Page 18 of About Last Night
‘I can see that you’re very ambitious, Tallulah.’
The way he said it made it sound so seedy. The slow sinking feeling in her stomach told her he’d already made his decision and it wasn’t to her benefit.
‘The trouble is, Jeremy appears to be doing a good job here and he’s made it perfectly clear he’s not prepared to work with you any longer. He thinks you’re disruptive and apparently you regularly turn up for your shift late. He suspects you’ve been drunk on at least one occasion whilst performing on air.’
‘What?’ Her utter disgust that Jez would lie like that couldn’t have been clearer, but Tristan seemed unmoved.
‘I’m never late and I’m practically teetotal!’ She flushed as she remembered the enormous glasses of wine he’d seen her drink the night before.
Of course he didn’t believe her side of it; he’d metLouiselast night.
Damn it. If she hadn’t played that stupid pretend-to-be-someone-else game she wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
‘I know it looks bad right now, Tristan, but Jez is the liar here, not me.’
‘Really,Louise.’
Her face flushed hot as he stared at her, his eyebrows raised in rebuke.
She looked away, trying to get her thoughts straight.
‘You know what I think?’ he said, leaning in and reasserting eye contact with her. ‘I think you knew who I was all along last night and decided you’d play me then leave me hanging in the hope I’d be so pleased to see you the next day I’d take your side over Jez’s and you’d get the Breakfast Show you’ve always wanted.’
She gripped the table in anger. ‘My God, who made you so paranoid?’
Clearly this was entirely the wrong thing to say because the expression on his face became fierce enough to melt steel.
‘I’ve more reason to believe Jeremy’s version of events right now.’
Her heart leapt in her chest and blood pounded in her head as she tried to get her next comeback straight through a fog of tiredness and tension. ‘So, by your logic, just because I wanted to sleep with you, I must have made up the accusation about Jez pestering me to have sex with him again?’
There was a stunned silence as he looked at her, the corner of his mouth kicking up into a sardonic smile. ‘So, you werealreadysleeping with him.’
She frowned hard and shook her head in frustration, realising her slip-up. ‘Yes. Once. But it was a mistake. Clearly ahugeone. He caught me at a weak moment and I regret it.’ She fisted her hands so hard her nails bit into her palms.
‘Because he still wouldn’t give you the Breakfast Show?’
‘No!’
He held up a hand. ‘To be honest, Tallulah, the whole thing sounds like sour grapes to me.’ He tightened his arms across his broad chest. ‘You wanted the Breakfast Show and Jez wouldn’t giveit to you, even after you slept with him, so you decided to try every trick in the book to get rid of him so you’d get a clear shot at it.’
She could barely believe those words had just come out of his mouth. She’d thought he was a decent guy, but apparently, she’d been very,verywrong about that.
‘You know what I think, Tristan?’ She could barely see straight, she was so offended. ‘I think your father sent his errand boy to do his dirty work and clear up the mess his buddy’s son made, by brushing my concerns under the carpet. I never even had a chance to keep my job here because, unlike Jez, I’m not a friend of the family!’
Tristan’s face was like stone, but she could see the anger flickering behind his eyes.
‘You’d better pack up your desk, Tallulah, because I’m taking Jez’s side on this one.’ His voice was calm and flat, but very determined.
‘What?’ The word came out in a rush of air.
‘You need me to spell it out for you?’ He leaned in, bracing both hands against the table, his brow furrowed and his eyes cold. ‘You’re fired.’
4
Tristan stared out of the window after Tallulah walked out, feeling the anger slowly drain out of him. The look of disgust on her face when he’d lost his cool stayed with him like a burn mark on his vision and his stomach clenched with tension as he fought against a deep unease.
He’d never lost his temper with an employee before, but she’d overstepped the mark when she called him paranoid then accused him of being anerrand boy.
