Page 77 of All the Right Words
‘Hey, don’t shout ather!’ Harper warned her. ‘She’s not the only person to blame here.’
‘You have no right to defendher!’ Olivia said, aiming her white-hot rage at Harper. ‘She betrayed me. I thought she was my friend.’
‘Did you?’ Harper asked. ‘Because I don’t think what you asked of her sounded like it was a normal friend favour.’
‘So now it’s all on me because you’ve decided to jump on Gina? She’s the innocent party? I’m the big bad wolf? That’s how we’re gonna spin it now?’ Olivia demanded.
‘I’m not innocent,’ Gina said quietly. ‘I know that.’
‘No. You’re not!’ Olivia agreed. ‘You went along with it. And now I know that all along, you were biding your time. Waiting to make your move while you pretended to help me.’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ Gina said. Harper was shocked to realise she was tearful. ‘I never meant for this to happen,’ Gina wobbled.
‘Fuck off,’ Olivia said. ‘Fuck right off with that shit.’
A few gasps went around the employees of Parker Press. They were having a great time at Gina’s expense, and Harper wanted to tell them all to piss off. But she knew doing that would only add to the drama and heighten everyone’s fun. So she did the next best thing. She tried to shift the scene out of public view. ‘Let’s talk about this in your office,’ Harper said as calmly as she could.
Olivia glared at her. ‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’
‘I would, yes. That’s why I suggested it,’ Harper replied.
But Olivia didn’t hear her. She was upset and shocked by what she’d seen in the elevator, and she was working herself into quite a state. The kind of state that doesn’t care who hears and sees the stuff that should be said behind closed doors. ‘You know what? You’re fuckingdonehere.’
Harper paused. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means you NEVER sell a book to this company ever again.’
Brenda started choking on her tea. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she gagged
Olivia turned to her. ‘Brenda,you’refine. You just need new representation. We don’t deal with Harper anymore. She’s blacklisted. And Gina? I will make sure you never work for a publisher again; do you understand me? I’m going to email everyone I know to tell them you can’t be trusted.’
Gina shrugged philosophically. ‘Yeah, I was kind of there anyway.’
Harper would have been OK with taking a hit like that from Olivia. But the way Olivia turned on Gina was astonishing. ‘What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t drag your personal issues into business. It’s illegal.’
‘Watch me,’ she said coldly. ‘Vincent? You’re my assistant again. Take a letter.’
Vincent perked up. ‘Do what?’
‘It means take dictation.’
‘Oh. Like, with a pen?’ Vincent asked, baffled.
‘Oh for fucks sakes, with whatever!’ Olivia screeched.
He grabbed a pen and a pad from the closest desk, putting his popcorn down.
‘To whom it may concern-’ Olivia began.
‘Vincent, do not write down a fucking word,’ Brenda suddenly announced, and all heads swivelled to her. ‘Olivia, you do this, and you can kiss goodbye to my next book. I’ll take it elsewhere.AndI’ll be sure to make you the villain. Since you’re doing that yourself anyway.’ The support quite touched Harper.
Olivia arched an eyebrow at her. ‘Don’t you dare try to blackmail me! I built you from the ground up!’
Gina heaved a giant, tired sigh. ‘Can everyone please calm the fuck down? The melodrama is getting out of control. Olivia? I’m sorry. I never intended for any of this to happen, and I’m leaving now, OK? I’m the one that fucked up here. Whatever vengeance you want to pour down on me, I probably deserve it. But don’t undo what you’ve done here. This company is just getting back on its feet.’ She turned to the elevator and went to hit the call button. But before she could, the elevator - which by now had been around the building and come back again - opened to reveal the man with the wrinkled suit from downstairs. He looked at everyone. Everyone looked at him.
‘Umm, I just need to, err...’ he muttered.
‘Can we help you?’ Gina asked. Even under these circumstances, Harper was slightly amused that Gina had snapped into work mode when she had quit about fifteen minutes ago.
