The Plot Twist

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

‘A re you sure you’re OK?’ Will’s face was the picture of concern. It wasn’t the first time he had asked and it wasn’t the first time Allie had replied to him with a complete barefaced lie.

‘Yes, yes, absolutely fine!’ She tried to grin up at him in what she hoped was a reassuring manner but probably made her look like she was battling severe wind. She quickly looked down and carried on walking along the river, towards the cinema, where Will was about to make her sit through some arthouse film, which she was sure she wouldn’t like or understand. And they probably didn’t even allow popcorn. And he still hadn’t come clean to her about the business and had, in fact, been busy telling her all about a party he catered for the other night from the POV of a waiter.

‘I don’t mean to keep asking, it’s just…’ Allie waited for how Will might describe her current febrile mood. ‘It’s just you keep looking at your phone…you flinch when I touch you…you’re as jumpy as a stressed out rabbit.’ In the end he went for, ‘You don’t quite seem yourself,’ and reached out and took her hand and Allie did her utmost best not to flinch this time.

‘Sorry, just thinking about work.’ Which wasn’t a complete lie. She was thinking about work, more precisely about the fact she had just discovered that Will’s dad was the man she was working with and that Will’s mum was amazing, and that Allie might be a little bit in love with her, and that Will’s mum had just found out that Will’s dad had lent Will’s sister money, that he may or may not need to pay back to his publisher, depending on how his and Allie’s writing plan played out. And that Will possibly didn’t know about any of this, and he certainly didn’t know about the connection between his father and Allie because if he did he wouldn’t be looking at her in the way he was doing, which made her want to jump him. And all of it was horribly unfair because how was she to know that these people used two names, one for family and one for friends, which was just asking for exactly the kind of mix-up that had happened. Allie decided to keep these precise details of her thoughts about work to herself.

‘How’s the writing going now?’ Will asked, seemingly genuinely interested, as well he might be, given that his dad was a famous novelist and he probably knew more about the writing process than he had previously been letting on. Allie pushed that intrusive thought to the part of her brain reserved for late night spiraling.

‘Erm, OK?’ she squeaked. ‘You must know something about writing though, you said your dad was a writer?’ She winced as she asked the question, and wondered whether he would take the out she was giving him and come clean.

Will laughed. ‘Ha! No. I ’ ve never written anything.’

But you lived in the same household as a novelist for your entire childhood, she felt like shouting. She held her tongue, because shouting at Will was hardly fair. They had been on a handful of dates, nowhere near the stage of finding out what the parents do for a living. That was surely several dates down the line, a stage which they might now never reach if Allie didn’t fess up about the whole situation.

‘How’s your day been?’ Allie asked, putting off the inevitable uncomfortable reveal, which would have to happen at some point.

‘Not the best,’ Will confessed. ‘Had lunch with my dad today.’ Allie’s stomach dropped but her ears pricked up, hoping she might get a nugget of intelligence about Will’s relationship with his dad, which could help defend her character when Will finally discovered Allie knew Martin already.

‘You two don’t get on?’ she asked hopefully, wondering whether it would be better if they did or better if they didn’t.

‘Oh no, nothing like that. We get on great. Always have done.’

‘So…?’ prompted Allie.

Will took a deep sigh, letting Allie’s hand drop from his and shoving his hands into his pockets. If ever there was the body language for ‘I really don’t feel comfortable having this discussion,’ this was it. It was probably exactly what Will would look like after he had got over the confusion and betrayal stage when he found out about Allie’s arrangement with Martin. Once again, Allie parked that thought to add to her list for late-night panicking.

‘I spoke to my mum after and she told me a few things. And now I’m wondering why my dad didn’t tell me any of these things himself. And whether I should get involved.’ He paused. ‘To be honest, I’m wondering if I can pretend I don’t know because I’d rather not. Oh and I need to decide exactly how mad I am at my sister about the whole thing.’

‘Oh.’ Of course Allie knew what he was talking about, but she wasn’t supposed to and her brain was desperately trying to think of what she could ask or say that wouldn’t give this away but that also couldn’t be held against her in the future when it came out that she DID know what he was talking about. After what seemed like an exceptionally long time, she decided that ‘oh’ was actually all she could manage.

‘Do you get on with your parents?’ he asked, in an admirable form of deflection.

