Meet Clara Morgan (Clara Andrews Series - Book 3)

by Lacey London

  Being very aware that all hell could be breaking loose just a few doors away, I scurry out of the lift and knock loudly on room 238. When I get no reply, I am seriously contemplating calling security when the door finally sweeps open.

  ‘Dolly.’ I breathe, grateful that she is still alive. ‘Where is she?’

  Stepping aside, Dolly holds open the door to reveal Lianna. Perched on the edge of the lavish four poster bed holding a glass of what appears to be whiskey, she looks like a shadow of the girl I know and love.

  ‘Li?’ Carefully sitting down beside her, I offer her a small smile.

  Poor Lianna, she looks dreadful. The skin that was perfectly bronzed only a couple of hours earlier is now grey with grief. She looks totally heartbroken. Tucking a stray strand of wet hair behind her ear, I can’t help but screw my nose up at the overpowering stench of alcohol. How much has she had? Not that I wouldn’t do the same. I’m pretty sure that discovering your fiancé is a cheating scumbag weeks before your wedding gives you a free pass to a few drinks.

  ‘Let me get you some water.’ Taking the glass of bourbon out of her hands, I wander over to the mini bar and beckon Dolly out into the lobby.

  ‘What happened? Has she said anything?’ Whispering to ensure that Lianna doesn’t hear us, I lean into Dolly’s ear.

  ‘I was in the bar downstairs when I saw her at the check in desk. We came up here and she told me to tell her everything.’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘And then nothing! She hasn’t said a word since. After I told her what I told you she has just sat there in silence.’ Nibbling on a long acrylic nail, Dolly’s brow furrows. ‘Clara, I’m scared.’

  ‘OK. I’m going to take her home.’ Turning around to go back into the room, I am stopped by Dolly who grabs me by the arm.

  ‘Wait! Won’t Dan be there? We can’t leave her with him.’

  ‘Good point. She can come back to mine, I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to be alone tonight.’

  Nodding in agreement, Dolly makes her way back into the room cautiously. Unsurprisingly, Lianna is still in the exact same position we left her in, the same far away look in her eyes. It’s hard to believe that we have a cure for so many diseases yet nothing in the world can help mend a broken heart.

  Putting an arm around her shoulders, I pull her to her feet. ‘Come on, Li. Let’s get you home.’

  2.13am

  To: dantheman69@lime.co.uk

  From: claraandrews001@firemail.co.uk

  Subject: I HATE YOU

  I HATE YOU

  I HATE YOU

  I HATE YOU

  Chapter 26

  ‘There had better be a good reason for this, Andrews.’ Clearly not impressed at being dragged out of bed at such a horrendous hour, Janie shoves on a pair of sunglasses and begrudgingly takes a seat at the breakfast table.

  ‘Trust me, you’re going to want to hear this.’ Handing her a cup of steaming black coffee I beckon a sleepy Oliver into the kitchen.

  ‘My head hurts.’ Scratching his five o’clock shadow, Oliver lets out an almighty yawn and reaches for the medicine box. ‘Why are we up so goddam early?’

  I really wish that I didn’t have to do this. When I first peeled open my eyes this morning I hoped beyond hope that the whole thing had been a terrible dream. Unfortunately, the sight of Lianna’s iPhone and clutch bag on my bedside cabinet told me otherwise. My plan was to tell Oliver and Janie about Dan and Dolly last night, but by the time that they finally crawled home I had passed out into my pillow.

  Taking a peek into the guest bedroom, I am glad to see that Lianna is still asleep. I did go in and check on her numerous times in the night, but she insisted that she wanted to be left alone. I must have listened to her sob her heart out for hours before she finally cried herself out.

  ‘Anyone for breakfast?’ Oliver hollers across the room. ‘I don’t know about you guys, but I am starving.’

  ‘Shh! Keep your voice down!’ Holding my finger to my lips I hurry back into the kitchen.

  ‘Why?’ Oliver and Janie exchange confused glances as Oliver flicks on the TV.

  ‘Lianna is asleep in the guest bedroom.’ I whisper sadly.

