by Jen Silver
“What do you think you’re doing here?”
“I’m talking to you. Letting you know there’s no change in the creative department.”
“I told you I didn’t want to see you here and I meant it.”
“What are you going to do, Gordon? Phone the police? Phone your wife? I am still your partner, like it or not. I don’t much like it myself. But I suppose I’ll just need to look for another business manager. Someone who won’t go around upsetting major clients like Redmond. And then you’ll be free to go and play house with your wife and two-point-four children. Spend more time with your family. A lot of prominent politicians seem to be doing it. ‘Back to basics’, they call it.”
“I want you off these premises.”
“Yes. Or what? Anyway, I didn’t come in here to exchange pleasantries, I just wanted to give you a personal invitation to the staff meeting.”
“What staff meeting?”
“The one in the boardroom in five minutes. I will explain what is happening. It’s not fair to keep them in the dark, wondering what’s going on—whether they will have jobs in a few weeks’ time.”
“What are you going to say?”
“You better come and find out.”
“Dani!”
†
The boardroom was full. Dani entered with Gordon close on her heels. She made her way to the front of the room and looked at Amanda. “Is everyone here?” Amanda nodded. “Right. I’m sure a lot of you are confused with rumours you may have heard. So, to set the record straight, I am not leaving. I am not being pushed out. Gordon and I are partners. We built this business from scratch, and some of you have played a large part in that over the years. MBE is well respected in the industry and we have an excellent client base. I know it may surprise some of you that I am even aware of this—but I have to be. My name and my reputation are the cornerstone of this business. And will continue to be. As it seems that Gordon and I can no longer sustain our partnership on a friendly basis, I will be setting up my own agency and I would invite any of you who are interested in joining me to do so. I’m not asking you to take sides or to jump ship. As far as I’m concerned, as far as our clients are concerned, it’s business as usual. Whatever Gordon decides to do is his business.” Dani looked around the room; everyone looked stunned. “Any questions?” She waited. “Okay. I’ll be in the studio if anyone wants to talk to me.”
She had to brush past Gordon to get out of the door. “You can’t do this,” he hissed.
“What is your problem, Gordon? Excuse me, I have some calls to make—damage limitation calls—to our clients.”
“You can’t do this,” he repeated, red-faced by now.
“If you want it explained to you in simple terms, call my solicitor.”
“You don’t have a solicitor.”
“I do now.” She returned to the studio, followed closely by Declan and Gary. “What’s the word on the street?” she asked.
“They’re all a bit confused,” said Gary. “So are we. We heard you weren’t coming back.”
“I never left. Did that fax come through from James?”
“Yeah. It’s only three slides.”
“Okay, so get on to it. They need to be processed this afternoon. Order a bike for five o’clock. Is there anything else outstanding?”
“The security mailer’s due tomorrow,” said Declan.
“Have you drafted anything?”
“Yes.”
“Right. I’ll take a look at that. Well, don’t stand there like a couple of geeks. I’m here. And, like I said, it’s business as usual.”
†
Camila pressed the receiver to her ear; it was difficult to hear with all the noise around her. “Sunday night, yes. Book the flight. I’ll collect the tickets at the desk. Tell Berlin to fax the details here.”
She returned to the conference room; the next session was just starting. She had already done her presentation but she would have to be on the panel after this to answer questions. Finding her place in the front row, she arranged herself, legs crossed, to listen to the technical director’s speech. They were bound to lose a few at this one; it was the last session of the afternoon and everyone had endured a long day of listening. Most would now be thinking about getting to the bar and downing as many free drinks as possible before dinner. She had trouble concentrating herself, having tried hard to keep thoughts of Dani at bay. At the previous night’s rehearsals there had been a few last-minute panics, and she had stayed in the bar longer than she normally would in an effort to numb her emotions. But Dani kept drifting in. She had put herself on the line; it thrilled and scared her at the same time. She wanted Dani, but having made the first move, she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to handle it.
All the time she had been with Dani the day before, each movement Dani made, came back to her. She had, desperately, wanted to touch Dani’s face, to ask her about the cut, the bruising on her wrists. What did she do to get these marks? She didn’t look like a fighter. Was she into something weird? Dani was probably right; they were very different. But one thing was clear: they wanted each other just as badly. Camila recrossed her legs, aware of her arousal. With a great deal of effort, she brought herself back to the present and concentrated on Carl’s words, even though she knew his presentation as well as her own, having rehearsed with him a number of times.
She went up to her room for a shower and change of clothes before dinner. Her knickers were soaked through, but luckily it hadn’t shown on the back of her skirt. When she came down again, getting near the bar was impossible. Understaffed, as usual. The hotel should have known better; they made more on drinks than on the accommodation at events like this. She was tempted to go back to her room and raid the minibar.
