Page 14 of Punt

I got it. I was just as bad. I mean, if my colleagues needed anything, I'd make time, but they'd need to wave a flag in front of my face before I noticed.

"I'm sorry, I'm bothering you." I started to stand but Mel waved me back down and turned off her screen.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm not being a good friend right now. You obviously need one."

I hated to sound needy, but I really did. "I didn't mean to dump all of this on you," I said. "It's been a rough week."

Mel's eyes widened and she nodded. "Tell me about it. All the spring lines are coming up. Can you believe that shade of greenis coming into fashion?" She nodded toward a swatch on her desk. "It's so not my colour."

"Is it anyone's colour?" I supposed it was time for 1990s fashion revival, but most of it looked pretty bad the first time around.

"I…have no idea," she said with a laugh. "At least black is still in."

"Black is always in." Whatever they said about the new black, black was still the old black as far as I was concerned. Only the styles changed around it.

"So, you're not going to take him back if he asks?" Mel's sudden change of subject had me blinking in surprise.

"Why would he ask? He made it clear what he thought of me when he slept with her."

The thought made the milk in my coffee turn sour in my stomach. Or maybe the coffee was that bad.

"He made a mistake," Mel said. "People do that all the time."

"This isn't like ordering the wrong sized skirt and having to exchange it," I pointed out. "He slept with another woman in our bed. Who does that?"

"I don't know. Personally, I would have kicked him out and cut up all his underpants with scissors. All the rest of his clothes too.Andthe dinosaur costume." She made a snipping motion with her fingers.

I smiled. "I didn't think of that." I don't have it in me to be that vindictive, but it sounded satisfying. The look on his face would be priceless.

"I could have put all his comics in a pile and burnt them." I wouldn't have done that either, but thinking about it made me feel a little better.

"Attagirl," Mel said approvingly. "Don't forget about scratching your name on the side of his car."

I laughed. "His car is such a shit heap, no one would notice."

"That would be a waste then. Besides, if you do that, you might as well write her name, not yours. That way, he'd always remember, but they might think she did it, not you." Mel grinned.

"I'm starting to think you're a criminal mastermind," I told her. "Or, you've dealt with this before?"

She shrugged. "High school boyfriend. It was a long time ago. And his dad's car."

I winced. "Ouch. I bet he got in trouble for that."

"Yeah, his parents sent him off to military school or something." She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. "Last I heard, he was moving up in the ranks and loving life. I guess I did him a favour."

"Alls well that end well," I quoted.

"Kinda," Mel said. "The other girl got pregnant. I don't think she let him anywhere near the kid. I can't say I blame her. He was a total jerk."

"Isn't everyone at that age?" Back then, I was obsessed with my appearance and hanging out with the right people. I was the girl who would laugh if someone tripped over a nerd, even though I wasn't the one doing the tripping. I always had to have therightdate to all the dances, especially the formal. My group was too cool for sport, choir, or anything like that. We were too busy with the latest diet, although none of us even needed to lose half a kilo.

I was thrilled to get into college and away from all of that. I'm still obsessed with clothes and my job needs me to look presentable at all times, but I'm a lot happier now than I was back then, except for the whole Kris thing.

"I was in photography club," Mel said. "Our specialty was trying to capture people during their most embarrassing moments. I guess that made us jerks. It was funny as hell at thetime. Better to be behind the camera when someone falls over a rubbish bin than the one doing the falling."

"Yeah, that's true," I agreed. No one wanted to be caught on camera looking stupid. Unless it got them a bunch of likes and followers. Even then, it wasn't my thing. I preferred to be behind social media accounts, not in the spotlight. Luckily I didn't have to do either. Lacey's had an extensive social media department to deal with that.

"Do you think they'll notice if we don't buy anything in that shade of green?" I mused.