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But I just smile, and tell him, ‘I owe you a pint.’
‘Yeah, you do.’ He smiles back, a little more gently this time.
‘So what happened? They found out Tasha was behind it?’
‘Oh myGod, Anna, you should’ve seen it! Well – not – obviously, it was awful, but still.Totaldrama,’ Elaine gushes, returning from the kitchen to fold herself into the corner of the sofa next to Dylan – and I wonder if maybe she wasn’t very fond of Tasha all this time, too, because she’s normally so good at taking themiddle ground. ‘She got called up to Topher’s office, and the Senior HR Partner was there,andTasha’s manager,andyours,andNadja – and they really let her have it. Nadja really went for the jugular.’
Izzy says, sounding a little reproachful, ‘Monty and Verity were helpful enough to message us all to let us know what was going on, so we could all come and listen.’
‘You could’ve heard a pin drop,’ Dylan tells me, eyes wide with the excitement of the scandal. ‘Everyone was listening in.’
‘She got insoooomuch trouble,’ Elaine goes on. ‘For messing with your work computer and snooping through it when she knew it could be, like, a breach of confidential information and stuff, but also because it’s just rude. For sending the emails, because it was vindictive. Even wasting company resources, printing out hundreds of copies to stick up everywhere!’
‘What did they say about it?’
‘Well itlookedlike she was going to get away with a slap on the wrist, just a telling-off and be kept tabs on a bit for the next couple of weeks …’
‘Butthen,’ Louis tells me, coming back over with a couple of mugs of tea, handing one to Izzy. ‘Then, Tasha lost it. She’d just been standing there taking it, crying, apologizing, all that – and then when Nadja keptberating her to make her understand how much she’d fucked up, she just started screaming. Started yelling atthem, defending herself and trying to dragyouunder the bus, saying they were just looking out for you because you were shacking up with the boss’s son and how everybody ought to know if you were sleeping your way through the internship.’
I’m very, very glad I wasn’t there to witness all this.
Even hearing it second-hand from someone who obviously doesn’t believe it to be true, it’s crushing. I knew people might think it when they saw my emails to Lloyd, but having someone yell it for everyone to hear …
‘So Topher’s trying to say that’s not true, and your manager is defending you,’ Dylan says, picking up the story. ‘And then Nadja just held up a hand, waited for Tasha to finish, and told her to go pack her things. Literally, there and then! Said they’d dock her final pay cheque for the cost of printing, and everything! Threatened to call security to “forcibly remove her from the building” if she didn’t comply!’
‘Oh my God,’ I whisper, reeling. I figured they’d throw the book at Tasha and tell her off, but I never imagined …
I guess I thought it was nothing she couldn’t wriggle her way out of. Not when I’d come out of it all looking so bad, anyway.
‘Right?’ Elaine says, nodding bug-eyed at me. ‘It’swild. She’s had to move out to go back home and everything.Andshe’s left the group chat. Didn’t say a word! Just left!’
‘Oh my God.’
‘I thought it all seemed a bit harsh,’ Izzy says quietly, and blushes when everyone looks at her. ‘Making her move out like that, and stuff, I mean. Making such a big deal out of it in front of everybody like that.’
‘What, like she didn’t deserve a taste of her own medicine?’ Monty scoffs. ‘She had it coming. Karma’s a bigger bitch than even Tasha.’
I laugh.
For the first time, all day, I laugh. It sputters out of me so suddenly that I clasp a hand over my mouth – but it bubbles up, hysterical, filling my chest until another laugh spills between my fingers and I crease up, yet more tears forming at the corners of my eyes – but this time, the good kind.
I think, maybe, I’m supposed to feel guilty. That I should feel inclined to reach out to Tasha and apologize, but – I don’t. I don’t really know what I should have to apologize for. Monty’s right: it’s a taste of her own medicine. If she’d just left me alone, this wouldn’t have happened. I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for her; I’ve wasted all my pity on myself.
Before long, Elaine carefully, as tactfully as she can, says, ‘We didn’t realize … You and Lloyd … Has that been …? Is he that boy you told me about, when –?’
And Louis interrupts to ask me more bluntly, ‘Areyou shagging?’
‘No! No, we just … Well,once, but … I mean, I kissed him, before the internship started. I didn’t know who he was at first, and then … We tried to just pretend it never happened, and then I kept seeing him around –’
‘When?’ Elaine asks, curious.
I squirm in my seat. ‘The office. On Friday nights, sometimes. We hung out, one night – outside of Arrowmile, I mean.’
‘What were you doing there on Friday nights?’ Dylan asks, incredulous.
And I have to tell the truth – there’s no point in little white lies to make things easier for everybody now. ‘I had a hard time keeping on top of everything at work. And then I’d keep saying yes to extra stuff, trying to go above and beyond, like Nadja said right at the start … I stayed late sometimes to catch up. I’d – I’d tell you guys I was meeting other friends, or you’d all be out and assume I was just at home. Lloyd was, um, doing some work for his dad. I think it was easier to do whenpeople weren’t around all the time. You know what he’s like – total chatterbox. Doesn’t get anything done when he can talk to people instead.’
It’snearenough the truth, anyway. A stretch, on Lloyd’s part – but that’s not my secret to share.
