Bingo. That was it. They were back together. Of course. It made sense. Moments after I’d confessed how I felt, Summer had called and he’d run away faster than an Olympic sprinter with a rocket strapped to his butt.
Annoyed for throwing myself at James (okay, so my glamorous look had been about eighty-nine per cent for him), I wiped off the extra bronzer, repinned my flashy hairstyle and slicked on an extra coat of lip gloss. If James wanted to waste time with Summer, that was his choice. I just didn’t want to know anything about it (especially if my prediction of amazing sex was true). I grabbed my jacket and slipped out the door without saying goodbye. I was braced for another day at Sash and I wasn’t going to let a guy — albeit a hot, smart, nice guy — cloud my judgement and ruin my chances of winning the internship prize ever again.
When I arrived at Sash HQ, Liani’s office blinds were pulled across but not fully closed. I could see her chatting on the phone, her hand over the receiver. I couldn’t make out much, only a faint ‘Yes, I agree’, ‘You really think so?’ and ‘Sounds great’, which could have meant anything from ‘Yes, let’s have butter chicken for dinner tonight’ to ‘I’d love to come to your music launch’.
Not wanting to interrupt her, I walked back to reception to wait on the couch. Rae’s office door was closed and the blinds were drawn. The rest of the team were working in silence. It was so quiet I could hear the sharp clicking of the art department’s fan and the tapping of manicured fingernails on computer keyboards. A quick glance into the features department showed Esmeralda and two others typing madly. Eloise had earphones in and was watching a TV episode. I couldn’t believe she was paid to stay up-to-date with all things entertainment. A job where you could write and watch TV? Hello, dream career.
‘Josie, how are you, sweetie?’ a sweet, silky voice said.
I looked up to see the gorgeous Sia beaming down at me. Her hair was pulled back into a chunky side braid and her generous lips were sparkling with a bright coral lipstick.
‘Nice braid, Sia.’
‘You too,’ she said, stepping in for a closer look at my new hairstyle. ‘Someone’s been hitting up Beauty DIY School. I’m impressed. Did you check out that website I showed you?’
I was about to tell her that Steph had taught me when Rae’s blinds pelted open, her office door swung out wide and she strutted out into the main office. ‘Everyone. Meeting!’ she announced to the room. ‘Yes, yes, I know it wasn’t in the calendar. Can someone grab the fashion girls from their department? Oh, interns, feel free to sit and watch. This will be a good opportunity to see how things work behind the scenes. Has anyone seen my big purple planning book? Someone get Liani, now!’
The team assembled themselves in a circle, some trudging to their seats, other gliding with the gracefulness of ballerinas. I took a seat on the opposite side to Rae, between Sia and another girl with a friendly, freckly face who I hadn’t met.
Steph plonked down across from me, wearing a leopard-print jersey dress. ‘Oops, running late,’ she mouthed. ‘What’s going on?’
I shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’
The queen of making an entrance, Ava stalked into the circle in her purple stilettos, then perched next to Rae, her slim frame upright as always. She linked her slender hands, then unlinked them, then linked them again. This drew attention to the three rings on her fingers today: a large green emerald stone, a thin gold band and a black rock-chick ring. Her diamond engagement ring must’ve still been getting cleaned.
Liani rushed out of her office to join the meeting, looking flushed after her phone call. Rae glared at her, as though it mattered she was five seconds later than everyone else. All thoughts of Ava’s missing ring and James getting back with Summer disappeared as I waited for Rae to speak.
She began by telling everyone they needed to address Sash’s strengths and weaknesses and find room for improvement, then asked the team to brainstorm ideas on the spot. One girl’s suggestion of a scratch ’n’ sniff nude male poster was scoffed at, and Gen’s pitch for a fashion shoot shot in Egypt was dismissed as a direct copy from Marilyn magazine. Esmeralda’s idea for a competition to discover the country’s hottest new blogger was a winner, as was Eloise’s pitch for an ‘Inside My Handbag’ feature on five of the country’s hottest stars. The meeting went on for almost two hours and Liani took notes throughout. By the end, her pad was filled with scrawled ideas and our stomachs were grumbling in sync.
‘Finally, I want to bring some closure to the matter that’s been haunting us in the media for the past few weeks,’ Rae said. ‘Billy’s alleged affair.’
