The Cinderella Reflex (30 page)

“Crystal!” a sneering voice came from behind them.

Tess looked back to see Ollie had arrived. He looked dishevelled, hung-over and in the mood for a fight.

“Not now, Ollie!” Jack snapped and turned to go.

“Er … excuse me?” Sara said.

“
Yes?
” He turned back impatiently.

“So who’s got
It’s My Show
?” Sara beamed.

Jack glanced at Paulina who shook her head almost imperceptibly at him before announcing tersely. “Everyone will know by close of business today.”

Tess continued staring at her notebook. She didn’t want to look at Ollie who, from the sound of it, seemed to be throwing things around his desk. And she certainly didn’t want to look at Jack McCabe.

“Tess? Can I see you in Helene’s office, please?
Now
.” Jack’s voice cracked through the air.

Something inside Tess shifted at that. She was fed up being treated like a doormat. It was bad enough that there were embarrassing pictures of her splashed across the newspaper. If Jack McCabe thought she was going to meekly take a tongue-lashing from him and his lapdog, Paulina, over it then he was very much mistaken.

“Sure,” she said. “Lead the way.” It wasn’t as if anyone had
died
,she thought resentfully, snatching her notebook and biro off her desk.

Inside Helene’s office she sat opposite a stony-faced Jack.

His eyes flickered towards Paulina. “I can handle this myself,” he said.

“Oh?” For a moment, Paulina looked as if she was about to argue, but then she thought the better of it. As she swept past Tess, she threw her a look of intense dislike.

Tess heard the door close with a tiny click. It was the signal she needed.

“Before you say anything,” she held Jack’s gaze across the desk, “I don’t appreciate being spoken to out there as if I were a two-year-old. What happened last night was an
accident.
You know – an incident that is outside of our control? Even you must have had at least one in your life.”

Jack drummed his fingers on the desk. “Were you drunk last night?”

“No, I wasn’t.” Tess folded her hands in her lap. “But if I was, what about it? It was a party.”

“It was a work function! You ended up on the floor on top of our most well-known presenter, for fuck’s sake! Which is now splashed across the newspapers. How do you think that looks for Atlantic 1FM?”

“You’ll have to ask Paulina the answer to that one. She’s the PR Goddess. I could tell you how it
feels
, though. Not that you’d be interested in anything that’s not directly related to your precious business. But it was a bit of a nightmare, actually.”

Jack sighed. “What happened?”

“What happened – which you would know already if you’d bothered to ask anyone who actually saw it – was that I was trying to help Ollie to get to his feet when an accidental push from Chris made me fall over. Olly and Chris had had an altercation and I was trying to contain the situation. More fool me!”

“Ah yes. Chris Conroy.” Jack shifted in his chair. “How long have you two been an item?”

Tess raised her eyebrows. “I thought this was a business meeting?”

“It’s a business question. It must have been difficult competing with him for
It’s My Show
.”

Tess flinched. So it was confirmed then. Chris had been in for the contest all along. How had she not spotted it? “I didn’t know he was in for the contest until last night,” she said slowly.

“Come on!” Jack raised his eyebrows. “Next you’ll be telling me you didn’t know he has a fiancée either!”

A fiancée? Tess looked at him stupidly. She searched his face, convinced he was making it up, that it was another of his weird mind games. Another test, this time to see how employees react under pressure, maybe? But the look in his eyes told her otherwise. What sort of idiot would she look like now if she admitted that she didn’t know that either?

She took a deep breath. “Actually, I did know.”

“Really?” Jack sounded surprised. “Well, I have to say I’m disappointed, Tess. I didn’t think you were the type who would try to steal someone else’s boyfriend.”

“Chris is not a possession. Somebody doesn’t
own
him.” Tess was trying hard to cover up her shock, desperate to preserve the tiny bit of pride she had left.

Jack laughed. “The same old justifications. Richard Armstrong’s mistress undoubtedly trots that one out as well.” He stared into space for a few seconds. “Louisa has stood by that bastard and still he breaks her heart.” He looked at Tess with ill-disguised disgust. “If people would only think about others before they go all out for what they want.”

