Luke was stuck in the melee, crushed between a girl obliviously tapping on her phone and a guy telling a story that involved a lot of big hand gestures. He raised both eyebrows at me, pursing his lips.
‘God, isn’t he dreamy?’ Storm sighed, her hand still on my shoulder, fingers digging into me, her nails painted scarlet. ‘And such a genius. He was showing us his animatic for the Fruitshootz campaign and he’s included some incredible images . . . ’ I felt a flicker of annoyance for this shapely Storm. What kind of name was Storm anyway? Bad weather, that was what. I shook off her hand.
‘And he has been so nice to me since I’ve joined, so attentive. Oh, oh God, he’s coming this way, play it cool . . . ’ She nudged me and I got the crazy urge to laugh out loud. Then I looked at her again, this uniquely named Mermaid: noticed the bronzed eyelids, the smooth skin, the toned figure, and repeated her words. So attentive. Oh, really? I couldn’t help looking down at my own damp, frumpy work clothes. My mouth settled into a thin line as Luke appeared in front of us.
‘Ladies,’ Luke said, his left eye slightly out of focus, a sure sign he was pissed.
Storm giggled again and batted his arm. Luke leant in to kiss me, missed my lips, left a wet mark on my cheek.
‘Luke,’ I said, pointedly wiping my face, ‘I’ve just met Storm.’
Was it nerves that made his eyes flick to her and back to me again?
‘That’s great, yeah, Storm arrived a few weeks ago as one of our junior designers. Glad you’ve hit it off.’ He grinned and waved his bottle of beer around. He was not picking up on my icy tone.
Storm, however, was frozen to her spot, Prosecco tilted dangerously at a 45-degree angle, mouth half open. Her eyes flicking back to Luke, to me, to Luke, to me, as if she was trying to solve an extremely complicated crossword clue.
‘You’re . . . ’
I stuck out my hand theatrically. ‘I’m Lottie, Luke’s girlfriend.’
Storm sucked in her breath. ‘Girlf . . . soooo lush to meet you.’ She didn’t take my hand but instead nudged Luke with her hip, who spilt some of his beer. ‘Luke, you dark horse, I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.’
Luke, you fucking dead horse. I stared at him as he pretended to act oblivious. Why hadn’t he told her he had a girlfriend?
‘Yup. Lottie is.’ He attempted to pull me towards him with one arm over my shoulders but my body remained stiff as a board and I just tilted like a skittle about to fall before returning to my original position.
Luke, of course, didn’t notice.
‘And what do you do?’ Storm asked, focusing her caramel eyes on me.
‘I’m a barrister.’
She whistled. ‘What, like in House of Cards?’
I frowned. ‘Um . . . no.’
‘So you catch criminals.’ She giggled as she lifted one hand to make the shape of a gun.
‘That’s more the police.’
Did this girl not know what a barrister was? Was she about to ask whether I made coffee?
‘You know what I mean,’ she tinkled, and Luke laughed.
I didn’t have the energy, just wanted to turn around and go home. Everyone had obviously started hours before and I was feeling grouchy and like I didn’t belong.
I also really didn’t like Storm. I always tried not to send out negative vibes into the universe, knowing that is bad karma, but I couldn’t help sometimes wishing for bad things to happen to people who piss me off. Not major things, like a fire or anything involving a missing limb, but, for instance, now I was staring at Storm and wishing that every time she went to roll out her Sellotape she would never find the end.
‘Well,’ Storm said, nudging Luke for about the fourth time and me out of my evil Sellotape fantasy, ‘you guys are sooooo super cute together.’
‘We’re sho cute,’ Luke slurred, nodding and drinking his beer. ‘On our anniversary I sung her Ed Sheeran on my guitar.’
‘Luke.’ I felt my face grow hot. ‘Shut up.’
He was laughing. Normally I would see the funny side but something about him was making me bristle. The evening sun had sunk but the day was still impossibly hot. I felt smelly and shapeless, wanting my bed. Storm was still gazing up at Luke, all winged eyeliner, tightly fitted dress, sunglasses popped on