“Hi, I’ve got you a drink.” She looked round to find Robert at her side. What did he want? she wondered. However, she smiled graciously and accepted the glass of gin and tonic. He must have had it for a while; the ice had melted. Still, it had gin in it, so she drank some. And smiled at him again. Encouraged, he said, “We had a small panic, but it’s solved now.”
“Oh?” This meant he had spent some money.
“Um. Yes. We needed some extra slides. And then we found we were six videos short. But MBE was able to sort it for us. They’re sending someone down with them tonight. I said we would get them a room. Is that okay?”
“Yes. Fine. So, there weren’t any problems with MBE?”
“No. James said he spoke to Barker this morning. Everything seems to be back to normal.”
“Good.” She smiled again. Normal wasn’t a word she would ever associate with Dani. “Thanks for the drink.” She finished it and gave him the glass. “Have you seen Eric or Carl?”
“They’re over by the window.” If Robert was shocked by the swiftness of her downing the G and T, his face didn’t show it.
She walked quickly across the room to join the Redmonds. Although the hours were long and involved so much travel, working for their company was her dream job. Unlike other places she had worked, the brothers treated her with respect. When they asked for her opinion, they listened and more often than not acted on her advice.
Although she knew they had interviewed many candidates, she wasn’t surprised when they offered her the job. During the interviews, she was drawn in to their infectious excitement about their product and the expansion into new markets, and her confidence grew with each question she was able to answer with a matching tone of enthusiasm. After she had signed the contract of employment, Eric asked if she would like to hire her own PA. Camila assured him that she didn’t need a personal assistant, as she preferred to keep a firm hand on producing financial reports. Carl joked that she had already saved them money and hadn’t even started the job. It had worked out well. Eric’s PA made all travel arrangements and hotel bookings and she had proved over the years that she could keep up with the workload.
They also cared about their employees in a way she hadn’t experi
enced in other corporations. The days immediately after Allison’s death, Eric had called her into his office.
“You don’t seem yourself. Is anything wrong?”
Camila hesitated, not sure what to tell him. Although she saw the brothers every day when she was in the office, they only ever talked business. She decided on the safe route, just saying a close friend had died.
“Would you like to take some time off?”
That question caught her off guard. Most employers only granted unplanned leave for the death of close relatives—parents, grandparents, siblings.
“Oh no. Work helps.” She hoped her attempt at a smile was convincing.
“Well, you’ll want to go to the funeral, won’t you?”
I would if I knew where and when it was. Instead of burdening him with the whole sad story, she just nodded. A few weeks later he stopped her in the corridor to ask when she would need the day off. Unable to meet his eyes on that occasion, Camila told him it had taken place a week before, on Saturday.
Now, as she reached them, they stopped talking and looked at her in that uncanny way they had, almost like twins communicating telepathically. Had they been talking about me?
“I thought my speech went well.” Carl beamed.
“Yes. But I was worried when you went off autocue to tell that joke.”
“No one noticed. I had to do something to perk things up. At that point, you were the only one in the audience still awake.”
“I was,” Eric interjected indignantly.
“Your eyes were closed and you were doing that nodding, jerking thing you do when you’re bored at dinner parties about to fall head first into the soup.”
“I was not. I was thinking.”
“Couldn’t have been very interesting as you were nodding off.”
“I was not nodding off.” Eric turned to Camila. “Would you like a drink? I’m sure Carl would go to the bar for you.”
Camila smiled at their banter and nodded. “A gin and tonic, please.”
Sticking his tongue out at his brother, Carl walked away, head held high.
“I think you were…nodding off,” Camila ventured as soon as Carl was out of hearing range.
“I know. The technical details bore me rigid, as he well knows. But thank you for not agreeing with him. I need to maintain the upper hand.” He glanced around the room. “Is it worth it, do you think?”
She looked at him, puzzled. “Is what worth it?”
“This.” Eric waved his arm at the crowd by the bar. “Spending our profits on letting the staff drink at our expense. And, boy, can they drink! We could get the same message across with a few Friday afternoon department meetings in the office.”
“Yes, it is worth it. Good for morale.”
He smiled as Carl returned from the bar. “I suppose so. Have to tell Robert to start planning the Christmas party next.”
“Oh, please.” Carl took a sip from the glass of white wine he was holding. “It’s only June.”
†
James met her at the front desk and Dani handed him the slides and the videocassettes. He gave her a key. “We booked you a room.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“Least we could do. I didn’t expect you to be delivering them personally, though.”
“No problem. Our courier let us down. Luckily my bike was in tune.” Not strictly true. Jan would have jumped at the chance to do a longer-distance delivery. “Are you going to check those? I might have to go back if they’re not right.”
“Oh, yeah,” he laughed nervously. She followed him into the conference room. It felt good to stretch her legs after ninety minutes on the bike. The rest of the crew was there, rehearsing lighting sequences and sound levels. Dani watched as they checked the new slides and ran a few minutes on each video. Then she excused herself. They would all be up for a few hours more. She took the lift to her designated room; it had been a long day, but she had unfinished business to deal with.
