The Second Time

by Jade Winters

  ‘I hope so.’ Bryan looked thoughtful. ‘OK, you win. But we’ll hear the other pitches first and if they aren’t as good—’

  ‘Oh, so you’re admitting Darcie’s ideas were good.’

  Bryan narrowed his eyes. ‘If, and I mean if, I decide to give Darcie another chance, her new pitch had better be worth my while.’

  Madison kept her eyes fixed outside of the car but her mind was firmly set on Darcie.

  Don’t you worry about that. I’ll make sure it is.

  Chapter Five

  ‘I had them. I fucking had them eating out of the palm of my hand and I blew it.’ Darcie buried her face in still shaking hands. ‘What an idiot.’

  ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself,’ Emma said. ‘It is what it is.’

  Darcie’s head snapped back. ‘It is what it is? Are you kidding me. I’ve just pissed away a contract worth two hundred grand and—’

  ‘Oh, stop being so dramatic, Darce. You haven’t pissed away anything. The contract wasn’t even ours.’ Emma repeatedly pressed the button for the lift. ‘They could easily have picked another company, even if the sun literally shone out of your arse.’

  The lift doors opened and they both stepped inside. Emma pressed the button for the ground floor while Darcie continued to fret, biting her lip, fiddling with her phone and being unable to stand still. She paced back and forth in the limited space available.

  ‘I knew I shouldn’t have gone out last night.’ Darcie ignored Emma’s statement, even though she knew it was true. She was too lost in self-pity to hear reason. Resting her forehead against the glass mirror, she said, ‘I was too cocky. I really thought I had this one in the bag. I thought, after the shit storm was kicked up about their treatment of their staff, they would be willing to do anything to put it right.’

  ‘The one thing you looked like you had in the palm of your hand for sure, was Maddie.’ Emma wiggled her eyebrows at Darcie’s reflection. ‘Jesus, Darcie, what was all that about anyway?’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about?’ Darcie said avoiding Emma’s enquiring gaze.

  ‘You and Maddie, all gooey-eyed with each other.’

  ‘Were not.’ Darcie frowned at her friend and business partner.

  ‘Was too. Go on, admit it, you fancy the pants off her, don’t you?’

  Darcie turned to face Emma. ‘What? No I don’t. You’re crazy.’

  ‘Am I? I know you Darcie, and I know when you’ve got the hots for someone. It’s plain to see.’ Emma chuckled at the look of exasperation on Darcie’s face.

  The lift doors opened, and they made their way through the lobby and out onto the street. Typically, it was raining from the concrete-grey sky. Darcie took out her phone. ‘Let’s get an Uber.’

  ‘That’s just being really lazy.’

  ‘In case you haven’t noticed it’s pissing down. Do you really want to walk into Jazzes looking like a drowned rat?’

  Emma reached up to touch her hair protectively. ‘OK. When you put it like that …’

  Ten minutes later they were seated at the bar, drinking a bottle of Champagne that Darcie had paid for the previous evening. It was unbelievable to think that it was only twenty-four hours ago that the world looked like a different place. She had thought she would be celebrating now, not drinking to drown her sorrows in sheer misery with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She had let everyone on her team down by projecting her own values on to the project, and they were all paying the price for her stupidity.

  ‘Come on, let’s drink to the future,’ Emma said knocking back her third glass in quick succession.

  Darcie arched an eyebrow. ‘I can’t believe you’re taking this so well.’ She glanced down at Emma’s half-empty glass.

  ‘I told you, Darcie, unless we have a deal signed on the dotted line, everything’s still up for grabs. For everyone, and…’ she lifted her glass to her lips and sipped. The bubbles stuck to the inside distorting Darcie’s view of the lower part of Emma’s face like a grotesque, champagne-coloured mask, ‘…stop counting how many glasses I’ve had. Just because you’re depressed and frankly a bit of a lightweight, doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself.’ She knocked back what was left in her glass, then held it out for Darcie to refill, a lopsided grin plastered on her face.

  ‘But—’

  ‘Enough all ready. I don’t want to hear another word about Clovers Ltd.’ Emma rolled her eyes as she grabbed the bottle and poured herself another drink. ‘It’s done. Finished. Notch it up to experience.’

