The Wrong Girl (12 page)

‘Holy shit,
look at your HAIR!'

Alice had arrived to the production meeting late and minus her sense of meeting etiquette. She took her seat, her eyes never once leaving her friend's hair, an enormous grin on her face.

Lily blushed and dropped her head. ‘Stop it, Al!'

‘Oh! I was
wondering
what was different,' Eliza said, trademark confused expression on her face. ‘It looks fantastic, Lily!'

‘It does look great.' Siobhan said excitedly, touching her own hair. ‘You might have inspired me to do the same.'

Simone had just about choked on her carrots and hummus when she saw Lily's hair, and had declared her the most beautiful she had ever looked, and that she must never, ever not have her hair this length again, which was a lot of double negatives in one sentence, but Lily understood. And she was chuffed to have Simone's blessing. It was always nice having the pretty, popular girl pat you on the head for giving it your best shot.

Dale was looking down at the table, and Sasha was busy on the phone. Lily hadn't realised cutting her hair was such a big deal, especially since she'd made the decision in less then three seconds. Who cared? It was just hair and it gave her the shits half the time anyway. Now it was all one length and sat swishing about just below her chin. She wasn't one to think of herself as attractive, but even Lily could concede it accentuated her jawline and cheekbones, and seemed to make her lips and eyes stand out more.

Even Mimi, President of the Long Hair Party, thought it looked terrific. ‘My little girl's all grown up,' she kept saying on Saturday night, as though Lily had just bought her first bra. Lily had texted Simone Saturday afternoon after the shopping/hair trip, telling her she was crashing at Mimi's and she and Jack would have the house to themselves til tomorrow. She did this despite feeling unsettled knowing Jack would be in her home, on her couch.

‘Right, where were we?' Sasha said, placing her iPhone gently back on the table.

‘Lil got a haircut!' Alice said, in the cute, fruity way that only she could and not sound insipid.

Sasha looked at Lily and smiled warmly. ‘Very becoming. Like the jacket, too. It's all working. Siobhan, how are we doing with numbers for the Circular Quay show, please? And did
The
Night Show
confirm when Jack is going on?'

‘Almost full and yes,' Siobhan said confidently.

Lily sat radiating in Sasha's compliments. Precisely the desired effect.

‘Siobhan, those photos of him in the trash mags today, what are they about? I haven't seen them.'

‘It's him and some girl in a cap at the markets. She's skinny. Gorgeous. He might not be single any more.'

‘Is she known?'

Lily gulped quietly.

‘Um, it just said, “gorgeous mystery friend” in the caption and I didn't recognise her, but I'm working on it.'

Alice shot Lily a look. Lily shot one back, with a micro-shrug and tiny brow-raise thrown in. What was she supposed to do, throw Sim to the gossip wolves? No.

‘Don't worry too much, and don't bring it up with him just yet,' said Sasha. ‘Any pap shots are good pap shots at this stage. Now, what's the story with our beauty and health expert, have we settled on someone regular yet?

When the meeting was over, and everyone began to file out, Lily heard Sasha call her name. She turned, hoping she'd heard right. Sasha's face was smiling and she beckoned her to hold back.

‘Lily, would you mind popping by my office after lunch? Say, three?'

Oh, yes, yes, a million goddamn times yes, Lily thought, her heart racing.

‘Yes, of course. Do I need to bring anything?'

‘Just yourself,' Sasha said serenely.

Lily walked calmly to the kitchen, trying not to fall off the ray of sunshine under her feet. She finally had her meeting.
Finally!
Jesus, she'd need to make sure her food-truck pitch was tight before then. One cup of tea and maybe a Kingston or two, and then to work.

Someone walked into the kitchen as she was pouring hot water into her mug, then she heard a polite ‘Sorry' as a hand reached over her to grab a mug. It was a Jack hand. She turned to face him.

‘Well,
you're
being very polite,' she said with a smile.

‘Woodward!' he cried, a friendly smile on his face. He had the effervescence of a man who'd recently started sleeping with a swimsuit model. It was revolting.

‘You look so . . . different!' He gave her a polite once-over, taking in her subtle new sartorial direction. She was wearing her pointy-toe heels, jeans and a white T-shirt under a blazer. Baby steps. But! She'd put it together all by herself.

