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If necessary she would take her work to a higher authority, consult Brad direct... Either that or wait until Tim came back.
Drawing herself up to her full height, she glared haughtily at Kyle, burning him to cinders with the full furnace-blast of her contempt as she told him, ‘I think, in the circumstances, it would be better if I put the campaign on hold until Tim returns. I can’t—’
‘No.’
‘No...?’ Star stared at him.
‘Oh, I know what you’re thinking,’ Kyle told her. ‘You think you can wheedle your way round Tim and get him to give his agreement to your proposals, but it won’t work. Brad is anxious to get things moving as quickly as possible. He’s given me the authority to take on board any extra help I think I might need in doing that if necessary.’
Any extra help. Star gave him a suspicious, narrow-eyed look. Was he threatening to go over her head and employ someone else to run the PR campaign?
‘I have a contract,’ she reminded him, just in case he had forgotten.
‘Indeed,’ Kyle agreed blandly, ‘and I think if you read it you will discover that there are certain time clauses in it and certain contractual agreements which include the right of the company’s representatives to veto your work...
‘I do understand how you feel about my sex, Star,’ Kyle added, more gently, ‘and why you’re letting your prejudices distort reality... Have you ever thought that counselling might help you to get things more into perspective, to let go of the past and—?’
‘Go to hell,’ Star told him rudely, picking up her work, her muscles straining against its weight as she manoeuvred herself towards the door.
When she reached it she turned back and looked at Kyle, determined not to let him have the last word or to feel that he had vanquished her in any way...any way!
‘I don’t care what you say, Kyle, you are just like all the rest of your sex—quite happy to cheat and lie, to deceive and hurt people, to do anything just as long as it allows you to do what you want to do—and I’m not deceived. I know what you’re really like and I’m going to prove it to everyone else as well...’
Kyle had started to frown as he listened to her passionately angry outburst, looking not at her any longer but down at his desk. Only when she had finished did he raise his head again, his expression unreadable as he commented calmly, ‘I see. So it’s war, then, I take it...?’
‘To the death,’ Star vowed, and meant it.
CHAPTER FIVE
STAR was still fuming over Kyle’s criticism of her campaign when she arrived home, and carrying the heavy story-boards upstairs to her second-floor flat did not help to improve her temper.
The communal landing which she shared with the other residents was not really designed to accommodate a woman of five feet six and weighing just a tad over eight stone plus two unwieldy, rigid pieces of board just that bit too deep to fit comfortably under her arm and too long to fit within her arm-span, and Star cursed under her breath as she banged her elbow on the wall.
She knew, of course, that it would have made much more sense for her to carry the boards upstairs singly instead of trying to move them both together, but she was still so infuriated by what Kyle had said to her that she just wasn’t in the mood for behaving logically.
Once inside her own flat she inspected her elbow and grimaced as she realised that she had broken the skin. By tomorrow she would have a terrific bruise there—one of the penalties of her particular type of skin colouring, something else to count as a black mark against Kyle. Well, he wasn’t the final authority and she would show him that she wasn’t going to let him push her around. Quickly she looked up Brad’s number, her fingers curling impatiently around the receiver, her voice crisply firm as she asked the telephonist who answered her call for Brad.
‘I’m sorry,’ the girl apologised, ‘but I’m afraid he isn’t available.’
When Star asked when he would be available and learned that Brad had taken Claire on a honeymoon trip sailing round the Virgin Islands, she thanked the girl and replaced the receiver.
No wonder Kyle had felt so confident about rejecting her work. He must have known that she wouldn’t be able to go over his head to Brad.
She frowned as she heard her doorbell ring, and went to open the door.
Sally was standing outside and her eyebrows lifted questioningly as she asked, ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I’ve just been trying to ring Brad,’ Star told her. ‘But he isn’t there.’
‘No, he and Claire are spending some time sailing around the Virgin Islands,’ Sally confirmed. ‘Lucky things... What did you want him for?’ she enquired curiously, her attention distracted by the story-boards propped up against the wall. ‘Are these for the campaign?’ she asked Star interestedly. ‘May I have a look or—?’
‘Go ahead,’ Star told her curtly.
‘Mmm...very sexy,’ Sally commented after she had studied them.
‘Sexy? According to Kyle they’re sexist,’ Star told her bitterly.
‘He doesn’t like them?’ Sally asked sympathetically.
‘He doesn’t like me,’ Star corrected her grimly. ‘If I’d known that I was going to have to work so closely with him...’ She pushed her fingers into her hair angrily.
‘God, when I think how he must have been smirking to himself there in Brad’s office, knowing that he was coming over here to take over from Tim and knowing, as well, that I didn’t know. It wouldn’t have mattered what kind of campaign I’d come up with; he would have rejected it.
‘My campaign is good, Sally. I know it will work...’
‘Mmm...well, couldn’t you perhaps compromise a little... perhaps have just a little less emphasis on the...?’
She made a sketchy gesture in the direction of the story-boards, causing Star to demand suspiciously, ‘What are you trying to say—that you think he’s right...that you agree with him...?’
‘No...of course not. I was just meaning that you could perhaps meet him halfway and—’
‘Give in to him, you mean. Pander to his male ego. Let him think that he’s won. Never!’ Star told her fiercely. ‘Men are all the same,’ she proclaimed bitterly.
Sally sighed.
‘Star, isn’t it time you let go of the past?’ she suggested gently. ‘Kyle was saying only the other night that—’
‘You were talking about me to him?’ Star pounced on her words, her face suddenly flushing angrily. ‘What were you saying? What did he say?’ she demanded peremptorily.
‘No, Star, it wasn’t?
??’ Sally protested, but Star wouldn’t let her finish.
‘No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I don’t care what he thinks about me or—’
‘Look,’ Sally cut in quickly, ‘I only came round to tell you that we’re having a barbecue next weekend so that we can introduce Kyle to a few people. It will be lonely for him living over here and you remember what I was saying about trying to find someone nice for him...? Well, what about Lindsay? She’s on her own now, isn’t she? And she’d be perfect for him. She’s such a wonderful home-maker and so sweet and gentle, and now that her marriage is over—’
‘It isn’t over,’ Star snapped. ‘They’re only separated, not divorced.’
She had no idea why the thought of Lindsay as a potential partner for Kyle should make her feel so... so...so intensely antagonistic—probably because she disliked him so much herself.
‘You will be able to make it, won’t you?’ Sally was asking her. ‘I know it’s short notice but—’
‘No, I won’t,’ Star told her shortly, and refused to meet Sally’s eyes as she told her, ‘I...I’m going to see Mother. I owe her a visit and—’
‘It’s all right; I understand,’ Sally told her quietly. ‘I’d better go; I’m going to visit a friend who’s just had a baby boy. He’s so sweet and everyone who meets him just adores him...even Chris. I think he’s beginning to come round to the idea of us starting our own family...’
Star was surprised to find her eyes stinging with hot tears after Sally had said goodbye.
She knew that Sally had not believed her when she had claimed that she was going to see her mother, but it wasn’t just that. Somehow, these days, their friendship just wasn’t the same, and she knew who to blame. How dared Kyle take it upon himself to discuss her with her friends? And what exactly was it that he had said to them about her?