†
Camila sat on the bed looking at the phone, wondering if she should ring Dani or would it seem too forward? Maybe she had pushed too far with yesterday’s performance at Dani’s house.
There was a knock on the door. “Yes,” she called, hoping it wasn’t one of the sound crew playing a drunken prank.
“Room service.”
She hadn’t ordered anything, but she opened the door anyway. A biker, clad in leather complete with helmet and gloves stood there. He handed her a bottle of champagne. “Special delivery.”
“I didn’t order this. There must be some mistake.”
“You’re a Miss…” He consulted a piece of paper. “…Callaghan?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“Then it’s for you. Aren’t you going to invite me in to share it?”
She was just framing an indignant retort when the biker removed the helmet and she saw it was Dani grinning widely.
“Dani!” She stood aside to let her into the room. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought some stuff down for the conference.”
“Oh. So you’ll have your own room.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No…I….”
“If I’m staying, we had better open this. Got any glasses?” Dani removed her gloves and threw them on the bed with her helmet. Camila found what was needed on the tray on top of the minibar. She was just in time to hold one of them under the foaming liquid as Dani popped the cork.
“So,” said Dani, when the glasses were full and they were each holding one. “Here’s to us.”
“All right. I’ll drink to that.”
They sipped slowly, watching each other swallowing the bubbly drink.
“How did your speech go?” asked Dani.
“Fine. Do you care?”
“No, I was just trying to be polite.”
“Well don’t. It doesn’t suit you.” She stood awkwardly, holding her dressing gown together with one hand, the glass in the other.
“What does suit me?”
Camila put her glass down. With the two gin and tonics plus wine at dinner, she didn’t really want more to drink. She moved in close to Dani, reaching up to trace the line of the barely healed cut on her cheek with one finger. “Who did this to you?”
Dani looked her in the face, aware of Camila’s breasts pressing against her. “I don’t have to answer that.”
“Yes, you do. It’s recent. This week. Who was it? I want to know.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“It doesn’t mean anything.” Dani shrugged uncomfortably. “Just someone I met at a club.”
“I’d say you know her quite intimately.”
“Okay. We fuck sometimes. Like I said, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“You know her well enough to let her hit you across the face. Were you arguing about something?”
Dani licked her lips. She could feel the heat from Camila’s body through her leather jacket. Her thighs were hot, pressing into Dani’s leather-clad legs. “I didn’t want to do…what she wanted me to do. She guessed it was because I was thinking of you.”
“You were thinking of me?”
“Yes.”
“In what way were you thinking of me?
“Camila, I—” She put her arms around Camila and kissed her. They kissed passionately for several minutes before breaking off for air. Dani removed her jacket and they moved onto the bed.
†
Dani made it back to London on Friday morning by nine. It had been a wrench to leave Camila’s bed at seven. She smiled at the memory, thinking she couldn’t actually say she had “slept” with Camila; sleep hadn’t come into it. Amanda had just arrived when Dani walked in. She smiled at her and went upstairs to change out of her leather gear.
At nine thirty on the dot, Declan brought her a cup of coffee, putting it down carefully on her desk. He stood there, fidgeting.
“What i
s it, Declan?”
“Uh, Maria asked me to ask you for the name of your solicitor. She said Gordon wants to call him.”
“Her. And unless you’re fucking Maria, you don’t have to run messages for her. She can come and ask me herself. I don’t play stupid office games.”
“Right.” He relaxed. “Was everything okay in Brighton?”
“Fine. Have you got anything to do?”
“Yeah.” He took the hint and left her in peace.
Penny arrived a few minutes later. They hadn’t had the chance to talk the day before, so Dani was pleased to see her.
“What happened?” Penny asked as soon as she shut the door. “You didn’t seem to know which way was up on Wednesday.”
“Yeah, well, after you’d gone, I realised I had to do something.”
“You look shattered and Declan says you’re a bit prickly this morning.”
“Prickly? Good grief…he’ll be after your job next.”
“Look, you know, I’m with you all the way. And a lot of other people are too.”
Dani handed her two lists of names. “How does this look?”
Penny read through them. “Fairly accurate. Although you can add Sharon and Jane to your side.”
“Really? They’ve never given me the time of day.”
“Yeah, but Gordon’s always treated them like shit.”
“Good. I’m not asking you to grass up any of your mates, but is there a possibility any of the account managers would come in with us?”
“I wouldn’t call any of them mates. At the moment I’d say they’re sitting on the fence. I mean, they’ve grown up idolising people like Gordon, but a few years in the real world has shown them that to be successful, they have to have something to sell, which means, however much they hate it, that they’re dependent on people like you and me.”
“All right. Suppose you were to let it be known that I’ve asked you to put ads in Marketing and PR Week for two account managers with proven track records, blah, blah, blah…you know, draft an ad, leave it lying around.”