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“She’s late as usual, you know she doesn’t like to rise before nine.”
I chuckled, knowing nine was probably being kind. I’d seen that girl sleep through an entire morning of workshops before.
“I’ll go and get her,” I said, finishing my breakfast up quickly. “Thanks, Mar.”
“Anytime.”
I got up from the table and headed toward the double doors that would lead back up to the hotel rooms. As I passed, I felt someone watching me. It was hard not to, so I turned around and right here.
Staring at me with daggers.
I saw her.
The one I thought I had imagined last night.
She was here.
Matilda.
CHAPTER4
MATTIE
She’d seenme in the breakfast hall, I know she had. The smile she’d been wearing had disappeared instantly and she had ducked out of the hall as quickly as she could. At least she knew I wasn’t playing. I was here for my business so she had better not fuck that up or I’d be more than happy to consider twenty-five to life behind bars. Sophie sat down next to me in the first seminar about marketing “you”. It had sounded like something I would enjoy, finding the unique niche that told the story about my business. The guest speaker seemed nice enough, as she stood greeting us when we came into the room. From what Sophie had told me, you could choose which seminars or workshops to attend, some were on at the same time which was a bummer but she said sometimes they were repeated throughout the weekend so you didn’t miss out. The workshop was being held near the restaurant on the other side of the bungalows. I’d gone walking that way last night, to clear my head, and get over my nervousness. Sophie had said the bungalows were super expensive and barely anyone could afford them. Only a handful, from what she said, were staying there.
Sophie had been great. She knew everyone and she knew every tidbit about everyone here. I’d never been so well informed of people I didn’t know before.
“Mattie,” Sophie called out to me as she took a seat on the other side of the room. I sat down next to her. “I remember this speaker. She calls on people who sit on the aisle side of the seats.”
Thank god for Sophie. She knew I would have hated to speak in front of everyone. I took the brochure off the seat and flicked through it.
“Janet” was a life coach guru and self-confessed boss babe before the trend was popular. Already I didn’t like her.
The way she described herself and made herself seem more important than the movement annoyed me but I would stick it out if I said anything so I held my tongue. I couldn’t see Genevieve anywhere so that must have meant she was at the workshop. I didn’t want to be in the same thing as her so I was forced to stick it out with Janet.
When she got up on the stage, I saw her fake as sin smile light up her face as she put on the headset. She had the clicker in her hand to activate the slides behind her. When it jammed on the first slide, Sophie bit her lip as I slightly chuckled. It was enough to annoy the woman in front of me, earning me a warning glance before she tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked back at the stage.
Janet started out by talking to us about her own “journey”.
“Jesus, she’s a journey talker,” Sophie said. “Too late to run out.”
She was right, the doors were now closed and it would be way too noticeable to get up and leave.
“Unless we had an emergency bathroom issue to deal with.”
“But we’re adults,” I told her. “We can handle those issues alone these days.”
Sophie nodded. “When you’re right, you’re right.”
“Where are the others?” I asked, wondering why the E’s hadn’t come with us.
“In the workshop.”
“Why didn’t you go with them?”
“You need a friend,” she said. “Plus, I could use a break from the fantastical stories Eva is telling us about her perfect husband.”
“That is true, I don’t think she realizes that they’re a bit too outlandish to believe.”
