Page 53 of The Plot Twist

Tessa blushed, looked down at her hands and then fiddled nervously with her sleeves, Allie watched her in fascination, wondering if therealTessa was about to make an appearance. ‘Well, erm, I was kind of hoping… I mean I haven’t actually asked Jake yet … and he hasn’t mentioned it … and I’m sure he has someone very experienced in mind…’

Allie wondered how long to let Tessa flounder before she threw her a lifeline and in the end, she couldn’t stand to watch for very long. ‘Doyouwant to edit it?’ she asked gently.

Tessa looked up in surprise. ‘Oh! I mean, I would LOVE to. Would you want me to?’

Allie thought for a minute. Really she wanted Verity back. But probably the only way that was going to happen was if they got rid of Jake. And to get rid of Jake she needed to get Tessa to divulge everything she knew. And a really, really good way of getting her to do that was to spend more time with her, which she could easily do, if Tessa was to edit her book. She gritted her teeth, hoping that Tessa’s editorial skills were up to the task.

‘I think you would do a brilliant job.’

Tessa looked like she might cry. ‘Thank you!’ Maybe Tessa was a good kid after all, maybe she had just been under the influence of Jake for too long. And maybe she didn’t have a huge amount of experience, but perhaps Allie would be doing the right thing by allowing her to demonstrate what she was capable of. And it might go some way in assuaging Allie’s guilt over the fact she knew that really she was using Tessa for her own ends.

Tessa barely paused for breath before she launched into all her thoughts so far about Allie’s book. And they weren’t all bad, she made some half-decent points about the plot and the character dynamics, which Allie thought she might actually take on board. ‘But what I really love about it are the two central characters. It’s actually pretty nice to think that even old people might fall in love.’

Allie winced at her choice of words and wondered exactly what Martin, and for that matter Angie, would think to be described as such because, as had become increasingly and uncomfortably apparent to Allie, while she wasn’t using their story verbatim, it was a hundred per cent the central hook of her story. And although they were definitely only holding names and she planned to change them, so far this draft’s central characters were called Martin and Angie.

‘I think,’ Allie said carefully, ‘I think it might be best to pitch it as second-chance romance, reigniting the spark so to speak – rather than romance for old people.’

‘Oh yes, yes of course,’ Tessa agreed enthusiastically. ‘But I do just love them both. I mean Martin is so grumpy and blind and Angie just so slay that at first you wonder how on earth they ever ended up getting together. But then as the story unfolds you see how they used to be, and how they lost their way. I really hope they will find it again, please tell me it has a happy-ever-after!’

Allie laughed at the pleading note in Tessa’s voice and couldn’t fail to be touched by how much Tessa seemed to have taken Martin and Angie to heart. And how well Allie must have drawn them for Tessa to describe them so precisely. Perhaps Tessa had previously undiscovered depths and capacity for feeling, and maybe all she really needed was a little time away from Jake.

‘Don’t worry,’ Allie said soothingly. ‘They get their happy-ever-after. I mean, that’s what we all want don’t we?’

Tessa practically sighed with relief.

‘So, what’s the next step?’ Allie asked. ‘Do you ask Jake about editing? Do you think he’d be open to the idea?’

At the very mention of Jake’s name, Tessa seemed to do a 180-rotation. Her face closed up, her hands clenched, her body went all stiff and boardlike. Really, it was quite the fascinating anthropological study if it hadn’t been so downright disturbing.

‘Are you ok?’ Allie asked. ‘You seem a little, erm, nervous about talking to Jake?’

There was a long pause and Allie wondered if she had pressed too hard too fast, but just as she was about to give up all hope and just ask Tessa to email her with any updates, Tessa let out a slightly strangled noise. ‘He’s not that easy to talk to,’ she said and then cast a terrified look at the door, as if Jake might materialise there at any moment.

You don’t say,Allie thought to herself, but managed instead to verbalise, ‘Oh wow, it must be kind of tough to have an unapproachable boss.’

Tessa seemed to visibly deflate, as if one sympathetic comment from Allie had released all the fight from her. ‘It really is,’ she squeaked.

Allie pulled what she hoped was a sympathetic expression but stopped short of reaching over and taking Tessa’s hand, because this was still a business meeting, despite the nefarious therapy set up that Allie had engineered to get Tessa to talk.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Allie said soothingly, ‘how long have you worked for him?’

‘Eighteen months,’ Tessa said miserably, making it sound like a life sentence.

‘That’s a long time.’

‘It really is. And do you know what? I don’t actually think he’s said one nice thing to me in all that time. Unless you count good morning, and to be honest, with the tone he uses, I don’t think he actually means it.’

‘Do you have colleagues you can talk to?’

‘God no!’ Tessa looked horrified. ‘I mean, I’m sure they all think the same but we’re all too scared of him to say anything.’

‘Why?’ asked Allie, genuinely interested in how one person could invoke such a powerful wave of fear and misery that a reasonably large coterie of people all refused to speak up and challenge him. And there was a small part of her that was impressed Jake could have this effect. Imagine what could be achieved if his power could be harnessed for the good? And then she remembered it was Jake Matthews that she was thinking of, whose powers were beyond the reach of goodness.

‘Well, this is just me. I don’t know about anyone else. But I feel that if I get on the wrong side of Jake, he’ll fire me, and I’ll never work in the industry again.’

Allie thought how closely Tessa’s words echoed those of Verity who still feared the same thing, despite not even being employed by Brinkman’s anymore.

‘That seems, erm, a bit paranoid? Surely you could just look for another job?’

---