Page 2 of Here Comes Trouble
The question made Jess uneasy. ‘What does that have to do with anything?’
‘You’re what? Twenty-five? You take life too seriously. You should be out, having wild sex and falling in love at your age. Widening your experiences.’
‘Sex is overrated,’ Jess muttered, thinking back to the awkward sexual experiences she’d had up till this point. She didn’t get what all the fuss was about. It was uncomfortable and messy, and she was usually glad when it was all over if she was totally honest. Neither of the guys she’d slept with had rocked her world, but at the time she’d thought she ought to go with it, just to see what she was supposedly missing out on.
It turned out she wasn’t missing much at all.
There was a knock on the partition behind her and Jess turned to see Pamela’s assistant standing there with a slip of paper clutched in her hand.
‘Sorry to interrupt, but Maggie just phoned. She’s stuck in Greece because of an Air Traffic Controllers strike and can’t make it back for her assignment today. She sounded pretty fed-up because apparently, she’d managed to snag an interview with Xander Heaton, that bad boy artist everyone’s so crazy about.’
Pamela sighed. ‘Can’t she reschedule? I really need that piece in the next issue. Xander was going to be the linchpin of the article.’
‘Apparently not. He’s refusing to change the date because he’s about to start working on a new exhibition. He’ll be at his studio in Old Street today, but he’s off to Italy tonight and he never gives any press interviews while he’s working. Something about killing his muse.’ She rolled her eyes.
‘Yeah, okay.’ Pamela sighed, flapping a hand in a tired manner. ‘Can Marnie go?’ she asked, clearly not that hopeful for an affirmative answer.
‘She’s off with the flu. Nearly half the office has called in sick this week.’
‘I can cover it,’ Jess said a little too loudly, her heart racing as a sudden shot of adrenaline fired round her body. If she didn’t grab this opportunity quickly, one of the other junior writers would and she really needed to show Pamela some of that spark she was so keen to see.
‘I don’t know, Jess,’ Pamela flipped her a look of deep scepticism.
‘Please, Pam, give me another chance to show you how I can make my writing sizzle.’ Jess leant forwards in her chair, clasping her hands together in a prayer of hope. ‘It would be such a shame to miss out on the opportunity of interviewing him while he’s in the country.’
‘You think you’re up to handling someone like Xander Heaton do you?’
Jess sat up straighter, pulled taught by a thread of hope. ‘Of course I am. How difficult can he be?’
She could have sworn she saw an amused smirk flit across Pamela’s face.
‘Okay then,’ Pamela said, finally. ‘If he’s working with a model, make sure you talk to her too if you get the opportunity – see if you can get something interesting: what he’s like to work with, whether she’s sleeping with him, why he picked her as his model, anything to give the piece an edge. Try and get a sense of who he is, any personal details you can draw out of him. He’s got himself a reputation as a real playboy over the last year – he’s turned up to pretty much every high-profile party going and caused a scene at all of them – so see if you can get some gossip about what happened there. Oh, and try and find out why he hasn’t produced anything of note recently too. His last exhibition was a real critical flop so that might have something to do with it. And most importantly, find out what he’s planning to do for his next project.’
Jess was nodding so much her neck was starting to ache. ‘Okay, got it. No problem.’ She stood up and smiled at Pamela. ‘Thank you, for giving me another chance.’
Pamela raised a severely plucked eyebrow. ‘Don’t waste this opportunity, Jess. If you want to keep your job on this magazine, you’re going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag.’
* * *
Pamela’s words rang in Jess’s ears as she took the tube over to Old Street.
She made copious notes on the way, determined to remember everything her boss had asked for.
The train had just passed Moorgate station when it slowed down to a crawl, then stopped, mid-journey.
The driver’s voice came over the tannoy to let the passengers know there was an electrical fault with the train, but they were hoping to get it sorted out in a few minutes.
Jess looked about her wildly, she was already running late to hit the allotted time for her interview with Xander and she didn’t want to turn up there flustered and on the back foot. She wanted him to be impressed with her cool professionalism and trust her enough to spill the sort of information she needed to make her piece stand out from the ones he’d done in the past.
She’d seen pictures of him in the press – at parties with the great and good of London society, usually with some eminently beautiful woman hanging off his arm – and she knew in her bones he was going to be a challenge. If she was going to win him over, she couldn’t allow herself to be daunted by that famous bad boy charisma and overabundance of sexual confidence.
He was exactly the sort of man she usually avoided in real life. The type who flitted from woman to woman like a moth in a lighting shop. In fact, he represented the antithesis of what she was looking for in a partner. She needed steady and safe. Comfortable. A relationship she could feel in control of.
A nervous shiver tickled down her spine at the thought of facing him, but she shook it off. She was not going to let his challenging reputation get to her. She was a smart, savvy, professional woman and that’s exactly what he was going to see – when she finally arrived there.
She sat for another fifteen minutes, tapping her feet and biting at a ragged fingernail until the train finally began its excruciatingly slow roll into Old Street station.
She was now officially late for her interview.
