Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [49]
‘Right then.’ Lisa played for time by giving a terrifying smile around the boardroom table. ‘Perhaps you’d all like to tell Jack and me what you’ve been doing for the past two weeks. Ashling?’
‘I’ve sent out press releases to all the fashion houses and –’
‘Press releases?’ Lisa asked, sarcastically. ‘Is there no beginning to your talents?’
Dutiful sniggers issued from Trix, Gerry and Bernard.
‘So punters are going to pay £2.50 to read Colleen’s press releases? Features, Ashling, I’m talking features! What have you?’
Bewildered by her aggression, Ashling gave her salsa report. As she described the lesson, the teacher and the other pupils Lisa relaxed slightly. This was good. Encouraged by Lisa’s nodding, Ashling enthused about the club that had been on after the lesson. ‘It was great. Proper old-fashioned dancing with lots of body contact. It was actually very –’ For some reason she hesitated over using the word with Jack Devine in the room. He made her so uncomfortable. ‘Very sexy’
‘And the romance factor?’ Lisa asked, cutting to the chase. ‘Did you meet any blokes?’
Ashling squirmed. ‘I, um, had a dance with a man,’ she admitted.
As everyone squealed and fell over themselves to get details, Jack Devine watched her through half-closed eyes.
‘It was only a dance,’ Ashling protested. ‘He didn’t even ask me my name.’
‘You got photos of the club,’ Lisa said. It wasn’t a question. At Ashling’s nod, she went on, ‘We’ll do a four-page spread on it. Two thousand words, asap. Make it entertaining.’
Clammy dread flushed down Ashling and she would have given anything to still be working at Woman’s Place. She couldn’t write. Toiling hard at the boring stuff was her forte, she was really, really marvellous at it, and that had been the basis Colleen had hired her on. Couldn’t Mercedes write it, or one of the freelancers?
‘Problem?’ Lisa twisted her mouth sarcastically.
‘No,’ Ashling whispered. But her guts seized in fear as she realized she was in over her head. Joy would have to help her. Or perhaps Ted – he had to draft lots of reports for his job in the Department of Agriculture.
Next on the agenda was Trix’s column on an ordinary girl’s life. The first one was on the perils of two-timing. On what a pain it was to be in bed with one boyfriend and for another to call to the house and for your mother to let him in. It was funny, outrageous and entirely true.
‘Good Lord, Patricia Quinn,’ Jack shook his head in amusement. ‘I’ve been living a very sheltered life.’
‘I wouldn’t recommend it,’ Trix exclaimed. ‘Him and me Ma in the lounge watching Heartbeat, and me trapped in the bedroom with the other one, making excuses not to leave. I aged ten years.’
‘And that’d make you what? Twenty-five?’ Jack’s eyes crinkled with laughter.
Ashling looked at him in a type of sour wonder. Why is he always so horrible to me? Why isn’t he ever amused by me? Just as she concluded that perhaps she simply wasn’t amusing, she caught sight of Lisa’s face. A lambent determination and hard admiration. She fancies him, Ashling realized, and her stomach flip-flopped. If anyone could lure Jack Devine away from the exotic Mai, Lisa could. What must it be like to have that kind of power?
Then Lisa outlined a ‘fun’ feature that she’d thought of that very minute. A review of the sexiest hotel beds in Ireland. Graded according to crispness of bed linen, firmness of mattress, size of bonking space, and ‘the handcuff factor’ – wrought iron bedheads or the limbs of four-poster canopies were ideal.
‘God, whatever they’re paying you, you’re worth it!’ Trix overflowed with admiration.
‘Mercedes?’ Lisa challenged.
‘We’re going to Donegal on Friday to shoot an exclusive of Frieda Kiely’s Winter collection,’ Mercedes said smugly. ‘We should get a twelve-page spread from it.’
Frieda Kiely was an Irish designer who sold very well abroad. She made wild, gorgeous confections; rough Irish tweed matched with feather-light chiffon; sheeny Ulster linen married with squares of crocheted silk; knitted sleeves that reached the floor. The whole effect was