spring flowers bopped their heads in time to the rhythm of the light spring breeze, their gaudy colours a striking counterpoint to the verdant green of the lawns surrounding them.
Taking a deep breath, she drew the sweet, fresh air deep into her lungs. This should mark a new beginning in her life, she decided. The start of the next chapter, where the foundations she’d laid in the past few weeks would hopefully prove strong enough to support her from this point onwards.
‘It’s nearly twelve o’clock; we should go in,’ Max said with regret in his voice as he cast his gaze around their beautiful surroundings.
Attempting to keep her eyes up and off the tantalising view of his rear in the well-cut designer suit he’d chosen to wear today, she tripped into the church after him, shivering slightly at the change in temperature as they walked out of the sunshine and into the nave.
Most of the pews were already full, so they hung back for a moment to be directed to a seat by one of the ushers.
And that was when the day took a definite turn for the worse.
Her world seemed to spin on its axis, rolling her stomach along with it, as her former and current life lined up on a collision course. One of the PAs who had belonged to the Cobra Clique was standing down by the altar, her long blond hair slithering down her back as she threw her head back and laughed at something that the man standing next to her said.
Taking a deep breath, Cara willed herself not to panic, but her distress must have shown plainly on her face because Max turned to glance in the direction she was staring and said, ‘Cara? What’s wrong?’
‘Ah...nothing.’ She flapped a dismissive hand at him, feeling her cheeks flame with heat, and took a step backwards, hoping the stone pillar would shield her. But serendipity refused to smile as the woman turned towards them, catching her eye, her pupils flaring in recognition and her gaze moving, as if in slow motion, from Cara to Max and back again. And the look on her face plainly said she wasn’t going to miss this golden opportunity to make more trouble for her.
Looking around her wildly, Cara’s heart sank as she realised there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
It was usually at this point in a film that the leading lady would pull the guy she was with towards her and kiss him hard to distract him from the oncoming danger, but she knew, as she stared with regret at Max’s full, inviting mouth, that there was no way she could do that. He’d probably choke in shock, then fire her on the spot if she even attempted it. It wouldn’t just put her job in jeopardy—it would blow it to smithereens.
There was only one thing left to do.
‘Max, I need to tell you something.’
He frowned at her, his eyes darkening as he caught on to her worried tone.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I—er—’
‘Cara?’ He looked really alarmed now and she shook her head, trying to clear it. She needed to keep her cool or she’d end up looking even more of an idiot.
‘I wasn’t entirely straight with you about why I left my last job. Truth is—’ she took a breath ‘—I didn’t take redundancy.’
He blinked, then frowned. ‘So you were fired?’
‘No. I—’
‘What did you do, Cara? What are you trying to tell me?’ His voice held a tinge of the old Max now—the one who didn’t suffer fools.
‘Okay—’ She closed her eyes and held up a hand. ‘Look, just give me a minute and I’ll explain. The thing is—’ Locking her shaking hands together, she took a steadying breath. ‘I was bullied by a gang of women there who made my life a living hell and I handed in my notice before my boss could fire me for incompetence as a result of it,’ she said, mortified by the tremor in her voice.
When she opened her eyes to look at him, the expression of angry disbelief on his face made her want to melt into a puddle of shame.
‘What?’
She swallowed past the tightness in her throat. ‘I had no choice but to leave.’
He shook his head in confusion. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
Out of the corner of her eye she saw her nemesis approaching and felt every hair on her body stand to attention. The woman was only ten steps away, at most.
‘And why are you telling me this now?’ he pressed.
‘Because one of the women is here at the wedding and she’ll probably tell you a pack of lies to make me look bad. I didn’t exactly leave graciously. There was a jug of cold coffee and some very white blouses involved.’ She cringed at the desperation in her voice, but Max just turned to glare in the direction she’d been avoiding, then let out a sharp huff of breath.
‘Come outside for a minute.’
Wrapping his hand around her arm, he propelled her back out through the doors of the church and down the steps, coming to a sudden halt under the looming shadow of the clock tower, where he released her. Crossing his arms, he looked down at her with an expression of such exasperation it made her quake in her stilettos.
‘Why didn’t you mention this to me before?’ he asked, shoving back the hair that had fallen across his forehead during their short journey, only drawing more attention to his piercing gaze.
Sticking her chin in the air, she crossed her own arms, determined to stand up for herself. ‘I really wanted to work with you and I thought you might not hire me if you knew the truth. It didn’t exactly look good on my CV that I’d only stuck it out there for three months before admitting defeat.’
‘So you thought you had to lie to me to get the job?’
She held up her hands in apology. ‘I know I should have told you the truth, but I’d already messed up other job interviews because I was so nervous and ashamed of myself for being so weak.’ She hugged her arms around her again. ‘I didn’t want you to think badly of me. Anyway, at the time you barely wanted to talk to me about the work I had to do, let alone anything of a personal nature, so I thought it best to keep it to myself.’ She looked at him steadily, craving his understanding. ‘You can be pretty intimidating, you know.’
She was saved from having to further explain herself by one of the ushers loudly asking the stragglers outside to please go into the church and take their seats because the bride had arrived.
From the look on Max’s face she wasn’t sure whether he was going to walk away and leave her standing there like a total lemon on her own or turn around and punch the wall. She didn’t fancy watching either scenario play out.
To her surprise, he let out a long, frustrated sigh and looked towards the gaggle of people filing into the church.
‘We can’t talk about this now or we’ll be walking in with the bridal party, and there’s no way I’d pass for a bridesmaid,’ he said stiffly.
She stared at him. ‘You mean you’re not going to leave?’
‘No, I’m not going to leave,’ he said crossly. ‘We’ll talk more about
