This week I'm teasing from my still as yet unnamed, coverless (but not for much longer) chick lit, written as Katy Lilley
Where Bryony meets the unlovely Lottie... (who is the heroine in my next chick lit book, just contracted by Manatee Books)
~~~She
made her coffee and ate a few mouthfuls of salad. All she needed was grotty
Lottie to come in, and her day of harpies and nasties would be complete. Please, no.
It
looked as if her plea would be answered. For the rest of the afternoon, she had
a steady stream of customers. None were local, but all were pleasant. Several
bought, some said they’d be back, and a couple admitted freely they were just
passing the time until their husbands finished playing golf. Such a change from
her earlier non-customers. All in all, she thought it had been a successful
day. Five minutes before she was due to turn the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’,
her day took a turn for the worse. Lottie Botte—it had to be her, she was the
female equivalent of Dario—swanned in and glared when she saw Bryony.
‘You,’ she said, in a voice to cut ice. ‘You’re
that woman who bought Cliff Cottage and gazumped my brother. You were pointed
out to me. What are you doing here?’
Definitely Lottie. Bryony decided she’d had
enough of being portrayed as a femme fatale or seducer of innocents, so she
might as well act the part. ‘Plotting to seduce your brother, what else?
Corrupt him and get him to be my slave.’ And if Lottie thought that remotely
likely she was stupider than Bryony thought possible. ‘Have him on his knees,
begging for my attention.’
‘What
a vile thing to say,’ Lottie shouted. Her hands were clenched so tightly her
knuckles were white. ‘How dare you? He’s too good for you. I’ll tell him how horrible
you are, and he’ll hound you out, you wait and see.’
Bryony yawned. It was that or giggle. Talk
about a second rate actress from an old ‘B’ film like her gran had talked
about. It was pathetic.
Lottie
shook with temper. ‘We don’t need the likes of you around here.’
What on earth does she think I am? A serial
seducer of innocents...and not so innocents?
‘Tough,
honey, I’m here to stay.’ Probably not a good idea to inflame her further, but
Bryony was unrepentant. The day had been on the up until Lottie arrived.
‘You,
you, hussy. Keep away from my
brother, he’s too good for you, too kind and, loving and loyal and...’
Bryony saw red. Enough was enough. ‘Careful,
Mrs Bott-ee.’ She said the name with exaggerated emphasis on purpose. ‘You’re beginning
to make it sound incestuous. You don’t want people getting the wrong idea.’
Lottie went red, white and red again.
Oh God, I hope I haven’t given her heart
failure. She
might be annoying and like a stuck record, but Bryony didn’t want to cause the
woman any harm. Just to get her to shut up and go away.~~~
catch all the other #MidWeekTease posts here
Happy reading,
love Raven x