  Darcie took another small sip from her glass and nodded in agreement. ‘I suppose you’re right.’

  ‘I am. So are you going to help me finish this bottle before I can’t stand up unaided?’

  Darcie held her glass mid-air and clinked it against Emma’s.

  ‘What’s that saying we promised we’d tell ourselves whenever we lost a bid for a contract?’ Emma looked heavenwards as if she’d find the word hidden in the bright spotlights above her.

  ‘Rejection is protection,’ Darcie reminded her.

  ‘That’s it. For whatever reason, we weren’t meant to work with them.’

  ‘Suppose,’ Darcie said feeling only marginally better. ‘Anyway, who wants to work with a company that treats their staff like crap?’

  Emma suddenly kicked Darcie’s ankle.

  ‘Ouch, why do you keep kicking me when you want my attention?’ Darcie said.

  ‘Don’t look now.’ Emma ignored Darcie’s question and whispered, slightly slurring her words, ‘But someone’s making eyes at you.’

  Darcie leant down to rub her ankle. ‘Who?’

  ‘Shit, she’s coming over,’ Emma said animatedly.

  ‘Oh no,’ Darcie muttered when she caught sight of a heavily made-up woman with short dark spiky hair, a leather jacket, and jeans so tight Darcie wondered how the woman’s blood was managing to circulate. Her eyes roamed unapologetically over Darcie’s body as she neared.

  ‘I’m really not in the mood for this,’ Darcie muttered.

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. This is exactly what you need to take your mind off things.’ Emma fanned her face with her hand. ‘She is so hot, she’s making me melt.’

  ‘Then you take her home.’

  Emma spun Darcie around by the shoulder on her bar stool. ‘Shit, you’ve got it really bad haven’t you?’

  ‘What are you talking about now?’

  ‘Maddie? You’re smitten aren’t you?’

  ‘Please don’t start that again. I met her for all of an hour, during which I was mostly talking at her.’

  ‘I know what I saw. It’s all in the eyes, Darcie, all in the eyes.’ Emma pointed two fingers at her eyes, then at Darcie’s.

  Darcie waved a dismissive hand. ‘In which case you obviously need to get your eyes tested.’

  She couldn’t believe her attraction to Maddie had been so obvious.

  Maybe that’s why Mr Willis rejected my idea because he thought I was after his niece.

  Just admit it, ‘you’ messed up. There were no external factors, she told herself truthfully.

  In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realised it had been Maddie’s presence that had buoyed her on. She tried not to think about Maddie’s sensual lips that curved into a smile to reveal straight white teeth. Or her flawless complexion. And she definitely wasn’t going to think about her cleavage. Darcie couldn’t help but notice it every time she leant over the table. Her dimples remind me of…

  Emma spinning her back around on her stool dragged her from her reverie.

  ‘Do you mind if I join you? I’m Katie by the way.’

  Darcie did a double take when she realised how close the short-haired stranger was standing next to her. How had she not sensed the woman encroaching on her personal space? Now she was right up close and personal. Darcie slid off the bar stool and moved slightly to the right, putting some much-needed distance between them.

  ‘Um—’ Darcie, who was
never normally anything less than eloquent suddenly couldn’t string a simple sentence together.

  ‘Of course you can,’ Emma said before Darcie had a chance to gather her wits. ‘Champagne?’

  Katie’s eyes never left Darcie. ‘Sure. What are you ladies celebrating?’

  Emma snorted. ‘That we lost a contract we never actually won in the first place.’

  Katie’s forehead creased. ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘Ignore her,’ Darcie said. ‘She thinks she’s a comedian.’

  ‘And what does that make you?’ Katie asked, taking a step forward.

  ‘A very tired woman who wants to go home and go to bed.’

  ‘Want some company?’ Katie said unabashedly.

