Pictures of Lily

irritation. ‘Pier Frank.’
    ‘Mr Laurence is out to lunch,’ I say. ‘Niles is doing the interview.’
    ‘Who’s Niles?’
    ‘One of our junior writers,’ I say smoothly.
    ‘I know you, don’t I?’ he asks out of the blue. ‘Don’t you recognise me?’ He removes his sunglasses. His eyes are bloodshot and his skin is pasty. He’s nowhere near as attractive as he was last night.
    ‘I was at your launch. With my friend, Nicola , from downstairs in reception .’ Then I add pointedly, ‘I think you might have met her too.’
    ‘Oh, right. Yes. Well, where’s Niles?’
    ‘Follow me.’ I get up and lead the way, revelling in his obvious discomfort. ‘Good luck with the interview,’ I say as I open the door. ‘I’m sure we’ll write some super-nice things about you.’
    ‘Whatever did you say to him?’ Nicola squeals an hour later when Pier has left the building.
    ‘What do you mean?’ I play innocent.
    ‘He pretended to be all surprised to see me and asked if I’d been on reception earlier. I said, yes I had, and he said he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed me. It must’ve been his dark glasses.’
    From the tone of her voice I can tell she’s not buying it and I’m glad.
    ‘What a wombat,’ she adds, and I grin at the use of the word. ‘He said he’d call me.’
    ‘Did he?’
    ‘Yep. I shrugged and said I didn’t have access to a phone, but you know, “good luck with things and I’ll see you around”.’
    ‘Seriously?’ I giggle at the thought of Nicola sitting there in front of three telephones on reception desk and saying such a thing.
    She laughs along with me. ‘Oh, I wish I hadn’t shagged him. Oops – gotta go,’ she adds, hanging up before I can comment.
    The editorial assistant Bronte has recovered from her operation and by the end of the following week I feel quite sad that I have to leave. Xanthe has continued to be nice to me – we’ve gone out for lunch a couple of times – and I also got the chance to help out on the picture desk and chat to Kip, the assistant who returned from holiday on Monday. When I leave on Friday, Xanthe gives me a goody bag filled with beauty treats and Kip promises that he’ll consider me if they ever need holiday cover on the picture desk. I also hand Jonathan a copy of my CV.
    ‘Please think of me if you hear of anything,’ I implore.
    ‘I absolutely will,’ he assures me. ‘Thanks for stepping in at such short notice, Lily.’
    ‘It’s been my pleasure,’ I tell him sincerely, feeling a buzz of anticipation at what the future could hold for my career.
    ‘I’m going to find it quite strange going back to reception after working on a magazine for almost two weeks,’ I say to Richard later that night.
    ‘You’ll be okay,’ he tells me. ‘It’s not like you don’t enjoy your job.’
    ‘Yes, I do like it. Well, I like Nicola and Mel,’ I correct myself. ‘But it’s not very challenging.’
    ‘What, and working as a secretary was?’ he asks.
    ‘I wasn’t a secretary,’ I reply, annoyed.
    ‘Editorial assistant, then. Isn’t it the same thing?’
    ‘No, it’s much more than that,’ I say crossly, even though in actual fact it’s not that different.
    ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.’ He looks contrite. ‘I think you’re great at what you do.’
    I stare at the TV in a huff. Great at what I do . What about what I could do?
    ‘Can you pass me the remote?’ he asks when an advert break comes on five minutes later.
    ‘What don’t you get it yourself?’ I retort. The offending object is on the coffee table in front of us.
    ‘Hey!’ he exclaims. ‘Are you still angry at me?’
    ‘Can’t you bloody tell?’ I rant. I’ve been sitting here getting increasingly worked up while he’s been happily watching some crap on the telly. He should know he’s upset me!
    ‘But Lily, I didn’t even say anything.’ He looks utterly confused and taken aback by my reaction.
    ‘You said I was a secretary,’ I practically shout.
    ‘So what?’ Richard cries. ‘What’s wrong with being a secretary? Or a receptionist? I don’t know what’s got into you. You were happy enough before.’
    ‘I was never happy!’ I shout angrily. ‘The only thing I’ve ever been happy doing is looking after animals and taking photographs!’
    ‘ WHAT? ’ He’s a bit beside himself. ‘What are you going on about, looking after animals?’ He’s raising his voice too, now, and a sudden sense of calm washes