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“Heard about what?” Lisa asked.

I stepped forward and placed my hand on Lou’s forearm, flaring my eyes at him not to say anything. “Don’t,” I pleaded and watched as he considered my request for about half a second before he said to Lisa, “The fuckers are firing Cooke.”

“Lou!” I exclaimed.

“What? People deserve to know if there are going to be more job losses.”

“There aren’t. This is an isolated case.”

Lisa’s eyes practically bugged out of their sockets. “They’re what?!”

And that was when I completely lost control of the situation.

“I can’t believe this,” Lisa went on.

I opened my mouth, my heartrate spiking as I scrambled to calm everyone. “Look, this really needs to stay between—” Before I’d even finished the sentence, a larger group had gathered, the news quickly spreading. Ah hell, I’d really messed up now.

Noticing the disturbance, Tristan approached, flanked by his brother, Derek.

“What seems to be the problem?” Derek asked, while Tristan stared at me in question. Gone were his soft, apologetic eyes from earlier. Now, he wore an unhappy frown, and I swallowed thickly because this looked really bad. It looked like I’d gone and told everyone about Cooke to drum up trouble when that was the last thing I’d wanted. Yes, I was upset, but riling people like this wasn’t my style. Panic set in, my skin flushing because the entire situation had spiralled out of control way too fast. I tugged at the collar of my blouse, suddenly sweating.

“We’ve all heard what’s happening with Cooke,” Lou replied, not at all intimidated even though he was addressing his bosses. Derek knew immediately what he was talking about as he stepped forward to speak to the gathered group.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, but …”

“Can I speak with you?” Tristan asked, capturing my attention. How had he gotten to me so fast? He didn’t look pleased. “In private?”

My cheeks heated as I nodded and followed him out of the function room. A tense silence hung in the air as he walked quietly ahead then stopped at the end of the corridor. “Listen, I know how that looked, but I promise you it wasn’t my intention to cause trouble.”

Tristan’s gaze flickered over my face, a look of distrust claiming his features. It was an expression I hadn’t seen on him before, and for some reason, it made my stomach hurt. “Did you just tell all those people about Cooke being let go?”

“Well, technically, no, but I did check my texts from my sister in front of Samara, and she accidentally saw. Then I was speaking privately with her, and Lou overheard some of our conversation. It was a mistake on my part to confirm it since he’s the last person who can keep things quiet, but people were going to find out sooner or later anyway. Cooke is a big character around here, and—”

“It was unprofessional,” Tristan said, cutting me off. “Even if Samara read your texts, you had no business confirming it. And I don’t care if Lou only overheard you, you shouldn’t have been speaking about another employee being terminated to anyone. It’s a private matter, and Cooke is welcome to tell people after we’ve officially given him the news. As an experienced manager, I expected a higher level of confidentiality from you, Miss Hart.”

Every word made my cheeks grow even redder. I felt like a child being scolded by their parent. It was worse because I still resented him for the whole Cooke being fired thing, but now by opening my big mouth, I’d given him the upper hand. Still, it wasn’t like I’d done any of it on purpose.

“You’re not seriously blaming me for someone else reading my private texts?”

His shoulders tensed. “A little more situational awareness might’ve prevented it from happening.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I don’t have eyes on the back of my head,” I snapped.

Tristan’s face turned to stone, and I regretted losing my cool, but this was personal. A member of my family was losing his job. I seriously thought he might fire me too in that moment, but then he turned away, raking a hand over his jaw.

“Just see that something like this doesn’t happen again,” he said stiffly. “Consider this an official warning.”

He turned and walked back in the direction of the function room, probably to check if his brother had successfully managed to put out the fire I’d unintentionally started.

I was brimming over with a mix of self-recrimination and righteous indignation. Yes, it was my fault for looking at my texts in front of Samara, but it was also a mistake anyone could’ve made. I didn’t feel I deserved a bloody official warning for a case of human error.

I felt so deflated that I really had to push myself to go back even when all I wanted to do was hide in my office for the rest of the day. But I couldn’t leave Katy to finish up human bingo on her own, especially when everything had been going so well.

When I re-entered the function room the drama had seemingly been handled. It appeared that Derek had managed to talk Lou and the others around because they’d returned to playing the game. Although the atmosphere was a lot frostier than it had been.

I noticed Cooke hadn’t turned up at all and guessed he probably wasn’t feeling very sociable after speaking with Moira. Deciding he and Sloane might need a little pick me up this evening, I pulled out my phone and sent my sister a text.

Dinner’s on me tonight. I’ll bring food and a bottle of wine over around seven. X