Climbing the Ladder

by Amanda Radley

  “So, why don’t you like broccoli?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Chloe lied.

  It smelt like fart, that was the reason. But there was no way she was going to say that to Helen.

  “Personally,” Helen said, “I can’t stand cauliflower. Broccoli, I’ll tolerate, but cauliflower is essentially broccoli with none of the taste. Like dead broccoli.”

  Chloe laughed.

  “No way,” she argued. “Cauliflower is great. Broccoli just tastes like it’s gone off.”

  “You need cheese in order to make cauliflower at all palatable,” Helen said.

  “I had a cauliflower steak couple of weeks ago,” Chloe said. “It was really nice.”

  “I pity your taste buds,” Helen said. “Are you a vegetarian?”

  “No.”

  “Then why would you ever choose to have a cauliflower steak rather than an actual meat steak? It’s just a gimmick. How much was it?”

  Chloe laughed. “Expensive, considering it was a slice out the middle of the cauliflower that probably only cost a pound from Tesco.”

  Helen chuckled. “See? Gimmick.”

  “True, you’ve convinced me,” Chloe agreed.

  She hadn’t at all. The cauliflower steak was delicious. Maybe she’d just make it at home instead, though.

  “Your mum sounds nice,” Helen said.

  “Yeah, she is. But she doesn’t know when to stop talking, or when she’s embarrassing me.”

  “Well, I had a wonderful time, it was most entertaining.”

  “Yes, that’s what I was worried about,” Chloe said.

  “Don’t worry, your dislike of broccoli is safe with me.”

  “And your lack of understanding regarding cauliflower is safe with me,” Chloe replied.

  They fell into a comfortable silence. The residential street was quiet, birds were singing in the trees, and the evening sun was ducking behind the houses. Chloe couldn’t have planned a better moment, walking with her gorgeous boss on a warm summer night, sharing a joke.

  She soaked it up like a dry sponge, enjoying the carefree interaction. It wasn’t something she could get used to, or something she even expected to ever happen again. She knew she’d relive it in her memories. It had been a long time since she’d simply enjoyed someone’s company while being madly attracted to that person.

  But she knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. She wasn’t ready. Helen was in the middle of a divorce. Not to mention that Helen wouldn’t look twice at her.

  “Eloise Hayward,” Helen mumbled. “I can’t believe she’d stoop that low.”

  “It’s a shit thing to do,” Chloe said. A second after the words were out of her mouth she realised what she had said and slapped a hand over her mouth. She looked apologetically at Helen.

  Helen laughed loudly. It sounded magical. Rich, velvety tones which Chloe wanted to hear all the time.

  “It’s fine, feel free. As I said, we’re not in the office now. And you’re right, it is a shit thing to do. But I think I won, don’t you?”

  Chloe grinned. “You did, you really did.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Kim leant heavily on the glass door leading to the Honey office. It started to open, and she practically hung onto it and let it drag her into reception. She rubbed her eyes and let out a giant yawn. Wendy took one look at her and gently laughed.

  “Rough night?”

  “Yeah,” Kim said. She walked over to Wendy’s desk and sat in a spare chair. “Lucy and I spent hours talking about where to live. Like, literally, hours. And, I’m sorry to say that there is nowhere in London for us to live.” Kim threw her hands up in a defeated gesture.

  Wendy raised an eyebrow. “Nowhere, you mean all these people living in apartments, houses, and even houseboats, but there’s nowhere for you two to live?”

  “Yep.”

  “What’s wrong with where you live now?” Wendy asked.

  “It’s too small. Well, both our places are too small. I mean, I’ve been complaining about how small my place is since I first moved in. And there’s no way I could fit Lucy in my tiny apartment as well. It starts getting crowded when I have to get my winter boots out of storage. And having another human being there, as much as I want her there, full time with all her own stuff… it ain’t happening.” Kim rested her head on the cold metal of the filing cabinet beside Wendy’s desk.

