The Making of Mia (17 page)

*

A week later Jo felt like the living dead. Lucy had told her that Madeline wanted three new features within ten days, and
Joshua had increased her workload, telling her that Edward Sampson-Brown, the finance director, needed some urgent filing
that meant she had to spend two evenings a week in the accounts office organising spreadsheets. When Jo got home at ten in
the evening all she wanted to do was fall asleep, but instead she pulled out her freshly bought laptop and lost herself in
making her features sparkle. Other girls would hate having two intense jobs on the go, but to Jo writing in the evenings was
a reward, something she craved even when her body cried out for sleep. However, as Madeline’s demands on her new writer’s
productivity increased Jo found that in the daytime her eyes began to blur, and her head pounded. She managed to pull herself
together when Joshua was around, but in between tasks she let her eyes shut for a few minutes, only snapping out of her haze
when the phone rang.

That morning, Joshua took great delight in telling her that his whole personal filing cabinet needed to be reorganised, and
that he wanted Jo to do it while he was in a meeting with an advertiser. Jo looked at him with a heavy heart. She already
had to photocopy articles to give to the secretaries, arrange the food for the monthly editors’ lunch, and was also in the
middle of a difficult phone call with the distributors, who said they had not received a renewed contract from Garnet. As
she slowly stood up to walk into his office, Joshua focused on her bottom, and she realised she was past caring if he found
her attractive or not. Through her sleep-deprived daze she thought she could hear Joshua chuckling behind her. Jo slowly turned
round to face him.

‘I think it’s time we got you a bit more active in your role here,’ he said, laughing and eyeing the rings of flesh round
Jo’s stomach. ‘Maybe get you walking up and down the stairs carrying magazines. We wouldn’t want you to break any
more chairs, would we?’ Joshua was referring to an incident that had happened the week before, when Jo had sat on an already
broken chair in the canteen and had crumpled in a heap on the floor. Nobody had helped her up.

Jo looked down at her stomach, knowing that if she opened her mouth to tell Joshua to go fuck himself she would instantly
be sacked.

‘Oh, and by the way, there’s a birthday in my diary and I need you to send a present for me. It’s in the top drawer on the
right-hand side and it needs to be wrapped. Send it to her by three o’clock, will you?’ Joshua turned on his heel and walked
off, and Jo set about reorganising his filing cabinet, wondering how it was possible that he could make it so messy so quickly.
She had only tidied it last week. As Jo opened Joshua’s desk drawer to get out the birthday present, she was slightly put
out to see a silky thong on top of Joshua’s black diary. Jo sat back in the black leather Eames chair and stared at them.
She’d never seen such a sexy pair of knickers before – they were a tiny scrap of coffee-coloured wisps held together by the
thinnest threads of silk, and there were glimmering creamy beads dotted around the satin and lace. Jo gulped, and imagined
what it would feel like to wear knickers like these.

Jo gingerly pushed the Coco de Mer knickers aside and opened up Joshua’s black diary, sighing when she saw his handwriting
was worse than ever. Jo rubbed her tired, blurring eyes and found the entry he’d meant – ‘M—’s birthday, do not forget.’ Jo
looked at the knickers again, this time visualising Madeline in them, and grimaced. She’d put the present and card that Joshua
had already written in Madeline’s pigeonhole by three o’clock, and she hoped that the editor would never know that her husband
had made her wrap them up.

At half past three exactly Jo knew that her time at Garnet
Publishing was at an end when Joshua stormed towards her with a red mark on his face from being recently slapped.

‘You stupid fucking bitch,’ he hissed at her loudly, as Jo’s mouth dropped open in surprise. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re
playing at?’ Jo shrank back in her chair, and the whole editorial team went silent as they watched Joshua yell at her. His
voice had taken on a rough edge and he dropped his ‘t’s – a sure sign that he was furious. Jo glanced at Madeline who was
watching the exchange with a hurt expression, and as Joshua pulled her into his office she wondered what she had done wrong.

