Page 81 of You Belong With Me

‘Edie’s not here right now, thanks for checking,’ Declan said.

Edie waited at the threshold. This time it wasn’t eavesdropping; it was reasonable self-preservation when trapped. She couldn’t be sure where Declan had positioned his laptop and Edie wasn’t walking across the range of the camera and giving Jess safe distance bullying thrills. Not today, Other Satan.

‘She’s skiving school on a sickie? Surprise.’

‘… Out at a meeting, actually.’

‘Oh good, you can enjoy this morning’s project – we’vedone her a song. It’s to the tune of “Sexy Sadie” by The Beatles.Seedy Edie / You made a tit of everyone …’she crooned. ‘Seeeeedy Edie.’

‘This is cruel, Jess. It’s shit behaviour. This isn’t who you are.’

‘No, the shit behaviour was telling a man you’re in love with him and jumping him on his wedding day – happy to help.’

‘You bought that story? The guy is clearly a streak of lying piss who cheated on his wife.’

‘Doesn’t make Edie honest.’

‘I dunno – I think I might have let a twenty-second snog go by now. Why the fixation?’

‘Do you really think that’s all they’d ever done?Lol.If you’re getting off with someone at their wedding, then very obviously you’ve been at it like knives for months. Amelia saw them coming out of the Betsey Trotwood late, hand in hand, bold as brass, weeks before the wedding.’

Edie started.What the …?If you were clandestine involved, why would you take that sort of risk? Edie had forgotten that subset of people involved in a scandal who were prepared to mint their own coinage.

‘Yeah yeah, and I saw them bumming on Alton Towers’ Nemesis.I think you need a new hobby,’ Declan said.

‘Honestly, Dec, I thought you were too clued up to fancy her,’ Jess said. ‘AndElliot Owen– how on earth? She must have a magical vagina or something. Let us know when you get there.’

Edie’s face flared red.

‘I don’t fancy her. Is there anything relating to the meeting left to discuss, or can I leave the cast ofMean Girlsdue to creative differences?’

There were stilted goodbyes and the electronic dinging sounds of screens closing.

Edie wasn’t able to hide the fact she was stood where she was and, consequently, that she’d overheard.

She walked in, and Declan turned around, startled. Fair to say, despite her unpopularity, she didn’t expect her private parts to be mocked.Seedy Edie.In front of a male friend and colleague, it was so invasive and mortifying.

There Edie had been, thinking HarrogateGate was behind her.

It was if she’d had her stitches from a wound picked open and her innards pulled out, under surgical lamps.

‘Edie … I wasn’t going along with any of that …’ Declan said, discomposed, ruffling his pre-ruffled hair.

Edie nodded. ‘I know. I didn’t sleep with Jack or go on any pub dates. He was with someone – I wouldn’t do that. I didn’t tell him I was in love with him either. It’s a free for all, because no one trusts me. It’s likeThe Purgewhen crime is legal, except it’s lying about me, and it won’t stop after twenty-four hours.’

‘It’s deranged,’ Declan said. ‘Also, some people do trust you.’

Edie intended to thank him, walk to her seat, put her things down and start work. Instead, she found herself breaking down. She put a palm over her eyes as her chest heaved.

‘Hey, come on, Tommo! You are a wonder and a triumphof a person,’ Declan said. He leaped up to put his arms around her as Edie shook. She had to bury her face in his shirt for the ugly sobbing, face-collapse phase where she couldn’t bear to be observed.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ Edie said when she could risk looking up blearily. ‘To think when Richard told me I’d have a desk mate up here, I was determined we’d set standards for professionalism.’

‘I think I ruined that first,’ Declan said, with a grin.

Edie wasn’t a public weeper or even a liberated weeper full stop, in the normal order of things. As she pulled herself together, she was worried that it looked like she’d done a damsel in distress routine at him on purpose, forcibly assigning herself victimhood by appealing to manly instincts. In either sex, Hannah called it thehelp me, I’m tinymove. Declan hugged her tighter, before letting her go again. It felt like a little too much, but Edie had compelled it.

‘This is a reason not an excuse,’ Declan said, as they sat down, ‘but this may have less to do with you than you might think. I’m told Jess’s husband Wes left her for someone at the college where he’s lecturing. Not many dots to join there. Like I said, though, no excuse.’

---