‘My womanly charms.’ I grinned. ‘I sent the copy over last night and we should be in the next issue coming out in a few weeks.’
Ben’s smile faded in a second. ‘What?’
‘I needed to act quickly on this offer as Dan had others waiting and there was no way I was going to let Totally Awesome Adventours take it.’
‘Wait – so you signed off on this and sent over copy without speaking to me first?’
I nodded, my bubble of excitement popping. ‘Yeah, ‘cause if I didn’t we would have lost it,’ I said quietly, feeling the atmosphere close in around me. Kelli sensed the mood and nipped to the loo, mumbling something on her way past.
‘Georgia,’ Ben snapped. ‘You promised me that big decisions like this, decisions that cost money, would always be made together. Even with the discount this has probably wiped out our advertising budget.’
‘I’m sorry; I just didn’t want us to lose out.’
‘That’s the oldest trick in the book: say you’ve got others interested to make the first shmuck agree to the sale before thinking it over.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yep, oh.’ He rubbed his face. He seemed a lot more tired these days. ‘I thought we had an agreement that we didn’t make any big decisions without checking with each other first.’
My cheeks felt flushed. ‘I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing; you’ll see, this will bring in loads of business.’ I laughed weakly, hoping that I would be proved right.
The afternoon flew by and before I knew it Kelli had clocked off in a whirlwind of nerves for her gig tonight, leaving just Ben and me finally alone.
‘I am sorry about the advert thing,’ I said as I emptied my waste-paper bin.
‘It’s fine. I’m sorry for flying off the handle.’ Ben flashed a genuine smile. ‘I just want you to know that I’m here to help. I want this business to work just as much as you do.’ He placed a warm hand on my shoulder that gave me a tingle of excitement. My body just seemed to melt at his touch, no matter how small or infrequently it happened.
‘I know.’ I smiled at him, hoping I didn’t have any poppy seeds stuck in my teeth after inhaling a bagel at my desk earlier.
‘Right, well I’d better be making a move; I said I’d go and get changed and then help Kel set up,’ he said, taking his hand away and breaking the moment. ‘Did you know Jimmy and Shelley are coming too?’
‘Yeah, she sent me an email about it earlier. Something about how there was no way she would refuse the offer of curry no matter how bad Kelli’s band might be.’ I hadn’t seen Ben’s best mate Jimmy and his girlfriend, my backpacker friend Shelley, for ages, even though we lived in the same city now. As much as the sound of Kel’s emo band wasn’t getting me excited I did have to admit it would be nice to actually be out in the real world with real friends and to be hanging out with Ben away from work. This had been the first ‘date’ that Ben had asked me on. OK, so officially it wasn’t a date when I’d be stood in a sea of faces in close proximity to Ben, cringing as Jimmy did his best Bez impression but still it was a chance to socialise outside of this place.
‘Cool, well. I’ll see you later then, Georgia. You sure you’re OK to lock up by yourself?’
I shooed him away. ‘Tsk. Course I am. I’ll see you all soon; save me a spot in the crowd.’
Ben looked as if he was going to say something else but stopped himself and gave me a quick wave as he left the shop. I was going to tie up some loose ends and be on my way. I was definitely going to be out of here at a reasonable hour, proving to my parents that I had more going on in my life than just work.
Only sending one email became ten and now I was late. Very late. I’d planned to go home, take a soak in the bath, maybe even paint my nails and leisurely get ready. I used to love the whole prep part of a night out. Me and Marie would crank up the stereo, pour huge glugs of cold white wine and dance around as we preened ourselves before falling into a taxi in a fit of giggles and excitement at what the night could hold. Most of the time getting ready was the best part. I’d never really got into the whole clubbing scene and hated feeling like I was on show as nameless strangers wandered past unsteadily holding a pint of lager and looking us up and down. We’d eventually return home with our purses lighter and feet heavy, telling ourselves we were too old for this until the next time when the ritual would start all over again. I really did need to get in touch with Marie; how long had it been since I’d seen her? My mobile phone buzzed on my messy desk, breaking my thoughts.
‘Hey, I’m on my way!’ I said quickly to Ben.
‘Georgia. Are you still in the office?’ he asked. I could sense a sharpness in his tone.
‘Yep but I swear I was just heading out the door then I realised that we hadn’t sent out the itineraries for the Iceland trip, which I know was my job to do but it completely slipped my mind. Anyway I’m leaving right now …’ I babbled.
Ben cut me off; I could hear the disappointment in his voice. ‘Georgia, you promised Kel that you wouldn’t be late.’ His voice grew quieter, smaller against the thrum from the room he was in. ‘She’s counting on us to be there to support her; you know, put this teamwork theory into practice. Also, Jimmy and Shell have been asking where you are.’
‘I know. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to get caught up in work. I’ll be there before you know it –’ My stomach sank. I honestly hadn’t meant to let work get in the way of this evening.
‘Just try your best, please. Listen I need to go. The warm-up act have nearly finished.’ With that he hung up.
Double shit. I kicked the leg of my desk, causing my ticket to the event to flutter gently onto the floor. Picking it up, I glanced at the clock. If I could grab a taxi right now I’d still make it. Yeah, so I’d be the only one dressed for the office but at least I’d be there. I put on my jacket and turned off my laptop, hoping there would be a long queue of black cabs waiting patiently at the side of the main street. I plonked my handbag on my desk to find my keys and accidentally pushed a pile of papers that I hadn’t had time to sort through onto the floor.
‘Bugger.’ I leant down to pick up the loose sheets of paper, scribbled notes and brochures. I scooped them up and dumped them on my desk, trying not to freak out at how disorganised my work space looked when I noticed a pale grey sheet of paper sticking out. This was from Kelli’s pad when she passed us messages.
‘Another one star review. For India tour. Seriously tits up!!’ she’d scrawled.
I hurriedly read the text she’d printed off the internet and felt a little bubble of sick rise up. All the other reviews we had received had been slightly negative but this took it to a whole other level. Personal, vitriolic, scathing and full of detail with not one spelling mistake to be seen. I flicked open my laptop and waited for it to come back to life before quickly typing in the web address where this review was posted; it linked to a travel blog that I’d never read before. This one post had received hundreds of likes and comments and been shared a stupid amount of times. It even came with its own hashtag. This was serious. With our next Indian tour taking place soon and it being one of our biggest earners, I had to do something right now.
I grabbed my phone, jabbing in Kelli’s mobile number to see if she’d seen any more reviews like this without telling us. Her answerphone rang on a few seconds later, reminding me that she would be warming up for her gig. I sighed and went to call Ben when I stopped. If I told him about it now he’d know I was still in the office and would tell me to leave it, that it could wait until tomorrow, but I knew that it couldn’t. I needed to sort this out myself. Right now.
I quickly jabbed a text message to Shelley telling her I was running late but would be with them all soon, shrugged my jacket off and flicked the lights back on. Work had to come first. There would be other gigs;