Page 4 of The House Swap

You’ve taken liberties, Poppy. You’ve crossed a line. I’m disappointed. I expected better.

He’d written it as if she were the one who had acted shamefully.

Had she really overstepped?

No. She knew she hadn’t. She’d been professional. She’d been thorough. She’d done exactly what she’d been hired to do, and she had tried her best to improve the book without bruising his ego.

As far as she was aware, he had changed everything back to his original manuscript, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she was simply someone to blame now his book had failed. His ego simply couldn’t handle it being his fault.

He had never wanted an editor; he wanted a cheerleader. And now she suspected he was punishing her because she had refused to clap.

It was working too. How did she even begin to convince all of these people vilifying her that she had done nothing wrong?

The phone rang and she was tempted to leave it, but then she saw Keira’s name flash up. Did her best friend know?

Poppy’s heart thumped as she answered. Her voice breathless, even though she was still sitting on the toilet lid. ‘Hi.’

‘I need your help to decide on dresses,’ Keira jumped straight in. ‘I have Greg’s work do Saturday night and he says I should go with boring black, but I really want to wear that Karen Millen one I got on Vinted. Do you think it’s too loud?’

Even through the haze of panic in her head, Poppy could picture the dress. Strapless, in bold blues and reds, with a big, floaty skirt. Not very demure, but definitely very Keira.

‘It’ll be fine,’ she managed, trying to roll the tension out of her shoulders.

Keira was no wallflower and she would pull the dress off, enjoying that all of the attention was on her. Besides, Poppy had no time for Greg, who was far too stuffy and condescending. It never failed to amaze her that her vibrant, free-as-a-bird friend had chosen to settle down with someone who tried to stifle her.

‘You’re right,’ Keira agreed. ‘My body, my choice. And I want to wear my new dress.’

As she continued to speak, talking about Greg’s dull work colleagues, Poppy clicked off the call screen, dread lodged heavy in her throat as she saw she had even more new messages.

‘Earth to Poppy. Are you still there?’

Hearing her name pulled her back into the conversation. ‘Sorry, what?’

‘What’s up with you?’ Keira complained. ‘You’ve barely said two words. Have you heard anything I said?’

Poppy bit into her bottom lip. Once she admitted what was going on, once she spoke the words aloud, it became real.

She couldn’t keep this to herself, though, and right now she needed someone to tell her what to do.

‘What’s going on, Pops?’

Poppy closed her eyes, the phone clutched in her hand so tightly, it was hurting her palm.

‘Something awful has happened,’ she admitted. ‘And I don’t know what to do.’

2

FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER

Things went from bad to worse as the weekend loomed.

Poppy hoped the shitstorm Simon had created might slowly fade away, but if anything, it picked up pace, and she had no idea how to fix things or how to walk away with her reputation intact.

Keira had earned all the friendship stars as soon as she learnt what had happened, dropping everything and rushing to Poppy’s side, bringing with her two bottles of wine.

She had been furious, wanting to fight everyone who was calling Poppy names.

Perhaps drinking hadn’t been the wisest idea, as alcohol had provided bravado and after the first bottle had been polished off, the two of them had tried to defend her on Facebook against the accusations.