‘Yes. Well, with my mum. She spends most of her time in Spain now with Nigel,’

‘Nigel?’

‘Her husband. So I don’t get to see that much of her, and that’s probably why we get on so well.’

‘And your dad?’

Allie took a deep breath; she hated having to tell people this. What was worse than people feeling sorry for you, was when people really didn’t know what to say at all and so ended up saying something idiotic and panicking, and then she would end up having to make them feel better. ‘He’s dead. Died when I was a teenager. Cancer.’

And then, because Will wasn’t other people , he simply took her hand and said, ‘I’m sorry’ and sounded like he genuinely meant it.

‘Yeah, me too. He was kind of awesome and I still miss him, and I still spend a lot of time and energy wondering what he would think of my life choices.’

Will laughed, a gentle, kind laugh. ‘Not having ever met him, I’m not going to pretend I can make you feel better about that.’

Allie looked sideways at him, appreciative of his kindness. ‘Thanks. You know, people never know what to say when I tell them, so that’s about the best reaction I’ve ever had.’

‘Can I tell you that I’m feeling good about your life choices right now?’

Allie grinned at this honest and funny response.

‘And sorry,’ Will said, squeezing her hand. ‘I shouldn’t be boring you with stuff about my family.’

‘No, it’s fine,’ Allie protested, and then, before she could stop herself, ‘I’m happy to listen if you want to talk?’ Because she was. Even if the end result was bad for her, she found Will completely fascinating. And there was part of her that felt maybe it would be better if she knew exactly what Will knew about Martin’s situation.

Will stopped walking and pulled Allie round to face him. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her towards him. And then he lifted a hand to cup her chin and looked her in the eye. ‘Thank you,’ he said before he kissed her hard, pushing all thoughts of impending doom from her mind.

‘That wasn’t talking.’ She bit her lip and smiled.

‘It wasn’t?’ he asked innocently. ‘Sorry, I can stop if you want me to?’

‘Please,’ she whispered, ‘don’t.’

* * *

‘So you didn’t tell him?’

‘No,’ Allie snapped. ‘I didn’t tell him. We were at the cinema, it was one of those arthouse places. You know, the kind that frown on popcorn and chit-chat during the screening. I didn’t have a chance.’

There was a silence from the other end of the line which only made Allie even more aware that her excuse was pathetic. Of course, she could have told Will, of course she ought to have told Will. She’d had plenty of opportunities to do it, like immediately after she had realised who he was and who his father was. Or even when he was busily confessing to her his feelings about his father’s behaviour. Over the dinner they’d eaten after the movie would have been a good opportunity. There was no ban on talking during dinner. To be honest, a text informing him of exactly who she was to his father and how much she knew about his parents’ marriage would have been preferable to what she had actually done. Which was precisely nothing. And which was why she found herself panic-calling Jess, asking for her advice.

Jess eventually broke the silence. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me your writing partner was Martin Clark.’

‘That’s it?’ Allie queried. ‘That’s all you’ve got to say on the matter? And how the hell was I to know you would even know who Martin Clark is?’

‘Al, everyone knows who Martin Clark is. Tom?’ There was a muffled noise. ‘Do you know who Martin Clark is?’ Allie heard Tom confirm that yes, he too knew who Martin Clark was.

‘Jess? Am I on speakerphone?’

‘What? Yes. I’m driving. Say hi, Tom.’

‘Hi Allie,’ Tom said, somewhat wearily. ‘You OK?’

‘Not really,’ Allie said grumpily, ‘but you’ll have heard all about it already. Jess? Can you tell me next time you put me on speakerphone? What if I’d told you something I didn’t want Tom to hear?’

‘Like what?’ Jess sounded genuinely perplexed that there might be something that Allie didn’t want Tom to hear.

‘Oh, never mind. So, what do you think I should do?’

‘Do?’ Jess asked. ‘I think you should tell him. And I think you should tell Martin. Allie, you know this can’t end well.’

‘But what if he doesn’t want to see me again?’ wailed Allie. ‘I really like him! And I’m writing again. I can’t afford to jeopardise that.’ Allie thought of all those lovely words that had poured out of her onto her laptop over the last few days. A combination of the anecdotes Martin had been feeding her and the romance vibes with Will. Right up till she discovered who he was, and now she just felt awkward about seeing him, desperate though she was to do so. ‘And anyway,’ she continued defensively, ‘I think he’s doing exactly the same with me!’