“Like buying a radio station as a toy for yourself and pitting all the staff there against each other in a stupid contest?” Tess countered. “It’s been nothing but back-stabbing since you showed up. I’ve lost the only friend I had here in the process.” Thinking about Andrea fuelled her anger further.

“Ah, the contest,” Jack said heavily. “That does seem to have caused more trouble than it was worth. What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

His phone bleeped. He picked it up, squinting at the screen. His face darkened as he read the new text message. He placed the phone down again, his fingers tapping impatiently on the table, his mouth set in a grim line.

“Louisa thinks she’s just discovered who Richard’s mistress might be. Helene Harper.” He looked at Tess. “Is it?”

Tess bit her lip.

“I asked you in the restaurant and you said then you didn’t know,” he said.

“I didn’t know! And I don’t know now either. Not for sure.” He stared at her so hard that she felt obliged to offer him more. “Helene was – is – my boss, not my friend. She never confided in me.”

“So, who does she confide in?” He was drumming his fingertips again, his voice ominously low.

“I don’t know!” Tess felt uncomfortable as she thought of Rosa suggesting to Helene that she might be pregnant. “I don’t think it’s any of my business,” she said finally.

His face twisted. “You know, you’re right. And what you do in your personal life is none of mine.”

Tess offered an olive branch. “Look, I am sorry the station got the wrong sort of publicity. But as I’ve tried to explain, it was accidental.”

Jack clicked and unclicked his pen into the silence.

Tess felt unnerved in the distinctly chilly atmosphere. “So, if there’s nothing else?”

He looked at her appraisingly, as if he was trying to make up his mind about something. “No, that’s it,” he said finally.

Tess scraped back her chair, stood up and left without a backward glance.

She felt shaky after the altercation and badly wanted to go and have a cup of tea to calm herself down. Then her mobile started to ring. She fished it out of her pocket and stared at the name flashing in the glass panel.
Chris.
She felt sick when she thought of what she had just learned about him.

“Chris. How are you?” She forced herself to sound pleased to hear from him.

“Tess! Have you seen the
Killty Times
?”

“Not yet,” Tess lied. “Er … how bad is it?”

“There’s a picture of you and Ollie Andrews and … well, it’s pretty bad, actually. How come you haven’t seen it yet?”

“Oh, I heard about it, but I can’t bear to look at it. Maybe,” Tess had a brainwave, “we could meet up and we can look at it together?”

“Oh! Okay so.” Chris sounded reluctant. “Look, I’m near Killty today on a bit of business. I can meet you now if you like? I have … er … something to tell you.”

Don’t bother
, Tess felt like screamingat him,
I already know.
But some masochistic part of her wanted to see how he would handle the situation.

“I can meet you later, after the show,” she said. “Say the Travel Café at lunch?”

“Em …” Chris began but Tess closed down her mobile.

For the rest of the morning she forced herself to concentrate on work but, as soon as she left the radio-station building, she could feel the fury rising up in her.

She broke into a power-walk down the coast road, each stride bringing her closer to the showdown.

She could still hardly believe Chris was engaged. There had been no trace of a woman in his ultra-masculine apartment. Come to think of it, her own bits and pieces were still there, actually – that hideous business suit he’d talked her into buying. Business-like but sexy, indeed! And her to-die-for reunion dress. How had he explained those to his fiancée?

On the other hand, it made sense of some of the things she’d found so confusing. How Chris knew so much about women’s fashion, for instance. How he was on first-name terms with celebrity hairdresser Mr Cheung when he had so little hair himself.

By the time Tess arrived at the café, she had worked herself into such a state that she had to stand outside for a few minutes, taking deep, slow breaths to try and calm herself down. It had started to rain and the café window was fogged with condensation. She rubbed out a patch of visibility with the sleeve of her jacket and spotted Chris, nursing a coffee and reading the newspaper. Reluctantly, Tess pushed open the door.

“Hi.” She slipped into the chair opposite him and nodded towards the photograph of her and Ollie that he was scrutinising. “On a scale of one to ten, how bad would you say it is?”

Chris slid the newspaper across the table to her. “Nine?”

