Suzette looked up from her desk. ‘Lily, get out of here!’ she hissed. ‘You’re in so much—’
‘You!’ Tony snarled, pointing a finger at me. ‘My office. Now.’
Well, this was going to be fun.
Murray followed me in. ‘Get out, O’Connell,’ Tony said tersely.
‘Oh, I’m not getting cut out of the glory for this.’ He was completely ignoring Tony’s vibe, using the jovial, blokey tone he used with the male contestants onWherefore. ‘What a twist, hey? They’re going to be talking about it for a—’
Tony slapped the wall so hard one of the awards on his shelf fell to the floor and smashed. ‘You fuckingbroke the show!’
‘No, we didn’t,’ Murray said calmly. ‘We’ve got it all sorted out. Cooper Pryce will be here—’
‘You.’
Tony jabbed his finger at me. ‘I know this was you, you little bitch,’ he snarled, flecks of spit landing on my face. ‘You think I can’t tell when your fingerprints are all over something? You think I don’t know you think you’re smarter than everyone else? You think I—’
‘Get that finger out of her face,’ Murray said, voice suddenly low, dangerous, threatening, ‘right now.’
‘O’Connell, I advise you to get the fuck out of here if you know what’s good for you.’
‘And leave her alone with you? Not a chance.’
Murray took a step forward, positioning himself between me and Tony. ‘You can fire her if you want. You’re the boss. But if you fire her, you’ll have to fire me too, because this was a joint effort – something I would, of course, be only too glad to communicate in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.’
Tony folded his arms. ‘So this is why you left your wife,’ he said. ‘She suck your dick that good, huh?’
I grabbed the back of Murray’s shirt with one hand, holding him back in case he did anything stupid, and took my phone out with the other.
Tony’s eyes flickered to me. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’
‘I just think it’d be helpful to have a record of this conversation,’ I said. ‘To show my lawyers in that wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Proof of hostile work environment, you know? Probably also sexual harassment – although I’m not sure if that’s technically harassment of me or you, Murray. What do you think?’
‘You could make a case for both.’
‘Plus, it’s always useful to have things on camera. We got a ton of footage last night. A lot of it on this very phone, in fact. And wouldn’t you know, it shows exactly who pulled off this incredible, innovative, game-changing stunt. I thought I might email some of it to Greg McDonagh. I’m sure he’d like to know who’s responsible for the spike in his ratings.’
‘I’m sure he’d also like to know that you weren’t there,’ Murray said.
‘Oh, good point. It’ll look great for you, Tony, the fact that two of your producers pulled this off without you having the faintest clue.’
Tony’s nostrils flared.
‘Or,’ I said, ‘you can rest on your laurels, as showrunner of a season with one of the greatest twists of all time, and thank your lucky stars we removed your racist, misogynist piece of shit nephew from the equation before he made himself look even worse.’
‘Youhumiliatedhim!’ Tony slapped the wall again.
Murray tensed.
‘Yes, I did,’ I said coolly. ‘And I’d do it again.’
‘I’m really sorry,’ Murray said to me, as we left work later that evening.
‘What for?’
‘The way Tony spoke to you. It was awful. Disgusting. If he does it again, there are going to be some serious fucking consequences.’
He ran his hand through his hair, tugging at the ends. ‘I’m just… sorry.’
