Page 52 of The Plot Twist

‘Not really,’ Allie said grumpily, ‘but you’ll have heard all about it already. Jess? Can you tell me next time you put me on speakerphone? What if I’d told you something I didn’t want Tom to hear?’

‘Like what?’ Jess sounded genuinely perplexed that there might be something that Allie didn’t want Tom to hear.

‘Oh, never mind. So, what do you think I should do?’

‘Do?’ Jess asked. ‘I think you should tell him. And I think you should tell Martin. Allie, you know this can’t end well.’

‘But what if he doesn’t want to see me again?’ wailed Allie. ‘I really like him! And I’m writing again. I can’t afford to jeopardise that.’ Allie thought of all those lovely words that had poured out of her onto her laptop over the last few days. A combination of the anecdotes Martin had been feeding her and the romance vibes with Will. Right up till she discovered who he was, and now she just felt awkward about seeing him, desperate though she was to do so. ‘And anyway,’ she continued defensively, ‘I think he’s doing exactly the same with me!’

‘Meaning?’

‘Keeping me at arm’s length. Honestly Jess, if he thought this was going anywhere why hasn’t he told me that it’s his catering business? Why hasn’t he told me his dad is a novelist too?’

‘I thought he did tell you his dad was a writer?’

‘Well, yeah, but he did it in such a way that I then couldn’t ask him about it. He’s pretty closed off at times.’

‘Have you tried asking him why?’

‘No!’ exploded Allie. ‘It’s becoming quite hard to ask him about anything right now, what with all the things I know about him but am not supposed to know about him.’

‘Which brings us straight back to the point, that youshouldtell him,’ Jess said emphatically.

There was a silence before Allie shot back, ‘Yeah, well anyway, he’s going away for a couple of weeks, some work thing in York, but as he’s good at keeping his cards close to his chest,’ she said pointedly, ‘he hasn’t told me much about it. So I won’t have the opportunity to tell him before he’s back.’ Allie could hear Jess’s eye roll down the phone. ‘I don’t want to do it over the phone,’ she insisted, before Jess could call her out on this nonsensical excuse. ‘Better to do it face to face, right?’

‘Better to have done it as soon as you found out, I’d have thought.’ Jess replied drily. She sighed. ‘You’re not going to tell him, are you?’

‘No.’ Allie sounded more confident than she felt. ‘Not until he’s back. Anyway, speaking of writing—’ they weren’t, but it was an exceptionally handy moment to end the call ‘—I have to go, I’ve got a meeting with Jake Matthews’ assistant right now.’

‘OK.’ Jess sounded sceptical. ‘But Al? I want it put on the record that I think it is a reallyreallybad idea not to tell Will. And I’m going to struggle not to say I told you so if you refuse to listen to me. OK?’

‘Fine,’ snapped Allie. ‘Where are you going anyway?’

‘Oh, just out for a drive.’

‘In the middle of the day? Don’t you two have jobs to do?’

‘Gotta go, losing my signal…’ Allie heard the distinctive tone of Jess putting her phone down. She sighed. She knew Jess was right, of course she was right. There was no way that this was going to end well once Will found out who Allie was,andthat Allie had known about the connection and not told him. But there was a small part of her that hoped he might understand and that she might get a little more of her novel written before the whole thing fell apart. She wasn’t sure which she was more invested in, Will or her novel, and she was feeling really rather riled that the universe seemed insistent that she choose one or the other. Stuffing down all of these feelings, she took a deep breath and pushed through the revolving doors of Brinkman’s and hoped that Tessa hadn’t booked the same meeting room as the one in which Jake had delivered his devastating news, as she wasn’t sure she could cope with the flashbacks.

Allie was taking the mission to unseat Jake, free Tessa from his tyranny and get Verity her job back incredibly seriously and had been consistently buttering Tessa up over Messenger for several days. Tessa had seemed confused at first by Allie’s questions but now seemed really rather pleased to be counted as someone who might have a valuable opinion on one of the books that Brinkman’s was publishing. Which Allie thought showed how very little autonomy Jake had given her so far, and proved an interesting chink which Allie might be able to exploit – all in the name of freeing Tessa from the evil influence of Jake, of course. In actual fact, during their many messages Allie had begun to feel something akin to fondness for Tessa, not to mention very sorry for the working conditions under which she operated. Even in the brief time they had been corresponding, Tessa had managed to let slip several incidents which would not go down well in front of a workplace tribunal. Allie was making a mental note of all of these and hoping that with a little persistence and some charm, she might just be able to get Tessa to deliver the fatal blow which would bring Jake’s reign of terror to an end. Or, at the very least, get him to behave in a more acceptable manner and get Verity her job back.

Luckily for Allie’s post-traumatic stress, Tessa had arranged for them to meet in a different meeting room. A smaller one, she noted, one with no outside windows. Someone as lowly as Tessa probably wasn’t allowed to book one blessed with access to daylight. But Allie didn’t mind as the very nature of the conversation she planned to have with Tessa would work best in a small, confined space.

‘Thanks for seeing me,’ Allie said warmly as she followed Tessa into the room. ‘I know I could have just left it at emailing you the first part of my draft, but to be honest, I really wanted to pick your brains on what you think.’

‘Of course,’ she said smoothly. ‘I’ve loved what I’ve read so far,’ she went on gushingly.

‘You have?’ Allie tried to keep the note of surprise from her voice. But the truth was, shewassurprised. Allie had been floundering in the realm of writer’s block for so long that she no longer trusted her gut on her own writing. But Tessa seemed fairly genuine, or as genuine as Allie thought her capable of being. Despite feeling some sympathy with Tessa’s situation, Allie couldn’t hand on heart say she truly had faith in her judgement.

‘I mean, I think there are things we can iron out and work on during the editorial process.’

‘Yeah, about that,’ Allie said quickly, keen not to get Tessa started on the very real issues and plot holes in the story she had written so far. ‘Do you know yet who Jake plans to have edit it? I mean, I am presuming he won’t have the time to do it himself.’ She chuckled knowingly, trying to pull Tessa into camaraderie.

‘Jake doesn’t edit.’

Of course he doesn’t,thought Allie. He wouldn’t know a good editor if they came up and slapped him in the face, and she would put money on there being a long line of editors willing to test this theory. She wasn’t absolutely certain that Jake would truly understand what a physical book was. He probably thought it was something used for decoration in tea rooms and National Trust properties. Jake probably only read on screens, and never a book, possibly long-form essays if they especially piqued his interest in climbing the corporate ladder and obliterating all who stood in his way. But actually, his main source of information was probably theFinancial Timesand Reddit forums. Which said it all really.

‘Of course,’ she said smoothly, keeping all these dark thoughts from Tessa. ‘So, any clue who it might be?’

---