Saving Amy (29 page)

Actually scrap that… I guess I
did
need to. I now worked in a publishing house for Christ’s sake!

Vanessa’s fingers were ferociously tapping away at her computer and I was typing up what Vanessa called ‘potential letters’ – thanking would be authors for the submission of their first three chapters and requesting full manuscripts from them. Seeing as though we only mailed three or four ‘potential letters’ a week, compared to the hundred or so rejections, I guessed I’d be finished up within twenty minutes and then I’d arranged to meet Rob.

Lunch with Rob had inadvertently become routine. I didn’t really mind, despite his sleaze-ball qualities becoming more apparent by the day. The complete and utter jerk side of him I witnessed on my first day had wavered more with each day and most of the time he was actually pretty funny. I didn’t know what his problem was that day and I didn’t care to ask – maybe his dog had just died or something.

I guess I was just grateful for the company. Everyone else in the building was part of their own little clique and going off the fact not one of the miserable bastards had talked to me
yet,
I assumed they weren’t open to new members.

I hadn’t felt like I knew Rob well enough yet to press him about the him-and-Vanessa-hating-each-other-thing, but after witnessing her give him a long, intense,
revolted
stare this morning, maybe today was the day.

The phone on Vanessa’s desk rang, startling her and causing her to almost choke on her mouthful of coffee. She spluttered and wiped her mouth with the cuff of her blazer – very unprofessional… very un-Vanessa.

“Heart,” she snapped down the line and in all honesty I could see why people called her The Dragon. She was curt to the point of being rude with everybody – everybody except me that is. I still hadn’t figured out what made me so obviously different – more deserving of her time and patience.

“Ah, Richard,” she acknowledged in a tone that didn’t suit her – a
happy
tone. For a brief second my heart began to flutter but then quickly resumed normal rhythm – it couldn’t be
my
Richard.

“She is indeed… Yes… You were spot on.” A brief pause followed and the unimaginable happened – Vanessa
laughed
. Out loud, head thrown back and everything. “Hold on, I’ll just pass you over.

Who? Me?
My eyes instinctively scanned the room.
Yep.
Still just the two of us.

“Take care, sweetie.”

Sweetie?

“It’s for you, Amy.”

Amy?
Vanessa had never called me Amy… not once.

I hesitantly tapped the button for line three, unsure of what use
I
could be to anyone. Surely Vanessa
wasn’t trusting
me to deal with an important client… I was nowhere near ready for that.

“Good morning, Amy Hope speaking,” I said, striving to sound confident and assertive but the damn crack in my voice betrayed me.

“Very professional, baby,” a velvety voice teased. It
was
‘my’ Richard.

They
did
know each other. I knew it! My subconscious had been too preoccupied taking on board the ins and outs of being an intern to confront Richard with my suspicions. I guess they weren’t suspicions anymore.

“Oh, it’s you,” I answered, a little offhand and I think it was down to a concoction of surprise, disappointment and betrayal. I’d speculated since my first day here – back when Rob made it clear Vanessa wouldn’t usually touch someone like me with a barge pole – that Richard and Vanessa knew one another - like
properly
knew one another - and that I didn’t earn this position through my own merit at all.

“Sorry to disappoint,” he griped, but I could hear the smile filtering through his comforting voice.

“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting it to be you. You’ve never called me here, is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I just forgot to tell you we’re having dinner with my parents tonight. It’s my mom’s birthday.”

“Talk about last minute! What gift have you got for her? Please don’t tell me you forgot that too.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll pick up a gift card on the way or something,” he said, ever so blasé.

“Richard!” I scolded. “She’s your mother – you can’t turn up with a gift card. You need to put some thought into it.”

“Well what do you buy the woman who has everything?”

“That’s not the point.” A long bout of silence followed while I contemplated what Vivienne might like.

Got it!

“Perfume,” I announced feeling especially proud of myself for remembering that Vivienne smelt like Julie’s mom – of Chanel no. 5.

“
Perfume?
” Richard repeated as if it were a word he’d never heard before. “How the hell would I know what perfume she likes?”

“Just trust me. I’ll pick some up on my lunch break.”

“Well maybe I should pick up a gift card too. Just in case.”

“Richard!” I scolded
again
. I couldn’t believe he didn’t have faith in my gift buying abilities!

“Fine! No gift card.” I could imagine him surrendering his palms on the other end of the line.

“Okay well I have to go now,” I said when I noticed Rob waiting for me through the window of the office door. “I’ll see you later.”

“You sure will, baby. I love you.”

“Love you too,” I muttered under my breath because it felt awkward being soppy in front of Vanessa. And yes, I might well love the ass off him, but I was also still pissed at him. The more I thought about it – which was a
lot
– the more convinced I became that Richard was the reason I was sitting here, and not my notebook full of crap.

“Am I okay to take my lunch now?” I asked Vanessa. She looked up from her computer and slid her reading glasses up onto her head.

“Sure, Amy.”

That was another thing. Why had she started calling me Amy all of a sudden? I’d never once corrected her. Had Richard? He must have, seeing as they were bosom buddies and all.

“Thanks,” I replied politely but with a clenched fist hidden behind my back. Deep down I knew I should just suck it up and be grateful. I always knew I’d blown my chances of earning myself a dream job, so when I did – or
thought
I did – I was so proud of myself. And for once, the idea that I held some genuine talent didn’t seem so absurd.

But now…

“Hey, good lookin,” Rob greeted with a cheeky wink. I smiled awkwardly. “I was thinkin’ maybe we should hit the drive-thru today. I’m kinda sick of bacon.” He had a point – The Mighty Bite was becoming a little monotonous. But then I just wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d feel being trapped in such a confined space as a car with Mr Touchy Feely.