  ‘OK…’ Oliver replies slowly. ‘Why?’

  ‘I think that she and Dan have split up.’

  ‘What?’ They retort in unison, both looking equally confused.

  Not quite knowing what the best way is to put this, I decide to just say it how it is. ‘Dan slept with Dolly.’

  It’s Janie that starts laughing first, followed quickly by Oliver. They don’t believe me.

  ‘I’m serious! I wish I wasn’t, but it’s true.’ Not wanting to wake Lianna up, I try to keep my voice down.

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Janie whips off her glasses and attempts to pull her tight skin into a frown.

  ‘I know that it’s a lot to take in, but I swear it’s true. I wouldn’t believe it myself if I hadn’t of heard it from the horse’s mouth.’

  ‘That’s not possible.’ Oliver shakes his head as he speaks. ‘How? When?’

  ‘It was the night of Gina’s hen do. Dolly and Dixie went to The Venue when everyone else came home and that’s where she met him. He had no idea who Dolly was and he told her that he was single. Obviously Dolly believed him and they… and they went back to a hotel together.’

  I wait for them to say something, but they are both stunned into silence. I genuinely don’t think that I have ever seen Janie lost for words before. I really hope that she doesn’t make this harder than it needs to be. As neither of them says anything, I carry on talking.

  ‘It gets worse, Dan has been texting Dolly ever since. Apparently he was just desperate to see her again. When Dolly told him to pick her up from Holy Trinity Church, it didn’t take Dan long to work out that she was at Marc and Gina’s wedding. Knowing that Dolly and Lianna were in the same room made Dan freak out. He demanded that Dolly meet him right away and confessed everything. That’s when I got there. Dan had just told Dolly that he was Lianna’s fiancé and begged her not to say anything. As you can guess, it did not go down well.’

  ‘Wow… just, wow.’ Oliver shakes his head furiously and walks into the living room. ‘They have only been here four days! I just knew they’d be trouble. I knew it!’

  ‘Don’t be mad at Dolly, she wasn’t to know. It’s Dan that we should be mad at. Dolly was devastated when she found out the truth.’ Feeling my temples begin to throb, I send Oliver a mental SOS. I really don’t want him to explode and make things ten times worse than they already are.

  ‘Cheating bastard!’ Janie seethes. ‘I knew there was something with that guy. It was the eyes, too close together.’ Marching back and forth across the kitchen tiles, Janie raps her knuckles on the marble work tops. ‘Where’s my Dolly? Is she OK?’

  ‘She’s at The Skyline.’ I murmur, collapsing on to the couch. ‘You might want to go and check on her. She was pretty upset last night.’

  I watch as Janie tugs on her sparkly UGGs and slams the apartment door as she leaves.

  Turning my attention back to Oliver, I pat the seat next to me. ‘Come and sit down. There’s no point blowing your top about it. What’s done is done. We can’t change it now.’

  ‘If they wouldn’t have come over here then none of this would have happened. I should have put my foot down from the start.’

  ‘Let’s face it, if it wasn’t Dolly then it would be some other girl. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but Dan has quite a reputation for treating women this way.’

  ‘Really?’ Oliver’s eyes widen at the revelation. ‘I thought Dan was one of the good guys?’

  ‘Put it this way, he had made his way through most of the girls in HR before Lianna decided that she would be the one to tame him.’ I shake my head at the amount of times Lianna has been in tears over Dan. ‘I really thought that he had turned over a new leaf.’

  ‘Girls in HR?’ Oliver frowns. ‘Like who? Rebecca?’
>
  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Sarah?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Gina?’

  ‘God, no!’ Screwing my nose up at the thought of Gina and Dan, I massage Oliver’s tense neck. ‘The point I was making, is that this isn’t the first time that this has happened.’

  ‘Wow…’ Oliver breathes. ‘He seemed like such a stand up guy. How can you be so wrong about a person?’

