One Hundred Names (Special Edition)

problem, don’t worry, everything is going fine.’
    ‘Good, good, but that’s not what I’m calling you about. It’s the book you gave me. My boss read it today.’
    ‘That was quick,’ Kitty smiled, sitting down and waiting for her payback. ‘I hope I didn’t waste his time too much by sending it in. It was just a favour for a friend, you know?’
    ‘Well, your friend will be delighted because it’s good news. My boss loves it. Crime is huge right now and he wants to get in touch with your friend.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
    Kitty couldn’t speak, she was so shocked. This had not gone the way she had planned it. The plan was for Richie’s novel to be rejected, to have a firm letter of rejection written out to him so that she could personally deliver it and thereby deliver the same dagger through his heart that he had stabbed her with. But it was all going terribly wrong. They actually
liked
it – how could this be? He was going to be a published author and that was her revenge?
    Kitty needed time to herself to deal with her revenge mess-up so she disappeared to her bedroom to gather herself together. She also needed to think about what they could achieve tomorrow and what the events of today meant for her story. There were twin beds in the small room, with a basin in the corner and a bathroom down the hall to share with the rest of the guests. Instead of trying to sort out her problems all she could think of was Steve, how she and he would be in the same room, how excited she was about that, not that she was expecting something to happen, though she had to admit there was certainly a change between them over the past few days, or was that just her? Was she projecting her feelings for him onto him when in reality nothing about his feelings for her had changed at all? Kitty’s track record with men was not good recently. She had dated some nice men who had been good to her in the past, but over the last few weeks, between Richie and Pete, Kitty’s neediness and desire to be accepted had sent her into the arms of the wrong men. She didn’t feel that she was wrong to have feelings for Steve. He was solid, he had always been there, he wasn’t some guy she knew nothing about, somebody who could suddenly surprise her in the morning with a wife and four kids or a penchant for prostitutes. She knew everything about him,
everything.
    There was a knock on the door and she heard Steve call her name. Her heart went into a frenzy and she could barely think, could barely hold a focused thought in her mind.
    She opened the door.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked, looking at her oddly.
    ‘Yes, why?’ Her voice came out a squeak.
    ‘Because you’ve clearly turned into Tweety Pie.’ He picked up on her pitch. He pushed open the door and went inside. ‘What’s this place like, then?’ He surveyed the room and sat down on the bed on the left. He bounced on it lightly and the springs squeaked mightily.
    They smiled at each other, and Kitty had to look away, feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush.
    ‘What’s up?’ he said more gently and she sat down opposite him on the second twin bed.
    ‘I just got a phone call from someone with bad news.’
    He looked concerned.
    ‘I sent someone’s unedited novel into a publisher to surprise them and, well, it didn’t go according to plan.’
    ‘Rejection is the nature of the game. You’ll just have to tell your friend to get used to it.’
    ‘It wasn’t rejected. And it wasn’t a friend,’ she said sulkily.
    ‘Whose novel was it?’
    ‘Richie Daly’s,’ she said glumly. ‘Go on, tell me you told me so. That I’m a horrible person, that I shouldn’t have done it. I know I shouldn’t have, okay? I just found his USB, I knew it was his stupid novel that he was so proud of, assumed it would be a load of crap, just like all his writing is, and thought I’d have a nice fancy rejection letter to send him. So I’m a terrible person, I know!’
    The corners of Steve’s lips twitched.
    ‘Don’t … even … think … of …’
    He smiled.
    ‘It’s not funny.’
    ‘It is kind of funny.’
    ‘Steve, it’s not funny,’ Kitty protested, but the look on his face made her laugh with frustration. ‘Oh God, I can’t even do vengeance properly any more. I’ve lost it, I’ve lost my mean streak, and it’s all your fault.’
    ‘Really?’
    She swallowed, not wanting to meet his eye. ‘Well, no, yes, well, you were very vocal in telling me exactly who I’d become