Page 11 of Snowed In with You

‘The clients. It’s just that . . . I’ve never met them.’

‘Really? Haven’t you worked on this account for over a year?’

Nate shrugged. ‘Yeah. But Fran does all the client meetings; I just do all the work.’

Lucy smirked, delighted that Nate could, at the very least, muster a bit of snark about Fran. ‘Well, that’s awkward,’ she said. ‘Because I’ve never met them either. In person, anyway.’

Nate’s eyes widened in surprise, and Lucy realised for the first time exactly how long his eyelashes were.

‘Copywriters hardly ever go to the client meetings,’ she continued. ‘We’re usually not very client-friendly; we either talk too much or not at all. I mostly work backstage and let Jonno manage front of house.’

‘Hmm,’ said Nate thoughtfully. ‘I’d assumed you were out front, doing your Lucy thing.’

‘What’s my Lucy thing?’ she asked, furrowing her brow and already suspecting she might not like the answer.

‘I don’t know,’ said Nate, squirming uncomfortably. ‘You’re just . . . the kind of person people notice, I guess.’

Lucy looked away, feeling slightly blindsided by the whiplash segue from Nate seeming bored and unengaged, to throwing out comments that felt both personal and critical, somehow. She decided to change the subject to more comfortable territory. ‘Why do you put up with Fran, out of interest? Let her take credit for all your work?’

Nate held her gaze for a moment, like he was trying to work out her motivation for asking. ‘I don’t know. I guess I’m not very client-friendly either.’

She blinked twice, not sure if he’d answered her question or not, and slightly dazzled by how good-looking he was up close. Did he know? Perhaps the whole closed-off, taciturn thing was an act to make him seem more mysterious?

‘Well, that’s not going to work this evening,’ said Lucy. ‘I’ve heard Kristoff likes smart conversation, so if you’ve got any suggestions on deep and meaningful podcasts we can namedrop, I’m all ears.’

‘Let’s see how they are when we get there,’ said Nate. ‘If they want to talk work, I can take the lead – I know their annual plan inside and out. But . . .’ He hesitated, and Lucy smiled.

‘But what?’

‘If they want to party, it’s up to you.’

‘What makes you think I like to party?’ Lucy squirmed, conscious that to other members of the team she and Jonno probably looked like an exclusive little clique who spent half their life in the pub. She’d never been the type to have a big circle of friends, and she didn’t naturally open up to people. Alcohol loosened her corset a little, but she only ever drank at the weekends. Not that Nate would know that; she could see how she probably came across as a wine-fuelled chaos party girl, when in reality she was anything but.

Nate smiled softly. ‘Lucy, I’ve seen you stand on a table in a bar and sing.’

‘What song?’ asked Lucy, pretending to be shocked but now starting to enjoying this more talkative, playful Nate. There had been more than one occasion over the years when she had stood on a table in a karaoke bar and belted out a song – usually after too much wine, and as an opportunity to lose herself in a moment of vocal self-sabotage.

‘I can’t remember. Kelly Clarkson, maybe?’

Lucy felt her cheeks flushing as she remembered her rendition of ‘Since U Been Gone’ at the agency summer party the previous year. ‘Was I any good?’ she asked tentatively, hoping he might throw her a tiny compliment. She’d been pretty pissed, but it had definitely sounded great in her head.

‘No,’ said Nate. ‘You were shit, and the whole thing was actually kind of embarrassing for all of us.’

‘Right, and I suppose you’re Elton John?’ snapped Lucy. She realised that this was what annoyed her about Nate – he wasn’t rude, exactly, just able to vocalise what she secretly already knew but had chosen not to face up to. He did it in the office sometimes too – in just a handful of words, he could make her feel exposed and vulnerable, like he could read her mind and see deep into her soul. Lucy was pretty sure it was done unconsciously and entirely without agenda, but she still found it unsettling.

‘No,’ said Nate, looking at his fingernails. ‘I play guitar, not piano.’

So the guitar was his, then. She briefly considered mentioning it, in a casual Oh, I saw your guitar on Instagram kind of way, but that definitely sounded like she’d been stalking him on social media, which she absolutely had. Just out of interest, who was the person videoing you on a Parisian bicycle three years ago? There was no way to have this conversation without sounding a bit mad.

‘I thought I sounded OK,’ she said feebly.

‘Drunk people always think that,’ said Nate. The plane started to back away from the stand, so he put his headphones back on again and closed his eyes.

Lucy pressed her lips together and turned back to her magazine, silently fuming that Nate would bring up something like that, just for the opportunity to humiliate her. Turns out he was way hotter when he said nothing, thought Lucy. He can feel free to French Exit through the emergency doors any time he likes.

CHAPTER FIVE

Lucy climbed into the back of the people carrier, originally booked for six people, but now only carrying two. She’d hoped the seating would be configured so she and Nate could sit comfortably apart, but no such luck – it was set up like a London cab with two rows of three seats facing each other. Lucy chose the row that would be travelling forwards, on the basis that facing backwards made her feel sick, and it was no surprise that Nate chose a seat on the same side – he was still looking a bit pale and stressed after their turbulent descent in high winds, and a landing that had made Lucy’s teeth rattle. His silence had continued as they made their way off the plane and through passport control, only breaking it to acknowledge Lucy’s updates from Jonno that they were on a flight three hours behind Lucy and Nate. It meant that they’d miss dinner but would be there for late drinks.