Page 62 of The Plot Twist

‘I met with Tessa the other day,’ she confessed.

Martin’s ever-expressive eyebrows shot up. ‘And?’

‘And … it’s complicated. It’s a lot to ask of her.’

Martin shook his head. ‘Maybe he doesn’t treat her as badly as we think he does?’

‘Martin,’ she said sternly, ‘I thought we’d done the work on you being an ally? Herbossis using her to get drugs, threatening her with professional death if she exposes him, and generally playing in to the systemic corporate patriarchy by proving that men always hold all the power.’

To his credit, Martin looked suitably ashamed.

‘This is not about being a feminist,’ lectured Allie, as if reading Martin’s mind, ‘it’s about recognising the structural issues in place which prevent women from holding any kind of power in the workplace.’ Martin nodded, as though keen to ensure that Allie realised he was fully behind her and totally invested in smashing the patriarchal structures that enslaved both men and women.

‘Also, Jake is a complete ass. Everything she told me just confirms that. She definitely knows it, how could she not?’

‘Well let’s hope she either comes to her senses or we both manage to deliver our manuscripts. Either would be OK with me right now.’ Martin broke off, his face suddenly creasing into a broad grin as he stood up from the table. Allie had become so engrossed in discussing Martin’s plot and outlining her righteous indignation at the behaviour of Jake Matthews, that she had completely forgotten her pressing need to finish up this drink and make herself scarce before there was any danger of Will arriving on the scene. Her stomach dropped as Martin exclaimed, ‘Liam! Good to see you,’ and she realised she was too late.

Allie kept her gaze firmly focused on the table in front of her so she was only half aware of Martin grabbing Will by the shoulder and pulling him into the awkward hug, double pat release, that was widely recognised as the symbol of male-on-male affection. If Will had made his entrance from behind her then there was obviously another way in and out of the bar. Slowly, she began to push her chair back from the table, keeping her head down. She hoped she might be able to get far enough away in this position that she could then do a crouching turn and make a run for it before Will could get a good look at her and realise who she was. Her chair scraped loudly on the floor and Allie cursed the idiot who had decided to install trendy metal chairs in this bar. Not only were they uncomfortable, but they got too hot, and when they got too hot, they burned the back of your thighs,andyou got stuck to them. Which made getting up out of them a less than graceful move; it was hard to maintain an air of dignity when you were welded to a chair.

‘Allie?’ With her head down and her hair hanging over her face she realised her cover was blown, and now she was two feet from the table in the awkward position of looking like she was about to make an escape. Also, there was still the chair situation to work through, Allie wished she hadn’t chosen a bare leg and short skirt combo that evening.

‘Will!’ She slowly turned and grinned up at him, hoping a full-wattage smile would divert him from the awkwardness of the whole situation. ‘Erm, lovely to see you!’

Lovely to see you? Was that the best she could come up with? For goodness’ sake, who said ‘lovely to see you’ to a person who you had basically seen naked? Allie felt herself begin to blush, her colour only deepening as Will put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a playful squeeze.

‘Wait?’ Martin looked at Will’s hand on Allie’s shoulder and then between the two of them in obvious puzzlement, which made Allie think that he should hold that look, because this situation was about to get a whole lot messier. ‘You know Allie’s name?’

Will looked down at Allie, his eyes seemed to be asking her what the correct response to this situation was, and, considering she had been about to do a runner thirty seconds ago, she really had no answer for him. She wasn’t sure whether her red face and panicked look was adequately conveying this.

‘Er?’ Will scratched his head with his free hand and smiled bashfully. He was behaving exactly how you would want the man you were seeing to behave when he was startled into introducing you to his father. But right at that moment, Allie couldn’t appreciate this. Luckily Martin either didn’t see or didn’t care about the awkwardness.

‘Of course!’ He put a hand to his forehead. ‘Allie must have told you her name when you met at the party, right?’

‘Right,’ Will confirmed, and then Allie felt his arm stiffen as the penny dropped with him that there was something off with this whole scenario. ‘Hang on. Dad, I thought you were meeting one of your writer friends?’

‘I am!’ Martin confirmed, presumably willfully ignoring the discomfiture in his son’s voice. ‘Allieismy writer friend.’ If it had been under different circumstances Allie would have felt distinctly touched by the note of pride in Martin’s voice.

‘Oh!’ Will was startled by this revelation. ‘But … erm … OK. Wow.’ He looked down at Allie and gave her a wide-eyed look that begged her to copy him, to laugh at this weird situation and then to explain in exacting detail just what he was missing and to reassure him that it really wasn’t all that weird after all. Allie swallowed nervously. ‘Lots to catch up on?’ he said in a painfully reassuring voice.

‘Yes!’ Allie grasped at what she saw as an escape route of some kind. ‘We should definitely do that.’ She straightened abruptly, Will’s hand falling from her shoulder as she did so. ‘But I should get going. Don’t want to interrupt your drink.’

She easily shirked off Martin’s thanks for helping him with the latest murder scene, and less easily shirked off Will’s attempts to kiss her goodbye, leaving him gracelessly hanging as she hurried away.

ChapterNineteen

‘Okaaay. That sounds all kinds of awks.’ Jess looked at Allie, concern etched all over her face.

‘You can say that again.’ Allie picked up her drink and considered their surroundings. When Jess had told her where to meet her, Allie had merely tapped the address into her phone and followed the directions. So when she found Jess standing on the street in front of what looked like the entrance to an old-fashioned public toilet she had presumed that Jess would then lead her to some fabulous hidden away gem. And in fairness to Jess she had done just that, but thisgemjust happened to be hidden away underground, right down the steps of the old public toilet. In hindsight, Allie should probably have done more due diligence and asked Jess in advance what the dress code for tonight was as there was no mistaking the burlesque dancers doing their thing on a stage at one end of the room. And while earlier on in the evening, when trying to escape from Will and Martin, Allie might have regretted the cutesy ruffled rara-inspired skirt she was wearing, she was now regretting it for entirely different reasons; it really wasn’t living up to the sexy decadent boudoir vibe of the bar.

Jess hadn’t made the same mistake, presumably because she had suggested this place and knew exactly what to expect. Allie eyed her off-the-shoulder black top and her studded boots with jealousy and tried to keep her eyes off Jess’s cleavage but was struggling. She wasn’t sure what bra Jess had on but made a mental note to ask her at some point, because wherever it was from, whatever it cost, Allie needed one of those in her life.

‘Jess, why are we here?’

‘Work.’ Which always seemed to be Jess’s response but it never stopped Allie from asking.

‘Okaaay … are you thinking of a career change?’ Allie smirked and gestured to the dancers.

‘Yup.’

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