Steph rolled her eyes and fake-yawned. I wanted to hug her for that. Every other foundation-clad, designer-wearing magazine girl in the circle looked at me. How do they know, I wondered, as I avoided eye contact — even with Steph and Liani — and focused on a marketing poster to the right of Rae’s head. As long as I focused on that poster I’d be okay.
‘The main reason Sash has been dragged into it,’ Rae continued, ‘is because Billy recently spoke to our magazine and declared he was a changed man. Obviously, that turned out to be a lie, but we have to live with it. Celebrities make mistakes like the rest of us, but it doesn’t stop readers from wanting more. They just can’t seem to get enough of this guy. In fact, on that note, I’d like to thank our hardworking intern Josie for the publicity.’
My jaw dropped and Sia squeezed my hand. Did Rae seriously out me to the entire Sash team as Billy’s nightclub pash? I waited to hear more before I ran out the door shouting ‘I slapped him away, I promise’.
‘Thanks to Josie’s exclusive interviews with Billy we’ve managed to maintain our circulation — just — in a very competitive market,’ Rae said, giving me a short, sharp nod. I forced a smile, relieved that Rae hadn’t revealed all. Although, based on the way everyone was staring at me, they seemed to know anyway.
‘But Billy’s light won’t shine forever, so we need to put on our thinking caps to predict the next hottest person, trends and icons,’ Rae went on. ‘Yes, even more than we already have been. I want everyone moving onwards and upwards, and thinking outside the square. Enough of the copycat ideas or the been-there-done-thats. I want fresh ideas and so do our readers.’
Everyone was scribbling madly in their notebooks.
‘Advertisers are playing hardball at the moment so we’ve got to create reasons to get them paying up,’ she continued. ‘A big month awaits us — a huge one — and I need everyone giving a hundred and ten per cent. That’s it from me. Do you have anything to add, Liani?’
‘Just keep working hard, everyone, we appreciate it,’ Liani said. ‘We’re in a tough market, that’s no secret, but, ah … look, if we’re stuck back late on deadline again, the dumplings are on me, okay? I’m thinking Shanghai-style ones — you know, with soup inside. Delicious.’
Everyone smiled. Typical Liani: she always knew how to brighten the mood with her down-to-earth sweetness.
‘Well, that’s it from us, guys,’ she said. ‘Thanks again, and we’ll let your brains stew on all that for a while.’
The team drew a silent, collective sigh of relief. I could tell from the awkward shuffling in seats and mass stomach rumbling that, like me, they were counting down the seconds to run to the bathroom, stretch their legs and get a bite to eat.
‘Okay, back to work, everyone,’ announced Rae with a small flick of her wrist. The boss had spoken.
The team packed up their belongings and headed to their desks, leaving me, Steph and Ava sitting there, unsure where we were needed.
Rae stalked over. ‘Josie, a quick word?’
‘Of course,’ I said, sounding like an overeager student keen to make amends. Which, in reality, I was.
I followed her into the office. The blinds stayed down and door remained ajar. Rae sat down in the chair behind her desk, so I walked toward the pouf.
‘Don’t bother — this will be quick,’ she said.
‘Okay …’ Hopefully painless, too, I thought. I fiddled
with my bracelet, swallowed and glanced toward the door. Ava was now standing outside Rae’s office, flipping through a book.
Rae pursed her lips. ‘Josie, I wanted to say, don’t be alarmed if you see Billy around the building today.’
‘He’s here?’ I stammered. ‘Not that I care, I mean … I … great. That’s great. Brilliant news for the mag.’
‘Billy’s manager has paid a lot of money to use our studios, creative direction and photographers for a photo shoot — and, despite everything, all the history, it’s money we can’t refuse at this point.’
‘Oh, sure, that makes sense,’ I rambled. No, it didn’t. He was here? I wanted to scream. After everything he’d done!
‘The shoot was meant to be yesterday when, ah, you weren’t here, but his girlfriend’s morning sickness kicked in and he wanted to look after her, so it was moved to today.’
‘Oh.’ I lowered my head.
‘For reasons that you and I both know, I think it’s best if you avoid Studio 8B and stay busy up here. The girls have plenty for you to do while I’m keeping an eye on things over there.’
