Maid for Advertising - Susie Tate Page 0,44

expression softened. “He was negotiating for you, Urvi. His lawyers have squeezed me for every last penny possible for your song. The man is like a dog with a bone, and you getting paid ‘appropriately’ is his bone. Fucking nutcase.” He rifled in his briefcase and pulled out a thick sheaf of papers. “If you’ll give me your goddamn contact details like a civilised person and not like we’re living in the 1980s, then I can email this bad boy over to you rather than dragging actual paperwork around like a peasant. You need to get your own legal peeps to look it over and then you’ve got to let me know. I’ll give you a week.”

He gave me his phone and I started typing in my details under a new contact heading he’d labelled Drama Queen. When I’d finished I looked up at him and frowned.

“I’ll read it, but I already know I have one condition.”

“See?” he huffed, sitting back in the bench and throwing up his arms. “Drama, already!”

I rolled my eyes. “I won’t work with you unless you use Jack’s agency.”

He looked at me for a moment and then face palmed in slow motion.

“You two are a right pair. I do hope you both know most people would be biting my arm off for this job. I’m not really interested in playing Claire Reiner to your Romeo and Juliet. Can’t you just talk to each other then bump uglies so I can get my bloody advert made and make everyone cry into their overfilled stockings at Christmas? Is that too much to ask?”

*****

Jack

“Do you know what this is about?” Stella muttered as we pushed open the conference room doors.

I grunted and shook my head at her. The day after we’d arrived back from Saint-Tropez I’d called Stella into my office and blasted her for interfering with Urvi. She’d feigned confusion and in the end I’d told her to bugger off and stay out of my way. It was time I started listening to my team about her anyway. For months they’d been telling me she lacked any creativity or flair, that she was a vicious bitch and that she was keeping on inappropriate clients like George who were dragging the reputation of the company through the mud. I’d assumed it was jealousy, but just yesterday I’d found out that the last campaign she’d passed off as her own was in fact Liz’s. Liz had been with me for years but somehow Stella had worked her way higher in the company. I’d thought it was because Liz just wasn’t aggressive enough, and that I needed someone cutthroat by my side, but after Liz had said her piece in Saint-Tropez I was beginning to see that competence, honesty and a sound moral compass were far more valuable attributes. I’d spoken to Liz only yesterday about making her a partner.

As I pushed through the double doors to the conference room I froze. There, directly in my eyeline, nervously chewing on her bottom lip, was Urvi. She was on the other side of the long table in a chair at the centre and next to her was a smug-looking Ben. I let the door close on Stella and took a step towards her but the table was blocking me.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes never leaving Urvi’s and my chest squeezing as I took in how beautiful she was with the morning sunlight streaming in behind her. Stella shoulder-barged me as she went past then she froze before taking her seat.

“What is she doing here?” she asked in a snide voice and I stiffened. Before I could say anything Liz spoke instead.

“She is an integral part of the reason this company is producing the next Richmond’s advert. You know, the one that will make us the industry leaders this year? Tell me Stella, when were you an integral part of anything around here?”

“I hardly think –”

“Sit. Down,” Liz cut her off and gave her such a cold look Stella was lucky she didn’t freeze where she stood. Her face twisted into an angry scowl but she pulled her chair with force and slumped into it. I remained standing.

“What is this?” I asked Ben.

“Miss Radia wants to help me with my ad, but despite you telling me to find another agency –”

“Something we’ll be discussing later, Jack, and possibly set up a psych evaluation for,” Liz said in a dry tone. I couldn’t really blame her – I’d be furious if