Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ella
It had been a few weeks since the exhibition, and our new PR and marketing company was finally ready to launch ahead of schedule.
The night before our first official date in the office – well, my spare bedroom – we planned a night out with the boys in Wunderbar to celebrate.
As Philip and I headed in, engulfed by the live music being playing loudly by the talented musician in the corner and the crowds of drunken Glaswegian girls singing their hearts out, stomping their feet off-beat, I immediately felt at home. God, I loved Glasgow.
Philip and I wove our way through the groups of partygoers and spotted Zola, Curtis and Katy chatting in a booth, waiting for our arrival.
‘Hey!’ I gushed as I saw our friends.
‘Hey, guys!’ Zola beamed. ‘Oh, Philip, this is my fiancé, Curtis! Curtis, this is Philip!’
The two men shook hands and began chatting as I wedged in beside the girls.
‘So, the night before we go live!’ I squeezed both their hands nervously.
‘Yes, and congratulations, girls! I am so pleased you took the plunge,’ Philip said.
Katy giggled. ‘Well, thanks to Ella, we didn’t have a choice.’
‘Very true,’ I agreed.
‘Do we have a name yet, ladies?’ Curtis asked.
I looked at both my friends, and we pulled a face together. ‘Lipstick and Headlines!’ I announced. ‘And we also have our first client.’
There was a cheer from the table at our new name.
‘Already got a client too!’ Philip looked shocked. ‘Anyone I know?’
I nodded. ‘Oh yes! You see, I contacted Alexander after the whole exhibition scandal to apologise, and he emailed back to say it was the best stunt ever to happen in his career! He said he’s never had that much press or coverage before, and he’d love to work with us again.’
‘I guess every cloud?’ Zola squirmed, reminding herself of the horrible night.
‘Exactly.’ Curtis leaned in, kissing Zola on the side of her head.
‘Well, let’s get the drinks in and cheers to that!’ Philip stood, pulling out his phone and reading a text. ‘Sorry, about this, my business partner is dropping off notes for a meeting tomorrow, I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Not at all! Is he hot?’ Katy giggled.
‘Someone’s fanny is feeling better,’ I whispered to Zola.
‘What’s everyone having to drink?’ Philip asked, still mid-text.
‘A bottle of prosecco will do us three.’ Katy pointed to us girls.
‘I’ll come give you a hand, mate,’ Curtis said, standing and heading to the bar with Philip.
‘I’m going to head to the bathroom, back in one second,’ Katy said, budging past us to escape the booth.
Zola slumped back, throwing her arm around me. ‘Look at our men up there – two besties in the making!’ she gushed.
I watched her watch Curtis looking content about where they were heading.
I nodded back. ‘Too right.’
‘You know Curtis applied for university again last week? He wants to finish his business degree.’
I gasped. ‘Zo, that’s amazing. Good for him!’
‘Yeah, I’m constantly scanning our emails to see if he’s heard back, but it’s only been a few days, I suppose,’ Zola said, taking out her mobile and refreshing her email once more.
My eyes darted back to Philip, who was now joined by a handsome guy in a suit. He was introducing Curtis to him, waiting on our drinks arriving. God, my man was so perfect .
‘Ella!’ Zola clutched my arm, almost pinching the skin clean off it.
‘Owww.’ I rubbed at it. ‘What? Did he get in?’
She seemed nervous, as if she had just heard some awful news and didn’t know how to tell me about it.
My stomach twisted. I couldn’t take any more drama.
‘What? Zola! Stop it. You’re scaring me!’ I almost screamed.
‘No. Stop. It’s not bad,’ she said slowly, still scanning her phone. ‘Well, I’m not sure if it is or not. But .?.?.’
‘For fuck’s sake! But what?’ I asked, grabbing her phone from her and reading the email she was so engrossed in.
Dear founders of the Dicktionary Club Ltd,
We came across your website on a recent news page and absolutely fell in love with the concept.
