A Part of Me Read Online Free

now I know why you asked Glitter Knickers to come out tonight. Keep Uncle Adrian on side then, hon.’
    ‘That’s not why I invited Sadie, Phil. She’s been a little out of kilter lately. I think she’s having man trouble.’
    ‘Man trouble? Sadie! You are joking? Jeez, Ame, you are such a sucker. She’s been sexting some brain-dead beefcake all night. I bet you any money, she dumps us soon to go cop off with him.’
    I watched Phil carefully in the mirror. ‘Jealous, much?’
    She was trying to keep a straight face. ‘You’re damned straight, I am,’ she conceded, tumbling into husky laughter. ‘I could do with a good snog.’
    Phil tugged me back out into the throb of Rufus’s. Leah from reprographics was now propped up between Tom and Hannah. They were chatting to each other as if it were a bus stop and not a human body sandwiched between them.
    ‘Where’re Sadie and Alice?’ Phil asked.
    ‘Clubbing’s a no-go with this one,’ Tom huffed, repositioning Leah’s limp arm through his. ‘Alice’s gone to get a head start on the pizzas and Sadie, er … she left when you guys went to the loos.’
    ‘Sadie left? By herself?’ I asked.
    Tom shrugged. ‘Said she didn’t fancy sharing a pizza, or a taxi, with Phil. She said she was going to grab a cab at the rank.’ I threw Phil a reproachful look and checked my watch.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Come on, it’s one thirty in the morning. We’re not leaving her to wait for a cab on her own.’
    Phil grimaced again. ‘But what about the pizza?’
    I narrowed my eyes at her. ‘You don’t eat pizza, Phil. It’s not macrobiotic.’
    Phil was better at narrowed-eyes than I was. ‘Oh, sod it, Amy. Why do you have to be such a sodding Girl Guide?’ she huffed, starting off towards the doors. She waited there impatiently as I said goodbye to the others.
    ‘Come on, then,’ Phil called, ‘let’s go rescue Glitter Knickers.’
    *
    Ten chilly minutes later, the end of the taxi rank queue snaked into view.
    ‘I don’t see her, Phil,’ I said, trailing my eyes over thequeue of scantily clad girls and kebab-wielding lads vying for the next available taxi.
    ‘She’s a big girl, Ame. She probably got the beefcake to pick her up.’
    ‘And what if she didn’t?’
    Phil gave the queue a once-over. ‘She’s not here, Ame.’ A commotion broke out in the line, the timeless cocktail of testosterone and alcohol. ‘Sod this,’ Phil scowled, ‘I’m not waiting here with this lot. Work’s only five minutes away, let’s call a cab from there. Quicker
and
warmer.’ As soon as Phil mentioned the cold, I could feel it, seeping in through my jacket.
    ‘We can’t, Phil. No unauthorised access at weekends any more. Adrian was pretty clear on that.’
    ‘Again with the Girl Guide thing, Ame! You’re such a do-gooder these days.’
    I held my hands up. ‘Okay, okay! We’ll go to the office. But I’m not getting labelled as the Nightshagger, okay? So if we get caught, I’m just gonna flat out say that I know it’s you, Phil.’
    Phil’s face flourished at that. ‘Let me tell you now, if I was the one who’d been flushing the un-flushable down the men’s loos, I wouldn’t risk getting caught there now. The cleaners are on the warpath. Anyway, everyone knows it’s Stewart from reprographics, the dirty little monster. No wonder Leah drinks so much, it must be awful working next to Stewie all week.’ Phil huddled into me, walking us away from the crowd.
    ‘So Stewart’s been slipping into the studios at night! Are you sure?’ Honestly, I didn’t think he had it in him.
    ‘Yeah, I’m sure. You see, Ame, while you spend your time keeping abreast of promotions, and job restructuring, the rest of us keep track of the important stuff – like who’s sneaking into the office at night for a bonk. It would almost be romantic, if the little weasel wasn’t married.’
    ‘Stewart’s
married
? I’ve never noticed a ring.’
    ‘That’s because he never wears it