Sushi for Beginners - Marian Keyes [94]
Conversation stalled, then erupted simultaneously on both sides.
‘Doing anything on Monday?’ he asked, at the same time as she suggested, ‘How about Monday?’
She giggled. Again.
‘Sounds to me like we have a plan,’ he said. ‘How about I call you on Monday morning – not too early – and we take it from there?’
‘I’ll see you then!’
‘You will,’ he said, his pitch warm and full of promise.
Ashling put down the phone. ‘Oh my God, I’m going out with freckly Marcus Valentine on Monday.’ She was frothy with excitement and shock. ‘I haven’t been on a date for years. Not since Phelim.’
‘Happy now?’ Joy asked.
Ashling nodded cautiously. Now that he had rung, there was always the fear that she’d go off him again.
‘Right then,’ Joy ordered. ‘Let’s get you into training. Repeat after me, “Oh Marcus! Marcus!” ’
The following morning when Ashling arrived at work, Lisa called her over. ‘Hey, guess who rang me last night?’
Ashling looked at her combative, competitive expression, at the triumph that lit her grey eyes.
‘Marcus Valentine?’ Who else could it be?
‘Too right,’ Lisa agreed. ‘Marcus Valentine.’
‘Oh yeh?’ Ashling put her hand on her hip with bold attitude. ‘’Cos he rang me too.’
Lisa’s mouth half-opened at this unexpected news. She’d thought she was the winner.
‘When are you meeting him?’ Ashling asked.
‘Next week some time.’
‘Is that so? Well, I’m going out with him on Monday night… That’s sooner,’ she added, just in case Lisa hadn’t noticed.
She and Lisa locked into a tense, truculent scowl.
‘So I win!’ Ashling didn’t know what had come over her.
Startled, Lisa glowered at Ashling, at her meek face doing its best to be confrontational. She’d been bested. And to her surprise, she thought it was funny. She began to laugh. ‘Good for you,’ she chortled.
It took Ashling a moment to swing with the change of mood, then she too started laughing. They were both being ridiculous!
‘God, Lisa, it’s not even as if we want the same thing from him,’ Ashling was briefly brave enough to say. ‘Why are you bothered?’
‘Dunno.’ Lisa indicated ignorance with a downward moue. ‘I suppose a girl’s got to have a hobby.’
28
The offices of Randolph Media buzzed with an end-of-term mood. It was the Friday of the June bank-holiday weekend (which had thrown Lisa entirely because in England the bank holiday had been the previous weekend), coupled with the news about the L’Oréal ads, coupled with the fact that Jack Devine was elsewhere, coupled with the arrival of a crate of champagne which was meant to be a reader-competition prize. (‘What area of France does champagne come from? Answers on a postcard to… First one out of the hat wins twelve of the best…’)
Lisa looked at the champagne, looked at her watch – quarter to four – and looked at her staff. They’d worked so hard over the past three weeks and Colleen was actually shaping up to be not a total disaster. She’d just remembered how important it was to keep morale up amongst the workers. Well actually, if she was honest, she had to admit that she was in the mood for a drink and suspected she might have a mutiny on her hands if she poured one just for herself.
Theatrically, she cleared her throat. ‘Ahem,’ she said gaily, ‘would anyone care for a glass of champagne?’ Meaningfully, she inclined her glossy head at the crate, and it was the work of a moment for everyone to realize what she was getting at.
‘But what about the reader competition?’ Ashling asked anxiously.
‘Shut the fuck up,’ Trix hissed, then turned to Lisa. ‘That would be the business, Lisa,’ she toadied, loudly. ‘We can celebrate you getting that loads-a-money ad from L’Oréal.’
No second bidding was needed. The words, ‘Lisa says we can drink the reader-competition champagne, Lisa says we can drink the reader-competition champagne,’ blew like a whispering breeze across the office. Tools were downed and demeanours relaxed. Even Mercedes looked cheerful.
‘But we don’t have any glasses.’ Lisa was suddenly anxious.
‘No problem.’ Before Lisa changed her mind, Trix was already ferrying a trayful of dirty