‘Meaning?’

‘Keeping me at arm’s length. Honestly Jess, if he thought this was going anywhere why hasn’t he told me that it’s his catering business? Why hasn’t he told me his dad is a novelist too?’

‘I thought he did tell you his dad was a writer?’

‘Well, yeah, but he did it in such a way that I then couldn’t ask him about it. He’s pretty closed off at times.’

‘Have you tried asking him why?’

‘No!’ exploded Allie. ‘It’s becoming quite hard to ask him about anything right now, what with all the things I know about him but am not supposed to know about him.’

‘Which brings us straight back to the point, that you should tell him,’ Jess said emphatically.

There was a silence before Allie shot back, ‘Yeah, well anyway, he’s going away for a couple of weeks, some work thing in York, but as he’s good at keeping his cards close to his chest,’ she said pointedly, ‘he hasn’t told me much about it. So I won’t have the opportunity to tell him before he’s back.’ Allie could hear Jess’s eye roll down the phone. ‘I don’t want to do it over the phone,’ she insisted, before Jess could call her out on this nonsensical excuse. ‘Better to do it face to face, right?’

‘Better to have done it as soon as you found out, I’d have thought.’ Jess replied drily. She sighed. ‘You’re not going to tell him, are you?’

‘No.’ Allie sounded more confident than she felt. ‘Not until he’s back. Anyway, speaking of writing—’ they weren’t, but it was an exceptionally handy moment to end the call ‘—I have to go, I’ve got a meeting with Jake Matthews’ assistant right now.’

‘OK.’ Jess sounded sceptical. ‘But Al? I want it put on the record that I think it is a really really bad idea not to tell Will. And I’m going to struggle not to say I told you so if you refuse to listen to me. OK?’

‘Fine,’ snapped Allie. ‘Where are you going anyway?’

‘Oh, just out for a drive.’

‘In the middle of the day? Don’t you two have jobs to do?’

‘Gotta go, losing my signal…’ Allie heard the distinctive tone of Jess putting her phone down. She sighed. She knew Jess was right, of course she was right. There was no way that this was going to end well once Will found out who Allie was, and that Allie had known about the connection and not told him. But there was a small part of her that hoped he might understand and that she might get a little more of her novel written before the whole thing fell apart. She wasn’t sure which she was more invested in, Will or her novel, and she was feeling really rather riled that the universe seemed insistent that she choose one or the other. Stuffing down all of these feelings, she took a deep breath and pushed through the revolving doors of Brinkman’s and hoped that Tessa hadn’t booked the same meeting room as the one in which Jake had delivered his devastating news, as she wasn’t sure she could cope with the flashbacks.

Allie was taking the mission to unseat Jake, free Tessa from his tyranny and get Verity her job back incredibly seriously and had been consistently buttering Tessa up over Messenger for several days. Tessa had seemed confused at first by Allie’s questions but now seemed really rather pleased to be counted as someone who might have a valuable opinion on one of the books that Brinkman’s was publishing. Which Allie thought showed how very little autonomy Jake had given her so far, and proved an interesting chink which Allie might be able to exploit – all in the name of freeing Tessa from the evil influence of Jake, of course. In actual fact, during their many messages Allie had begun to feel something akin to fondness for Tessa, not to mention very sorry for the working conditions under which she operated. Even in the brief time they had been corresponding, Tessa had managed to let slip several incidents which would not go down well in front of a workplace tribunal. Allie was making a mental note of all of these and hoping that with a little persistence and some charm, she might just be able to get Tessa to deliver the fatal blow which would bring Jake’s reign of terror to an end. Or, at the very least, get him to behave in a more acceptable manner and get Verity her job back.

Luckily for Allie’s post-traumatic stress, Tessa had arranged for them to meet in a different meeting room. A smaller one, she noted, one with no outside windows. Someone as lowly as Tessa probably wasn’t allowed to book one blessed with access to daylight. But Allie didn’t mind as the very nature of the conversation she planned to have with Tessa would work best in a small, confined space.

‘Thanks for seeing me,’ Allie said warmly as she followed Tessa into the room. ‘I know I could have just left it at emailing you the first part of my draft, but to be honest, I really wanted to pick your brains on what you think.’

