Chapter Thirty-three
Thirty-three
‘Ladies! How lovely to see you,’ Leo said, when he finally arrived for work at ten past ten.
‘Can I get you a coffee?’ We’d been sat in their empty reception for nearly two hours, listening to the receptionist repeatedly answer the phone with a sunny ‘Amplify, good morning!’ I needed more than a coffee. I needed a Valium.
‘At last,’ Heidi said, curtly. ‘Can we go somewhere private to talk? With Zach as well if he’s around?’
‘Sure. Follow me.’ Leo looked fresh and fit in charcoal jeans and layers of hoodies.
Back to his non-client wear, although the Amplify offices reflected his sharp, cool vibe.
The team had standing desks with walking treadmills, like hamsters on wheels; presumably being forced to generate their own power.
With its slick jute flooring and huge paper lampshades it was like being inside an art installation.
Leo led us into their boardroom, which overlooked St Paul’s Cathedral, and gestured towards two boucle chairs around a large black table. ‘Did you say yes to coffee?’
‘Black, two sugars.’ Zach appeared in the doorway, looking wary. ‘The Northstar PR team on the premises, no less. Here to congratulate us I presume?’
Heidi ignored him and addressed Leo direct. ‘We’re not here for coffee or pleasantries. Let’s cut the bullshit, shall we? It’s just the four of us now and we all know what happened.’ I couldn’t bring myself to speak just yet, so I sat with my arms folded, glaring at Leo.
‘What bullshit?’ Zach sneered. ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about…’
‘Talk us through what you think happened and let’s take it from there,’ Leo said, gently.
‘You stole our idea, you smug prick.’ Eek. Heidi wasn’t pulling any punches.
Zach folded his arms. ‘Well, that’s something you’d know all about, isn’t it? You’ve got some nerve accusing us of that.’
‘Why would we steal your ideas when we had hundreds of our own?’ Leo added. ‘Including the one that won us the pitch.’
‘That was ours – you cheated.’ I couldn’t stay quiet any longer. ‘I literally said those words to Heidi. Unimaginable moments. They came from my brain.’
‘Yeah,’ Heidi chipped in from behind me. ‘It was a private conversation between the two of us.’
‘And yet Zach also said that very sentence to me,’ Leo countered.
‘Yeah, right,’ I said, rolling my eyes, although it did cause me to stop and think. Leo didn’t strike me as a liar. Was it possible Zach and I had come up with the exact same idea at the exact same time?
‘When?’ Heidi squeaked.
‘When, what?’ Leo frowned.
‘When did he say it to you?’
‘Don’t answer that.’ Zach marched over to the door and flung it open. ‘We don’t need or want your interrogation. We won the pitch fair and square, and that’s all you need to know.’
‘Hang on,’ Leo said. ‘I’m happy to have the conversation and resolve this. We’ve got nothing to hide.’
‘Mate, they aren’t the police,’ Zach scoffed. ‘Just a pair of sore losers. What’s the pitch score between us now?’
‘It was in Lisbon,’ Leo said, snapping his fingers. ‘You’d finally got a good night’s sleep, and we went to that hotel for the pastel de nata breakfast – the one you girls were staying in. You were delighted with yourself.’
Zach shook his head. ‘I don’t remember exactly when the idea came to me.’
‘Sounds like it was in Lisbon.’ Heidi repeated, giving Zach a look. She stepped in front of me to confront him face to face. ‘That’s interesting timing, isn’t it?’
He shrugged then started fiddling with the coffee machine, fixated on making himself a flat white. The grinding noise filled the room, drowning out Heidi’s questions.
‘I happen to know Zach barely slept at all the night we stayed in Lisbon. He was awake for most of it, in fact,’ Heidi said. ‘Because he was in my bedroom, in bed with me.’
‘What?’ Leo looked at her in shock and then over at Zach who pressed the coffee button again.
‘Which is by the by. It’s more that I’d sketched a few iterations of the “unimaginable moments” idea onto my notepad, which was in my room. Kat and I had had the conversation on our way to the hotel.’
‘In the cab,’ I added, thinking back.
Leo watched like a hawk as the conversation unfolded.
‘The two of us had had such a different twenty-four hours on Terceira Island,’ Heidi continued. ‘Our experiences were unrecognisable to each other even though we were on the same cruise.’
Zach necked his coffee with a scowl. ‘You can’t copyright an idea, Heidi, we both know that.’
‘You admit it then?’ she said, furious.
‘I ain’t admitting nothing, sweetheart,’ he replied.
‘Is there any truth to this?’ Leo asked, sliding his eyes from Heidi to Zach, who shook his head.
‘Wait a minute, I can prove the idea was mine!’ I said, fishing around in my handbag. ‘Here.’ I slapped down the coaster from the bar in Madeira, with my original scribblings. ‘These were the lines I was playing with before settling on “unimaginable moments”.’
Holidays as unique as you are.
See the world your own way, with Excalibur.
Greek for breakfast, Italian for dinner.
Excalibur Cruises: too good to imagine.
Unimaginable moments.
‘You could have written those down anytime,’ Zach said, swallowing hard.
‘Could she, Zach? Really? To what end?’ Heidi said. ‘Why would we lie?’
‘You tell me. It’s never stopped you before,’ he said, glaring at her across the table.
‘OK, I don’t know what’s going on here, but this is either an unbelievable coincidence, and you both had the same idea at the same time, or one of you is lying,’ Leo said, picking up the coaster and looking increasingly confused. If he was in on it, he was delivering an Oscar-worthy performance.
