Skinny Dipping (21 page)

He opened a bleary eye. “Matt?” He shut his eyes. “Am I already saddled with a new nickname? What happened to Mr. Swimming Coach? Taskmaster? And Miss Smart, how are you today?”

“You’ve got to get up.”

“Little Miss Persistent.” He rolled over. “That’s what I’ll call you.”

“Oh, I don’t like that.” But it was better than Miss Fun-Time. Thank God he’s forgotten about that nickname.

“Miss Pest.” He began to laugh. God, he was still drunk.

“Nope.” She bit her lip, refrained from seeing the humour in his responses, or she’d never get him out of there.

“Oh, right. You preferred Miss Mermaid. Pardon me, I forgot.”

“My Dad’s going to be here any minute. You need to get up and go.”

“What is the time now? I’ll call a car, a taxi, how about the one that almost killed me that night?” He laughed.

“Or you could walk to the
Highbury Aquatic Centre
; Carol will take you.” She offered a solution. She was a solutions type of girl.

“Now there is a possibility.”

“Here, have something for the headache.” She handed him a tablet and a glass of water, and he took them both, groaning. “How about I help you stand up. My Dad really is going to be here soon.”

“Oh God.” He sat up, held onto the coffee table. “Am I going to puke?”

“If you need to puke, just let me know.” Her voice was filled with mock seriousness. What was she going to do if he vomited all over the floor? Were there any other windows to let in fresh air?

“I’ve met your Dad. He’s cool. Maybe I should just stay, we could chat a bit. I could talk to him, really get to know him.” Matthew collapsed down back on the floor, closed his eyes.

“No. He’ll think….”

Matthew opened his eyes. “Would that be so bad? After all, you were trying to get into my jeans all night.”

Sophie couldn’t help but laugh. Then stopped, adopting a serious expression. “Dad would get the wrong idea about me and you. He’d think there was more to us, considering….”

“Considering….”

“I work for you. He’d think I was sleeping around to get a promotion and the fact is, we’re. We’re. Um...” She stopped. What exactly were they? Client and consultant? Swimming coach and water freak?

“We’re what?” He persisted, his eyes settling on hers.

“Um…”

“Going to the theatre together?” A dimple formed on the side of his cheek. “Whatever that makes us, but you asked me.” He pointed at her. “That means you want me to come, and maybe you might even like my company and might stop hating me because of all the swimming lessons.”

How did she answer a question like this? “Yes,” she said slowly. “So, I guess we’re friends?” she said, carefully. “Yes, just friends; that settles it, doesn’t it? And now you’ve got to go.” She was beginning to panic, this wasn’t the time to get into a deep conversation.

“Yeah, yeah.” He nodded, closed his eyes. “It’s hard being Daddy’s little girl, isn’t it? Got to keep up appearances. Must get tiring.”

“You need to get up.” She reached for his hand and the door buzzer rang.

“Get up quick,” Sophie said, grabbing his arm, as muscular as he was, his body seemed to floppy like a rag doll. He stood up, barely able to take a step. Why was he the only one still plastered?

“It’s got to be Dad.”

Carol was staring at them from the hallway with a look of deep concern. “What are you going to do with him?”

“I’ll put him in my room, while you answer the door.”

Carol raised her eyebrows. “All right.”

“Matthew, upstairs,” Sophie instructed with a serious tone.

“I’ve met him before. It will be fine. Remember, at the pool?”

“No. No. No. It won’t be fine.” She grabbed Matthew’s hand, then practically dragged him up the stairs, down the corridor, to her doorway. “Well this is my room.” She pushed the door open.

“Well I’ve been waiting for this invitation, you left it so long.” He was swaying slightly on the spot. “So do you really consider us friends?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Holy crap,” he said, freezing at the doorway, his eyes darting around wildly.

“Get in,” she hissed.

“How?” His eyes were round, looking at the boxes everywhere.

She poked her head. “Shimmy.”

“Shimmy?”

“Yeah, shimmy, they’re just boxes. Hide under the covers.”

Doubt flickered across his face. “Is it safe?”

“Yes.”

“You really haven’t moved in yet, have you?” He looked concerned. “Are we still on for Saturday?” How did he remember that, considering how drunk he was – how drunk he still seemed to be – how did he remember the move on Saturday?