  She wasn’t exaggerating, she was utterly exhausted. When they started researching places to live, they both thought the answer would be there, waiting for them to find it. But, as they continued to look, they realised that every single place they looked at had some kind of issue. Too small, too expensive, too far away from public transport, too close to noisy nightspots, too run-down. There was always something.

  “And Lucy’s place?” Wendy asked.

  “Same problem. Too small. And her landlord isn’t very nice. I don’t want to live there, he lives in the apartment over the way and he gives me, well, dodgy looks. So, we’re looking for something new. But there isn’t anything.”

  “Oh, now, come on.” Wendy shuffled some papers and stapled the top before placing the stack of paperwork in her out-tray. “There must be somewhere in London. You can’t have discounted everywhere.”

  “We pretty much have,” Kim said. “First, we had a debate about where in town we wanted to be. I love being central, but Lucy says she’d prefer to be somewhere a bit farther out, somewhere a bit quieter. But the farther out you go, the more expensive it is to travel into town. Yeah, the price of rent is cheaper, but I don’t have enough organs in my body to sell in order to pay for a Travelcard into work.”

  “Oh yes, cost of travel has been going up and up and up,” Wendy sympathised.

  “It really has, and it’s already nearly too much for us to afford.” Kim slumped further down in the chair. “It was meant to be easy, you know? We were going to move in together, everything would be great. But we can’t even agree on a place to live. Well, that’s not entirely true, there are places we both like, but unless we win the lottery...”

  Wendy rearranged some more papers. She looked at Kim over the top of her glasses. It was her trademark motherly I know better than you, don’t worry look.

  “Something will turn up,” she said. “It always does. You’ve only just agreed to moving in with each other. I know you want to hurry and get everything sorted out, just give yourself a little bit of time. The answer will present itself.”

  “I hope so,” Kim said. “I just… I don’t want it to be difficult. I know it’s early in our relationship, and I really want things to work. I don’t want there to be trouble early on.”

  She didn’t want Lucy to get cold feet and back out is what she meant. She didn’t have any indication that Lucy would. But it had been a short amount of time and already Kim was finding that the thought of life without Lucy was unbearable. She didn’t want there to be any reason for her girlfriend to think it would be easier to be apart.

  “When did you start worrying about things so much?” Wendy asked with a smirk. “Where’s the Kim Faulkner I know? The one who is so laid-back she’s almost asleep?”

  Kim laughed. “Well, she’s here, and she really is nearly asleep. I wasn’t kidding when I said we were up all hours talking about this.”

  She rubbed her face, thankful she hadn’t put any makeup on that morning. Wendy was right, it wasn’t like her to worry about stuff. She was always relaxed, chill. She wondered if the environment at Honey lately had caused her to become a bit more stressed. That was something she’d have to look at and work on.

  “Did you listen to the podcast last night?” Wendy asked.

  Kim shook her head. “No, I wanted a nice, quiet, relaxed evening with Lucy. We didn’t need the added stress of another podcast. Not that we had a nice, quiet, relaxed evening. We ended up going mad looking at different properties all over London. Did you hear it, though?”

  Wendy quickly shook her head. “I don’t know ho
w to podcast, it’s all a mystery to me. I’d probably quite like them, I’ve recently gotten into audiobooks, but I have to ask the man at the library to sort it all out on my phone for me.”

  Kim’s jaw dropped. She stared at Wendy.

  “What?” Wendy asked.

  “You get a man to put audiobooks on your phone? And I thought you were a feminist!”

  “I am a feminist,” Wendy said. “I also know my limits. If I need something technical doing, I ask one of you girls, or I ask my friend in the library. I had a dripping tap the other week, and I had a plumber come around to fix it. Men have to have their uses, otherwise they’ll get upset. We don’t want them moping around because women don’t need them anymore.”

  Kim chuckled. “Well, I suppose we’ll find out soon enough whether or not it was a success. And if we’re in for another horrible day in the office.”