‘I can do that.’
‘Wonderful,’ Rae said. ‘That will be all.’
‘Okay, great.’
‘Close the door behind you.’
‘Thanks, Rae,’ I said, walking out in a daze.
‘Everything okay?’ a voice piped up.
I turned to see Ava. Her dress was tiny, but it still hung off her loosely and her eye make-up was dark and eerie, giving her a ghoulish appearance.
‘Ava, you scared me,’ I stammered, my heart still pounding after my conversation with Rae.
‘I didn’t realise I was so frightening,’ said Ava, her eyes widening. ‘Rae really rattled you in there, huh?’
I swallowed. ‘Sorry, I’m all good, it was … internship stuff, you know how it is.’
‘Sure, internship stuff,’ she replied, but judging by her tone she knew I was lying.
Yet again, life had found a new way to inject awkwardness into my world. Competitive interns, arrogant pop stars — what next? I didn’t dare think of anything specific in case it came true.
Keen to avoid any more uncomfortable moments in the office, I offered to do the features writers’ photocopying for them. It was a boring task and surely even I couldn’t stuff it up.
19.
‘That looks fun,’ a sarcastic voice said behind me.
I looked around from the whirring, wheezing photocopier to see Ava towering next to me again, her long, lanky arms crossed over her skinny frame.
I shrugged. ‘It’s okay.’
‘So, did you hear? Rae’s asked me to escort Billy and his crew to the photo shoot. Meet them, show them around, be their personal assistant for the day. Like, his personal assistant.’
‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ I blurted out.
‘Jealous?’ She raised an eyebrow.
‘No, I just … No, of course not, why would I be?’ I said, returning to the photocopying. ‘Anyway … so … you’re still not wearing your engagement ring. Is everything okay?’
Ava’s jaw tightened. ‘Everything’s fine. I just left it at home.’
‘Oh? I thought it was at the jewellers getting cleaned?’
‘Yeah, it was,’ she said, rubbing at her naked ring finger. ‘It was filthy. You’d know what I mean if you ever bothered to get your hands dirty around here.’
‘Excuse me?’ My jaw dropped, thinking back to the number of times Steph and I had cleaned, sorted and dusted the fashion storeroom while Ava ‘helped with a beauty shoot’ or ‘inspired Rae and the fashion department with her modelling portfolio’.
‘Anyway, I’d better go to the shoot — Billy probably needs me.’ She sighed. ‘Oh, and one other thing. Billy’s girlfriend, Kara — you know, the one he’s having a baby with — is around the building, too. Just thought you should know.’
She strode off, flicking her voluminous red hair. I turned back to the photocopying and suddenly it didn’t seem like such a boring task. My palms sweated, my brain was punctured with the same thoughts on repeat: What if Kara recognised me from the photos? Worse still: what if she recognised me before I recognised her and I didn’t have a chance to hide? In the past few weeks I must have seen more than two hundred photos of her on the internet. She had long jet-black hair, blue eyes and flawless pale skin. I was sure of it.
I would have spent the rest of the day stressing about Kara but Eloise came to my rescue. More accurately, I came to hers. Eloise had done her best to hide a raging hangover, but since Rae, Liani, Ava and half the editorial team had gone to the studio, she couldn’t hold it together any longer: she wanted junk food, and she wanted it now — she was just too seedy to venture outside.
Happy for the distraction, I walked the two blocks to the closest takeaway store and ordered two cheeseburgers, large chips, a chocolate sundae — and twelve nuggets. Eloise really stressed that part to me. It turned out magazine girls did eat more than carrot sticks and fresh vegetable juices after all.
The pimply-faced kid behind the counter gaped at my enormous paper bag for so long I couldn’t tell whether he was repulsed or impressed.
Back at the office, Eloise groaned with excitement when I plonked the greasy food on her desk. ‘I could hug you right now,’ she said, yawning and rubbing her temples. ‘Did you get something for yourself?’
‘No, I wasn’t hungry.’
That was a lie; I was always hungry. I didn’t mind though: walking to the shops for hangover food was more fun than photocopying, sorting through the mail and tidying up the office combined. Plus, chatting with Eloise like this made me feel included in the Sash team, like I was one of the features girls.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Eloise scoffed, emptying the chips onto a paper plate and pushing them toward me. ‘Have a chip. Have ten chips.’ She tore open the first burger wrapper and took a bite.
