The Hating Game (24 page)

‘
Talk! Talk!’ Baz
hissed at them as he trailed behind Ram. ‘For God’s sake! Do something!’

Kyle cleared his throat. ‘So I thought I’d bring you back to where we first got together.’

Duh,
Mattie thought as she nodded and smiled. He certainly hadn’t got any smarter since they’d broken up.

‘
We’ll take
a walk through the woods,’ he continued. ‘Then we’ll have dinner up at Manor House Hotel.’

Mattie sighed and some of the tension drained out of her body. Thank God they weren’t going back to the cottage where they’d first made love – slept – together. It would be too awkward for words. As practised as she was at hiding her feelings, she didn’t think even she could keep up the facade inside the tiny space.

They crossed the bridge over the brook below. At least Kyle wasn’t going to torture her by trying to get her to take a small row boat on the water, as he had that first weekend. She’d made plenty of excuses before finally admitting she’d never learned to swim. Kyle was one of the few people she’d actually told. It seemed like something from Victorian times, not being able to swim, but her mother just hadn’t had time. She did manage to find the time, though, to show Mattie how to file a tax return at the age of ten.

Fin
ancial independence is the key to happiness, her mum had said as Mattie struggled with the form, not even understanding what ‘financial independence’ meant. But if it made her mother happy, it must be a good thing. Mattie had heard her mum crying late at night and the sound always terrified her.

Inside the wood, the air was even denser and the forest’s cloying
scent invaded her nostrils. Mattie wrinkled her nose at the mouldy smell of damp earth.
This
was the reason she never came to the country in the winter: the whole thing was just foul. When she and Kyle were last here, blossoms and green had perfumed the air and wild flowers lined the path. Now – Mattie raised a squelching foot – it was like walking through the mudwrestling pit again.

Kyle grabbed her hand
. ‘Come on!’ He tugged her off the path and dragged her through the low undergrowth of the forest, wet leaves slapping her in the face.

‘
What are you doing?’ Mattie yelled as she tried to break free. But Kyle had an iron grip on her wrist. ‘Let go of me!’ She swivelled her head and tried to make out where Nate and Baz were but she couldn’t see them through the dense foliage.

Kyle pulled up next to a swollen stream and wiped his face. A bit of leaf still clung to his eyebrow but Mattie wasn’t about to tell him.

‘
What
do you think you’re doing?’ she managed to get out between breaths. It had been awhile since she’d run like that. Kyle didn’t even seem winded.

‘
Look, Mattie.’ Kyle paused. In the silence,
they could hear the crash of Ram, Nate and Baz approaching through the trees.

‘
What?’ Mattie said impatiently. The drizzle was turning into rain now, with fat drops splattering off leaves onto her cheeks.

‘
Look,’ Kyle said again. ‘I didn’t know you had a dress.’

‘
Oh, Jesus,’ Mattie muttered. She looked him straight in the eye. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Kyle. I was drunk, I liked the dress. That’s it. End of story.’

Kyle glanced
over his shoulder. The crashing was getting closer. He tried to touch her arm, but Mattie jumped back. No way was he getting his mitts on her again.

‘
After last night, well, I was about to give up. But
when I read about the wedding dress – Mattie.’ He reached out to take her hand and she stared down, numbly watching as his fingers closed around hers. How she’d loved his hands – his fingers were the perfect width and his knuckles had just the right sprinkling of hair.

‘
I
t made me realise that you really did care. And now more than ever we need to clear things up,’ he said.

Mattie forced
her hand out of his grip and looked up into his eyes. ‘Kyle, there’s nothing to clear up. I told you, I heard it all from Chloe.’ Suddenly she felt so tired.

‘
Mattie! Kyle!’ Nate’
s voice ricocheted off the tree trunks around them.

