Edward put his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders.
‘No intentions, I promise,’ he said. The watery sunlight made him seem very pale and she saw how tired he looked.
‘Anyway, you go and have some thinking time and I’m going to do some work. You’re doing really well,’ she said and she saw Edward give a small smile.
‘We’re doing really well,’ he said with an emphasis on the first word. ‘It’s mutual, Eve, we could be a great team.’ He paused. ‘Editorially I mean.’
Eve nodded. ‘Of course, I didn’t think you meant otherwise. Thank you.’
Edward opened the door, allowing her to step through first. Now they were so formal with each other that Eve felt embarrassed.
She was so used to younger men crossing boundaries with her that Edward’s almost chivalrous behaviour was taken as something more.
Eve took off her coat and hung it on the peg near the kitchen door.
‘To work then,’ she exclaimed as though going into battle.
‘Once more unto the writer’s desk, dear friend, once more,’ Edward said and he disappeared down the hallway.
23
Eve’s phone rang as she was deep into a crucial chapter of Edward’s book. It was annoying how easily he told a story. Short, crisp sentences with an exceptional yet relatable vocabulary that allowed him to say so much. His book was a page-turner and, at times, when Eve read it she forgot she was supposed to be reading like an editor, not as a reader. The pace was thrilling, and the character insights made her want to be friends with the main character.
The phone rattled her and she took a moment to mentally come back into the room.
‘Zars,’ she said, happy to see her friend’s name on the screen.
‘Hey, guess what?’
‘What?’
‘Claudia’s pregnant.’
‘Oh wow, lovely,’ said Eve, trying to remember who Claudia was.
As though reading her mind Zara went on. ‘She’s the editor in young adult and they’re moving Peter from fiction there as he wants to work in YA – God knows why, so much angst or too many dragons – anyway, so there is a spot for a new editor and they’re recruiting in-house.’
Zara took a breath.
Eve sat up straight in her chair.
‘Oh God, okay, I have to go for it.’
‘Yes you do and Serena promised you would get the next editing gig, remember? She said it when you didn’t get Rami’s role.’
Eve snarled thinking about Serena’s double-cross. Rami was junior and had started a year after Eve, and yet she was promoted even after Serena had said Eve should go for the role.
Serena had said it was because she had too much work for Eve to do and she would be sure to get the next opening on the fiction team – and Rami would only be getting romance anyway, which Eve didn’t like.
This wasn’t true but Eve hadn’t argued. Eve was happy to edit anything other than Serena’s schedule for her teeth cleaning, waxing and eyebrow threading.
‘Okay, when is the email going out?’ she asked, opening her work email and scrolling through the demands from Serena that she had been ignoring for three days.
‘Tomorrow morning, so get your CV ready. This is your time to shine, woman. Later.’
Zara hung up and Eve stared at the computer screen for a moment. To get out from under Serena. To have her own list. To grow and nurture authors whose work she cared about. To champion from acquisition to best-seller list.Oh please make it so,she prayed to the goddess of junior editors, whoever that was.
And then she wouldn’t have to do jobs like this, working with handsome and charming authors who pretended to be interested in her to only find out he was interested in her boss.