  “I think this is the longest week there’s ever been,” Wendy said. “Thank goodness the heat is breaking, we’re supposed to have storms tonight. I’m quite looking forward to it. After all of this hot weather, I think I might stand outside in the rain.”

  The door opened, and Helen walked in. She had her briefcase in one hand, and a light summer jacket resting over her other arm. She looked at Kim, slumped in the chair.

  “Rough night?” she asked.

  “Yes, but not how you think,” Wendy replied on Kim’s behalf.

  Helen raised an eyebrow towards Kim.

  “Trying to find property in London,” Kim said.

  “Ah, my commiserations,” Helen replied. “I know it’s early, but can I talk to you?”

  “Sure.” Kim got to her feet and followed Helen through to her office. All the way she could feel panic rising up inside her.

  She knows, she knows, she knows, her mind unhelpfully chanted at her.

  Helen walked into her office and gestured for Kim to take a seat. She closed the door behind them and hung her coat on the coatrack. She placed her briefcase on the edge of her desk and sat down.

  “I’ve been sensing something between us is… amiss,” Helen started.

  Kim attempted to control her breathing, moderate her posture, and look like there was nothing wrong. She was distantly aware that she probably looked like she had recently been murdered and stuffed.

  “No, well… no,” she stumbled.

  “I was wondering if it was something to do with the email from Christine?” Helen said. She turned in her seat and snapped open the brass locks on her briefcase. She pulled out her MacBook and plugged it into the cables that dangled on her desk. “I left it there for you to see. I assume you saw it? Obviously, I can’t tell you anything directly, but I would hope that you would have seen it, and maybe… done something with the information you had?”

  Helen looked up.

  “You knew?” Kim couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not only did Helen know, she had wanted Kim to snoop on her email and report back to Lucy what she had seen.

  “Of course, we don’t have secrets,” Helen said. “My life is an open book, and you have access to everything. I’m fully aware that anything that comes into my email box is fair game. And when I saw the email from Christine...” She rolled her eyes. “Well, obviously I can’t warn Lucy myself, but I knew you could. And I hope you did. You did? Didn’t you?”

  Kim slowly inclined her head. “Yes.”

  “Good, and how is she getting on? Obviously, I can write a letter of reference. I mean, I don’t want to lose her, and I’ll fight tooth and nail for her. But it’s so like Christine to get a bee in her bonnet about something, and then there is little I can do.”

  “I’ve been petrified,” Kim admitted.

  “Why?” Helen looked genuinely confused.

  “Because I snooped in your email, I saw something I didn’t think I should, then told Lucy. I broke your trust.” All of Kim’s pent-up emotions tumbled out. “I thought you’d hate me.”

  Helen stood up, quickly walked around the desk, and pulled Kim to her feet and into a hug.

  “I could never hate you, never. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this has been worrying you so much. I thought you knew that I’d assumed you’d read the email. I was going to speak to you about it earlier, but then all of this podcast business happened. I didn’t have time to discuss it with you. I’m sorry, I should have made time.”

  Helen stepped back but kept her hands on Kim’s upper arms and looked at her intently.

  “I’m sorry. I feel terrible, I felt like I was spying.” Kim sniffled. She felt ridiculous for practically crying in her boss’s office, but she couldn’t help herself. Everything had built up to a crescendo and come tumbling out.

  “But it’s your job to manage my email,” Helen said, still clearly confused.

  “I know, I…” Kim didn’t really understand why she had felt the way she did, but she was relieved now. “I just felt bad.”

  “Well, there’s no need. It’s all out in the open now. I know you know that I know… and all that. As I say, I’ll fight to keep Lucy, really I will. But I can’t control Christine, it’s like trying to predict a lightning strike.”

  There was a knock on the office door.

  “Come in,” Helen called out.

  Lucy opened the door. She looked from Kim to Helen with a confused raised eyebrow. Kim wanted to explain to her, to tell her that everything was okay, but she was still struggling to pull herself together. She didn’t want to outright burst into tears, and at the moment, as exhausted as she was, it was a close call.

