Page 28 of The Cottage in the Highlands

I was cut short by Athena’s brisk efficiency. “Ursula. How is the feature going on glass thongs?”

I found myself wincing. Dear God! Seriously? Was that a thing?

Then it was Dyson’s turn. “Where are you at with the interview we were hoping to secure with James McAvoy?”

The speed of the individual conversations was unnerving, like rapid gun fire. Athena appeared either satisfied or would draw in her lips and grind out further instructions. She swivelled her gamine cut to Orion. “Our new investigative reporter starts today. Make sure she has everything she needs.”

“Of course, Athena.”

A pinch of resentment nipped at me and I tried to brush it off. So, she was starting work here today too. I wonder who the successful candidate was? Where had she worked before? Well, wherever that was and whoever she might be, Athena had considered her better suited for the job. It did still smart, but oh well. There was diddly squat I could do about it now and at least I had a job, even if it wasn’t the one I had been hankering after…

“Leonie. Are you listening?”

I jumped, bashing my knees against the underside of the glass table. Shit!

Athena was talking to me now. Colour clawed at my cheeks as everyone turned to look at me. I pulled my notebook closer to me. “Yes. Absolutely.”

She frowned. Great. I’d been here all of five minutes and managed to irritate my new boss already.

I risked a look at the other faces surrounding me, then wished I hadn’t. Trixie with her Rapunzel extensions; Cole and his biceps; Ursula sporting a withered expression; and Dyson, who finished examining his manicure, to give me a cool once-over. It was like they were a bunch of schoolkids who had captured a rare insect and were peering it. Guess who was the insect?

“As I was saying,” began Athena again with added emphasis, “now that we have a new beauty writer here in Leonie, we can return to our original feature plan.” She paused for effect. There was a ripple around the table. “So, Leonie, your fist assigned feature is to arrange the biggest and most prominent beauty feature we have seen here at Goddess.”

My mouth began to slip open in panic.

“We have signed the three top models of the moment – Esther Drew, Dante, and Carina Salazar – to appear in this feature for our Christmas issue. They will be wearing the latest Avanti cosmetics. I wasn’t happy with your predecessor’s ideas for location and theme for this. Suggestions, Leonie?”

My heart took off at a gallop. Talk about being thrown into the thick of it. I blinked as a tide of panic threatened to engulf me. Images of the three well-known models paraded in front of my eyes. So, no mentoring period for me then. No induction.

My mouth popped open and closed a few times. The gazes of my fellow magazine colleagues burned into me. Good grief! What was I supposed to say? This was my first morning working here and I was sitting here doing a wonderful impression of a gasping trout. I had to say something. “You mean, you would like some ideas now?” I croaked.

Athena managed to hitch one expectant brow at me, which was a feat in itself. “Yes.”

My mouth turned to sandpaper. How the hell could she drop something like this on me and then expect me to reel off an impressive array of ideas?! I wanted to say as much but drew it back.

Whether I liked it or not, I had been thrown in at the deep end without a rubber ring and I had to try and stay afloat. My brain raced to pull up something intelligent to say. I forced my mouth into a rictus smile. “It depends on the fashions.”

“Avanti,” repeated Athena with growing frustration, “is a brave and bold cosmetics brand. The clothes are secondary, but I envisage wispy, ghostly tunics and shirts. It’s all about the make-up.” She raked me up and down with a withered smile. “I take it you have heard of them?”

I swallowed, realisation festering. What the hell was I doing? I was out of my depth. But you need this job, reminded an echoing voice from the ether.

I pretended to glance at my notebook, even though I only had a doodle of a triangle and a cuddly bear on it. “Oh yes. Of course. Who hasn’t?”

“Well then?” she pushed, leaning forward against the table. “Suggestions?”

I had heard of the very expensive, sumptuous brand of cosmetics, favoured by the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Nicole Kidman, but it was somewhat out of my price range. I didn’t dare tell Athena that my cosmetic purchases were normally conducted during my weekly supermarket shop, where I would purchase a pretty rose-pink lipstick or my favourite coffee-coloured eye shadow for a fiver.

I raised my chin, hoping that this would make me seem far more confident than I was feeling. Right now, whenever I opened my mouth to say anything, it sounded like I was just saying “Flump”.

I scanned the bemused faces of my colleagues, who were clearly relieved it was me and not them making a spectacle of themselves.

There was a painting on the far wall of Athena’s office that depicted Glasgow’s Queen Street Station in the early 1900s. “Maybe we could have an old hotel lobby or a train station as the setting?” I gabbled, seizing on that sudden idea and clinging onto it like a slippery life raft.

Athena cut me off with a bored look. “Done to death, both of them. Can you come up with something else asap please? Thanks.”

Then she moved on to Carter, the graphic designer stationed opposite me.

I felt like slumping back in my chair and begging for oxygen. Bloody hell! The morning had only just begun and yet I was already drained!