“Sure,” I reluctantly agreed. On the plus side, maybe some privacy would aid my plan to interrogate him about Vanessa.

Rob snaked his arm around my waist and walked me to the elevator. It unsettled me but as much as I wanted to squirm out of his embrace, I focused hard on letting it go. He was just being friendly, I kept telling myself. A ‘normal’ person wouldn’t react like I wanted to. They wouldn’t feel itchy with the desire to run away. They would just smile. Nudge his shoulder maybe. Be grateful that they had someone willing to be their friend.

So, as much as it made my insides tighten, I acted ‘normal’ and let Rob lead me to the car.

“Holy shit! This car is the bomb!” Rob screeched as he stroked the glossy black paintwork of Richard’s Audi up and down. We decided to take my car – well Richard’s – because I needed to shop for perfume and I didn’t want to use him as my own personal taxi service, even though I knew he wouldn’t mind.

“It’s just a car,” I muttered, shrugging.

“That is such a girl thing to say. This
ain’t
just a freakin’ car!” he enthused, his eyes practically bulging from their sockets. “I swear I would sell my own grandmother for this baby.”

I couldn’t even begin to understand his enthusiasm for what was fundamentally a lump of moving metal, so I ignored him and climbed in the driver’s side. Rob took an extra minute fondling the car’s exterior before joining me. Then he progressed to caressing every visible inch of the interior too. I had to admit it was pretty amusing. I almost felt like a spare part in an R-rated movie the way he groaned as he stroked and cupped everything in his reach.

We rode in silence for a few minutes. I was pretty sure it was the longest time Rob had ever gone without speaking and it felt as refreshing as it did awkward.

“So what gives with you and Vanessa?” I asked, easing the car into McDonald’s Drive-Thru. I was going for the straightforward and to the point approach – we only had an hour for lunch.

“What makes you ask? Has The Dragon said something about me?” he asked – almost demanded. Jeez, just mentioning her name got him all riled up – just like his did with her.

“Nothing in particular. I just get the feeling you don’t like each other mu-”

“That’s the understatement of the century,” he interrupted before I could finish. He did that a lot and quite frankly it annoyed the hell out of me. I didn’t have the balls to say as much of course.

“But you’ve only worked here a few weeks. How have you managed to piss her off so bad already?”

“Hold up, why do you assume it’s
me
doing the pissing off?” he retorted, jolting back in his seat.

You seriously want me to answer that?

“Good afternoon, can I take your order please?” the McDonald’s girl asked robotically without looking up from under her cap.

“I’ll take a Big Mac and Diet Coke, and…” I turned to Rob and he mouthed ‘same’. “And the same again, please.”

“No fries?” Robot Girl asked, confounded as if I’d just tried to order a bucket of caviar from her. I shook my head and reached for my purse. Rob tried to offer me some cash but I shooed his hand away.

“I’ll get these,” I ordered. He opened his mouth to speak and assuming it was to object, I held my hand up, shushing him.

“So anyway, Vanessa…” Rob picked up where he left off as I edged closer to Window 3. “I pissed her off way before I got a job here. That’s why the vindictive bitch did everything in her power to try and stop me getting an internship. Wasn’t down to her at the end of the day though. I just
love
running into her on the corridor,” he said with a smug grin – like he’d won whatever battle they were having.

“So, it
was
you doing the pissing off then?” I teased and Rob choked on a laugh.

“Well, yeah… but nice of you to assume anyway.”

“So how do you know each other? What did you do?”

“I dated her daughter last summer.”

Vanessa has a daughter?
This was surprising news. Vanessa just seemed too… professional, too career driven to be a parent. And if I was completely honest, with her short spikey hair and love of pantsuits, I kind of assumed she was a lesbian.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I said and then mentally slapped myself for sounding so offensive.

‘
So’
bad.

“Tell me about it. I mean things got a little messy when we broke up but these things happen right? But now I’m the devil incarnated in her eyes. I get it – I broke her daughter’s heart and all that but what did she expect me to do,
marry
her or something?”

“Jeez,” was all I could think to comment. Naturally Vanessa would want to side with her daughter but a typical teenage break-up didn’t seem to justify just how passionately she seemed to loathe him. Rob said things got messy – I decided to take that as he cheated on her and now Vanessa thought he was a douchebag.

“Sorry for the wait,” another robotic McDonald’s employee apologised insincerely as she handed me our bag of food. My mind had been so engrossed in the whole Rob versus Vanessa saga I hadn’t even noticed we’d been waiting at Window 3 for almost ten minutes.

I took the drinks and paper bag and then handed them to Rob while I found somewhere to park. I circled the lot three times before spotting a tight space by a grass verge and reversing into it in one shot, impressing myself -
and
Rob by the astounded raised eyebrow taking over his surfer-boy face.

We talked about work mainly while we ate, and Rob filled me in about what to expect from my evening classes at college. He started two weeks ago and my first class was next Thursday. I was more nervous about the environment than struggling with the academic side of things. I could only pray it was nothing like school. That it wouldn’t be as tedious and oppressive and there wouldn’t be an evil Mrs Clarke clone lurking in the halls.

After crushing our wrappers and leftovers into the overflowing drive-past trashcan I headed towards the perfumery just around the corner from Salt House.

“Look, Aims, before you go in. I just wanted to apologise for being such a jackass to you in the beginning,” Rob said sincerely, curling his fingers around my forearm. I had to try extremely hard not to flinch.

“You weren’t
that
bad,” I replied honestly, smiling as I did so.

“Yeah I was. I’d tried so hard to get an editing internship and Salt House was my last hope. When I found out Vanessa was senior editor, I knew I’d have no chance and ended up stuck in marketing. I guess I thought you were some spoiled rich kid who’d bought your way in. I was… jealous. And that’s no excuse for being a dick to you. So, I’m sorry.”