Chapter 35
‘B lock him,’ Zoe commanded sternly.
That afternoon, Hannah managed to bring her friend up to speed about her ex’s messages.
You were always my lucky charm, after all
Because she’d accessed the last one covertly on her laptop, as far as Rob was concerned she wouldn’t have seen it ’til this morning, rather than spending half the night awake and ruminating over every word.
A million alternate responses still jostled around her brain, all conflicting, but as much as she wanted to be honest in her response, deep down Hannah knew the easy-breezy ‘gimme a call when you get here’ reply was the safest choice. And after that, come what may.
‘Did you hear what I said?’ demanded Zoe, who had a scary knack for reading Hannah’s mind. ‘Don’t even reply. Block him. That’s the only option. He’s trying to get under your skin again. Remember what happened last time. You haven’t forgotten, have you?’
‘Of course not. It’s just … ’ She bit her lip.
‘No. No “it’s just” … Aw, please tell me that you haven’t responded.’
Hannah cringed afresh at the wine-infused essay-length confessional still sitting in iMessage. ‘I haven’t responded,’ she admitted truthfully.
Yet.
‘Good. Don’t. Rob Kendrick is no good for you. You are better than that.’
In her heart, Hannah knew her friend was right. She wanted to follow her advice – she truly did. What did they say the definition of insanity was again? Making the same bad decision over again and expecting different results.
She took a deep breath and steeled herself. ‘I know you’re right. About everything. I promise I’m not going to do anything stupid.’
‘Good,’ Zoe answered. ‘Because if you do, I’m gonna … ’
‘You’re going to do what ? Fly all the way over here and slap some sense in me?’
‘If I have to.’
Hannah laughed. ‘Well, if that’s what it takes to get a visit … ’ she teased, which earned her a guffaw in return.
‘All right, all right. I guess I should be relieved things aren’t so bad that I need to step foot into that cesspit. Guess where I’m heading now?’
‘No idea.’
‘I’ll give you a clue. Huevos Rancheros à la Polo.’
Hannah’s mouth actually watered like one of Pavlov’s dogs. ‘The Pink Palace? I hate you.’ What she wouldn’t give just then to be in the Beverly Hills Hotel with her friend eating breakfast in the sunshine at their favourite Polo Lounge poolside table. She could visualise the blue skies and palm trees already.
‘I’ll get an extra portion in your honour. Especially since I’m not paying. Speaking of … ’ she continued, ‘I’ve been following all the recent coverage on McKenzie. It’s good.’
‘Yeah, and a podcast he just recorded is excellent. He’d never admit it, but he is a natural at this stuff. You can tell when he’s enjoying himself – he was this morning – and that will show through to the audience. I’m looking forward to it airing.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Although, I think I might owe him a bit of an apology.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Well, I was feeling a bit … out of sorts after the Rob thing last night and I was late and irritable. I snapped at him a few times. Started to take some of it out on him, which wasn’t fair. I mean, he’s been really good to work with lately. Going along with my ideas, showing up on time, not falling down drunk, even seems to be occasionally enjoying himself. There are still some teething problems and a few hiccups too. But, he seemed to get that I was in a bad mood today and my mind was elsewhere … and was actually really sweet to me … ’
Hannah’s voice trailed off, remembering Ward’s kind eyes and genuine concern in Soho earlier, and her stomach did that flip-floppy thing again. After the podcast recording, he’d even suggested they grab a coffee if she needed an ear and only for the fact that she had another client appointment lined up, she was sorely tempted. But knew deep down that it was way too dangerous.
‘I’m not going to have to have a “Come to Jesus” talk with you about this guy now too, am I?’ Zoe drawled.
Her friend’s tone very quickly brought Hannah back to earth.
‘What? Feck, no. What are you even talking about?’ she argued, sounding indignant at the very suggestion, but also secretly glad that her friend wasn’t in the office with her. She was blushing.
‘You sounded awfully … dreamy there for a sec.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ she retorted quickly, squaring her shoulders. ‘It’s not like that at all . I was just saying, he was being … normal, which makes a nice change. That’s it.’
‘I mean I don’t blame you. The man is hot . But … ’
‘Don’t go there, I know. Anyway, I’d better get back to it; enjoy your Beverly Hills breakfast and know that I’m not in the least bit jealous.’
Hannah’s phone was pinging even as she spoke.
‘Liar. Catch you later.’
I had no idea you felt that way.
Hannah’s first reaction upon reading a new text that had just come in from Rob was complete confusion. What did he mean?
Until she scrolled up and spied the wall of words preceding it and her hand flew to her mouth in horror. Oh my god!
Suddenly the room began to spin as Hannah realized that the boozy in-depth confessional she’d written last night – instead of still sitting innocently in draft on her laptop – had somehow ended up in her and Rob’s message string!
Which meant her ex had read every single word and was now privy to all her honest, unfiltered thoughts and emotions regarding their relationship. To everything she’d laid bare.
But … but … how ?
Had she inadvertently pressed send amid last night’s wine haze?
But no, she’d only had a couple of glasses at the most, and she’d only written it all in the first place as a form of emotional purge. And more importantly, safe in the knowledge that she was never going to send it!
Her thoughts scrambled to make sense of it. Was there some feature on iMessage she didn’t know about that automatically sent messages after a specified amount of time or something? Regardless, Hannah was so mortified she could barely think straight.
Now Rob knew everything . She could no longer hold her head high and play the part of the strong and mature ex, all drama completely beneath her. From his point of view, the message surely came across as unhinged.
Oh no, oh no. So much for easy breezy …
Then she considered the response he’d just sent. Short and sweet.
I had no idea you felt that way.
He was obviously taken aback, and no doubt confused too, by this out-of-the-blue emotional outpouring when one of the things he used to say he loved about her was how she always kept her cool. Until that one time, of course. And while it was difficult – impossible almost – even then Hannah had done her utmost to save face, she’d had little choice but to automatically switch into damage control mode. Like she always did when things went awry.
So what now? How could she rescue this , or more to the point, should she even try? Ultimately there was really nothing she could do, was there? Rob knew exactly how she felt now, and thus would surely have no choice but to recognize and appreciate her reasons for leaving.
The question was, what would he do about it?
He was coming to the city for the tournament soon, so time would tell. And if he wanted to meet up, they could discuss it all then. Until that point, Hannah guessed she had no choice but to leave the ball in his court. But how oh how had she lobbed that deeply embarrassing volley? It was mystifying.
Swallowing hard as she tried not to reread every mortifying word, Hannah swiped right of the message to ascertain the sending time. Yes, it was indeed last night, not long after she’d finished writing it. So she must have inadvertently hit the enter button on her laptop somehow, which had let the cat out of the bag, because however advanced technology was, it didn’t spontaneously press buttons of its own accord …
Then, recalling her train of thought, plus the last time she’d thought tech had a mind of its own in the form of Courtney’s media system, the realization hit.
Cat out of the bag …
Or more pertinently, the very animal that had idly wandered across her laptop last night while she went to refill her glass.