Page 1 of All the Right Words
One
Gina Nash watched as a policewoman slapped a pair of cuffs on her boss with quite some interest. Crick, crick, crack, and he was arrested, easy as you please. ‘Gina, honey, would you close your mouth?’ the handcuffed man asked with impressive flippancy.
Gina hadn’t realised it had swung quite so far open, and she shut it promptly. She was glad to close her mouth if it meant she wouldn’t have to speak because she had no words. But what words would have been suitable for such an occasion? Maybe they made a greeting card to cover it. She could check Hallmark later to see if there was a ‘Sorry you were publicly arrested at your place of business!’ section.
Gina was sure these were the kind of jokes a shocked mind made. She supposed she’d find out later when she got over the surprise of watching her boss of six years being hauled off for reasons unknown. She’d missed that part of the arrest, coming in halfway with Michael’s mid-morning Americano from the coffee shop down the street. She was still holding it.
‘Bye, everyone! Back soon! Just got a few things to straighten out!’ Michael announced to an office of gobsmacked individuals who had drifted over to watch the show taking place on a Tuesday morning at ten past eleven at Parker Press, a mid-sized book publishing company. Among them was Olivia Noble. If anyone was due a big reaction, it was Olivia. She had been his protégé from the year dot.
She didn’t disappoint. ‘Michael, what thefuck?!’ she exclaimed.
‘Olivia, relax,’ he said with a shrug as if he’d only spilled ketchup down his tie. The stony-faced officers began to push him through the lobby. ‘Should I… Is there someone I should call?’ Olivia called to him. But he was already in the lift, and the doors were shutting. He was gone.
Olivia turned to Gina. ‘What the hell was that?!’ she asked.
‘No fucking idea. I just got here,’ Gina said, still holding the coffee like a god damn dolt.
Olivia took a deep breath. ‘OK, OK, OK.OK. Let’s just think a second.’
Gina was happy someone was taking charge of the situation and that it wasn’t her. Then again, why would it be? She was just an assistant and not even a particularly ambitious one.
‘We need to lock this down for a start. Everyone. Everyone!’ The murmuring stopped, and roughly forty staff members turned to Olivia. ‘I don’t know what’s happening, but I want to get all the information before any of this gets out. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. But Parker Press needs to stayafloat. No one says anything to anyone, do you understand? I’m being serious. I’ll track the rumour to its source like a bloodhound and sack you if this gets out. There’s a confidentiality clause in all your contracts that would empower me to do it.’
No one said anything for a long moment until Vincent, Olivia’s assistant, suddenly asked, ‘Oh. So I probably shouldn’t tweet about this?’ His phone was already in his hand.
Olivia glowered at him. ‘Did you do it yet?’
‘I hadn’t found the right hashtag, so I haven’t sent it yet. I was playing around with #Don’tDropTheSoapBoss.’
Olivia rolled her eyes. ‘First off, delete it. Second, bit homophobic.’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah, OK.’ He tapped his thumbs and then put the phone away. He giggled nervously. ‘Shit, I coulda got cancelled.’
Gina looked at her colleague with a head shake. ‘Vincent,Jesus.’
‘OK, so I will be taking Michael’s meetings today, and other than that, let’s just operate as usual, alright?’ Olivia said, pulling all eyes back onto her.
There was a slightly frightened murmur of assent. Olivia’s authority was respected.
Olivia turned to Gina. ‘Come on. Youcan get me up to speed.’
Gina didn’t question her. It made sense. Michael was the boss, and Olivia was his number two. The king was dead. Long live the queen.
They went into Michael’s office, the plushest in the building. It had a mustard mid-century couch - very Mad Men - and a big screen TV. Michael had always said it was to keep an eye on the Dow, but Gina had found him asleep watchingLoose Womenmore than once. Olivia leaned against his glossy rosewood desk. ‘Was that for Michael?’ she asked, nodding at the coffee that Gina was still holding.
‘Oh. Yeah,’ Gina said.
‘He takes it black, right?’ Olivia said, taking the coffee from her and having a deep drink. ‘I wish I had whisky to put in this thing. Jesus, did youseethat shit show?’
‘Half of it. But I didn’t get any details.’ It was a bit odd talking to Olivia in this conspiratorial fashion. Gina and Olivia didn’t know each other well. Gina was only a conduit to set up meetings between her and Michael. But perhaps this was life in the trenches. Alliances had to be forged quickly out of need.
‘Me too. I was on a conference call with New York. I had to put the phone down on them when I saw the uniforms. I’m going to have to apologise… Anyway. Any meetings today?
‘Actually, Brenda Kildare is due in about half an hour,’ Gina told her.
Olivia’s eyes bulged. ‘My god, can you imagine if she’d been here… OK. I can take the meeting. It’s about her contract?’
Gina nodded. ‘Yes. You know her, right?’ Gina asked. She was asking that because she was about to say some unkind things, and she needed to gauge how they would be taken.
