Page 12 of One Day and Forever
‘Anyway, I was dancing with Casey and then she went off to the loo. She’d been a bit upset all night because Corbin was repeatedly hitting on her. He’d clearly had a few drinks and he was trying to dance with her, trying to persuade her to leave with him, or to go up to the roof terrace with him. I’d just like to point out that it was minus four degrees, which says something about his state of mind. Anyway, a few moments after Casey went to the loo, I decided to go too, and that’s when I saw her with Corbin in the corridor outside the toilets.’
‘They were talking?’
‘Hewas talking. She was trying to walk away, but he kept pulling her back. He was laughing as if that was amusing him.’
‘Pulling her back? How?’
Kara could still picture every detail. ‘She was wearing a chiffon shrug. He had a hold of the back of it and wouldn’t let go. And then when she did manage to pull free of him, he grabbed her wrist.’
Abigail Dunlop was writing all this down, while John Stoker just listened intently, wearing his very best poker face. Beside her, Tress was wide-eyed and engrossed.
‘And that’s when you stepped in?’
‘No. I stepped in when she told him to let go and he wouldn’t.’
‘Are you aware that Corbin Jacobs and Casey Lowden previously had a relationship?’
She should have expected that comment to come – as if it was some kind of excuse for his behaviour. Irritated, she went straight back with, ‘The whole world is aware. They did a six-page spread inOK! Magazine. But since he’s old enough to be her dad, it’s not too surprising that it was over very quickly.’ She knew she was straying into personal opinion again, but her friends, her sister, and 80 per cent of TikTok felt the same way. She got back to the facts. ‘But that still doesn’t give him a right to touch her, to grab her against her will, or to harass her.’
‘And what happened next?’ Abigail wasn’t letting up for a second.
Okay, she was just going to have to blurt this out because there was no way to sugarcoat it.
‘I told him to let her go. He told me to fuck off and mind my own business. Casey asked him again to take his hand off her wrist and she was getting really upset at this point. He didn’t. I told him he was a lecherous prick and he leaned right into my face and screamed at me, calling me a word I won’t repeat but it starts with a C and it came with so much venom that some ofhis spittle landed on my face. He still hadn’t let Casey go and I could see she was getting more and more upset. So I stamped on his foot while wearing the stilettoes I’d borrowed from my sister – who still doesn’t know about that detail, incidentally – then I heard his toes crunch and he screamed. But he also released her, so mission accomplished.’
‘So you attacked him?’ John Stoker clarified.
Kara shook her head. ‘No. I acted in self-defence in order to make him stop behaving in an aggressive way to both my friend and myself.’ She tried to say that with as much confidence as possible, but if this ever saw the inside of a courtroom, she wasn’t sure a jury would see it that way. That was a problem for another day.
‘At that point, Jeremy Hill appeared.’ He was the head of production on the show. ‘Corbin was demanding medical attention by this time, and ranting and raving… He told Mr Hill what I’d done, and we then had a very tense conversation, that boiled down to Mr Hill telling me that physical violence was a sackable offence.’
‘To which you replied?’ Abigail’s tone remained scarily blunt.
Kara’s face began to burn. ‘To which I replied…’ She stopped again, this time to raise a question. ‘Do you want me to use the actual words? I was highly infuriated at this point and my professionalism may have wavered.’
Beside her, Kara could see that Tress was biting her bottom lip, her expression a combination of dread and horror.
‘Yes. Exact words please.’
Oh, sweet Jesus. Kara took a deep breath.
‘I said that I wouldn’t want to work for a company that would employ a sleazy twat like Corbin Jacobs anyway, so I quit and he could shove his job. Effective immediately.’
There was a silence as they all processed the facts of that exchange. Kara wasn’t sure if she felt better or worse for retellingit. John Stoker was now whispering something to Abigail, his hand strategically placed so Kara couldn’t even get a sense of what he was saying.
Tress took advantage of the pause in proceedings to lean into her ear. ‘You’re a fricking rock star. You should have broken his other foot too.’
That made Kara feel slightly better until Abigail chimed in with, ‘Obviously we still have other people to speak to as part of our investigation, including Mr Jacobs, Mr Hill and Miss Lowden. But I do have one more question. Do you still stand by the position that you’re resigning your employment here, no matter the findings and consequences of our investigation?’
‘No!’her internal voice screamed.‘I’m skint, homeless, and living out of a suitcase and a bin bag!’
‘Yes,’ she said, holding her chin high again. She had integrity. Morals. Values. And a loan she’d taken out to go to LA to visit Ollie last summer, but she wasn’t going to worry about that right now. What mattered was that she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of firing her. ‘I won’t work here if Corbin Jacobs remains part of this studio.’
Another long pause and she knew what they were thinking. She was dispensable. The star of the show was not.
‘Then I thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be in touch to let you know the outcome of our investigation.’ Abigail didn’t even crack a smile to accompany her dismissive nod.
Taking the hint, Kara and Tress got up and made for the door. So that was that, then. Her career, her job that she loved, one that she was bloody good at, all gone because of one misogynistic, aggressive twat.