“Just get in.” He slid past the boxes, toward the bedcover and into her bed.

“Your bed is quite comfortable.”

She was intrigued by his thought processes. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for going out last night. It was fun.”

“Saturday, I’ll meet you here.” He mumbled from under the covers.

She swallowed. “Sure.” She slammed the door, and raced down the stairs.

Carol had let her father inside, and as Sophie directed her father to the kitchen she saw something from the corner of her eye.

Matthew. Feck. He’d gotten out of her bed, the safe spot where she’d left him. He stood in the hallway, slightly swaying on the spot. He was watching her curiously, dimples in both cheeks. He put his fist to his face making the shape of a phone. He mouthed.

“I’ll call you.” Then he stumbled away out of sight. When she heard the outer door click softly, Sophie finally released the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.

Chapter 16

The next day at work Sophie was anxious. She held one thought on the meeting taking place in front of her as Bradley lectured everyone and paraded around the boardroom like a peacock.

The other thought was on the flurry of emails being sent to her smart phone from Mickey. The Saturday move was on. Sophie had lost control and there was simply nothing she could do about it.

Sophie furiously typed a message back to Mickey – to stop the insanity. Would that be possibly without looking too desperate to Derek? Surely everyone could see that if she moved her last remaining items from
their
place, it was all over.

“Sophie?” she heard a voice filter through her thoughts. She pushed it aside.

Derek wasn’t the type of guy who simply met a girl like long legged Georgina and just fell in love with her. Especially when he was supposed to have loved Sophie? Love just didn’t evaporate. Not in a heartbeat. Not when he fought
for
her, basically so they could spend more time together. That’s why he’d given her the ultimatum, wasn’t it? Quit the job so she can spend more time with him. That was the underlying reason why she’d moved out, wasn’t it? Because the love they had together was so great and he thought he was second best to her work.

“Sophie?” the voice was sharper.

Another thought stilled her, if he really loved her then why did Georgina exist in his life at all? Could she possibly be an overlap? She sure seemed to be. And why didn’t he try and work it out? People do reconcile. It wasn’t an uncommon practice for couples to breakup and get back together. The couple then lives happily ever after. Separation was good for the soul. Her finger froze on the button. He hadn’t so much as called her and it had been months.

“Sophie?”

“Hmmmm,” she said. She wouldn’t send the message. Maybe, just maybe, everyone was right. The fact that he didn’t fight for her. The fact that Georgina existed. Maybe Derek was a douche bag?

“Sophie! Attention to Sophie,” Bradley barked. She looked up and caught his steely gaze. “What’s happening, the Silver Account?” Bradley’s face was almost the color of a blueberry.

“Sorry,” she said, briskly. “I just got an important email.”

“And?” Bradley asked in a stiff voice.

“Matthew Silver loves the Skinny Dipping idea. He loves it, just like you do,” she started.

“I need a progress report, I’ve seen a lot of time charged to client codes and can’t have it spiraling out of control.” Bradley looked round the boardroom, he was livid.

“Of course there’s still quite a lot for us all to do, the location for the commercial has to be found and permits sought. That will take time. But not too much time.”

“The auditions are scheduled for this afternoon,” Jessica interjected. Bradley shot Jessica an odd look and frowned at Sophie.

“Thanks Jessica for helping on this account,” he said and visibly sighed. “I’m not sure if you’re all heard but Kelly sealed a new deal. Joey’s Crisps, signed for the entire chip range. The team has done a fabulous effort. Well done, Kelly.” The rest of the management team joined Bradley in applause. Sophie shifted in her chair barely able to concentrate.

Kelly winked at Sophie and a smug smile spread over her face. “The client really likes me, I knew they would. Bradley and I are taking them out to dinner tonight to celebrate.”

“Yes, we are going out to dinner tonight.” Bradley looked ecstatic, then his face set back into a frown. “Sophie, what about your other clients? You don’t just work on the Silver Account. How is your business development going? What’s the progress on Barney’s?”

“I spoke to Tom Johnson, we’ve got a date to pitch; we’ve also been working on some back up ideas, just in case.”

Bradley’s eyes went black. Expressionless. “Just a pitch. Isn’t that the same as before?”