‘Of course,’ she said smoothly. ‘I’ve loved what I’ve read so far,’ she went on gushingly.

‘You have?’ Allie tried to keep the note of surprise from her voice. But the truth was, she was surprised. Allie had been floundering in the realm of writer’s block for so long that she no longer trusted her gut on her own writing. But Tessa seemed fairly genuine, or as genuine as Allie thought her capable of being. Despite feeling some sympathy with Tessa’s situation, Allie couldn’t hand on heart say she truly had faith in her judgement.

‘I mean, I think there are things we can iron out and work on during the editorial process.’

‘Yeah, about that,’ Allie said quickly, keen not to get Tessa started on the very real issues and plot holes in the story she had written so far. ‘Do you know yet who Jake plans to have edit it? I mean, I am presuming he won’t have the time to do it himself.’ She chuckled knowingly, trying to pull Tessa into camaraderie.

‘Jake doesn’t edit.’

Of course he doesn ’ t, thought Allie. He wouldn’t know a good editor if they came up and slapped him in the face, and she would put money on there being a long line of editors willing to test this theory. She wasn’t absolutely certain that Jake would truly understand what a physical book was. He probably thought it was something used for decoration in tea rooms and National Trust properties. Jake probably only read on screens, and never a book, possibly long-form essays if they especially piqued his interest in climbing the corporate ladder and obliterating all who stood in his way. But actually, his main source of information was probably the Financial Times and Reddit forums. Which said it all really.

‘Of course,’ she said smoothly, keeping all these dark thoughts from Tessa. ‘So, any clue who it might be?’

Tessa blushed, looked down at her hands and then fiddled nervously with her sleeves, Allie watched her in fascination, wondering if the real Tessa was about to make an appearance. ‘Well, erm, I was kind of hoping… I mean I haven’t actually asked Jake yet … and he hasn’t mentioned it … and I’m sure he has someone very experienced in mind…’

Allie wondered how long to let Tessa flounder before she threw her a lifeline and in the end, she couldn’t stand to watch for very long. ‘Do you want to edit it?’ she asked gently.

Tessa looked up in surprise. ‘Oh! I mean, I would LOVE to. Would you want me to?’

Allie thought for a minute. Really she wanted Verity back. But probably the only way that was going to happen was if they got rid of Jake. And to get rid of Jake she needed to get Tessa to divulge everything she knew. And a really, really good way of getting her to do that was to spend more time with her, which she could easily do, if Tessa was to edit her book. She gritted her teeth, hoping that Tessa’s editorial skills were up to the task.

‘I think you would do a brilliant job.’

Tessa looked like she might cry. ‘Thank you!’ Maybe Tessa was a good kid after all, maybe she had just been under the influence of Jake for too long. And maybe she didn’t have a huge amount of experience, but perhaps Allie would be doing the right thing by allowing her to demonstrate what she was capable of. And it might go some way in assuaging Allie’s guilt over the fact she knew that really she was using Tessa for her own ends.

Tessa barely paused for breath before she launched into all her thoughts so far about Allie’s book. And they weren’t all bad, she made some half-decent points about the plot and the character dynamics, which Allie thought she might actually take on board. ‘But what I really love about it are the two central characters. It’s actually pretty nice to think that even old people might fall in love.’

Allie winced at her choice of words and wondered exactly what Martin, and for that matter Angie, would think to be described as such because, as had become increasingly and uncomfortably apparent to Allie, while she wasn’t using their story verbatim, it was a hundred per cent the central hook of her story. And although they were definitely only holding names and she planned to change them, so far this draft’s central characters were called Martin and Angie.

‘I think,’ Allie said carefully, ‘I think it might be best to pitch it as second-chance romance, reigniting the spark so to speak – rather than romance for old people.’

‘Oh yes, yes of course,’ Tessa agreed enthusiastically. ‘But I do just love them both. I mean Martin is so grumpy and blind and Angie just so slay that at first you wonder how on earth they ever ended up getting together. But then as the story unfolds you see how they used to be, and how they lost their way. I really hope they will find it again, please tell me it has a happy-ever-after!’

