely lacking in any remorse, her anger turned to horror. Horror that a man who’d recently proposed could be so nonchalant about this kind of disloyalty. The woman he’d been with skirted out from behind him and dashed away, heading down the long staircase with such speed, she clearly thought she was being pursued.

‘Sloshed already?’ Seb asked Ottie, in a voice Raina had never heard him use.

‘Die,’ Ottie replied softly.

It was at that moment, while Seb walked back towards the party with a swagger that made Raina wish she had an axe to aim between his shoulder blades, Ottie turned and noticed she had an audience. Her face flickered through multiple emotions but finally settled on mortification.

Raina couldn’t stand it any longer. ‘Ottie, I’m so sorry. Are you all right? Come with us. We can—’

‘Don’t talk to me,’ she snapped, glaring at Raina as though she were the one who’d just betrayed her. ‘Don’t even look at me. You don’t know me. Us. Who the hell are you to speak to me right now?’

She turned on her heel and stumbled towards one of the bathrooms. Pepper made a noise of disparagement and headed back to her birthday party, but Raina couldn’t give it up. She couldn’t abandon someone after they’d walked in on their partner doing that. She followed Ottie and knocked gently on the door.

‘Ottie? I’m so sorry. I’m here if you need anything.’

‘Fuck off.’

Raina sighed and was about to obey when she heard a crashing sound. She opened the door and burst in. Ottie had slipped on the tiles, one of her Jimmy Choos dislodged while she sat sprawled on the bathroom floor.

‘Hey,’ Raina said softly, stepping inside and locking the door behind her. ‘Do you want me to ask Pepper if she can get them to leave? Would that help?’

‘No, you moron,’ nipped Ottie. ‘Don’t tell anyone about it. We have an open relationship.’

The words were shaky and forced. Raina could see the public relations spin in motion behind Ottie’s eyes. She was too proud to have the truth come out so she was manufacturing a lie that she could live with, rather than lose the things she couldn’t live without.

Raina sat down beside her, unsure of what to say. She took in the bathroom, in all of its white and powder-blue splendour.

‘Size of my first flat, this bathroom,’ she said delicately. ‘This whole house is insane. I couldn’t live in it. But this is excellent cleaning work, I must say. And I would know, I used to be a cleaner.’

Ottie looked Raina up and down, black streaks of mascara infused with tears visible on her face. ‘That checks out.’

Raina didn’t mind that Ottie was lashing out at her.

‘Cleaning is hard but it’s not the worst job I’ve ever done. What about you?’