Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“The mall?” he asks her.
“Yeah, we went shopping. Me, Tiff and Eb. We thought it would be fun to go in the grotto. Just a stupid game.”
“A stupid game, no shit.” He looks back at me. “And the prick has called it off now? Had his fill and turfed you out? I know you get these obsessive streaks, Tiff, but he’s the one who crossed the line if he fucked you over.”
I shake my head. “No. He didn’t fuck me over. It was the opposite.” My lip trembles as I speak. “He loved me.”
“Loved you?” Josh raises his eyebrows. “A founder dressed up as Santa in the mall sought you out, fucked you, and told you he loved you? And then what? Loverboy kicked you to the kerb?”
“No. It wasn’t like that!”
“Sure it wasn’t. What a fucking tosser.”
I love how protective he is. I have to smile at the way he grits his jaw like he’s ready to go and pick a fight with a lion to avenge me.
Ells shifts closer to him, resting a hand on his arm.
“Santa isn’t like that, Josh. He’s a really nice guy.”
He looks at her as though she’s as insane as I am.
“You’ve bought into this Santa crap as well? Seriously? He’s a fucking founder.” His eyes lock back on mine. “Did you know he was a founder when you fucked him?”
“Yes. I knew he was a founder the moment I met him in the grotto.”
“But you’d never seen his face. You’ve always been under a hood.”
“I didn’t need to see his face. I just knew. I knew the way he felt when I sat on him. I recognised him.” I rub my temples, trying to explain it. “I just knew, ok? And then I saw his eyes, and he saw mine, and the rest is history, as they say. Or in my case an absolute fucking nightmare.”
Ella holds the cushion tighter to her chest, and Josh shakes his head, trying to process things.
“Shit, Tiff,” he says, and that about sums it up.
It is shit.
And it’s way more shit than they know.
“It gets worse,” I say.
“Worse? Jesus, Tiff, just take it from the top, will you? Fucking hell.”
I take it from the top. The very top.
I tell them how I fell in love with Reuben right from the off, even though Josh doesn’t want to hear that part, since he’s heard about plenty of my infatuations before. He thinks this is a mega crazy one that’s torn me apart, because I’ve fucked someone I should never have touched in a million years, and I’ve been spat out by him. That I should have seen it coming. But he’s wrong.
I see his expression change as my story continues. He pulls me into him as I cry, reliving the special times Reuben and I shared. How we holed up together, and kissed all night, and needed each other. I manage to smile as I point to my elf tights, and tell him and Ells how being around kids even got to be fun for me, helping at the grotto. Josh looks choked up himself at that, because he knows how hard being around kids is for me, after I miscarried Kian’s baby during a massive row… before he walked away and left me grieving.
Only I didn’t grieve. I partied, and fucked and pretended I didn’t give a shit, because I didn’t want to be a mother anyway. I was a dirty bitch, not a mummy. I swept it under the rug and let myself run wild.
“That’s where you’ve been the whole time, then?” Josh asks me. “That’s why you postponed your proposals? You’ve been holed up with a founder, falling in love with him?”
Ells smiles at me, and there is a knowing in her eyes. She gets it better than Josh does. She met Santa – Reuben – herself when he booked her for a fake proposal last Christmas. He was feigning desperation to see if anyone would support him out of charity.
Ella did, and he rewarded her for it. And in turn she rewarded everyone else for his generosity – sharing the crazy amount of cash around homeless people and struggling families.
“So why did he call it off?” Josh asks me. “Why the fuck did he call time out, if you needed each other so bad?”
Time for another deep breath. I’m shaking as I prepare myself to confess.
“Because I cancelled a founders’ booking. I messaged Orla and said I had flu and was too ill to attend.”
“Holy shit!” Ella says.
“You did fucking what?!” Josh says.
The pair of them sit bolt upright at that. Josh’s hands shoot to his cheeks, and Ella’s mouth drops open.
It sounds so stupid now I’ve said it out loud. I cancelled a founders’ booking. The most powerful men in the Agency. The hidden masters behind it all. You never cancel that kind of gig. Ever. It’s beyond fucking ridiculous.