Page 27 of Another Lucky Number

‘No need for that,’ I say. ‘I’m doing the boring stuff. Let’s see what you’ve come up with.’

I mentally cross my fingers that they won’t come back to my prep. Amber will see through me in an instant.

‘OK, let’s do this.’ Amber turns over a piece of paper with what appears to be a well-structured and impressive-looking schedule on it.

‘Wow, you did it by hand,’ I say. ‘I forgot to mention that Sébastien offered me use of one of the resort laptops. Though maybe that offer was just for me. Where did you get the stationery from?

‘We asked Charnice at reception,’ says Cat. ‘She was sokeen to help us, we had to stop her from giving us a truck load of supplies.’

‘Aww… they’re great here, aren’t they? So cheery and—’

‘Anyway.’ Amber interrupts me. ‘How about we look at this plan before the afternoon is gone and you’ve done no prep –again.’

‘Hey, I’ve been prepping. I did at least…’

‘Ten minutes?’ Amber raises a smug eyebrow.

Dammit. She knows me too well.

‘More like forty to fifty.’

‘Not what you planned though, was it?’

‘No.’ I feel like a teenager getting a telling off from my parents for watching TV when I should be studying. ‘But getting started is the hard part. Especially being here. It would be fine if I was back home in the crappy Scottish weather.’

‘Well, as you don’t have time to piss around, aren’t you glad you have me and Cat to kick your backside for you?’

‘I guess I am.’ I give an apologetic grin.

‘Good. Here you go then...’ Amber turns the page around so I can follow as she talks me through it. ‘This is your “School of Amber and Cat” interview prep plan. The days are broken down into sections – so, breakfast, morning, lunch, afternoon, dinner and evening. We’ve allocated a leisure activity to each non-meal slot – as Cat says, things we would have been enjoying had it not been for this coming up. And within each of those slots there’s an activity that will help you prepare for Monday. Make sense?’

‘Yeah, it does.’ My eyes roam the page, taking in the detail of the plan.

‘What do you think?’ Cat asks, once I’ve had the chance to read through it.

‘Do we rock or what?’ says Amber.

I’m momentarily lost for words. ‘It’s…incredible. I mean, I don’t know exactly what it entails, and I can see it’s going to befull on… but, yeah… you seem to have everything covered. That as well as still making the most of our holiday.’

‘Exactly what we were aiming for.’ Cat looks pleased at my reaction. ‘We don’t want this to be a miserable, gruelling experience for any of us.’

‘You’ve almost got me looking forward to it now,’ I say. ‘Still dreading the actual interview, but what better way to prep for it? I do have some questions though.’

‘Shoot,’ says Amber.

‘OK, to start with, are we really having cocktails this afternoon? That doesn’t sound like the most productive way to kick off a plan like this. Particularly when these surroundings are making me more prone to procrastination.’

‘It’s exactly the right way to kick it off. You need a motivational boost as well as a creative approach for your presentation to make sure you stand out. Some of the best ideas I’ve had have come to me after a couple of drinks. The usual boundaries go out the window.’

‘Do you have any boundaries?’ I give her a wink and turn to Cat. ‘How did she get you to agree to that one?’

‘Iwasa bit sceptical,’ she admits. ‘But it can’t hurt to try it out.’

‘OK, great.’ I shrug. ‘Why not? So then, what about the “company research” in the evenings? What’s that? Other than you not wanting to give up your nights out.’

Amber cocks her head with a judgemental look. ‘Actually,dipshit, that’s about seeing what kind of guest experience is being created by the resort. I’ve said before, you need an in depth feel for what this place is all about—’

‘I know, I was only kidding.’

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