Page 6 of The Plot Twist

‘Here.’ Verity handed Allie a glass of white wine.

‘Anything you want to tell me?’ asked Allie, suddenly emboldened.

‘What? No,’ insisted Verity. ‘Just a lot going on at work at the moment,’ she said mysteriously, ‘and I do think it would be good for you to meet Jake. Heisquite important, you know.’

‘Understood.’

‘So just try to be nice.’

‘Wait, what?’ Allie turned to stare at Verity.

‘Remember that sales conference?’

Allie nodded.

‘Yes, well, we don’t want a repeat of that,’ Verity said primly and continued to guide Allie through the party.

Allie couldn’t remember whether it was between books three and four or books four and five that she had been invited to give a speech at the Brinkman’s sales conference. Verity had persuaded her that it would be a ‘really good thing’ for her to do and so reluctantly Allie had agreed. The speech itself was fine, mainly because it was short, which everyone seemed really happy about. But afterwards the adrenaline had got to Allie, and that and the free bar went straight to her head. She had ended up telling the then sales director that he was a jumped-up asshole with no respect for women.

‘He had it coming,’ Allie mumbled.

‘Yes, he did,’ agreed Verity. ‘And he retired soon afterwards. But it would have been better if it had come from someone else, rather than the author that we were asking him and his sales team to go out and sell.’ Verity sighed. ‘Just play nice, OK?’

Allie looked at Verity and thought about pointing out that her sales had gone through the roof after that sales director had retired, so it didn’t look like his team had felt they owed him any loyalty. If anything, it looked more that they were rewarding Allie for ridding them of said jumped-up asshole. But she saw the look of determination on Verity’s face and decided to calmly acquiesce.

She looked ahead to where Verity was leading and immediately remembered who Jake Matthews was and that she hadn’t liked him the first time she had met him. Slim and tall with a sharply tailored electric-blue jacket, he exuded confidence and poise. His skin was alabaster white and his blonde hair, what was left of it, was slicked back, giving his face an even more angular look than it naturally had. He saw Verity coming and a look crossed his face. Allie couldn’t tell whether it was irritation or anger, either way it definitely wasn’t one of the warm cozy emotions that you would prefer someone to exhibit when you were about to speak to them at a social event. Everything, from his skin tone to his icy glare, gave Jake Matthews a look as if he wouldn’t know warmth if it came up and enveloped him in a hug. He raised his eyebrows as Verity approached and turned from the person he had been talking to. This short man seemed to realise immediately he had been dismissed and he scurried off in the opposite direction. Probably in search of champagne, Allie thought sadly.

Verity stopped short in front of Jake and pulled Allie to her side.

‘Jake,’ she said, nodding her head in his direction but, Allie noted, not quite meeting his eye.

‘Verity,’ Jake replied and turned to Allie. ‘You must be Allie Edwards, pleasure to meet you.’ He smiled at Allie with a smile that got nowhere near reaching his eyes. Allie put out her hand to shake his and tried to ignore the air of misery Verity was exuding.

‘Actually, we’ve met before.’

‘We have?’ If Jake had sounded any less interested in this fact, he could probably be declared medically dead.

‘Yep,’ Allie continued, looking at Verity who suddenly seemed very interested in retying the belt of her dress. ‘My last book launch. You had just joined as sales director?’

‘So I had.’ He smiled that smile again. ‘And, so, when are we publishing your next book, Allie?’

Allie and Verity exchanged panicked looks. ‘Oh we agreed to give Allie a little time off before book eight, didn’t we, Allie?’

Allie nodded enthusiastically in agreement with Verity.

‘But she’s about to deliver, aren’t you Allie?’

Allie again nodded enthusiastically.

‘Good,’ said Jake. ‘Because it’s terrible when authors don’t deliver on time isn’t it, Verity? Or when they leave it too long between books.’ He paused to allow the temperature of the party to sink even lower. ‘I always think that’s publishing suicide.’

‘Right,’ Allie cleared her throat. ‘Well, it will be on Verity’s desk shortly. I think it’s going to be my best yet.’ Internally, Allie rolled her eyes, why did she have to say that? Why couldn’t she have just left it? But her enthusiasm seemed to reinvigorate Verity, who beamed between Allie and Jake.

There was a long awkward pause and then, because apparently she couldn’t stop talking, Allie decided it was her job to break that silence.

‘So this must be your first summer party then? It’s quite an event, isn’t it?’

Jake’s eyes flitted to the centre of the courtyard where the cocktail bar now more closely resembled the last days of Rome than a civilised publishing party. ‘Yes,’ he agreed, ‘it’s quite the extravagance.’ Jake used the term ‘extravagance’ like others might say ‘depraved sex orgy’. All three of them stood and watched the drunken partygoers, Allie wondered who was going to have to break the silence next and prayed that her mouth wouldn’t decide that it had to be her.

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