Who's Afraid of Mr Wolfe? by Hazel Osmond Read Free Book Online Page A

to be treated to a heart-warming conversation between a mother and daughter about panty liners. Like that wasn’t going to make every young girl watching the ad curl her toes in embarrassment. Jack knew what his sisters would think of the approach. By now they’d be making retching noises and chucking things at the telly.
    A few minutes later and Jack could feel himself comingto the boil. What the hell was wrong with this agency that it could take so many bright, creative people and turn them into drones? That slacker Gavin was probably at the bottom of it. He never came up with a fresh idea, so why should they? Well, Mr Cool had a nice surprise waiting for him when he got home unless he pulled his finger out sharpish.
    Jack cast a sour look at Juliette and Mike again. At least they were having a go at selling the idea, rubbish though it was. Juliette’s dreadlocks were bouncing around as she got into her stride. Trouble was, you could see from their faces that they didn’t really believe what they were saying. They should be standing up fighting for it, getting him emotionally involved. At this point he couldn’t care less if they were winding up or winding down.
    Finally, Jack presumed they’d finished. He watched as Juliette sat down abruptly and then, when Mike continued to stand, she reached across and pulled him down into his seat.
    It was no good Juliette turning her big, brown eyes on him like that. There were people earning a pittance back in his old agency in Manchester who could run rings round her and her partner. They had more energy, more hunger, more everything. He turned a stone-making gaze on them and uttered one word: ‘Unbelievable.’
    Swivelling his chair, he turned to face the third team. Great, the wise-cracking, scruffy Pre-Raphaelite who mighthave a bit of an issue with authority, and the scary, trendy lesbian. Like a couple of mismatched bookends. Tall and curvy meets short and stick-thin. Mind you, the lesbian was doing that nervous jittery thing with her leg, so perhaps she wasn’t that sure of herself. Not a good start. Not guaranteed to inspire confidence. Jack gave a yawn, but for courtesy’s sake did it with his mouth closed.
    Hugo got sluggishly to his feet and pulled a face. ‘And now Ellie and Lesley,’ he said, as if announcing the arrival of Black Death to the village.
    When Hugo sat back down, Ellie swore that once the pitch was finished, she would see whether pigs really could fly. What a tepid little vote of confidence that introduction had been. Right now, though, she had to focus on selling their idea. She rubbed her sweaty palms down her jeans and tried to find any drop of saliva that might still be in her mouth.
    Going on last hadn’t been such a great idea after all. The atmosphere in the room had become increasingly toxic with each pitch and now, by the look of him, Jack was at his most annoyed. His lips formed a completely straight line. It was going to be like coming on stage after the previous act had died.
    She could feel the potential to do something dangerous rolling off Jack like a scent, and now all his attention was on her. Slowly she reached out and put a hand on Lesley’sknee to stop it moving, then stood up. She decided not to return Jack’s look; he’d probably turn her into a pillar of salt. Instead she fixed her eyes on Mike and reached into her pocket and fished out a pair of knickers.
    Well, that had got
his
attention at least.
    ‘It’s only a pair of knickers,’ she said, ignoring the way her hand was shaking, ‘but Lesley and I will show you that they play a vital role in what women feel about sanitary protection.
    ‘At the end of the day, there’s no real unique selling point for the product. All these products offer more or less the same benefits, and we’ve never met a woman yet who wanted to know the science or believed her panty liners were going to make her a more fascinating person.’ She fired a scathing look at Jon and Zak.