Free You Had Me at Merlot: Part 2 by Lisa Dickenson

While chaos whirled around me like a hot tornado, I was frozen to the spot. Sofia was apologising; Jamie was back in the room,
     swooping up Donna’s bags; Sebastian was forcing a glass of wine into her hand; the other female guests were twittering about
     the new arrival – who they’d clearly not considered a threat until they noticed the men’s looks of admiration at this bulldog-like
     woman and her fierce tongue.
    Laurie covered her chuckling mouth with her glass and whispered to me, ‘What a loon. Sounds like she’s had an even worse flight
     than us.’
    ‘What do I do what do I do what I do?’ I rasped.
    ‘Er, nothing, the owners are on it. Though we should help ourselves to a top-up while they’re distracted.’ I gripped her arm
     before she could leave me. ‘Elle, what’s wrong with your face? It looks about as blotchy as mine.’
    ‘Her. I work with her.’
    ‘No way. Do you know each other?’
    ‘Not really. Sort of. She’s the managing director. She’s in charge of hiring and firing.’
    ‘She’s your boss?’
    ‘She’s my boss’s boss.’
    ‘Bloody hell.’
    ‘This is going to stop me getting a promotion. You know they always say drinking leads to trouble.’ I put down my glass. Then
     picked it straight back up again and took a large swig. ‘Ohhhhh, what if one of the activities is drinking shots from each
     other’s belly buttons?’
    ‘This isn’t
Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents
. Calm down.’
    ‘But this could be so embarrassing. What if I hook up with someone? What will she think of me?’
    ‘I knew it! You
are
hoping to hook up with someone!’
    ‘No I’m not.’ My eyes flicked to Jamie, betraying me. Damn my eyes.
    ‘So what if you have a tumble among the vines with a feisty hunk, squishing grapes underneath your naked bodies, hot Italian
     sun beating down on you and your hot Italian … anyway, what do you think she’s here for?’
    I glanced back over at Donna, whose face was like thunder. ‘I really don’t know. She got divorced years ago, before I even
     started—’ At that point she looked up and our eyes met. Both of us turned Merlot-red, and I looked away.
    Laurie aided me in taking my glass of wine back up to my lips. ‘Just pretend you didn’t see her for now. We’ll make our excuses,
     duck away and deal with it tomorrow. Or you could just act like you don’t recognise her.’
    ‘We just made eye contact for, like, four seconds. If I pretend it wasn’t out of recognition my only fall-back is that it
     was out of attraction.’
    ‘Ellen.’
    I spun around, sloshing red wine on the tiled floor; Laurie covered up the puddle with her foot. ‘
Donna!
Hi!’ I exclaimed, inexplicably throwing my arms around her. Now she could add sexual harassment to my appraisal, along with
     being an alcoholic and a desperate singleton. ‘Actually, it’s Elle—’
    ‘Elle – I know. My apologies. It’s been a bloody awful journey.’ She looked utterly crushed to see me there, which wasn’t
     a nice feeling. I could only assume that seeing a familiar face in a place like this was the icing on her absolutely shit
     cake.
    ‘This is my friend Laurie,’ I mumbled. ‘Laurie, this is my Donna.’
    ‘Howdy,’ Laurie jumped over my fumbled introduction. ‘Good old British weather; sent us all off with a fanfare today, didn’t
     it?’
    Donna nodded, the heaviness dragging her shoulders down. ‘I think I’ll find my room. I guess I’ll see you both tomorrow.’
    As soon as she’d left I slumped down onto one of the big leather armchairs, and Laurie perched on the arm next to me before
     the men could descend back around her.
    ‘That wasn’t so bad, was it? She seemed nice – screaming and swearing aside.’
    ‘She’s fine, it’s just …’ Tears welled in my eyes, which was ridiculous. I held my face in my hands and Laurie rubbed my back.
     ‘I’m so obsessed with work, all the time, it’s all I think about. And being here, I was just beginning to