Darcy snapped her head back to look at her screen. Her emails hadn’t changed since she got in that morning, but she stared at them with ferocity. Anything to get away from Rose’s look of concern.
Rose was right. Celia didn’t know who she was. And why would she? Celia was a non-executive director and investor who only occasionally visited the office. Her role was to provide finance and business consultancy when needed.
Darcy was simply a marketing assistant, the lowest position in Honey at present. Even Darcy’s boss didn’t get to speak to Celia with any frequency. And Celia had no communication with the marketing department at all.
As much as Darcy watched Celia’s every move with captivation, it was probably true that Celia didn’t know her at all. And, if she did, it was simply as the marketing girl with long blonde curls.
“Maybe you should come out with me this weekend?” Rose suggested. “I’m going out with a couple of friends to a club. I know it’s not really your scene, but you never know, you might find your future wife there.”
Darcy chuckled bitterly. “I don’t think my future wife is going to be drinking Jägerbombs and… body popping… at a club.”
She looked up at the closed meeting room door. The person she wanted was on the other side of that door. Completely unaware that she existed.
“Body popping? Wow. Have you ever even been to a club?” Rose laughed.
“Once. The table was sticky, so I went home.” Darcy took a deep breath. “Do you have anything that I can use to go into the meeting or not? An important message or something I can pass to Fiona?”
“Sorry, nothing.” Rose did sound genuinely apologetic. While she didn’t agree with Darcy’s fascination with Celia, she was generally supportive. Something Darcy was grateful for.
“Fine. Then we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” Darcy pulled her keyboard towards her and started composing an email. She’d been happily putting it off for the last three weeks but now seemed like a great time to finally reply. Anything to change the conversation and get her mind off the meeting.
“Kim said she’s going to invite Chloe to lunch.”
“Hmm?” Darcy asked, still focusing on her email.
“Chloe. New girl.”
“Oh, yes.” Darcy looked up over her monitor. Wendy was sitting with Chloe, presumably giving her the introduction to the office that Natasha never would. She guessed that Chloe was around the same age as her, approaching thirty. She assumed Chloe wasn’t as desperate as she was to get to the arbitrary milestone.
Thirty sounded so much better than twenty-eight. Something seemed to change when someone was thirty, they were considered an adult, despite having legally been one for the past ten years. It was perception. And Darcy knew people perceived her to be young. Her childlike features, her long curly blonde hair, and being under thirty caused people to talk to her as if she were a baby.
“It’s going to be good to have a new member of our club,” Rose continued.
“We don’t have a club.”
“We do. It’s the young, cool kids club.”
“If that’s the case, then count me out. I have enough problems being taken seriously around here without being a member of that club.”
Rose sighed. “You know what I mean. Everyone else is, you know, older. Lucy, Fiona, and Tess are in their thirties. Pippa, Wendy, and Helen are in their forties. Celia’s… old.”
“She’s fifty-two, it’s not that old,” Darcy argued. “Not these days.”
“More than twice my age,” Rose commented.
Darcy turned around and pinned Rose with a glare.
Rose swallowed. “I’m going to…” She pointed to her screen.
“Excellent idea,” Darcy said.
Chapter Five
Wendy placed a stack of papers, crowned with a MacBook and a coil of cables, onto Chloe’s desk. Chloe nearly drooled at the sight of the MacBook. At last, no seven-year-old desktop the size of a set of encyclopaedias.
“Just a few bits of paperwork to go through,” Wendy said. She pulled up a chair from one of the nearby hot desks. “Nothing too dramatic. Health and safety, pension forms, next of kin, and the important bank account details for your salary.”
Chloe’s mind drifted. She’d have to put her mum down as next of kin. It was funny how life kept serving her reminders of broken-down relationships. Five years of putting one person down as her partner, her next of kin, her everything. And then suddenly she was back to listing a parent.
At least I have them both, Chloe comforted herself. She knew many people had no one at all to put on the dreaded form. Still, it was another stark reminder that her life wasn’t where she’d hoped and expected it to be. Five years ago, she would have thought she’d be married by now. Now she was living in a house share, half her life in boxes in her parents’ garage, eagerly awaiting her first salary so she could feel like a grown-up again.
Wendy organised the papers and put them in a metal in-tray on Chloe’s desk. “I’m sure you’ll have some time today to fill these in. Just pop them back to me by tomorrow evening. If you have any questions, then let me know.”
“Thank you, I’ll get them back to you as soon as I can,” Chloe promised.
She didn’t like outstanding tasks. She’d always been the kind of person who completed jobs as quickly as possible, so they didn’t hang over her head like a dark cloud.
Wendy handed her the MacBook and the cables. “I’ll leave all of that to you. If you need any help with setting it up, then you can ask Kim. I’m useless at anything technical!”
Chloe chuckled. “Oh, I’ll be fine.”
“Of course, you’re all digital,” Wendy joked. “Wires and all that come naturally to you, I suppose?”
“They sure do. I’ve always been good with technical things,” Chloe admitted.
“It’s a foreign language to me. My twins are only three and they already know how to use the television better than me.”