I heard a voice cry ‘Ewww’ and turned to see Steph walking over.
‘Is that a plastic burger?’ asked Steph, learning forward to take a closer look. ‘Surely that’s not real — it looks like a toy!’
‘That’s my plastic food, thank you very much.’ Eloise grinned. Red sauce oozed out of the bun, coating her fingers. ‘You’d think you’d never seen a burger before.’
‘Do curried mushroom sliders in Thailand count?’ said Steph, balancing between cheeky and downright pretentious. With her cute little face, fun energy and worldliness, she pulled it off.
Eloise wiped sauce from her lips. ‘Okay, you two, this has been fun, but I’d love to enjoy the rest without judgement. And between you and me, before Rae gets back from the shoot. Maybe go and see what the art team are up to, yeah?’
‘Okay,’ we chimed at the same time.
‘And Jose?’ she went on. ‘Take a sneaky cheeseburger with you. I think I’ve over-ordered.’
I couldn’t help but agree. Steph sniggered as we loaded the plate with the untouched burger and soggy fries. We were walking toward the art department when I heard Ava’s shrill voice again.
‘Where have you been, Josie?’ she said. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Rae needs to see you immediately.’
‘See me? Again?’ My heart pounded. This was the final straw in a long line of straws. I knew it. ‘Where? Her office?’
‘No, the shoot. She said it’d only take a second. I offered to pass on a message but she specifically requested to see you.’
My palms dampened. ‘No, she wanted me to stay away from the shoot.’
‘That’s weird.’ Ava shrugged. ‘Oh well, do what you like. Just don’t blame me if you get in trouble again. I know how much you hate that.’
‘Okay, I believe you. What level are the studios on again?’ I asked. ‘Four?’
‘No, that’s Marilyn mag,’ said Ava. ‘Try level eight.’
‘I’ve heard the Marilyn girls have hair straighteners set up at their desks and check each other’s clothing tags to make s
ure they’re wearing designer gear. Do you think that’s true?’
Ava shrugged. ‘Makes sense to me. I’ll meet you there.’ She stalked away, flicking her hair (the girl seriously belonged in a shampoo commercial).
I threw the junk food I was carrying in the bin, hopped in the lift and, moments later, was up on level eight, where the fluorescent lighting was so harsh I wished I’d worn safety goggles. Several beauties walked past me, some holding notebooks, others nursing large bags of goodies, most likely from PR agencies.
I found a sign directing me to Studio 8B, and on my way there passed Jeremy the photographer.
He waved. ‘Well, hello you. How have you been? Enjoying the internship?’
‘It’s great,’ I replied. ‘Hey, have you seen Rae?’
‘She’s through there.’ He pointed toward a door. ‘We’re on a break. Want a coffee? I’m getting a double shot.’
‘No, thanks.’ I smiled, enjoying the warmth of chatting in the corridor for once. Many of the people in the building — guys and girls — were like plastic robots with the personalities of flat diet lemonade. Jeremy’s phone rang so he said goodbye and walked off.
They were on a break. That was probably why Rae wanted to see me now. Billy and Kara were most likely tucked away in a VIP dressing room, feeding each other grapes and getting massages or something equally lavish. I took a deep breath and opened the door.
The studio looked like a zoo as usual. There was a king-size bed in the middle of the room, with luxurious-looking sheets and pillows, all glowing pristine white under the lighting. Two girls fluffed the pillows and messed up the sheets, creating a sexy just-slept-in look. A bright red motorbike was parked in a corner of the studio; across the room, a litter of puppies played in a large cardboard box, yapping and nuzzling each other. I nearly OD’d on cuteness.
Rae, Liani, Esmeralda and some of the crew had their backs to me as they chatted to a busty woman with a parrot tattoo down her arm. She was talking hoarsely about ‘hair energy’ and how ‘we don’t want him to look lifeless’. Rae appeared to be listening but her arms were folded over her chest; defensive and ready to strike as always. I couldn’t see Billy — or anyone who looked like Kara — anywhere. Billy’s manager was nowhere to be seen either. Phew.
The Intern Page 17