She was feeling urgent. “Yes, he was always interested, but we have a slot now.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“Will you win it?”

She swallowed. “We can only try.”

Bradley shook his head. “I don’t pay you to try, I pay you to win.”

***

Sophie located her team gathered round the water cooler. Desmond, a coffee in his hand was huddled next to Flora and Harry. Sophie approached, hearing the words “redundancy payout”.

“Morning, are we all going to discuss Barney’s sometime this morning?” She glanced at her watch. “We’re already ten minutes late from the time in our diary.”

“What’s the point? Bradley keeps threatening our jobs. How long are we all going to stay here?”

Sophie shrugged. “Tom Johnson from Barney’s wants us. That’s all of you.” She smiled brightly. “Tom was at the gala, we had quite an in-depth chat about what he wants as part of the Barney’s pitch.”

“Look Sophie,” Harry drawled. “Haven’t we’ve already done all this work, worked this pitch out. How long is this going to go on for? Isn’t there one step left?”

“What step would that be?”

“For you to sell it?” Harry groaned.

“Well he’s coming in to this office for us to sell it.”

“Why should we bother doing more work on this? You know as much as we know about the limited resources,” Flora interjected. “We’ve got to prioritise. Can’t we just run with the idea we have?”

“Yes, the resource issues are concerning,” Sophie admitted. “Impressing Tom Johnson will help secure our positions. It’s a two million pound win.”

She called the team over to the white board, which was now clean and available.

“What are we going to do if Tom Johnson hates our idea? Seriously Sophie,” Desmond said.

“Lose the campaign,” Flora said dryly.

“No,” Sophie shook her head. “Our idea is excellent, and Tom Johnson’s already excited to see what we’ve got. He told me that at the gala – we’re the front runner, the favourite, I believe. But clients are fickle. I want two fully fleshed-out alternatives in our back pocket, just in case. Barney’s is worth two million pounds in fees. Let’s be ultra prepared.”

“Really Soph, will it really help? In the scheme of things,
Clarks
is nearly on the bread line,” Desmond said. “I doubt the firm is even going to stay afloat.”

Sophie frowned, she had no idea. “It can’t hurt to try and win. Let’s focus. Ideas. Barney’s chocolate, throw them around.” She picked up a whiteboard pen.

Bradley’s door crashed opened stirring the team like a molten ash cloud. Ideas suddenly flew through the air, people yelled over each other in panicky voices almost too fast for Sophie to write them all down. Everyone hoped Bradley might notice their contributions.

He swaggered to the whiteboard and a silence descended around the group.

“Hello,” he said, speaking in his rich voice. Kelly stood beside him.
Interesting.

“We’re just brainstorming a few back up ideas for the Barney’s pitch now,” Sophie said. “We want a few things in our back pocket to be ultra prepared.”

“Kelly’s also a Junior Executive, the same level as you, Sophie,” Bradley commented.

Everyone stared at Kelly, and Sophie knew exactly what they were thinking. Kelly recently won the latest client, but she worked with a different team.

Before self doubt dared to settle on her shoulders, she continued. “I’ll start,” Sophie smiled. “Barney the bear is the mascot–”

Kelly interrupted. “My team’s process is quite different. I always go into a pitch with a winning idea, I don’t need back up ideas.”

Sophie felt her heart beating faster. “We’ve got an excellent pitch ready. We’re happy with it.”

“Then why are you brainstorming further?” Kelly ran her tongue over her teeth. “It sounds like you don’t really think it will win.”

“We’re being prepared.”

“You’re wasting valuable time when you could be pitching to more clients, and winning more work,” Kelly said, shaking her head. “Really inefficient.”

Bradley’s expression turned to stone. “I loathe the word inefficient.”

***

After brainstorming for Barney’s, Sophie went to the casting room, scanned a list of girls sent by the agent who were available to do an audition. She ran her pen along the names of hopefuls, at least forty names. She didn’t want to see all forty girls to find a contender.

The face of the Silver Swimming Chain needed to be spot on. She needed to attract viewers to Matthew’s pools, all around the nation. The sooner she found the right girl, the sooner she could start shooting, finish the commercial, and bill. Today, her luck was out, the agent had sent sub quality candidates for the position. They just weren’t right.