“My mum’s the same,” Chloe said. As soon as she said the words she worried that Wendy might take offence at being compared to a woman in her sixties. She glanced at Wendy, but the admin didn’t seem to care, or have even noticed, as she stood up and looked around the office.
“Let me show you around the rest of this place; it won’t take long.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
They walked back into reception.
“Because we don’t have the entire floor, we share the bathrooms and the kitchen with another office,” Wendy explained.
She opened the door to the Honey offices and stepped out into the communal hallway. She pointed to the glass door at the other end of the corridor.
“That’s B-Design Architects offices.” Wendy rolled her eyes. “They’re a little snobby.”
Chloe grinned. She could imagine.
Wendy gestured towards a door. “That’s the bathroom.” She walked farther up the corridor and into the shared kitchen.
Chloe followed her and looked around the room. It was tidy with modern appliances: a large fridge, a kettle, and a microwave. In the corner of the room, by the window, was a round table with six chairs.
“Most people eat at their desks,” Wendy explained. “Kim, Rose, and Darcy commandeer the table during lunchtime.”
“They invited me to join them,” Chloe said.
“Oh, good.” Wendy looked genuinely pleased. “I just have a sandwich at my desk, bad habit I know.”
Wendy opened the fridge. “We have the top two shelves. It’s cleaned out every two weeks on Friday, so if you leave something in there, it will be thrown away.”
Chloe knew about strict refrigerator rules only too well. It was a year since she’d lost a fancy salad box to a sudden office clean at an old job. She still mourned it.
Wendy closed the fridge door and opened the cupboard above the kettle.
“Oddly enough, all the Honey mugs are ours. Everything else is B-Design’s. Now and then Honey mugs go missing so I’m
sure they are taking them, but they deny it, of course.”
Chloe’s eyes lit up at the mugs.
“Would you like one?” Wendy asked knowingly.
“Could I have one? Like, to take home?” Chloe would drink out of it morning, noon, and night. Honey was a little like a religion for her.
Wendy nodded. “Absolutely. We all have them. Little known fact, the last order was done by Darcy’s predecessor. Lovely girl but dumb as a box of rocks. She put an extra zero on the last mug order. That was a year and a half ago and we’re still trying to give them away.”
“I’ll definitely take one off your hands,” Chloe said.
“Fab!” Wendy closed the cupboard. “I’ll grab you one from the stationery cupboard at the end of the day.”
“Bye, Wendy,” a female voice called out as they passed the kitchen.
Chloe turned around but just missed whoever it was.
“Bye, Christine,” Wendy called out in reply.
She gestured for Chloe to come closer. “That was Christine Thackery, she’s the CEO. She manages a few publications under the same umbrella, so she comes in maybe once or twice a month.”
“So… she’s a big deal?”
“She’s the big deal,” Wendy confirmed. “But you’ll probably never deal with her. Helen is the boss as far as we’re concerned. But Christine is Helen’s boss. Just so you know, in case you see her around.”
“I didn’t really see her,” Chloe admitted.
“I’ll flag her up to you next time she’s in.”
Chloe was glad for the heads-up. It would be just her luck to say the wrong thing in front of Christine, having no idea who she was. That was one of the problems with a new company, it took a while before you knew all the faces. Luckily Honey was quite small, so the chances of Chloe making a fool of herself were a little smaller than in a large company.
“That must mean the meeting is over, or nearly over. We better get back,” Wendy suggested.
As they walked towards the office, Chloe wondered about Christine’s presence and the mysterious meeting.
“So, Christine isn’t here often?” she asked.
“Not really, she pops in now and then to see how things are going.”
That didn’t soothe Chloe’s concerns. Wendy seemed to have a knack for making everything sound normal and reassuring everyone that there was nothing to worry about. She probably would have been great on the Titanic.
They walked back into reception. Chloe’s gaze immediately gravitated towards the meeting room door. It was still closed. Her earlier fear of having to meet her new colleagues was now replaced with fears over the sudden meeting and news of declining sales figures.
“So…” Wendy walked around her desk and sat down. “I’m wondering if there’s anything else I need to tell you or show you? I feel like I’m missing something.”
Chloe shrugged. “Bathroom, kitchen, laptop. I think I’m ready to get going. Well, once Natasha is out of the meeting.”
“There’s usually a staff meeting every morning at ten. Everyone can get caught up on where the current issue is, as well as any other news.” Wendy looked at her watch. “I doubt we’ll be having one today.”
While Wendy was doing her best to maintain a cool exterior, Chloe could feel the overall tension in the office. This meeting was unusual, and it seemed to have everyone on edge.
The meeting room door opened. The sound of the metal latch scraping against the plate caused everyone to look up anxiously.
A woman stepped just over the threshold. She wore a grey trouser suit and a crisp white blouse, she had short light-brown hair. She looked stunning.
Chloe’s eyes widened.
She’d only seen the woman for a couple of seconds and already she could feel the tell-tale start of the knot in her stomach. She found herself staring, relieved that she wasn’t directly in the woman’s line of vision.
No, no, no, please, no, she repeated over and over in her mind.