Allie laughed at the pleading note in Tessa’s voice and couldn’t fail to be touched by how much Tessa seemed to have taken Martin and Angie to heart. And how well Allie must have drawn them for Tessa to describe them so precisely. Perhaps Tessa had previously undiscovered depths and capacity for feeling, and maybe all she really needed was a little time away from Jake.

‘Don’t worry,’ Allie said soothingly. ‘They get their happy-ever-after. I mean, that’s what we all want don’t we?’

Tessa practically sighed with relief.

‘So, what’s the next step?’ Allie asked. ‘Do you ask Jake about editing? Do you think he’d be open to the idea?’

At the very mention of Jake’s name, Tessa seemed to do a 180-rotation. Her face closed up, her hands clenched, her body went all stiff and boardlike. Really, it was quite the fascinating anthropological study if it hadn’t been so downright disturbing.

‘Are you ok?’ Allie asked. ‘You seem a little, erm, nervous about talking to Jake?’

There was a long pause and Allie wondered if she had pressed too hard too fast, but just as she was about to give up all hope and just ask Tessa to email her with any updates, Tessa let out a slightly strangled noise. ‘He’s not that easy to talk to,’ she said and then cast a terrified look at the door, as if Jake might materialise there at any moment.

You don ’ t say, Allie thought to herself, but managed instead to verbalise, ‘Oh wow, it must be kind of tough to have an unapproachable boss.’

Tessa seemed to visibly deflate, as if one sympathetic comment from Allie had released all the fight from her. ‘It really is,’ she squeaked.

Allie pulled what she hoped was a sympathetic expression but stopped short of reaching over and taking Tessa’s hand, because this was still a business meeting, despite the nefarious therapy set up that Allie had engineered to get Tessa to talk.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Allie said soothingly, ‘how long have you worked for him?’

‘Eighteen months,’ Tessa said miserably, making it sound like a life sentence.

‘That’s a long time.’

‘It really is. And do you know what? I don’t actually think he’s said one nice thing to me in all that time. Unless you count good morning, and to be honest, with the tone he uses, I don’t think he actually means it.’

‘Do you have colleagues you can talk to?’

‘God no!’ Tessa looked horrified. ‘I mean, I’m sure they all think the same but we’re all too scared of him to say anything.’

‘Why?’ asked Allie, genuinely interested in how one person could invoke such a powerful wave of fear and misery that a reasonably large coterie of people all refused to speak up and challenge him. And there was a small part of her that was impressed Jake could have this effect. Imagine what could be achieved if his power could be harnessed for the good? And then she remembered it was Jake Matthews that she was thinking of, whose powers were beyond the reach of goodness.

‘Well, this is just me. I don’t know about anyone else. But I feel that if I get on the wrong side of Jake, he’ll fire me, and I’ll never work in the industry again.’

Allie thought how closely Tessa’s words echoed those of Verity who still feared the same thing, despite not even being employed by Brinkman’s anymore.

‘That seems, erm, a bit paranoid? Surely you could just look for another job?’

‘I can’t!’ Tessa gasped. ‘I mean … what if … he might…’

Allie held her breath and prayed that this would be the confession she was after. Tessa would tell her all about Jake’s hold over her, the fact he used her to get his drugs, and presumably then threatened her with all sorts of legal and personal ramifications if she was to ever tell anyone. And once she had confessed it all, Allie could deal with the fallout; she would need to carefully handle a tearful Tessa, lots of reassurance and comfort, and then just at the right moment, when she had built Tessa back up, given her the confidence she so needed, she would go for the kill and persuade Tessa to blow the whistle on Jake, and bring his reign of terror to an end. Or something along those lines. The finer points definitely needed some work.

What actually happened was Tessa’s phone began to ring, interrupting whatever she may or may not have been about to divulge to Allie. She saw the name on the screen and vigorously wiped her teary eyes, taking a deep breath and visibly steeling herself before she answered.

‘Jake,’ she said so smoothly that you would never have imagined that literally thirty seconds before she was a shaking mess, about to confess all sorts of misdemeanours to Allie. ‘Absolutely,’ she confirmed. ‘I’m just finishing up. I’ll be with you in five.’

Tessa stood, picking up her notebook and phone. ‘Thanks for coming, Allie, I’ll email you with Jake’s decision soon. And keep up the writing.’

Allie watched Tessa, alarmed at how quickly and convincingly she had managed to switch characters, and left the meeting wondering which one was the real Tessa.