Kyle’s browed furrowed
. ‘What do you mean, you heard it from Chloe? I haven’t seen her since that day in the office!’ Anger shot across his face. ‘Nothing happened there, Mattie. You
must
know I would never do that do you. If you’d just given me a chance to explain–’

‘
There you
are!’ Nate’s hair was plastered to his face and his clothes were so sodden it looked like he’d taken a bath in them. But Mattie couldn’t care less about Nate. Kyle’s words were hammering her head. What did he mean, he hadn’t seen Chloe since the office? According to Chloe, they’d still been hot and heavy a month later.

Kyle cursed and turned to face him. ‘Yeah, sorry, mate. Just wanted to talk to Mattie about something.’

Baz poked his
head out from behind a bush. ‘You’re supposed to talk
on camera
. That’s the whole point of a
reality show
.’

Mattie itched to slap him
.

‘
Um, guys?’ Nate stepped forward. ‘Do you think you could repeat the conversation for us?’ He looked around. ‘Where’s Ram?’ Nate backed off into the woods and bellowed for the cameraman.

Mattie darted a quick look at Kyle, jerking away as she met his still-puzzled gaze.
Was
he telling the truth? Sure, Chloe was a big enough bitch to make it all up, but why would she bother?

Mattie shook her head. It doesn’t matter, she told herself.
Remember, you’re about to go bankrupt because of him. Bankrupt. Bankrupt.
Bankrupt
.

‘
Here he is!’ Nate reappeared with a
mud-splattered Ram.

‘
I lost a wellie,’ Ram grumbled, lumbering over to them with a face like a giant toddler’s.

‘
Nice sock,’ Baz smirked
as the group took in the fluffy white sheep printed on Ram’s foot.

‘
Bugger off.’ Ram
swung the camera back over his shoulder. ‘Let’s get this over with before I kill someone.’ If the look on his face was anything to go by, Mattie didn’t doubt he was about to commit murder. She hoped Baz would be the first to go.

Nate nodded
. ‘Ready, guys?’

Please don’t bring up Chloe, Mattie pleaded with her eyes as she stared at Kyle. After the whole wedding dress fiasco,
the last thing she needed was any further humiliations. She hoped the message in her eyes would bore into his brain.

‘
Can you trust me, Mattie?’ Kyle asked. His question took her by surprise and she stepped back, almost falling over a branch. Kyle reached out to steady her. ‘I want to start again.’

‘
Before or after I go bankrupt?’ The words slipped out of Mattie’s mouth and she cringed as she saw Baz’s face light up. Shit. She hadn’t meant to let Kyle know business was so dire. She’d just wanted to harden herself against him, not tell the whole nation.

Kyle’s brow furrowed. ‘Bankrupt
? What do you mean?’

Mattie tossed her head
and stayed silent. She could tell everyone he’d destroyed her business but she already looked like a sad loser. She wasn’t about to fill him in on all the gory details.

Kyle reached out to touch her
shoulder but she moved away. ‘Mattie?’

She focused on a tree behind him
, refusing to meet his gaze.

‘
Mattie, you going to answer that?
’ Nate asked as the silence stretched. Mattie shook her head.

‘
Jesus Christ. We’re not going to win any awards with this dialogue. Silver’s going to kill us,’ Baz muttered when the silence had gone on too long. ‘Cut!’

Mattie darted away from Kyle and over to where
Ram was wringing out his sheep sock. She forced a calm look onto her face but inside her head was whirling. How could he not know her business was on the rocks? He’d taken half her clients! And what if she
had
been wrong about Chloe?

Mattie
tilted her face up to the grey sky and let the rain pound her cheeks, hoping it would make her head clearer. Kyle wanted her to trust him. He wanted to start again. He made it all sound so clear, so easy. He hadn’t been with Chloe. He hadn’t destroyed her business. He hadn’t even known she was going bankrupt.

Or so he said. Mattie wiped the rain from her face. Could she even entertain the thought of believing him? For a second, images of them together flashed through her mind: the softness on his face when he looked at her in the morning after waking up; the two of them celebrating after scoring a major account . . . He’d been such a big part of her life.