‘Is this some petty revenge for me making jokes about your blubbery body?’ Joshua said sharply, as he glared at her before
slamming his glass door shut so nobody could hear what they were saying. His chocolate-coloured eyes were glinting with anger.
‘Is this meant to be a practical joke that will have everyone in fits of laughter? Because believe me, Joanne,’ he spat, ‘nobody
is laughing.’

Jo tried to think of something she could say that would defuse the situation and failed. She hadn’t expected Joshua to find
out she was Olivia Windsor … and she certainly didn’t think he’d have reacted so badly.

‘I should have told you sooner, I’m sorry, I didn’t think—’

Joshua interrupted her. ‘You didn’t think? Oh, I think you thought all right,’ he said in a low voice. ‘You planned the whole
thing so Madeline would receive the knickers meant for Marina. I don’t give a damn why you did it, but I want to make sure
you don’t make things worse so sit here and shut up while I think.’ Joshua pulled on the blinds that gave his office complete
privacy – something Jo had not seen him do the entire time she had been his PA – and he began pacing around the office muttering
to himself.

Jo looked at Joshua curiously, and realised with a rush of adrenaline that she had got to him, that she had riled the man
who
Forbes
had called one of the most level-headed businessmen in the country. He wasn’t annoyed at her for writing under the name of
Olivia Windsor – he didn’t even know about it – but he was furious that she had accidentally sent his wife some sexy knickers
meant for one of his girlfriends. Jo wondered what was in the card he had written, and why he couldn’t pass the thong off
as a sexy present from husband to wife.

‘So the lingerie wasn’t meant for Madeline, then?’ Jo asked tentatively, and Joshua gave her a hard stare before laughing
harshly. He opened his desk drawer and threw his black diary at Jo. It hit her hard on the stomach and she could feel her
skin stinging underneath her blouse.

‘Can you read, Joanne?’ Joshua said quietly, and for the first time Jo could hear menace in his voice. With shaking hands
Jo opened up the diary, and she felt her heart sink when she saw that Joshua’s entry read: ‘Marina’s birthday, do not forget.’
Jo silently closed the diary and shut her eyes. Shit. She’d been so tired she’d skipped over the name. Joshua took the diary
from Jo and tore out the page with the birthday reminder on it, ripping it into tiny pieces that fell to the floor like confetti.
He stared at Jo for what felt like the longest time, and then he spoke.

‘You are going to apologise to Madeline for your sick practical joke, you are going to do it in front of everyone who works
on
Gloss
, and then you are going to walk out of this office and never come back.’

‘But it wasn’t a practical joke,’ Jo began nervously, but Joshua cut her off with a glare.

‘You’ll say it was or there will be hell to pay. Come on,’ he said menacingly, as he took her by the arm again and dragged
her into the open-plan editorial office. Everyone watched them curiously, and Jo could see the concern in Lucy’s eyes. Joshua
made Jo stand in front of Madeline.

‘Well? What have you got to say for yourself?’ Joshua said, as he turned to Jo impatiently. He rolled his eyes at Madeline,
and suddenly Jo felt a flash of anger sear through her body. Yes, she’d made an embarrassing mistake, but it wouldn’t have
happened if Joshua weren’t having the affair in the first place. Jo looked from Madeline to Joshua, and wondered what would
happen if she told the truth. Taking a deep breath Jo gathered up all her strength and forced herself to be brave.

‘Don’t speak to me like that,’ Jo said, her voice wobbling slightly. As she concentrated on looking calm she heard gasps from
the editorial team – nobody spoke to Joshua with anything less than reverence, as the Garnet name had always commanded respect.
Jo refused to play by the rules any more, and she spoke in a low, measured tone. ‘You may pay me peanuts to pick up your shirts
and do everything but wipe your bottom, but you don’t pay me nearly enough to listen to you talking to me like that.’

