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‘No way,’ said Violet with absolute conviction. ‘She tries hard, though. She’s always in the office, for a start, isn’t she?’
Abi laughed. ‘Hasn’t she got much of a social life or something?’
I winced. Didn’t they say that if you listened in on people talking about you, you were bound to hear something you wished you hadn’t? But short of opening the door and confronting them, I was stuck in here, and they had no idea I could hear every single word they were saying.
‘Well, her boyfriend dumped her, didn’t he, so she’s probably got nothing else to do?’ replied Violet. ‘I reckon she thinks the job’s hers, but I’ve seen Amanda’s presentation and it’s amazing. Really exciting and dynamic and all of that.’
‘Don’t imagine Rebecca’s will be anything out of the ordinary, do you?’ said Abi.
‘Rebecca’s a grafter,’ said Violet, ‘but in my opinion, and obviously it’s not up to me, but Amanda’s got that special something. She’d bring something really different to the role, I reckon.’
I heard the hand dryers go on. Abi said something in reply, but her voice was drowned out by the roar of hot air. The door opened and creaked shut again and then there was silence.
I let myself out of the cubicle and looked in the mirror, wiping smudged liner from under my eye with my thumb. Was that really what people thought of me, that I was some lonely, pitiful spinster past her sell-by date? Anger swirled inside me as I washed my hands, ripping a paper towel out of the holder, then rolling it into a ball and lobbing it into the bin. Weirdly, the anger was more to do with their perception of me than it was about the prospect of me losing out on the job. I realised I didn’t want it anyway. There: I’d said it. I did not want to be head of press and marketing at Kingsland Marketing, I wanted to do something with my life that would make me feel fulfilled, in a role where I could actually do something to make other people’s lives better. Maybe I could work for a charity, or something like that? Mum had been a social worker, and a brilliant one, but I didn’t think I could cope with that. I felt fired up, suddenly. I was going to start researching careers as soon as I got home. If only Abi and Violet knew that their bitchy gossiping session about me was exactly what I’d needed to hear.