She’d
said she could never forgive him. But what if she’d been wrong?

Nate
herded Mattie and Kyle back down the forest track and across yet another endless field towards the Manor House Hotel. Mattie walked a few steps behind Kyle, her mind still a swirl of confusion. No matter how many times she tried to corral her thoughts into the ‘Kyle’s a cheating loser who stole your clients’ pen, a million questions darted out again, bleating until she had no choice but to pay attention.

Thankfully
, Kyle let her be, turning only occasionally to throw her a look. She could feel his eyes on her and it took every last bit of willpower not to look at him.

Mattie collapsed at a table inside the Bybrook Restaurant at the Manor House. Dim light filtered through the leaded windows, matching the gloominess that had settled on her. She grimaced as she wiggled her toes in a vain effort to dry them faster. Sodden shoes didn’t exactly help her mood.

‘
Kyle?’ Nate beckoned Kyle to join Mattie at the table. ‘So
, this is just a dinner scene,’ he said when Kyle sat down. ‘Just chat, act natural and ignore the camera. The usual.’

Mattie rolled her eyes at Ram who even as Nate spoke was jamming the lens in her face. He still hadn’t found his errant boot and judging by the look on his face, he was far from happy about it.

‘
And . . .
action!’ Nate yelled.

Waiters buzzed over to the table, pouring wine and setting some sort of poncy green creation in front of them. Mattie grabbed the glass of what looked to be kir and drained it in one go. She could really use a whisky right about now.

‘
Could we get two whiskies, please? Famous Grouse?’ Kyle asked the hovering waiter before she could open her mouth. Mattie met his eyes. She’d forgotten he liked Famous Grouse, too.

In the candlelight, his eyes glowed darkly and a strange feeling squeezed her gut. She grabbed the newly offered glass and took a gulp.

‘
I didn’t know y
our business was having trouble. I’ve been so busy, I’ve barely had time to lift up my head these past few months,’ Kyle whispered, sliding his hand over his mic.

‘
Sure, rub
it in!’ Mattie hissed, trying to replace the odd feeling with anger. ‘But you must have known. All
your
clients used to be ours!’

‘
You’re so good a
t getting new business I never thought it would be a problem,’ Kyle countered. ‘And they’re not all ours, you know. Only five or six accounts came over to me.’

Mattie stared, the wheels turning in her head. Only five or six accounts? She’d lost a good twenty – at least – since he’d opened up shop.

‘
What about Cerillion Productions?’ she asked, naming one of their biggest. She’d come home from Italy to find them off her books. ‘And Belamy?’

Kyle shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I heard something about Cerillion taking all their recruitment back in-house. And Belamy had financial difficulties, I think. They’ve implemented a hiring freeze.’

Mattie stared. She’d been so convinced he’d poached all of them, she hadn’t even bothered checking. Still, he
had
taken five accounts – whether they’d gone voluntarily or not didn’t matter.

‘
Can you two hurry up with the salad? We need to move on to mains,’ Nate shouted, gesturing for the waiter to clear their plates. Mattie watched as the waiter carried their
dishes back to the kitchen, squinting in the dim light as someone ducked out and waved at Nate.

Was that Baz
? He’d been AWOL since the forest. Mattie just assumed he was redoing his hair, which had wilted sideways under the force of the rain. Why was he hiding out in the kitchen?

Kyle turned, following Mattie’s
gaze. Another cameraman crept into the room, positioning himself in the corner and training his lens on the kitchen door. And Nate was doing that twitchy-toilet thing again. Something was definitely going on.

The kitchen door swung open.

And out walked the
woman Mattie had hoped never to lay eyes on again.

Chloe Collins.

Chloe
swayed her hips and high-stepped over to the table. Her long blonde hair was perfectly groomed and her make-up was tasteful instead of appearing to be applied with a trowel like the last time Mattie had seen her. Her wrap dress – definitely Diane von Furstenberg – hung on her curves as if it had been moulded onto her body. She’d fit right in on any Milan runway.