Page 13 of Just Like That

‘Not a problem.’ He adopts a smarmy look. ‘I thought it might be a step too far to ask, but I figured you wouldn’t shout me down in front of this lot.’

Oh my God, did he just say that?

The faces round the table, which have been fairly neutral until this point, morph into expressions of curiosity as it becomes blatantly obvious that Nick and I have not only met, we have ‘history’.

Gwen’s eyes narrow in annoyance at Nick’s disruptive behaviour, but it’s obvious her interest is also piqued.

‘I’m sensing that an introduction between the two of you isn’t needed,’ she says. ‘Do you think we can keep this civil until we finish the meeting?’

I’m now fizzing mad and completely mortified. It was one thing for this Nick to hit on me at my most vulnerable, but to treat me as if I was the one in the wrong and pounce on me when I’m just trying to do my job is quite another. The problem is, I can’t let this show, because right now I’m representing Capital Events. Craig will have my head on a stake if I damage the company’s reputation. I take a deep calming breath and count to five.

‘Of course, Gwen,’ I reassure her. ‘My sincere apologies. Nick and I have met briefly, but that’s not a topic for today. Please continue.’

‘Nick?’ Gwen seeks the same confirmation from him through gritted teeth.

‘Go ahead.’ He waves her on. ‘I’ll keep schtum.’

‘Good. Now before we go any further, has anyone else got anything they want to say or air, or can we get on with this meeting like the adults that we apparently are?’ She looks around the table. ‘No? That’s a relief. There was me thinking the primates were outside.’ She shoots daggers at Nick, who doesn’t seem remotely fazed by this comment.

Gwen prompts the other members of the management team to introduce themselves and once that’s done, she gives an overview of the situation at the park. The short version is very much what Craig told me: they’re on extremely difficult terrain financially due to the rising costs of keeping the animals, a reduction in publicly-funded grants and visitor numbers not being as high as previous years – the latter having also had a knock-on effect on their animal sponsorship scheme. It’s likely they’ll close their doors by the end of the year if they can’t figure things out.

‘So, with all that going on,’ says Gwen. ‘We had a chat as a team and came up with a couple of options. We could look at bringing in a PR consultancy to help raise our profile and attract more visitors, or we could try to create another revenue stream, through putting on regular paid events of some kind.’

‘And you decided on the latter,’ I pitch in as a finisher.

‘Exactly that. We feel it’s our best chance and that hiring a PR company would cost more than we can afford to pay out at this stage. We can still do some work on our visibility and promotion, and we have Lauren here who can do all that as our marketing person.’ Gwen signals to the petite young woman sitting opposite me. Lauren has curly red hair tied back in a ponytail, beautiful porcelain skin and she can’t be older than about twenty-three – either that or her bright, girlish smile makes her seem younger than she is.

‘Makes sense if you already have the skills in house.’ I shrug easily.

It’s dawning on me that Gwen and her team have thought this through carefully and what I thought would end in a ‘thanks for the info, but we’ll take another path’ is looking like a foregone conclusion.

‘And that leads me to your part in this, Jess.’ Gwen leans forward in her chair, her gaze fixed on me. ‘Having spoken with your boss, Craig, it sounds to me like you’re going to be our guardian angel. He speaks very highly of you.’

At least that hasn’t changed, I think to myself.

‘He also mentioned that you’ll only be available to work with us Tuesday to Thursday, but that’s absolutely fine because I’m confident we can do the actual running of the events if you’re able to help with the ideas, planning, logistics, that sort of thing.’

Thanks Craig. Now I look like a right slacker.

‘Um… great.’ I give an enthusiastic nod, despite feeling like I’ve had my wings clipped. ‘Have you had any thoughts on what kind of events you’d like to put on?’

‘We did a bit of brainstorming at last week’s management meeting.’ Lauren gets out of her chair and drags a flipchart noisily across the floor so I can see what’s written on it.

‘Something with school groups, question mark…’ I read the green scrawl aloud. ‘Summer BBQs like the ones we have after hours… something Christmassy… maybe a Halloween-themed event… OK… and what’s on the next page?’

‘Nothing,’ says Lauren. ‘That’s as far as we got.’

‘Right.’

I take a moment to weigh up how to respond, especially given that Lauren’s supposed to be the resident marketing expert and these ideas are pretty scant. To be fair though, she introduced herself as the office manager and essentially seems to be an administrative jack of all trades.

‘You have a starting point then.’ I opt for a diplomatic response. ‘Maybe our next step is to run another brainstorming session together to flesh out some of your existing thinking and see what else we can come up with?’

‘That sounds great.’ Gwen claps her hands enthusiastically. ‘Doesn’t it team?’

They all nod obediently, apart from Nick, who simply shakes his head and stares at the table in front of him.

‘Let’s get started then. Lauren, will you man the flipchart again?’

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