‘Job interview?' he asked gently, obviously confused at her new appearance.

Well, pretty much, she thought . . .

‘Nope, just wanted to change things up a bi—'

‘Hair!
That's
what it is!' He reached over and felt the ends of her hair, as a friend might do, and Lily's body tensed up at his hand being so close to her face, touching her
actual hair.
How ridiculous, she chided herself. Get a grip.

‘Guys are terrible at noticing hair, sorry. Really suits you, Woodward. All of it. You look great.' He nodded his approval, leaning back against the table to take her in. She blushed furiously, turning quickly to the fridge so he wouldn't see.

He
was the one who looked great, Lily noted. He was wearing a dark-blue V-neck sweater, the kind only boys who went to private schools knew how to carry off, and it was doing a dreadful job of hiding what kind of body was underneath.

‘It's just what we girls do, I suppose.' Because Lily would know, obviously.

This morning Jack had cooked crumbed lamb cutlets and the whole studio, no,
station
now smelled of them. The finished product was
delicious
, something Lily knew because the hosts were not interested in eating anything fried; whereas for Lily that basically qualified as a food group, especially with homemade dijonnaise and mustard-seed potato mash. Even at nine a.m.
Especially
at nine a.m.

‘So, been having fun at my house?' Hoping her face was no longer the colour of tomato sauce, Lily turned back to Jack, stirring her tea, looking at him with a playful smile. This was the first time she'd acknowledged him and Simone, but what, was she supposed to play dumb forever?

He grinned sheepishly. ‘Lovely place you girls have. I went through all your drawers, obviously.' He moved to the sink and filled his mug with water.

‘I'll know if any of my dirty magazines are missing,' she said, surprising even herself with her bawdiness. Who had this hair turned her into?

He laughed, tipping his head back.

‘You banana. No, it was lovely, and as you no doubt know, Simone can really cook. Anyone who can make
tofu
taste good is impressive.'

‘When she saturates it in tamari and fries it, it can actually be okay.'

Jack looked at her as though she'd read his diary. ‘That's exactly what we ate!'

Lily pushed the visual of them making out on the sofa out of her mind.

‘Next time you're over I'll have to cook some of my famous Heinz spaghetti on toast.'

‘Remind me to never come over when you're cooking,' and he was gone. Lily imagined what a home-cooked meal in her house with Jack might be like, and then, remembering he was already doing that with her friend, shook her head quickly. She did not have a thing for Jack, and she was happy for Simone. He was good-looking and nice, but so were lots of guys. Whatever.

She walked back to her desk to prepare for her meeting; she would blow Sasha out of the water today. Her makeover couldn't have come at a better time. How prescient, how utterly fortuitous, she mused, a confident smile playing on her lips.
This was her moment.

Lily emerged from her meeting with Sasha unsettled. It felt a bit . . . obligatory, like she had to give Lily a meeting, because she had to give everyone one. On the plus side, Eliza was definitely leaving, which was good news no matter which way you looked at it. Sasha seemed
kind of
impressed with Lily's food-truck idea, but she was pretty economical with praise in general. Lily tried not to get flustered. Maybe she was just having a bad day, Lily told herself. We all have them. The important thing was that Lily had made the best of her time in there, perched on one of Sasha's uncomfortable Eames chairs, eyes constantly gliding to the bright red and yellow Bellenger print on the wall behind Sasha. Lily felt confident she had made it very clear as to why she was the right candidate for the role, and how ready she was, and how this was just the challenge she was looking for. Surely her new hair and outfit and Big Idea made that clear? Sasha was no fool. She knew Lily was capable. She liked her, too. That counted. Right?
Right?

Alice popped up above her computer screen across the office like a meerkat and mouthed the word ‘Well?' when Lily walked back to her seat. Lily shrugged and screwed up her mouth to one side. She honestly didn't know. At least she knew Alice wasn't competition since she didn't even want the gig. She looked over to Dale, who was adding another colour-coded sticky to his wall of perfectly organised stickies, deep in thought. Surely
he
wasn't going to be the boss? He was an
assistant
! He could barely look Jack in the eye! He was a planner and a researcher and a food preparer! Not a leader and delegator and ideas-generator!