  We both sit in silence, pondering his question. How can you be so wrong about someone? It just goes to show that we let people into our lives without really knowing just how much chaos they are going to cause whilst they’re there. As children, our parents teach us that monsters aren’t real, but the older you get you start to realise that they are all around us and sometimes they are even closer than we think.

  Chapter 27

  Lianna didn’t get out of bed at all yesterday. She didn’t eat, she didn’t shower, she didn’t even change her clothes. In fact, the only time that I heard her move was to use the bathroom. Janie and I spent all day trying to coax her out, even Oliver gave it a go with take out from her favourite Chinese. If crispy beef and chow mein noodles doesn’t bring her out of this depression, I really don’t know what will.

  Lianna isn’t the only one who has taken this so badly. When Janie returned from The Skyline last night, she announced that Dixie, Dolly, Dallas and George would all be flying home today. Originally, the plan was for them to stay until next weekend, but Dolly was so upset that she just wanted to go home. Poor Dolly, I really do feel sorry for her. She comes on holiday for a good time and inadvertently breaks up a relationship. It’s not exactly something that you put on your holiday bucket list, is it?

  Clutching Lianna’s phone, I tap on the empty call list. Unbelievably, Dan hasn’t tried to contact her once. Coward. You would think that he would be banging the door down and begging for her forgiveness, but there hasn’t even been so much as a grovelling text message. I’m really not looking forward to having to tell this to Lianna. The fact that he isn’t even sorry makes the whole thing ten times worse.

  Since dropping the American contingent off at Heathrow, Oliver and Janie have been coming up with ideas to get Lianna to come out of the prison that is the spare room.

  ‘What about taking her to that spa in Castleton?’ Oliver suggests, stretching out on the couch. ‘You guys love that place.’

  ‘True, I just don’t think that hot stone massages and pedicures are what she needs right now.’ Smiling regrettably I twist my hair up into a ballerina bun.

  Janie wags a telling finger in our direction and continues to apply mascara to her already spider like lashes. ‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the best way to get over a man is to get under another one.’

  ‘Jeez, Mom!’ Oliver shoots her a disgusted look and opens his laptop. ‘Would you quit it already?’

  ‘I’m telling ya!’ Janie cackles. ‘Take that girl on vacation! Hot guys, cocktails, a little Vitamin D and she’ll be right in no time at all.’

  ‘You know, she might have a point.’ Turning to face Oliver, I scratch my nose thoughtfully. ‘A few days away from work, Dan and the whole sorry affair might be just what she needs.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Oliver mumbles. ‘I mean, she’s hardly in the right frame of mind to be in the office tomorrow.’

  Nodding in agreement, I grab my phone. ‘I did speak to Marc earlier, he said that it’s fine if she needs to take a few days off work.’

  ‘Then why not? Hadn’t you planned to go away for your bachelorette party anyway?’ Janie chips in.

  ‘I guess so.’

  ‘Perfect! Then we will bring the bachelorette party forward. Lianna gets to get away for a few days and you get your chicken thing or whatever it is you call it over here.’ Zipping up her cosmetic bag, Janie reaches for her coffee.

  Feeling a frisson of excitement at the thought of a hen do I roll off the couch. ‘Let me call Marc and check if it would be OK for me to take some time off too. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue.’

  Wandering over to the window, I speed dial Marc’s number. When I spoke to him earlier he wasn’t as shocked as I thought he would be. It turns out that Dan was a little too friendly with one of the strippers at Marc’s stag do. Unfortunately, Marc put it down to a little too much to drink and pre wedding jitters, but as we now know Dan’s intentions weren’t quite as innocent as that.

  Hearing Marc’s familiar voicemail, I quickly ramble off a pleading message. I decide not to mention the hen do part. Somehow I think going down the Lianna needs to get away route will do me more favours. Ending the call, I flop down on the bed and stretch out my legs on the silky sheets. Still no signs of life coming from the spare room. Looking at my watch, I decide that she has got until 5.30pm to make herself known before I drag her out of bed and force feed her cookies.

  Feeling my phone vibrate under my hip, I roll over onto my stomach and jab the message icon.