Heidi was livid. ‘Why won’t you just admit it, Zach? You won through cheating – which isn’t fair on any of us.’
‘Now you know how it feels.’
‘I knew it. I knew you weren’t over it. Is that what this is about? Payback for all those years ago?’
‘You say it like it was nothing. You ruined my career! I couldn’t get a job for months after you forced me to resign.’
‘Wow, I’m sorry, OK? But I thought we were way past all that.’
‘You might be, but I’m not. And no, it is not OK. A quick sorry after all these years doesn’t even come close. How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine, eh? To have your livelihood threatened?’
‘Aha! And there we have it,’ I said, jumping in.
Zach shrugged. ‘I had been thinking along the same lines, myself. It’s not exactly ground-breaking creative territory, is it? It all comes down to the execution.’
‘Except we couldn’t present our executions, because you’d used our line.’
Leo, who had been quietly observing, stood up and looked me in the eyes. ‘I’ve heard enough. Ladies, would you mind leaving us, please? Zach and I need to have a conversation.’
‘Absolutely. Although I will need to communicate the situation to Brooke,’ Heidi said, grabbing her handbag haughtily. ‘I can’t stay quiet on the matter forever. I’ll give you till the end of the day.’
‘Much obliged,’ Leo said, running a hand through his hair and following us to the door. ‘Thanks for coming over to see us.’
I almost felt sorry for Zach as he watched us leave. He looked completely defeated. How to piss off your boss, your client, and your side-shag in one fell swoop.
***
Heidi poured herself a second glass of wine. ‘We’ve got them by the balls, Kat,’ she said, eyes gleaming. ‘By. The. BALLS.’
I didn’t want to think about Zach’s balls. Or Leo’s for that matter. We’d stopped at the first pub we could find for a debrief and miraculously bagged a table for two amid the lunchtime rush.
‘Do you think Leo knew?’ I asked, twizzling my gin and tonic.
‘Inconclusive. He did seem surprised at the suggestion but no doubt they’re concocting some bullshit story to cover their arses as we speak. I’ve half a mind to phone Brooke right now, before they can get in front of it.’
‘Give him a chance,’ I replied, feeling suddenly protective. If Leo was innocent in all this, then it wasn’t fair to go over his head before he’d had chance to deal with it himself. ‘Zach didn’t seem too bothered about the accusations.’
Heidi had said she liked wild and imaginative men, but I’d assumed she meant windswept and rock-star-ish, not Zach’s poor-man version of Dr Who.
‘He doesn’t think he’s to blame – that’s why. He sees it all as a big game and obviously feels vindicated.’ Heidi took a gulp of her rosé. ‘Fancy holding a grudge your entire life like that. Weirdo.’
The busy hum in the pub went up a notch, as tables filled with hungry punters ordering ploughman’s and Caesar salads.
It was a roasting hot summer’s day and impossible to resist a pint or two.
I didn’t know what to think anymore. I was officially on notice if the Excalibur Cruises account went to Amplify, so what happened next was critical.
It was the difference between life carrying on as it always had and polishing up my CV to start looking for a new job.
But would Brooke really care either way?
She obviously had more than one reason to appoint Leo and Zach, and maybe she just wanted a change, regardless of who had the best pitch.
Heidi’s phone started bouncing around the table with Leo Kendrick flashing in big letters.
She pushed it towards me, wide-eyed. ‘You speak to him!’ she squealed. ‘I’ve had too much wine.’
I grabbed it and ran outside.
‘Hi, Leo, it’s Kat,’ I said, smoothly. ‘Heidi is currently indisposed.’
‘Sure. OK, fair enough.’ I heard him suck in a deep breath before speaking again.
‘Once you’d gone, Zach admitted it all. He didn’t see it as a big deal – well, not until I lost my shit.
He’s packing up his desk right now and will be suspended without pay until I decide what to do with him.
I wanted to speak to you and Heidi in person, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging.
Please believe me when I say I knew nothing about this and would never have presented the idea if I had.
I can only apologise for the whole situation.
For putting you through so much stress in the pitch and for not believing you as soon as you raised it.
This is not the way I do business, I can promise you that.
I’m so pissed off with Zach and absolutely mortified. ’
‘Hmph. Well, thank you for at least having the decency to admit it and call us so quickly.’
‘I’ve also spoken with Brooke to remedy the situation.’
I inhaled sharply. That was fast work.
‘I couldn’t have it on my conscience another minute. She was very understanding and kind, but almost dismissive – as if it didn’t really matter. I couldn’t have that, so I resigned the account.’
‘You did?’ I exhaled in shock, more impressed by the second.
‘Yup. We can’t go ahead under these circumstances – whatever Brooke says. If the idea was yours, then it’s yours. We have no right to the business.’
‘What did Brooke say, then?’
‘She wanted to meet up and discuss it, but I told her we were taking a step back. You guys should at least have the chance to present your original pitch before any further conversations are had.’
‘That’s very chivalrous of you.’
‘I can’t bear it when things are unfair. It’s one of my many foibles. If we don’t have integrity, then what’s the point?’
‘Honour among thieves.’
‘Something like that. Brooke said she’d call you, so Heidi might not want to be indisposed for too long, hey? You know how these clients can be.’
‘Thanks, Leo,’ I said, a lump in my throat. ‘I thought you wouldn’t care. This industry is so cut-throat – it’s nice to know some people still have morals.’
‘Sure. Just not Zach though, right? Good luck when you speak to Brooke and who knows what will happen – we might all end up working together.’