Page 30 of The Dicktionary Club

I lowered my head.Why the fuck did I say I’d help Katy when I knew how much work I still had to do?

‘Yes,’ I responded quietly.

‘But,’ Katy interjected, ‘Ella killed two birds with one stone – didn’t you, Ella?’ She was nodding her head towards me, encouraging me to join in. ‘Ella only came along this morning because she had already arranged a meeting with Philip Khan at the same gym. She spoke to him about the exhibition, and he’s really interested in hosting it in one of his hotels. Tell them, Ella.’ Katy nudged me forward as I tried desperately to hide the look of confusion on my face.

‘Yeah, uh-huh, he seemed pretty enthusiastic, I guess,’ I added.

‘Philip Khan?’ Andrea sounded more positive, more inquisitive all of a sudden. ‘And you met with him personally?’

‘I sure did,’ I said, forcing some energy into my voice.

‘And? What was the outcome?’

‘Well, I have to .?.?.’ My mind was going blank.Speak, Ella, fucking speak!!

‘She has to arrange a follow-up meeting, to get more in-depth details pinned down about the proposal. But he seemedverykeen,’ Katy lied through her teeth.

Andrea began pacing the floor again. ‘I like the idea. We’ve never worked with Khan before; he normally has his own PR team.’ She began speaking more quietly, almost as if to herself. ‘But if we could get Philip on board with this, then maybe he’ll hire us in future.’ Andrea snapped out of her demonic world-domination trance. ‘Have the deal wrapped up by the end of the week. Alexander’s team needs dates and times for tickets to be released. I’m fed up with that little Italian man filling my inbox.’

I smiled enthusiastically. ‘Sure, I was planning on it.’

‘OK, back to work, everyone.’ Andrea began strutting back to her office but stopped, turning to me. ‘And Ella?’

I felt my neck stiffen. ‘Yeah?’

‘Arrange the meeting with Philip here. I would love to meet him.’ She smirked, then retreated.

I turned to Katy, feeling clammy.

‘How do we fix this?’ I hissed under my breath. ‘Fix this!’

She looked as terrified as me, holding her hand to her mouth in shock. ‘Honestly, I have no idea.’

I felt dizzy and agitated, like my life was spiralling. How had I gotten into this mess? I stumbled over to my seat and flopped down.

‘Good work, Ella. You never told me you had a meeting today as well.’ Zola looked up at me, impressed, as she sat at her desk.

‘I fucking didn’t,’ I murmured.

‘What?’ She grunted, holding her hand to her face; I wasn’t sure if she was genuinely shocked or hiding a nervous laugh.

‘I’m sorry, Ella,’ Katy said, looking really worried now. ‘I had to do damage control. I was trying to save you from being sacked!’

‘Wait, what?’ Zola flung her hands up in the air, utterly confused.

I allowed Katy to divulge the entire story of my chance encounter with Scotland’s biggest entrepreneur of the past ten fucking years, Mr Philip Khan. She started from the beginning and then explained everything from the new Dicktionary Club members to the content we captured in the gym to our brief discussion with Khan. Zola sank back in her chair, flabbergasted.

‘OK, so .?.?.’ Zola finally said after being stuck in thought for a few minutes. ‘I think the only way out of this is to contact Philip Khan directly?’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Yeah, he’s only one of the busiest men in the country, apparently. I’ll just call him now, eh? Oh, wait, I don’t have a phone number!’ I spat back.

Katy hummed. ‘Wait, wait! What did he say again?’ She sat up excitedly. ‘The woman at House of Fitness, he said you should contact her. Can we start there?’

I threw my head back; my whole body felt pained with dread. ‘Well, I suppose it’s something,’ I said, clicking on my computer and googling the number, then dialling the gym without really thinking what I was doing.

As the phone rang in my ear, I could feel the handset shake.

This was a long shot, and even I knew it.

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