Lily wasn't sure she could wait out the next couple of weeks, knowing it might not be her who got this role. All she could really do was ensure she did, she decided, waking up her computer and getting straight to work. She wasn't alone. The office was humming with the sound of typing; everyone was hard at work for once. This could be put down to the fact that
The Jenny Show
had started doing titanic, Oprah-style giveaways, and
The Daily
had dropped in ratings as a result. Because of this everyone was being forced to produce ‘magic' on every segment every day. Plus, the station as a whole was now third, after years of being number one, and the money guys were not super-thrilled about that, so EPs like Sasha were under inordinate amounts of pressure. This obviously filtered down, which was why the usually nebulous Eliza was now a fidgety maniac. Lily tried to imagine herself in that position, to see how she'd handle it when/if she got the role, and visualised herself as a calm genius who helped alleviate the stress with brilliant, bold ideas and an excellent array of sugary, ‘keep up the great work' treats.

Her phone vibrated on the desk; it was Mimi. She really shouldn't answer, but she'd screened her mum's last couple of calls and felt bad.

‘You'll never guess who I'm having a coffee date with on Sunday,' Mimi singsonged as soon as Lily answered.

‘So tell me then.'

‘Gosh! Tough day, Bean?'

Lily felt bad for sabotaging the happy moment. She smiled, hoping it would come through in her voice.

‘Yes, but who cares. Who's the lucky man?'

‘It's
Niko
, the man who came and said toot-toot at the end of the meal and brought us sweets!' There was pure joy in Mimi's voice. Lily suddenly felt strangely protective. If this guy played her mother, or hurt her in any way, she would personally see to it that his bistro was set on fire.

‘Look at
you
, dating the handsome boss of the hot new restaurant . . .'

‘He asked me today, I popped in to get a coffee and —'

‘Bit far from work to “pop in”, isn't it?'

‘So we got to chatting, and, of course, because I was wearing my space fat-suckers and my busty red dress, I was looking dishy, and he asked me to go for a coffee on the weekend. Now I'll have to wear those bloody things every time I see him . . .'

Mimi's space fat-suckers were knee-to-shoulder shapewear she'd bought off the TV late at night that claimed to burn fat as you wore them, and were developed by the same people who made gear for the NASA astronauts or canteen staff or something. They made her itch and caused her circulation to stop, but she felt thin in them, so they were treated with extreme reverence.

‘I can't wait to hear how it goes.'

‘Would you come over and help me with what to wear? I'll make pancakes?'

‘Of course. I'll bring you some of Sim's Valium; keep you calm.'

‘Might bloody need it too. Do you know how long it's been? Jesus, Elvis and Buddha, don't let me stuff this one up . . .'

‘You will be your usual, gorgeous self, and he will adore you.'

‘I'm a bit nervous, is all. Not every day this old bird gets a look-in. Okay, see you Sunday darling. Love you! And chin up. Life is wonderful!'

The next morning, as Jack expertly explained the key to making risotto, Siobhan sidled up to Lily as she watched from the side of the set.

‘Um, so I heard Jack's new girlfriend is your
flatmate
? Is that right?
'

Lily seized up a little, wondering how that morsel got out. But then, everything got out around here.

‘She's a bikini model, right?' Siobhan pressed.

Lily smiled but remained looking at the set. Why Siobhan was interrupting during Lily's most intense four minutes and forty seconds of the day was unclear.

‘Yes, and she's one of my best friends, and that's all you'll get from me.'

Siobhan laughed. ‘Oh, come on, Lil. Page Ten is running a story on them and asked if I had any inside info.'

‘Which you don't, so just say you don't.'

Lily could feel Siobhan staring at her. She turned to see her looking at Lily as if she had just given her a nipple cripple.

Lily just shrugged. She wasn't budging.

Siobhan sighed and crossed her arms, looking at Lily with a blend of pity and disappointment. Lily knew exactly her thought pattern, having heard her vocalise it a million times: why couldn't someone for once appreciate what her job was, and how crucial it was that everyone pitched in to help her?