  Darcie glanced at Emma who was giving her a challenging stare. It was almost as if she could hear Emma’s voice in her head, goading her about Maddie. If Darcie dared to tell Emma the truth about the immediate connection she had felt with Maddie, Emma wouldn’t let her live it down. She would be on her case 24/7, trying to get Darcie to track Madison down, and that was the last thing she would ever do. Her ego had been bruised on a professional level. She didn’t think she could also cope with rejection on a personal level. Especially from Maddie. But why? Why would a stranger have such an effect on her? Because she reminds me of Madison. She even has the same name. If it wasn’t for the scar missing from her cheek she could be… No it’s impossible. She would have said who she was. Wouldn’t she?

  Katie’s restless gaze swept over Darcie’s face. ‘Did the thought cross your mind that it might have been your indecisiveness that caused you to lose the contract you never won.’

  ‘Another comedian, eh?’

  Katie’s face broke into a smile and it transformed her almost hard-looking face. In that moment the decision was made.

  ‘Shall we go?’ Darcie knocked back the last dregs of her drink.

  Katie gave her a triumphant smile. ‘Thought you’d never ask.’

  Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t.

  Chapter Six

  Madison slowed her pace and waited for Kay, her flatmate, to catch up. She had been surprised when Kay asked to join her on her run as Kay was so averse to exercise she found walking any further than a hundred feet to the pub tiring.

  ‘Come on slow coach,’ Madison said when Kay came within a few feet and leant over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

  ‘It’s not my fault you’re trying to outrun your past,’ Kay said a few minutes later when she could speak without coughing, although she was still panting hard.

  ‘I am not trying to outrun my past, thank you very much.’

  ‘So why didn’t you tell Darcie who you are? What are you so afraid of? That she won’t remember you and this obsession you have about her will all have been in vain?’

  Madison held onto the edge of a wooden bench and stretched her legs as she considered Kay’s questions. There was no point in running any further. Kay’s face was beetroot red and her breathing laboured. The last thing she wanted was for her to end up in hospital.

  ‘No that’s not the reason. I just didn’t think it was appropriate, considering we were in a public place and I could hardly talk to her about it when we were in the meeting.’

  Kay frowned. ‘I guess not. Maybe you need to get her into bed.’

  ‘Jesus, what’s up with you anyway,’ Madison said, trying to change the subject. Before she could talk sensibly to Kay about her lack of action, she needed to make sense of things herself. Nothing had gone as planned. Madison thought she would go to their meeting, Darcie would recognise her and all would be right with the world. Instead their impromptu encounter at the coffee shop completely threw her. Darcie looked like she had seen a ghost but Madison couldn’t bring herself to confirm Darcie’s suspicions. Even during the meeting when she revealed her name, it must have been obvious who she was but still Madison refrained from speaking the truth.

  But what am I going to do the next time we meet? Now I will look like a liar.

  Madison started to walk in the direction of their flat. ‘You’ve been in a foul mood since I got home. I thought you had a date with Chaz?’

  ‘I did,’ Kay said quietly, casting her eyes down as if she was examining the toes of her five-year-old trainers that still looked brand new.

  ‘Did? Meaning you don’t have one anymore?’

  Madison didn’t know why she was surprised. It wasn’t as if Kay was a keeper. In fact, she had never known her to date anyone for longer than a couple of months. Kay’s reasoning had always been that she was only interested in polyamorous relationships. That was all well and good, of course, as long as all parties agreed to it. Unfortunately, in Kay’s case, she normally ‘forgot’ to tell her new partner, and was aggrieved upon finding out they didn’t agree with the whole polyamory philosophy and promptly disappeared, never to be seen again.

  ‘Spot on, Sherlock,’ Kay said. Then, she spoke more quietly, with a tenderness Madison had never heard in her voice before. ‘She dumped me.’

  Madison stopped in her tracks. ‘Did she?’

  ‘Yes, and by text message of all things.’

  She sounded wounded to Madison, almost to the point where she started to feel sorry for her.

  ‘Technology, eh?’ Madison started to walk again. ‘Gone are the days when dumping was done to your face.’

  Kay shook her fiery, red curls. ‘I didn’t want to be dumped full stop. I actually liked her. A lot.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find someone else soon.’

  ‘I don’t want anyone else,’ Kay said with indignation. ‘I want her.’

  Madison wondered if Kay would start stamping her feet. She sounded like a petulant schoolgirl and it was very out of character for her.