  In a meeting with Head Office. You can take until Thursday. Give Li a hug from me. M x

  Clutching my phone tightly I can’t help but smile. Being best friends with your manager really does have some perks to it. Even if it isn’t under the best circumstances, jetting off to the sunshine for a few days sounds amazing. Who wouldn’t like to escape work, reality and the stresses of daily life for a while?

  Padding back in to the living room, I flash Oliver the thumbs up sign.

  ‘Marc said it’s fine to take off tomorrow through to Thursday. I’m not sure where we could go at such short notice though.’

  ‘Fabulous!’ Janie squeals. ‘I’m on it.’

  ‘Nothing crazy, Janie.’ ‘We just want something relaxing and low key.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah. Whatever.’ Janie flashes me a cheeky wink before disappearing into her room.

  Putting his arm around my shoulder, Oliver pulls me closer to him. ‘I think this is a good idea. Why don’t you go tell Lianna and see what see thinks?’

  ‘Yeah, I should probably run it past her before booking anything. She might hate the idea.’

  ‘Well you better go quick as my mom will be making reservations as we speak. You know what she’s like.’

  Hearing Janie furiously tapping away on the laptop, I wander over to the guest bedroom.

  ‘Li?’ I whisper, not sure if she is asleep or awake.

  Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, I offer her a small smile as she rolls over to face me.

  ‘Has he called?’

  Shaking my head regrettably, I wipe a stray tear from her cheek.

  ‘Do you want something to eat? I can get you anything. You name it and I will fetch it. Absolutely anything you want.’

  ‘I’m honestly not hungry.’

  ‘OK.’ Stroking her matted hair, I rest my head on her shoulder. ‘Well how do you feel about getting away for a few days?’

  Lianna doesn’t say anything, but the fact that she doesn’t immediately dismiss the idea is promising.

  ‘A few days in the sun? It will give you some time to work out how you’re going to handle this… this situation.’

  ‘I think I’d like that.’ Giving me the smallest, saddest smile that I’ve ever seen, she rolls back over and pulls the covers up over her head.

  ‘OK. Leave it with me.’ Pushing myself to my feet, I pad towards the door. ‘And remember to give me a shout if you need anything at all.’

  Lianna lifts the duvet just enough to reveal one eye. ‘Actually, there is something that I would like…’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Can you ask Oliver if he still has that crispy beef?’

  Chapter 28

  Tossing a bottle of shampoo into my travel case, I take one last look around the room. How much can one possibly need for three nights in Tenerife? Fighting with the zipper, I just about manage to fasten the case up before it vomits suntan lotion and bikinis over the bed. To be fair, Lianna’s case isn’t much better. This afternoon, Oliver called Dan to make sure that he wasn’t h
ome before Li and I did a trolley dash around her bedroom. It’s amazing how fast that you can move when you really have to. In the space of seven minutes, we managed to fill her suitcase with swimsuits, empty her jewellery box and cut the crotch out of Dan’s favourite pair of jeans. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

  Trying to remember if I have packed my sarong, I take a seat on the bed. I really hope that the weather is good in the Canaries at this time of year. If it isn’t, then the mountain of sun dresses I purchased this morning are going to be a complete waste of money. I am also hoping that I can squeeze in enough sun bathing to get a golden glow. That way I can stop having nightmares about getting fake tan on my wedding dress. Believe me, I have had more than my fair share of tanning disasters in my time.

  I must admit that I was little dubious when Janie announced that she would be arranging this trip away and even more dubious when I discovered that she would be joining us! It turns out that American Citizens don’t need visas to travel to Spain, so my relaxing couple of days with Lianna soon turned into an alcohol fused trip to the party island that is Tenerife. Oh well, at least it will get Li away for a while which was the main point of this anyway. Shaking my head at the thought of Janie mixing with crowds of hormonal teenagers, I roll off the bed and pad into the spare bedroom.

  ‘All packed, Li?’ Taking a seat at the marble dressing table, I admire my freshly polished nails.

  ‘Yep, done and dusted.’ She replies, smiling broadly. ‘And thanks for this, Clara. I really don’t know what I would do without you.’