Coffee, tea? Or me?

Part III

DISCLAIMER: The following chapter containes examples and references to cyber bulling that may be triggering for some people. Please feel free to skip the chapter if you think this could be the case for you, the next parts will have an explanation of what happened here.  

III

Lucy woke up early on Thursday morning, she wrapped herself tightly in the duvet for one last moment of warmth and tossed the covers on the side, afraid that if she closed her eyes again she would fall asleep.

She quietly made her way to the bathroom, trying not to wake up James peacefully sleeping next to her.

She was supposed to be at work at six-thirty for a short trip around Europe and she was looking forward to it, seeing work as a welcomed distraction from the events of the days before.

Seeing Sam again had been a shock, almost as much as James' reaction.

She could still see the fiery anger on her boyfriend's face, in her mind.

Two days had passed and she had heard nothing from her ex, James seemed to believe he had moved on, but Lucy knew Sam too well and was sure that silence meant trouble.

She put on her uniform and gave James a kiss on the lips, a grunt in response and a sleepy "Have a great day, love you".

As Lucy entered the briefing room no furtive looks or whispers greeted her and she felt once again positive that the upcoming days could lift her spirit.

The first day of flying took her to a there and back flight to Paris and an overnight in Copenhagen. She loved that destination: the little cafes, the alleys and their hotel in style art deco all contributed to that sense of nostalgic romance that she adored.

As she received her wake up call at three-thirty in the morning she once again got up quickly and got ready, behind sleepy eyes. She was really tired, but that day Lucy and her crew had only one short flight back to London. She made herself strong with that thought and finished getting dressed; when she went to retrieve her mobile phone from the socket near the bedside table she realised that her adapter was broken and that her phone hadn't charged at all. She threw the phone in her bag and quickly left her room.

The flight was quiet and relaxing, only a few passengers travelled that early in the morning and that left time for the crew to have a much-needed cup of coffee and some food.

Lucy leaned against the metal counter in the galley enjoying the relaxing chitchat of her colleagues about some new uniform rumours and the view of the sun slowly rising behind them in an explosion of pinks and blues and thought that this was true happiness for her.

As soon as she arrived home she put her phone on charge and went to prepare some beans on toast for breakfast, an old episode of BoJack Horseman playing on Netflix as she turned on the tv for company.

As she took the steaming bowl of beans from the microwave she heard the first pings coming from her phone, she quickly walked to her device and checked the list of notifications, noticing a few from unknown numbers. She opened the first one:

Hey Lucy, this is Emma Cooke from A-list Instagram PR department, I was given your number from a friend of yours who said you would be willing to have a chat with us about your relationship with James Kent. Let me know if the offer is still valid.

What the fuck? She thought in dismay.

All the other messages were of the same sort, about ten of them from different magazines or websites. How did they get her number? Surely not through James or Harriet and none of her colleagues would have done something like that as it would have been in breach of their social media-related policies.