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 this after the ceremony.’
And with that he put his hand firmly against the middle of her back and ushered her inside.
Sliding into the polished wooden pew next to Max and surreptitiously wiping her damp palms on her dress, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. From the set of his shoulders she could tell he wasn’t likely to let this go with a casual wave of his hand.
In fact she’d bet everything she had left that he was really going to fire her this time.
Frustration churned in her stomach. After all the progress she’d made in getting back on her feet, and persuading Max to finally trust her, was it really going to end like this?
Looking along the pews, she saw that her nemesis was sitting on the other side of the church, a wide smile on her face as she watched the ceremony unfold. At least that threat had been neutralised. There wasn’t anything left that she could do to hurt her.
She hoped.
Rage unfurled within Cara at the unfairness of it all. Why did this woman get to enjoy herself when she had to sit here worrying about her future?
As she watched Amber make her stately way up the aisle towards a rather nervous-looking Jack, she could barely concentrate for wondering what Max was going to say to her once they were facing each other over their garlic mushrooms at the lunch afterwards. There was no way she was going to be able to force down a bite of food until they’d resolved this.
Oh, get a grip, Cara.
When she dared take a peek at him from the corner of her eye again, he seemed to be grimly staring straight ahead. Forcing herself to relax, she uncrossed her legs, then her arms and sat up straighter, determined not to appear anxious or pitiful. She knew what she had to do. There would be no gratuitous begging or bartering for a reprieve. She would hold her head high throughout it all and calmly state her case.
And until she had that opportunity she was going to damn well enjoy watching her friend get married.
* * *
Judging by her rigid posture and ashen complexion, Cara really didn’t appear to be enjoying the ceremony, which only increased Max’s discomfort at being there, too. Not that he blamed her in any way for it. He’d chosen to come here with her after all. Though, from the sound of it, she must be regretting bringing him along now.
Had he really been so unapproachable that she’d chosen to lie to his face instead of admitting to having a rough time at her last place of work?
He sighed inwardly.
She was absolutely right, though. Again. He could be intimidating. And he’d been at the peak of his remoteness when she’d first
