Page 39 of Fling

‘You don’t mind if I sit in, do you?’ she said, emitting a charismatic aura the Lads had never seen before.

Tommy, Mark and Rob looked at her in complete and utter shock. She knew by their faces alone that she had already proved the point she was trying to make: Tara was not a Mary.

‘Tara . . . we’ve already started. I’m afraid you’re a little late,’ Tommy said, trying to exclude her.

‘Am I?’ she said. ‘Or did you boys just come early?’

At the back of the boardroom, Tara heard a quiet laugh from Richard Mulligan. He looked different than Tara had imagined. He was older than his voice had portrayed, maybe around forty-five. He was exceptionally well groomed but he had one of the worst receding hairlines Tara had ever seen, undermining his attractiveness. And his was definitely a face for radio.

Tara sat down on the opposite side of the desk to the Lads. She had every right to be there – and Tommy was still on the first slide of his presentation. ‘Shall we?’ she said, signalling him to continue.

Tommy began with a slideshow presentation of their proposed marketing strategy. As usual, Tara hadn’t been consulted on any aspects of their pitch so she had no idea what was coming. It was typical of the Lads to exclude her when products were considered masculine.

‘Well, Tara, we were just congratulating Mr Mulligan on his impressive launch,’ Tommy continued. ‘I don’t think there’s a person in the country who hasn’t at least heard of Fling by now.’

‘Thank you,’ Richard said, his face not showing any emotion.

‘Although just some feedback, Mr Mulligan, if I may?’ Rob said out of nowhere. ‘I joined Fling to . . . analyse the customer experience . . . but I discovered a glitch within the app.’

‘My tech team eradicated all glitches in beta testing,’ Richard said confidently.

‘Well, they must have missed one because when I joined, I didn’t get any matches. Not a single one,’ Rob said with an awkward laugh.

‘That sounds like a “you” problem, not a “tech” problem,’ Richard said, silencing him.

Tara laughed to herself and noticed Richard smirking when he saw her reaction.

‘As I was saying,’ Tommy said, giving Rob a dirty look, ‘you’ve certainly hit the ground running . . . but we think it’s just the beginning for Fling. That’s why we’ve put together a marketing strategy and advertising campaign that is going to take your app to the next level.’

Tommy clicked to the next slide to reveal an image of a scantily clad woman against a dark background. She was holding one finger against her red lips as if she was telling the viewer to keep a secret. Tara rolled her eyes at the image’s lack of originality.

‘This game-changing marketing campaign will be targeting married people exclusively, to ensure you get the most bang for your buck. The sexually suggestive images we’ll be using will arouse a very physical response for the target market and communicate the idea of temptation. We all know that sex sells, and that’s how we get them to click the ad and download the app. It’s not enough to think outside the box, we need to think outside the cube.’

Tara cringed. Another one of Tommy’s catchphrases that didn’t mean anything. And using sex to sell to men wasn’t thinking outside the box, let alone the cube. Tommy continued through his slideshow for what felt like a lifetime. The campaign was a tasteless, tacky attempt to arouse men enough to want to cheat. Tommy eventually wrapped up with his proposed slogan. ‘You have the wife . . . now all you need is a mistress,’ he said, genuinely proud of his work.

Rob and Mark began to applaud Tommy when he had finished. She wasn’t surprised. They were the type of people who clap when a plane lands: any excuse to make noise. But once they had stopped, a sudden silence came over the room. Everyone looked towards Richard Mulligan as he leaned back in his chair.

‘No,’ he said nonchalantly.

‘I’m sorry?’ Tommy said, certain he had misheard.

‘I hate it,’ Richard said unapologetically.

‘Mr Mulligan, we can tweak any aspect of the pitch that you’d like,’ Tommy responded, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

‘No, I think I’d better get going. Unless . . . you have anything better to add?’ Richard asked, turning to Tara.

All eyes were suddenly on her. She was their colleague and she didn’t want to insult their proposal. But she had been asked a direct question and she needed to answer. She considered saying as little as she could to end the meeting quickly, but something told her to speak her mind. She had been a little too quiet for a little too long.

Tara had downloaded Fling and got a 100 per cent match. If anyone knew how to pitch it, it was her. Anyway, the Lads had already lost the account, so she had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Under normal circumstances, Tara would never have felt confident enough to pitch an idea completely on the fly. But she reminded herself that she had given Tara the day off.

It was Claire’s time to shine.

‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ Tara said, standing up.

Tommy almost choked on the sip of water he’d just taken. Richard Mulligan leaned back in his chair once again. The spotlight was on her.

It was time to reel in a big fish and prove she was still on the top of her game.

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