Chapter Thirty-two
Thirty-two
‘I don’t know what you gals were thinking with that pitch, but I had some fast explaining to do once you’d gone,’ Brooke said, exasperated.
It hadn’t taken long for the jury to deliberate.
‘A couple of slides got mixed up,’ I said, glumly, not even bothering to fake smile.
‘Well, however bad you thought it was, double it. I was mortified. Greg made me walk him through the whole pitch process to prove you’d had the same brief as Amplify because he couldn’t believe it. Your work made him question my professional capability.’
‘I’m so sorry we put you in that position, Brooke.’ Heidi was furious.
‘Too late for apologies now. It was a horror show, but what’s done is done.
And with that said, I hate to deliver bad news, but you must be expecting it.
We’ve appointed Amplify as our agency of record going forward.
I’d have been sorry either way as I was rootin’ for ya’ll on both sides – I really was. ’
Brooke had waited till 5 p.m. to put us out of our misery.
We’d known the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ was coming, of course, but to hear it officially confirmed was still a gut punch.
And just the beginning of a whole world of shit.
Telling the team, making people redundant, handing all our files over to those smug-faced cheats, and then finding a new job myself.
I had a few thousand in savings, but that wouldn’t get me very far on London rent.
‘Needless to say, we are very disappointed to hear that,’ Heidi said, pulling the spider phone close. ‘And this isn’t my normal approach in any situation, let alone a pitch, but I feel compelled to tell you there’s been some dirty tricks at play with Leo and Zach.’
I pulled a panicked face, worried what she might say next. Not that it could do any more harm than had already been done.
‘Dirty tricks? In what way?’
‘We didn’t want to cause a scene in front of Greg, so out of pure professionalism we kept quiet during the meeting, but I’m sorry to say the idea they presented was ours.’
‘What?’ she shrieked. ‘How can it have been?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve left messages for Leo, but he’s not returning my calls.’ Heidi said, clicking her tongue. ‘Funny that.’
‘We thought you should know before we take it any further,’ I added, trying to soften the tone.
‘That’s the real reason our pitch was such a shambles.’
Brooke tutted. ‘Now, now, Heidi, darlin’, you gotta take feedback as a gift in this game. Amplify won the deal fair and square, and nobody likes a sore loser.’
‘It’s true!’ I blurted. ‘That line was mine. I said it to Heidi myself. I don’t know how they knew what we were working on, but unimaginable moments was our line. With very different executions of course.’
‘Very different is one way to describe them. I’ve never been so embarrassed. Look, ladies, it’s a valiant attempt to switch the conversation up but I’m afraid the decision has been made. I need to run as I’m on another call in five.’
‘Can I just…?’ Heidi tried.
‘Sorry, sweetie, I really have to go,’ Brooke said firmly. The conversation was over. ‘But let’s grab dinner next week, hey? I want to thank you both properly for all the work you’ve done for Excalibur Cruises over the years. No hard feelings, y’all. Bye for now.’
‘Byeee!!!’ We put our best cheery voices on as she hung up, then Heidi slammed her hands on the table and screamed. She looked about ready to hurl her coffee cup at the wall.
‘Over the years?’ Heidi spat. ‘As if Excalibur has been an insignificant side project – not the bedrock of my business and ten years of my life. Get me Leo on the phone. NOW.’
I jumped at that. I couldn’t help but think this was all my fault somehow.
Leo must have seen something in one of my notebooks or maybe I’d said something that gave our idea away.
The only in-the-flesh connection between their team and ours was the two of us.
This was my comeuppance for fraternising with the enemy.
But I couldn’t let Heidi find out on a conference call or through some other random route.
I’d be losing my job now anyway, so there was nothing more to lose.
She may as well hear all the bad news at once.
I put the business card he’d given me in Madeira on the table and traced the outline with my fingers.
‘Go on then, hurry up! What are you waiting for?’ Heidi shrieked, standing up and striding up and down the boardroom. I’d never seen her so angry.
I shrank back in my chair, feeling like a total traitor. ‘Before we call him, there’s something I need to tell you.’
Heidi whipped round to face me, her eyes glassy. ‘What?’
Eek. This didn’t feel like the ideal time for a tell-all confession, but it was too late to change my mind now. I had to put my big-girl pants on and do it.
‘I’ve been racking my brains trying to work out how they could possibly have known what we had planned and I can only think of one thing.’
Heidi’s eyes widened, as she waited for me to continue.
