Katie Oliver - Love And Liability

Holly — This is crap. Forwarding to Valery for review and comment, Sasha .

“Shit!” Holly put her glass down, scrambled to hit reply, and typed, “Let me make any changes needed first!” and hit send.

“Not necessary. Want her to see as is,” came the immediate reply.

“Back-stabbing bitch,” Holly muttered.

Her mobile rang. Holly grabbed it and frowned at the number. Caller Unknown. It must be Sasha, already phoning to gloat and inform her in no uncertain terms that she was sacked.

“Look, Sasha,” Holly snapped as she answered her phone, “I did the best I could with that interview with Henry, but teen girls don’t give a rat’s arse about QSRs and derivatives!”

There was a pause. A posh male voice said, “Perhaps they would do, if they understood that the dividends from those dull QSRs would keep them well stocked in spot cream, lip gloss, and useless teen magazines well into their dotage.”

Oh, no! That upper-crusty voice…those multi-syllabic words…it was Henry — correction, Alex — Barrington. Holly closed her eyes and groaned. Could her day — this endless, endless day — possibly get any worse?

“How did you get my number?” she demanded. Was he a stalker , too?

“It’s on your business card. Which I found under your chair after you left, along with a keychain.” His words were stiff. “Which I thought perhaps you might need.”

“No, of course I don’t need it,” Holly said crossly. “I have masses of business cards.”

There was the faintest trace of amusement in his voice. “I was referring to the keychain, Ms James. Not the card.”

Oh, what a mess. It just kept getting worse and worse. Forget the grapefruit juice, she needed straight vodka…or, truthfully, perhaps the vodka was the problem…

“Look,” she said finally, “just put the keys in a Jiffy bag and mail them, okay? I’ve had a really bad day—” her voice wobbled ever so slightly, but she got it back under control “—and I don’t want to bother you any further.”

“It’s no bother.” He paused. “The reason I’m calling is twofold. One is to apologize.”

Holly took a steadying gulp of her vodka and…vodka. “Apologize? Whatever for? You were quite right, I wasn’t prepared, and, anyway, I write nothing but salacious dreck. That was what you called it, wasn’t it?”

He had the grace to sound uncomfortable. “I suppose I did. But you have to admit, BritTEEN isn’t exactly The Guardian —”

“But it isn’t meant to be!” Holly interrupted. “It’s entertainment. And what entertains teen girls are pop stars, and clothes, and the latest shades of lip gloss.” She took a gulp of her drink. “Maybe they’d be better served by articles on finance and — and educational stuff, but that isn’t the magazine’s focus. The focus is fashion. And make-up. And fun.”

“And whether I condone sex on the first date?”

Holly flushed. “I had to ask that,” she said defensively, “or I’d be sacked. Don’t worry, your answer won’t go in the article. It’s strictly off the record.”

“I’m very glad to hear it.”

“At any rate, I accept your apology.” She frowned. “What was your other reason for calling?”

“I wondered if you’re free for dinner next week.”

Holly held out her phone and stared at it in astonishment. Her first instinct was to say yes, of course she was free, and her second was to fling open the windows like Scrooge on Christmas Day and shout, “You, there, boy! Run and fetch me the biggest bottle of champagne you can find. Alex Barrington has just asked me out!”

“You’re asking me out on a…date?” she asked cautiously.

“Yes, a date,” he replied, and added, “wherein two people who like one another decide to go out together.”

She saw herself sitting across from Alex in some fancy restaurant, holding her champagne glass out as he topped it up with Perrier-Jouët, and she could almost taste the tart-sweet raspberries he fed to her across a candlelit table…

She bit her lip. If she said yes and Mick found out, he’d throw a four-colour, photo-op temper tantrum.

On the other hand, why not go out with Alex? It wasn’t as if she and Mick were engaged, or anything. With his electric-blue mohawk and multiple tattoos, Mick was as well known for playing bass in Dominic’s band as he was for chasing women.

Holly sighed. After the cock-up she’d made of her interview with Alex Barrington, not to mention that humiliating business with her bag, she couldn’t possibly go out with him. No matter how much she might want to.

Plus, what would they talk about? His girlfriend’s thong?

Her phone crackled in her ear. “Miss James? Are you there?”

“Oh — yes, sorry. I don’t think I can,” she managed to reply. “I — I think I’m kind of busy next week.” Was she insane ? Was she really refusing a dinner date with a gorgeous, sexy man, a man who looked like Henry Cavill and Hugh Dancy all rolled into one?

Puzzlement coloured his voice. “I don’t understand. You think you’re busy next week, but you’re not sure?”

“Oh, I’m busy,” she said quickly. “There’s no question of that.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the thong, does it? As to that, I can explain—”

“Please don’t.” Her words were clipped. “It’s none of my business, after all.”

“But it’s not what you think.”

“What I think doesn’t matter.”

“Very well,” he said after a moment, “I’ll say goodbye, then. If you have any more questions, please call. Sorry if I was a bit of an arse today.”

“A bit of an arse?” she said. “You were a complete prat.”

To her surprise, he laughed. All right, it was a small laugh, not a loud guffaw, but still. He did have a sense of humour somewhere under all that starch and correctness. “I suppose I was, yes.”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” Of course, Holly had no intention of calling him again, no matter how attractive he was. What would she say? Hello, Alex, it’s Ms James from BritTEEN. You remember…the girl you threw out of your office and who called you a prat. Oh, and by the way, did you find my tampon? I think it rolled under your desk…

“No, it’s fine. I think we had a mutually crap day today.”

“Really? Why was yours crap?”

“Bit of a long story.” He paused. “I’d much rather discuss it with you over dinner.”

She clicked open her interview document and stared at the photos of Alex. He was unquestionably sinful to look at. She couldn’t just hang up, never to see him again. Suddenly she found herself blurting, “Perhaps we could meet up for lunch one day next week. I think I could manage that.”

“Excellent.” His voice was tinged with amusement. “Glad you could fit me into your busy schedule, Ms James.”

“I’m a very busy girl, Mr Barrington,” she informed him as she ran his interview document through the spell checker. “I’ll see you next week, then.”

“I’ll have Jill check my schedule and get back to you on Monday morning, if that suits.”

“That suits perfectly,” Holly murmured. His voice — so warm and sexy and posh — had gone straight to her brain and frozen it, while making the rest of her feel decidedly warm. “I’ll talk to you then. Bye.”

Chapter 7

To: vbeauchamp@BritTEEN.com

From: sdavis@BritTEEN.com

Valery - Attached is Holly James’s “One Outrageous Question” interview with Henry Barrington, a City solicitor/financier. Not sure if Holly’s up to standard on this one, felt it didn’t quite suit our content, but she insisted, so here it is.