Roberta Leigh - Give A Man A Bad Name

‘Try a Dutchman next time,’ Marly advised, trying to lighten her friend’s mood. ‘Italians are known for their roving eye.’

‘He’s English,’ Andrea corrected. ‘He was going to Italy to take charge of a hotel his family owns there, and I’m pretty certain he’s got another woman in Rome.’

‘Odd that he’s in the hotel business,’ Marly put in ironically. ‘So is my temporary boss, and he’s also a walking Adonis.’

‘Steer clear of him, then,’ Andrea muttered. ‘At least ugly men are grateful if you fancy them! Alex simply took it for granted. Not surprising, considering the way the girls chased him.’

‘Alex?’ Marly echoed, her pulse jumping erratically. ‘What’s his last name?’

‘Hamilton.’

Unbelievable! It was her boss. So much for meeting the man of her dreams. After the story she had just heard, he could best be described as every girl’s nightmare.

Marly wondered whether to tell her friend that her ex-fiancé had lied about going to Rome, and was actually in charge of the family hotel in Bangkok where, far from being with one woman, he would happily be taking his pick of a line-up! But Andrea was unhappy enough as it was, and it would serve little purpose to inform her that the man she still loved wasn’t merely a philanderer but a liar into the bargain!

‘He sounds a real swine,’ she said instead. ‘Forget him.’

‘I wish I could,’ Andrea answered miserably. ‘But I still love him. Perhaps I shouldn’t have moved in with him. I feel as if I’ve let myself down.’

‘That’s crazy talk, Andrea. It’s Alex who’s let you down, not yourself.’

Yet though Marly said this she found it easy to empathise with her friend, who was echoing Nan’s feelings as well as hers. At sixteen they had all made the same vow, and maturity had not changed their minds. Sex without love was something they abhorred, and no matter how much their other friends teased them for their old-fashioned views, they had held firm to them.

‘Perhaps if I hadn’t gone to bed with him, he might have married me,’ Andrea said into the silence.

‘You can’t believe a marriage licence would tie down a man of his type?’

‘I suppose not.’ Tears fell fast and Andrea fumbled for her handkerchief. ‘He was so wonderful, Marly. Unbelievably handsome and charming.’

‘Unbelievable being the operative word,’ Marly retorted. ‘Forget him. He’s not worth a moment’s thought. You’re young and beautiful, and you’ll soon be rhapsodising over someone more worthwhile.’

Having almost convinced Andrea of this by the time her plane was ready to continue its flight, Marly returned to the city a little easier in her mind. What a nasty trick of fate that Alex Hamilton should turn out to be the biggest pig this side of Eden! Who cared if he was Adonis in looks and charismatic in character? Much better if he had been honest and loyal. But why was she getting so hot under the collar over a man she had merely glimpsed in the entrance lobby of a hotel? It was quite on the cards that if she waited by the magazine stall again she would see a dozen equally handsome and magnetic men!

‘Enjoy your day?’ Nan enquired, coming into Marly’s bedroom later that afternoon, where she sat brushing up her Thai from a television film.

‘Not especially. I saw Andrea.’

‘She’s here ?’

‘Not any longer.’ Briefly Marly recounted Andrea’s story, and had the dubious pleasure of seeing Nan become as furious as herself.

‘I know Mr Hamilton plays the field, but I never imagined he’d ask a girl to marry him and then walk out on her. Are you sure she wasn’t exaggerating?’

‘Oh, come on, Nan, you know Andrea better than that. She may look like a dumb blonde, but she certainly isn’t one. Believe me, I’ve never seen her so devastated.’

‘I wish you’d persuaded her to stay with us for a week or so.’

‘I was going to suggest it, but I was worried she might bump into him here. I didn’t tell her he hadn’t gone to Rome.’

‘I’d forgotten that.’ Nan sank cross-legged to the floor. ‘A good thing you discovered the sort of man he is. From the way you reacted when you saw him, you might have become the next discard!’

Marly was honest enough not to deny it.

‘Think you can take another shock?’ Nan ventured.

‘Depends.’

‘We need someone to replace Siri, the other Thai girl in the cabaret. She’s gone down with bronchitis.’

‘So why tell me ?’ Marly asked.

‘Because the part calls for a Thai, and you can pass for one.’

‘But I’ve never acted in my life!’

‘All females know how to act!’

‘Maybe, but not on stage.’

‘What’s the difference? Be a sport, Marly. Siri was only in one sketch, and with your photographic memory you’ll waltz through it.’

Marly sighed, swayed by Nan’s downcast expression. ‘Very well, but don’t blame me if I flop.’

‘You won’t. You’ll be wonderful!’

‘What if Mr Hamilton won’t give me time off to rehearse? Now he’s back he may expect me to get cracking on the software.’

‘Find out and let me know.’

Next morning Marly hung around restlessly in her office waiting to be summoned to meet Alex Hamilton, and when lunchtime came and went without a call, she bearded his English secretary, Miss Granger.

‘Sorry I didn’t contact you before now,’ the girl apologised. ‘I meant to, but it’s been hectic here. Mr Hamilton asked me to apologise on his behalf, and say he won’t be able to see you for several days. He was away longer than he anticipated and has a mass of work to catch up on.’

Far from being upset by this, Marly was relieved. She was still seething over his treatment of Andrea, and might have found it difficult to hide her feelings. But this respite would not only give her a chance to learn her lines and rehearse for the show, but also enable her to get used to the idea of working for a man she thoroughly despised.

‘YOU’RE not totally deaf, I presume?’

The raised male voice coming from the next-door office to Marly’s made her look up from her terminal in surprise, and unashamedly she eavesdropped. From his tone, the man was in a rousing temper.

‘Or perhaps you’re on a higher plane and haven’t heard anything I’ve told you?’ he went on.

‘I did exactly what you asked me to do, Mr Hamilton,’ a woman protested, and Marly instantly recognised it as Alex Hamilton’s secretary.

‘In your own stupid way, Miss Granger!’

‘Look, Mr Hamilton—’

‘No, you look! If you can’t follow simple instructions, maybe you should return to the typing pool.’

‘Maybe I will!’

There followed a burst of tears and a sharp male curse, and Marly, on the verge of going to comfort the girl as she heard a door slam, stopped at the sound of Alex Hamilton’s voice. It was his secretary who had stormed out, not him.

‘Personnel!’ she heard him bark. ‘Assign Miss Granger to someone more long-suffering than me, and send me a replacement. What? No, keep her on the same salary she was receiving.’

To pay off his conscience, no doubt, Marly seethed, casting daggers at the wall dividing her from this most horrible of men. If she were self-employed and did not have a responsibility to her company, she would walk in and tell him what she thought of him! If he was expecting her to bow and scrape to him, he had another think coming!

She was still seething when she arrived for rehearsals in the hotel ballroom late that afternoon, though she soon calmed down as Richard, the young director of the cabaret, who normally worked in Accounts, put her through her paces. Her part couldn’t have been easier, given her retentive memory, for all she had to do was to learn six pages of dialogue, and spend the rest of her time looking sweet and gentle and quietly amused by the embarrassing antics of the Western visitors to her stage parents’ home.