Tess pretended to study it for a few seconds. “You know, I’ve never seen Ollie so drunk. I suppose the news that the gig was going to an outsider made him feel threatened.”

“Right.” Chris coughed and gestured for the waiter to take Tess’s order.

“Just coffee, please.” Tess smiled before turning her attention back to Chris. She reached out and grasped his hand. “You seem a bit edgy this morning. Anything wrong? Apart from the fact that your girlfriend made a show of herself last night, of course.”

He snatched away his hand and ran it through his hair. “No – there’s nothing wrong. It’s just I feel sorry for you with this splashed all over the newspapers, that’s all.”

“So what did you want to tell me?”

“Em … it’s true that I went in for the
It’s My Show
contest myself. And before you say anything – I would have told you if you’d ever asked me!”

Tess laughed out loud at his cheek. “But why would I? It never occurred to me – or to anyone else at the station. So why were you so keen on coaching me to get the gig?”

“I was coaching you to get the agony-aunt slot back,” Chris corrected her. “I always said your own show would be a bit of a stretch for you.”

That was true enough, Tess had to admit. He had. “
You can’t go from hero to zero overnight, Tess.
”Another of his patronising mottos.

“You used me,” Tess said quietly. “You wanted me to get my job back so I could get you inside information about Atlantic 1FM.”

“Yeah, well, that didn’t work very well, did it?” Chris grumbled. “I found out more myself in the end.”

“Quite the intrepid investigator, aren’t we?”

“Look, I heard a rumour months back that Jack McCabe might be taking over Atlantic 1FM. Everyone knows how he’s made a success of everything he’s turned his hand to, so I figured he would definitely get a national licence. I started to listen to the station day and night, trying to figure out how to get a gig for myself.” He looked hard at Tess. “That’s how I found out that you worked there. I heard your name credit as a producer on
This Morning with Ollie Andrews.
Er …” he looked a bit shamefaced, “that’s why I organised the reunion. So I could meet you again.”

Tess exhaled. “That’s a very elaborate plan.”

“Don’t make it sound as if it’s the crime of the century.” Chris went on the attack. “It’s the business we’re in. You have to do stuff to thrive in it. But then you wouldn’t know that – traipsing around the world for the last ten years like some hippy. Some of us have to work
hard
for a living!”

Tess sipped her coffee in silence.

“And was what I did really so bad, if you really think about it? It was of benefit to both of us. Look at you now. Your hair, your make-up. You look like a different person to that dowdy girl I met at the reunion!”

“
Woman
, Chris, not girl,” Tess hissed. “And as it happens, I don’t think there was so much wrong with me in the first place that I had to be transformed into a completely new person!”

“Well, that’s debatable,” Chris said huffily. “Anyhow, I’m surprised you’re taking all of this so personally. You need to toughen up. If I was to tell you all the things I’ve done to further my career over the last few years …”

“Oh, I can guess. Like portraying yourself as free and single when you’re actually engaged,” Tess said quietly.

Chris’s nostrils flared. “Who told you about Penelope?”

“Jack McCabe told me, earlier today. So then I knew it had to be true.” Tess gave a short laugh.

“You were talking to Jack today? Did he say who got the gig?” Chris asked quickly.

Tess looked at him in astonishment. “What sort of person cheats on their fiancée to get inside information about a
job
,Chris?” she exploded. But she knew there was no satisfactory answer to that. Chris was a cheater, end of. He’d cheated on her ten years ago, he’d cheated on his fiancé with her, and he’d probably cheated on every other woman he’d been with in between. It was in his DNA.

“Penelope lives in Spain part of the year and we don’t get to see each other often enough. So when you came on to me in the hotel room that night you were hard to resist.”

Tess flushed at the memory and his face softened.

“Look, I should have told you – I’m sorry. I intended to – but then Penelope flew back unexpectedly for a week and I got caught up with that. I had to get rid of your stuff by the way. Sorry.”

He didn’t look in the least bit contrite. Tess pulled out her purse and placed some money on the table to cover her coffee.

“Goodbye, Chris,” she said quietly.

But he seemed to have forgotten that Tess was in the same room, let alone at the same table. He was staring at his phone, a strange expression on his face. She stood up and walked towards the door.