It is just the missing piece to the dating app software we have created here at Flirtify.
We do believe you own the entire patent on this vision, however, and as a result, we’d love to invite you to our New York headquarters to work with us in developing the Dicktionary Club stateside.
We hope this is something you are interested in and look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Jimmy Link
CEO Flirtify app
I felt my face drop and my palms turn sticky.
‘What will we do?’ Zola asked.
‘Oh my God, that toilet is a fucking trek!’ Katy said, sliding back into the booth.
Zola remained silent. I had no idea what she was thinking.
‘What’s up?’ Katy asked, nudging my arm.
‘Katy, we have to tell you something, but not in front of the boys just yet,’ I said.
‘Oh, what? Fucking hell! What is it now?’
I smiled and waved to the three men as they weaved back to our table, still chatting away.
‘Do I have something in my teeth?’ Katy continued, using her finger and scrubbing her gnashers.
‘No, babe.’ Zola breathed nervously. ‘We have just been invited to New York to work.’
Katy gasped. ‘Shut up! What? Why?’
‘ Ssh! ’ I hissed, not wanting to ruin a celebratory night when we didn’t know any facts. The Dicktionary Club had caused so much turmoil in our lives and to the people we cared about the most. Everything was going well now. I wasn’t sure how to feel about revisiting it all again.
‘Ella?’ Katy whispered.
‘A company wants to team up with us and bring back the Dicktionary Club,’ Zola hissed under her breath.
‘Nooooo!’ Katy’s jaw opened.
‘We’ve got to do it, right?’ Zola nudged us both.
I shook my head. ‘I don’t know, Zo. After the last time? I hated the person I became. I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again.’
Katy agreed, nodded, then stopped. ‘But I suppose we have learned from our mistakes, right?’
I turned to face her. ‘Sure, but .?.?. really?’
‘I mean, we all got second chances? Surely the Dicktionary Club deserves one too?’ she continued.
Zola and I gulped down nervously.
‘Here we are, ladies!’ Philip arrived with the tray of drinks. ‘Everything all right?’ he asked, noticing my worried expression and the weird vibe at the table.
I nodded. ‘Yeah, great, thanks!’
Philip smiled, then turned to his friend, ‘Oh, this is my mate and business partner .?.?.’
‘Sean?’ Katy blurted, looking as freaked out as if she’d seen a ghost.
Sean tilted his head and his handsome face broke into a large grin. ‘The mystery woman in the pink dress?’ His gorgeous Irish accent sounded even better than Katy had described.
She nodded.
‘How are you? Do you mind if I join you?’ Sean asked, hovering to sit.
Katy was speechless.
‘Please, take a seat, Sean. Katy would love that,’ Zola confirmed, tugging Katy’s arm to allow him space in the booth.
Philip began pouring out the prosecco and then raised his beer bottle in the air. ‘To Lipstick and Headlines! I hope you girls make all the headlines and for all the right reasons this time.’ We let out a laugh. ‘I wish you every success,’ he toasted us, then picked up my hand and kissed it gently.
I blushed, nodding at his sweet speech.
‘And here’s to Philip and Curtis for standing by us and supporting us through thick and thin,’ Zola added, pursing her lips to her man.
‘There’s been a lot of drama in this group recently,’ Katy whispered to Sean. ‘I’ll fill you in later.’
He chuckled, noticing a strand of Katy’s hair sticking to her lipgloss and he brushed it carefully back from her face, ‘Yes, please do,’ he replied.
‘And cheers to the end of Andrea and the Dicktionary Club! You’ve done it, girls! To new horizons, fresh starts and new opportunities,’ Curtis said, raising his pint this time, gazing lovingly at Zola.
Together, we slammed our glasses. Zola pinched me under the table, and Katy giggled awkwardly at Curtis’s speech. We avoided eye contact as we guiltily sipped on our bubbles, with absolutely no idea what trouble the Dicktionary Club was about to stir up next.