Page 10 of It's All Sun and Games

‘We went for burgers,’ Liz replies.

James scoffs.

‘Yeah, he didn’t look like the type to take a girl somewhere nice,’ he points out. ‘How about you let me take you for dinner sometime, show you how a real man does it?’

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.

Liz narrows her eyes at him, her lips twisting into a smile as she realises that not only is he jealous, but also that all of a sudden he’s interested in her.

‘We’ll see,’ she tells him. ‘I’ll let you know.’

James grins, like he’s got a fish on his line, but he isn’t quite ready to reel it in just yet.

The door swings open again and in walks Rick, closely flanked by his assistant Julie.

‘Right, let’s get started,’ Rick announces.

He takes his seat at the top of the table. Julie places his coffee down in front of him before sitting on her usual chair behind him – she doesn’t sit at the table for some reason, which has always baffled me. She just lurks behind him, watching over us all, taking notes.

‘So, everyone is set to fly tomorrow afternoon, yes?’ Rick asks.

‘Everyone but Robin,’ Julie tells him.

Rick looks over at me, his brow wrinkling like he thinks I’m about to cause him a major headache.

‘Oh, no, it’s not a thing,’ I quickly say in my defence. ‘I’m flying in the morning. I’ll be there before anyone.’

‘Oh, right, okay,’ Rick says suspiciously. ‘Is there any particular reason you’re going early?’

‘It was the only time my dad could drive me to the airport,’ I half-lie because, while that is technically true, I could have just got a taxi. The real reason I decided that I would much rather travel alone than with everyone else is because I’m scared of flying. I just hate it, every part of it, and no amount of the herbal anti-stress remedies my mum recommends seem to help me. I can’t have people from work seeing me at my most irrational – jigging my legs, puffing air from my cheeks, my eyes wide with pure terror – because I’d never hear the end of it. Once you show weakness (especially to those competing with you), it’s all over. Plus, you know, the thought of being on a plane with Liz, with no escape, makes me want to know where the emergency exits are and then use them. And now that she and James are flirting in front of me, I know that I’ve made the right choice.

Rick dismisses me with a nod of his head. He picks up his coffee, gulping it several times, as though he hasn’t had a drink in days, before setting it down on the table. He takes a deep breath, as though he’s going to say something.

‘All right, Julie, run them through the plan,’ Rick commands her, leaving the actual work to her.

‘Of course,’ Julie replies. ‘So, we’re flying out to Italy tomorrow. We’ll be staying at a resort in Giovinazzo, which is just outside Bari centre. There’s a hotel, holiday villas, multiple pools, tennis courts, large gardens and a private beach. The main purpose of the trip is, of course, to take meetings with the Come a Casa people. However, because we work for the best company in the world, Rick has arranged for us all to take part in some super-fun team-building activities – because the resort offers corporate retreat facilities – and then of course Rick has very generously invited us all to his wedding ceremony and reception at the end of the week.’

The work part is work, the team-building doesn’t sound super-fun at all, and I think it would be a stretch to say that Rick was being generous in inviting us because he’s definitely only doing this so that the company can pay for large chunks of his wedding. Honestly, his wife-to-be is such a lucky, lucky lady.

‘Does that sound good to everyone?’ Rick checks.

It sounds non-optional.

‘Sounds awesome,’ Liz says enthusiastically.

‘Yeah, looking forward to it, boss,’ James adds.

‘Great,’ Rick says, clapping his hands together with a loud slap. ‘Let’s tighten up the work on the Matcher pitch, and then start thinking all things Italian when we touch down tomorrow. Sound good?’

Sounds like a huge relief, because I really don’t have any ideas yet at all.

Approval echoes around the room.

What usually happens at this stage, when we’re pitching to a new potential client for the first time, is that we meet them, we get a feel for what they are selling (whether it’s a product, a service, an idea – anything) and then we work on our initial pitches. Sometimes we work alone, sometimes in groups, but we make sure that we have several ideas to take to the client. Rick has us (or our teams) work separately, so that each idea is unique and not influenced by each other, and at this stage he keeps out of it, which he says is to prevent him from stifling our creativity, but it tends to be used more for plausible deniability. That way, on the rare occasion an idea doesn’t go down well, he can throw up his hands and say that he has nothing to do with it. It’s only later, when we’ve actually secured the client, that we all work together on one shared vision. Infuriatingly, that vision usually comes from Liz and/or James.

‘Right,’ Rick says. ‘All of you, back to work. Not you, though, Robin. I need you to hang back.’

I feel my body stiffen all of a sudden. Oh, God, what have I done now? Going off his tone, and his body language, I seriously doubt he’s keeping me back to ask me to be a bridesmaid at the wedding.

---