Highland Fling - A Funny Chick Lit Romance (COMPLETE)

50 Shades of Scarlet

@Lumilind thanks for the suggestions re graphic designers, meetings, equipment and coding. Now incorporated. 

Beneath the last thing I posted is a poster, the words Gaby! I love you taking up most of the space.

It's been designed, not professionally the graphic artist in me notes, but well enough to grab attention. It features a picture of Ryan and me grinning at the camera, and a line underneath—Help me get my girlfriend back. I dumped her too quickly. Ryan's poster has been shared on the Ryan Reynolds official account. As a result, it is all over Facebook and Twitter. Some three million (it feels like) people are now screaming at me to get back at Ryan. Someone filmed Louise when she first saw my list of reasons for not getting engaged on the garage Twitter feed, her mouth pursing and her forehead wrinkling in fury, and they've turned it into a meme—the line, 'Louise would be the mother-in-law from hell' popping up endlessly as she reads it again and again.

In the broad light of social media day, none of this reflects well on me. A lot of people have seen it as their mission to tell me what a cow I am. That's not the word they use. And they add I do not deserve someone as magnificently chivalrous as Ryan. I click out before I read any other nasty comments about me, my appearance and my life choices.

Should I phone Ryan? In a fit of pique—and commanded to do so by Katya—I deleted his number from my phone after he sent me ten texts making his feelings crystal clear. I could email him, I suppose but...

...do I want him back? Um... no?

Jack sticks his head around the door. "I hear you're off to Glasgow on Monday morning?" he asks, and I nod wondering which villager told him that before narrowing it down to Scottie's owner or Mhari.

"I need to head there on Monday," he said. "Got to pick my next load of tourists up at Glasgow airport." He jangles the keys to the mini-bus in his right hand and I sense a man wondering whether to take the plunge. He takes a deep breath and appears to make up his mind.

"I can give you a lift...?"

I stare at him, what a lift, what you're offering me is... a lot of hours in your company. Rude git and all, the idea of it shimmers, a tantalising prospect banishing Ryan and his poster from my mind.

"I need to get there for nine am as I'm meeting my boss there so we can talk to our client," I say, crossing my fingers underneath the desk the flight he is going to meet is an early one.

"No problem. The flight I'm picking up gets in at eight am. I could drop you at the airport and there's a bus you can get into the city centre from there. The first day of the trip ends in Glasgow too, so if you don't mind kicking your heels there until five o'clock I can give you a lift back too."

Melissa had scheduled the meeting with Dexter Carlton of Blissful Beauty for nine till twelve. But I could have lunch with Melissa afterwards and then wander around Glasgow until five looking at all the big shops and getting myself reacquainted with fashion. Besides, nothing is going to stop me from accompanying Jack on a journey I've worked out takes five hours there and back.

The daft bit of me fast-forwards to fantasy mode. Goodness me, imagine how friendly it might get. Perhaps I can persuade him to call me Sassenach? I fit the criteria for the name, and on a good day with the help of subdued lighting and if I put in a few hours wrapping strands of my hair around curling tongs, I reckon I could pass for Claire, Jamie Fraser's big love...

I spend the weekend working to ensure I can present Dexter with an impressive amount of work, but also to avoid thinking about Ryan and that Facebook post. Thankfully, the heat had died down a little. It wasn't getting the shares and comments it had been receiving; yet another one-second viral wonder. But still my friends and family commented, and most people appeared to take Ryan's side.