  Maybe she’s growing up.

  ‘And I have no doubt she wants you,’ Madison said. ‘But only you. Not you plus an army of other women you want to sleep with.’

  ‘I can’t help who I am.’ A half-smile lit Kay’s face. ‘And neither can you.’

  ‘If you’re talking about Darcie again, I told you I’m going to tell her the truth—’

  ‘When?’

  Kay was like a dog with a bone. She never let up with her questions.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Madison said. ‘Probably the next time I see her.’

  ‘Which is going to be when?’ Kay asked, eyeing Madison sceptically and seemingly having forgotten her own dating woes already.

  Who knows. Tomorrow? next week?

  ‘Did I ever tell you you’re like a child sometimes.’

  ‘Hmm, lets see.’ Kay looked heavenward. ‘Every day?’ she said with a laugh.

  Madison laughed too. ‘Come on, lets get a Chinese on the way home. I’ll even treat you to a banana fritter.’

  Kay looped her arm through Madison’s. ‘Tell me why you aren’t my girlfriend again?’

  ‘Apart from the fact that you don’t want “one” girlfriend, I just happen to be in love with someone else.’

  And that was the reason why she had never been able to commit herself to another woman. There wouldn’t have been any point. Madison knew that no one could touch her heart the way Darcie had. Never in a million years. Now all she had to do was find some way of getting back into Darcie’s life.

  Later that evening Madison lay on the sofa, with her hands resting on her bloated stomach. They had ordered way too much food, as usual, and she had overeaten. It was strange that she only seemed to do this with Chinese food. Kay was still eating and didn’t look like she was going to stop any time soon.

  ‘Why don’t you call her and ask her to come over for something to eat. There’s loads left,’ Kay said, gesturing to the remaining containers of food on the table.

  ‘Who?’ Madison asked distractedly. She was trying to remember where she had put the Rennies. Her stomach was seriously painful now.

  ‘What do you mean who? Darcie of course.’ Kay wrapped shredded duck in a pancake, po
ured hoisin sauce on it and took a bite, munching away and using one long fingernail to scoop up a stray droplet of sauce from the side of her mouth, then licking the finger clean.

  ‘That would look professional, wouldn’t it? As far as Darcie knows, I’m a complete stranger. What do you think she would say if I just called her out of the blue, and asked her round for a Chinese?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kay said matter-of-factly. ‘That’s your problem, you overthink things too much.’

  ‘I’m not overthinking, I’m being realistic.’

  Madison pushed herself into a sitting position. She really needed to find something to ease the discomfort in her stomach. She got to her feet and walked over to the fridge, praying she hadn’t used all the fresh ginger. Seeing a small, slightly wrinkled piece in the salad tray, she took it out and sliced it into smaller bits.

  ‘Bellyache?’ Kay asked, now munching on prawn crackers.

  Madison nodded as she switched the kettle on. She tossed the ginger into a cup and waited for the kettle to boil, leaning back against the worktop, gently massaging her abdomen.

  ‘I’ve never met anyone with such a sensitive stomach,’ Kay said.

  ‘And I’ve never met anyone who can eat just about anything and not be affected.’

  ‘I’ve got my parents to thank for that. I was brought up on processed food. My gut is a bad bacteria’s paradise.’

  Madison poured the hot water into the cup and returned to the sofa. She blew on the steaming liquid before taking a few sips. Now her stomach was being taken care of, her mind returned to Darcie. She thought about their brief meeting in the coffee shop, about Darcie’s words that Maddie had reminded her of someone she had known in her past.

  ‘If you loved someone do you think you’d forget what they looked like?’ Madison said.

  Kay threw her napkin on her plate, her immense appetite seemingly sated for now. ‘Depends how much they’d changed.’

  ‘I suppose,’ Madison said. ‘But I’d like to think I would have remembered something about Darcie, even if it was her smile. Or her eyes.’

  Kay picked up her glass of Coke and joined Madison on the sofa. ‘You said yourself that Darcie said you reminded her of someone. And to be fair, if I’d have known you when you had that scar on your face, I wouldn’t have thought it could’ve been removed.’