But it was useless. Her stomach clenched, and her palms sweated. All signs of the start of a Chloe Dixon crush.
Classic Chloe. The first day at work and already she had found someone to pine over. Probably someone happily married, and definitely unobtainable.
“Kim? Could you come in here please?” the woman asked, a faint Scottish lilt to her voice.
Kim grabbed her iPad, stood up, and followed the woman into the meeting room.
The door closed behind them.
“That was Helen. The boss,” Wendy explained.
Damn it.
Chapter Six
Kim stepped into the meeting room and closed the door behind her. She knew she’d be called in eventually. As PA to the editor-in-chief, it was inevitable.
“Take a seat, Kim,” Helen said, gesturing to a vacant chair beside Natasha.
Kim sat down. She set up her iPad in front of her. She glanced around the table at the unhappy faces, trying to get an idea of what was going on.
Celia and Helen sat next to each other on one side of the large, square table. In front of them were stacks of papers, old issues of Honey, and spreadsheets.
On the next side of the table sat Pippa and Tess. Pippa looked as pissed off as ever. She was reclined in her chair as if the company didn’t deserve her interest. Her jaw twitched as she ground her teeth. On the other end of the editing team spectrum, Tess smiled at her in greeting. Kim smiled back, relieved to see a happy face.
The final side of the table held Fiona and Lucy. Fiona acknowledged her presence with a slight nod of her head. Lucy remained invested in a piece of paper she was reading.
Kim couldn’t blame her. They’d been dating for three months and were still finding their feet on how to act around their teammates. Most of the time Lucy handled the awkwardness by completely ignoring Kim. Some people might have been offended. Kim thought it was adorable. They were lucky to work in a small office with no HR department to speak of.
“Just to catch you up, Kim,” Helen started. She handed over a few sheets of paper. “The last quarter figures are down, this time more than we had anticipated. The circulation figures also continue their general trend in the wrong direction. We need to get things turned around before these issues become more serious.”
Kim looked at the papers. Red colours and minus figures filled the bottom lines of multiple spreadsheets. Working for the boss meant she was already aware of the financial situation.
It wasn’t exactly Honey’s fault. The magazine was good, and the quality of articles was better than many competitors. But the printed media market as a whole was in freefall. People were less and less likely to want to buy a magazine, and more likely to want to read on their digital devices.
Sure, Honey had a digital edition, but they’d been slow to adopt the expensive technology and were now in a game of catch-up for their lives.
The other major issue was the sheer amount of free content available online. With so many news, entertainment, and review sites all providing their articles for free, why would people want to buy magazines for the same content? Especially when that content was released once a month.
Kim had been watching the steady descent of readership and income since she started. At first, it was simply explained away as “market adjustment.” It soon became clear that this was actually a substantial shift in the way entertainment and news was consumed.
While the larger magazines could take the financial knock and move on, Honey couldn’t. Their market was small, their costs were already barebones. Honey had borrowed from other magazines in the past, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. They needed to be solvent in their own right.
It was only a matter of time before some kind of emergency measures needed to be taken. With Celia and Christine organising a last-minute Monday morning meeting, it seemed like now was that time.
“If there are cuts to be made,” Pippa interjected, “they won’t be found in editorial.”
Kim saw Helen take a calming breath. It
was clear this conversation had been had a few times already.
“Without editorial, there is no magazine to sell. Fact.” Pippa dropped her fountain pen onto her notepad. She folded her arms and looked at Natasha. “If there are savings to be found, I suggest we start with looking at digital, or marketing.”
Natasha calmly leaned forward. “Digital is providing a lot of revenue and helping Honey to grow. The stats clearly show that the paper edition is moving back, and the digital edition is moving forward. But it’s not enough to plug the difference. If anything, we need to be investing more in digital.”
Fiona nodded her agreement. “Exactly. And without marketing, you’d have no ads, it would be impossible to produce the magazine. Marketing has been stripped back to the bone, we can’t run properly as it is.”
Pippa laughed loudly. “Let me just count up my department… one moment.” She looked at Tess and then pointed to herself. “Two. And marketing has, how many? Four? We have twice as many people trying to sell the magazine as we do trying to make the magazine? That doesn’t seem right to me.”
“Shall we count how many freelancers you use?” Fiona threatened. “Yes, my headcount is higher, but your monthly costs outstrip mine. The things I could do with your unlimited budget; our issues could be solved tomorrow.”
“Thank you, ladies.” Helen held her hands up. “We’ve discussed this enough for the morning. I’ve brought you all up to speed on the situation. Now, I’d like you to all go away and think about any savings that can be made.” She levelled a look at Pippa and Fiona. “Within your own department, please. But more importantly, we need to consider ways to increase circulation figures. Reducing costs is only going to help as a stopgap measure to survive. I don’t want Honey to just survive; I want it to thrive.”
Everyone murmured their agreement.
Helen closed her leather personal planner. “We’ll meet again at the end of the week. Kim, can you arrange a time that suits everyone?”
“Sure.” She was already accessing the group calendar to see when that would be.
Climbing the Ladder Page 3