I smiled, nervously. ‘It’s a funny old situation really…’
‘Cut to the punchline.’
‘Leo and I got together on the cruise,’ I blurted out as fast as I could to get it over and done with. ‘I’m so sorry, Heidi, I know it’s a huge no-no and I feel awful about it. He must have seen something when he stayed at the hotel with me in Lisbon.’
She stood completely frozen, so I carried on babbling.
‘Although the timing doesn’t feel right as I thought we’d only briefly talked about it by then.
I can’t work out what he would have seen.
But maybe I’m misremembering. It was a hectic two weeks; I can barely remember what happened when.
Shall I just get him on the phone and we can ask him ourselves? ’
Heidi nodded, seemingly much calmer despite my revelation, and I silently dialled his mobile while she drummed her nails on the table.
We sat and listened to the phone ring out until it clicked into voicemail, with Leo’s charming voice and affable invitation to leave a message unintentionally rubbing salt in the wound.
There was nothing we could do today, we’d have to wait.
‘They’re probably out celebrating,’ I muttered, feeling sick at the thought.
‘Those fuckers!’ she screamed, ripping Leo’s business card into tiny bits.
‘I’m so sorry, Heidi, this is all my fault.’
‘You’ve got nothing to apologise for. You’re not the sneaky rat who stole someone else’s idea and palmed it off as your own. Leo has played you like a fiddle and first thing Monday morning we’re going to have it out with him. Let’s meet outside their office at seven.’
I nodded. ‘Good idea. This conversation needs to happen face to face. I want to watch them try and lie about it.’
‘They can ignore our calls, but they can’t ignore us setting up camp in their reception.’
‘I’ll bring our original pitch boards and anything else I can find,’ I said, thinking of all the flipcharts we’d scribbled on in the brainstorming sessions, then threw away. Not that we needed to prove anything to them. They bloody well knew. It was Brooke we had to convince.
‘I need a drink,’ Heidi sighed, putting her head in her hands. The rest of the office had cleared off for the weekend, and it was just us left.
‘I’ve got a bottle of Zinfandel on my desk,’ I said, feeling weary. ‘For emergencies.’
Heidi wrinkled her nose. ‘Cheap pink plonk? It’s not that desperate, is it? No, let’s go next door.’
There was a wine bar on the corner of the road and it was impossible to walk past without popping in for a quick glass.
There was always someone from the team sat in the window, beckoning me inside.
Not that I was ever hard to convince – not normally anyway.
I loved a few wines and a Nando’s on the way home.
The Farringdon pavements were teeming with red-faced city boys, swigging pints and shouting at each other through clouds of smoke.
The air was thick and gloopy, and I was hot, bothered and fucked off.
It was officially the weekend and I wanted to be out with my real friends, not sat in a sweatbox listening to Heidi bitch and moan.
Heidi pushed her way to the bar, and the beardy barman with the tattoo sleeves served her immediately. There were occasional perks to the amount of money we all spent in there. She passed an ice-cold glass of wine through the crowd, and we found a spot of wall near the loos to lean against.
‘Cheers!’ she said, sarcastically. ‘Here’s to working our bollocks off and getting no reward.’
‘They don’t deserve us,’ I said, taking a sip and closing my eyes.
It tasted a lot better than a mug of warm rosé.
Ordinarily I found the hubbub in the bar buzzy and exciting, but tonight it was noisy and annoying – what I really needed was some peace and quiet.
I couldn’t wait to get home, kick off my shoes and sink into a bubble bath.
My wine was delicious though, and I could make my excuses after one glass and head off.
Heidi was drinking twice as fast as me anyway, so we’d be done in half an hour if I stayed focused on necking it.
‘I need to talk to you about a couple of things, Kat,’ Heidi said, suddenly serious, and my stomach clenched. ‘This is hardly the ideal setting, but having reflected on your confession it needs to be said so it’ll have to do.’
Was she going to give me notice right now? In the pub? I took another gulp of wine to prepare for the inevitable.
‘First of all, I haven’t been entirely honest with you about my relationship with Zach, and I think it’s time to come clean.’
‘Your relationship?’
Her ears turned pink as she nodded. She swallowed awkwardly.
Almost as if she was… squirming. I’d never seen this side of Heidi before.
‘We… er… used to work together, as you know,’ she started, slowly.
‘Years ago, though – yonks and yonks. It must be… well, ten years now.’ She lifted her glasses and narrowed her eyes, studying her wine glass intently.
‘Right…?’