scruffily dressed tennis player. Eagerly he said, ‘And that’s what we think we have for him.’
‘OK, well, come in for a minute and let’s see what we can do.’ Ellie ushered them through to the office. Pulling the appointments diary across the desk, she said, ‘I tell you what, he’s had a cancellation for tomorrow morning. I could put you in for eleven o’clock, how does that sound?’
‘We can do that. Brilliant.’ They looked at each other and beamed.
‘Give me your names.’ Ellie reached for the diary and picked up a pen.
‘Kaye and Joe Kerrigan.’
‘And the proposal’s in there, is it?’ She indicated the padded A4 envelope Joe was clutching to his chest like treasure. ‘Why don’t you leave it here, then Zack can have a look through it before he sees you? That’ll save some time.’
‘Oh, but…’ Kaye looked worried, then stopped herself. ‘The thing is, we kind of wanted to talk him through the whole thing…’
Joe put a bony hand on her arm. ‘Let her take it. Whatever’s easiest for Mr McLaren. We’ll see him tomorrow.’ He flashed Ellie an apologetic look. ‘Sorry. This just means so much to us. You have no idea.’
‘It means everything in the world,’ Kaye echoed longingly. ‘If anyone can make this happen, it’s Zack McLaren. We’ve been reading up on him all week.’ Her eyes were shining. ‘You’re so lucky. He must be fantastic to work for.’
‘He’s a nightmare.’ Ellie broke into a smile. ‘No, he isn’t, he’s great. I’ll make sure he gets this.’ She reached for the padded envelope. ‘And we’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Hang on.’ Kaye grabbed the envelope before Joe could hand it over. ‘Sorry! Just let me give it one last kiss for luck…’
***
Zack arrived back at four. Ellie brought him up to date with everything that had been happening in the office. Then she passed him the folder that had been inside the padded envelope.
Zack flicked through the proposal for all of twenty seconds, then closed the folder, and Frisbeed it on to the desk.
‘You have to read it,’ Ellie said.
‘Just have.’
‘All of it!’
‘I don’t need to read all of it. I just need to get the gist.’
‘And?’
‘It’s a film script.’
‘I know!’
‘They want me to be their backer, to provide the finance to get the film made.’ Amused, Zack shook his head. ‘It’s completely crazy. Not my thing at all. No way.’
‘But if it took off…’
‘It wouldn’t. We’re talking about the riskiest business on the planet. I wouldn’t touch a project like that with a barge pole.’
Kaye and Joe Kerrigan’s earnest faces, so filled with hope, swam in front of her. They were going to be devastated. Ellie said, ‘What about Mamma Mia?’
‘The exception that proves the rule.’
‘Titanic.’
‘The other exception that proves the rule.’
‘ET.’
‘And just how much of your own money would you be prepared to bet that this script is as good as the script for ET? Look,’ said Zack, ‘I’m not going to back these people. It would be madness. And don’t look at me like that. I’m not an ogre. I just don’t want to pack all my hard-earned money into one giant firework and explode it over London.’
‘You haven’t even read the script,’ Ellie protested.
‘I don’t need to. What would be the point?’
‘Oh, come on, you’re an entrepreneur. It might be stupendous. You just don’t know.’ She jiggled the pen she’d been using. ‘Honestly, this couple has worked so hard on it. You not looking at the script is like… it’s like spotting a Lotto ticket on the pavement but not bothering to bend down and pick it up because the chances are that it wouldn’t win the jackpot anyway!’
Zack raised his hands in surrender. ‘OK, OK. You’ve made your point. You really want to shame me into reading this script?’
‘Yes, I really do.’
‘Fine then, you win. I’ll read it.’
‘Promise?’
‘Promise.’ His phone burst into life and Zack answered it. ‘Robert, thanks for getting back to me, do you have time to run through these figures now? Great, hang on, my notes are upstairs…’ Backing out of the office, Zack pointed to the folder on the desk then pressed his hand to his chest and silently mouthed, ‘I promise.’
When he’d gone, Ellie opened the folder and detached the film script from the rest of the paperwork. There were just over a hundred loose A4 pages. Crossing the office, she fitted them into the photocopier and pressed PRINT. She might not be a multimillionaire entrepreneur, but Kaye and Joe Kerrigan’s enthusiasm had sparked her curiosity.