  “I just wanted to say,” Lucy said when it was clear that neither of them was going to explain what she’d stepped into, “that my phone has been ringing off the hook. We didn’t listen to the podcast last night, but whatever you did, it worked. I have so many people wanting to book ad space, but I think we’re going to be full for the month. Even the extra pages. And no discounts, nobody even asked, and I haven’t offered.”

  Kim felt ecstatic. She wanted to run over and hug Lucy, which wasn’t exactly business appropriate, but she found she didn’t care. She quickly pulled her girlfriend into a big bear hug.

  She turned to Helen. “What did you say?”

  “The truth,” her boss answered. “Apparently, there is still an appetite for it. And it seems we won’t be needing to look into outsourcing our advertising after all.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chloe didn’t get off the train early and walk to the office as she had done previous days. She was in a hurry to get into work, and so a leisurely stroll through Soho wasn’t in the cards.

  She’d seen the explosion on social media the night before. Sadly, she’d only noticed after she and Helen had gone their separate ways. She didn’t think it was appropriate to try to contact Helen to let her know. Besides she was the editor-in-chief, she probably already knew.

  It seemed that everyone was rallying behind Honey Magazine. They were trending on Twitter, Facebook users were reposting old Honey content, and the number of Instagram followers on the Honey account was increasing every hour. She wondered if Rose kept an eye on things during the evening, she supposed she did. Social media never slept.

  She knew the feeling. She’d hardly slept either. Of course, the weather was partly to blame, but the excitement was mainly what had kept her awake. The exhilaration of having been with Helen, accompanying her to the podcast. And the jokey conversation they’d had on the way back to the train station.

  Of course, she had spent a fair amount of time devastated by the geeky wave she offered to Helen from the opposite platform before Helen’s train had called into the station and removed her from sight. She had no idea why she waved. Helen had softly nodded her head, a small smirk gracing her lips.

  But today was a new day, and Chloe was eager to get to work. Despite how awful it had been the day before, now she was genuinely walking in as the hero she wanted to be. Okay, so she had Helen to thank for it, but she still maintained that without her original interference, no
ne of this would’ve happened. And it wasn’t really her fault anyway, it was Eloise Hayward’s. Not Helen’s, Chloe told herself. Helen was an innocent party.

  A small part of her wanted to believe that she had indeed saved Honey. Dad would be so proud. Not that she’d share her theory with anyone in the office. They wouldn’t understand.

  And so, she hurried to get into the office, remaining on the Tube and encountering more armpits and body odour than was suitable for eight o’clock in the morning. Had no one heard of showers?

  As she walked the short distance from the Tube station to the office, she detected someone walking in her shadow. She slowed down and tilted her head, noticing Natasha walking just behind her.

  “Good morning,” Chloe said brightly.

  Natasha offered her a small smile and nodded her head. She almost looked like she was impressed.

  “Good job,” she said.

  Chloe was about to launch into an explanation as to how it all came about, and to talk about how close she sat to Helen as she gave her impassioned speech. But before she had the chance to say anything, Natasha headed off and walked into a shop. Not even a goodbye.

  Chloe continued walking, alone. She supposed it was the most she could expect from Natasha. Technically she should be doing cartwheels. It was the first positive comment she’d really had from her boss since she started.

  She couldn’t believe it was still the first week. She felt like a hardened war veteran. It hadn’t been the smoothest of firsts, but she survived. Surely, they couldn’t sack her now.

  Could they?

  As she walked into the Honey office, Wendy jumped up from her chair, rushed around her desk, and pulled Chloe into a hug.

  “You did it, you clever girl!”

  “Did what?” Chloe asked.

  Wendy stepped back. The smile on her face was enormous. She looked like she might burst.

  “Subscriptions are up, the marketing team are getting so many calls from advertisers that they’re swamped. And the working day hasn’t even started yet, everyone wants to get in first! It worked, whatever that podcast thingy was, it worked.”