Joshua burst out laughing, amazed that his fat, mousy PA had such a bite on her. He thought it was all an act and that she
would crumble. ‘Oh, is that right?’ he said in an incredulous tone. ‘I’d say we pay you far too much to sit on your fat ass
to do nothing but eat.’ He looked around the office and was clearly pleased he had an audience. When Madeline had opened the
package and card written for Marina – one of London’s hottest new models who had just turned seventeen – she’d marched over
to Joshua and slapped him, hard, before dropping the knickers on his lap as he looked at her in shock. Joshua was determined
to make sure Jo carried the can for this one.

Jo gave Joshua a sly little smile. ‘I’d say you pay me far too much to write as Olivia Windsor, certainly, but I don’t think
all the money in the world could pay me to carry your spunk-covered suits to the dry-cleaner’s again.’ Jo didn’t
take her eyes off Joshua, and she was dimly aware of Helena giggling in the background. She thought she could see a small
wave of fear wash across his face, but if she had it was gone in an instant, and he grinned at her before turning to Madeline
with a smug expression.

‘See? I told you she was delusional.’ He walked around the office making sure all eyes were on him. ‘Now she’s pretending
that she’s Olivia Windsor.’ He rolled his eyes and spun on his heels to look at Jo. ‘Of course you are, sweetheart. Why on
earth couldn’t I have guessed that? Your brilliantly worded letters and tantalising minutes from meetings have always had
me on the edge of my seat!’

Jo remained rooted to the spot. ‘I am Olivia Windsor,’ she said firmly, her eyes ablaze with fire. ‘And I’ve written the best
features this magazine has ever seen. When you didn’t look at my portfolio I decided I’d make my own chance. And I fooled
all of you.’ Jo surveyed the editorial team, who looked at her doubtfully. She caught Lucy’s eye and noticed she suddenly
looked very pale. ‘Tell them, Lucy,’ Jo said confidently, and she watched Lucy shrink down in her seat. She shook her head
ever so slightly, and refused to meet Jo’s gaze.

‘You’re sick in the head,’ Joshua spat at Jo happily. ‘You’ve made up a pack of lies about being Olivia Windsor, and to get
some sort of “revenge” on me for not looking at your GCSE artwork you’ve sent my wife a sexy pair of knickers and a forged
card to make her think I’m having an affair. Well, guess what, Joanne, it hasn’t worked.’ Tiny beads of sweat had formed on
Joshua’s brow, and Jo began to realise she had dug a hole for herself and there was no way out.

‘I don’t know why you have tried to harm my relationship with my husband,’ Madeline added, ‘or why you’re lying about being
one of our contributors, but I suggest you get some help,’ she said calmly, putting her arm around Joshua. ‘I believe my husband,
not you.’

Madeline’s voice was so cold that Jo felt a chill run down her spine. Without meaning to she had alienated herself from the
industry’s most powerful couple, and there was nowhere to go but down.

Jo turned back to Joshua, and she began to feel panicked. She had not planned her outburst, and she began to clutch at straws,
hoping that Joshua valued his reputation more than anything else. ‘I’ll go to the press,’ Jo whispered, and Joshua grinned
at her, clearly not caring what else she said because his wife believed him and not her. ‘I’ll tell them everything!’

Joshua kissed his wife on the cheek and walked over to a phone. The editorial team watched him in silence, wondering who he
was going to ring. ‘Do you really think they’d believe your lies any more than we do? Do remember, Joanne, that my family
owns most of the press. And don’t even think about trying to work for anyone else, because by the time you leave this office
I’ll have phoned everyone in the industry and told them you’re a liar who stupidly tried to fuck with me and failed.’ He looked
at Jo and grinned, showing his wolf-like teeth. ‘The best thing you can do is to stop eating and hope that you rot into something
more attractive,’ he said with a flourish. ‘But mark my words, Joanne, even if you do that you haven’t a hope in hell of getting
a job on a magazine again.’

Jo felt her heart sink and she saw two security guards hovering by the double doors, waiting for Joshua’s command before taking
her by the arms. Jo turned to Joshua in the hope that she could have the final word, but as she caught his eye she realised
that Joshua had humiliated her so much that there was nothing else she could say.

‘Now get the fuck out of my building.’