Jo nodded. ‘It’s the big news this morning. Everyone’s talking about it.’ She pointed at the papers wedged under Amy’s arm. ‘Everyone except them. They missed it – they always do.’
Amy nodded her thanks and walked into her office, her head in a whirl. Sitting down at her desk, she fired up her computer and clicked onto her browser. Before she’d even typed in the address of a gossip site, she saw that Jo was right. In the ‘Trending Now’ sidebar, there were at least half a dozen references to it. ‘Party on wheels’, ‘Steam-powered fun on Verve train’, ‘See that Cody Cole singalong here’.
She rubbed a hand over her mouth. Could it really have turned around so quickly? Hope flared in her heart until her gaze fell on the newspapers she’d tossed onto her desk and it blinked out again. Jo from the fashion department might have seen the ‘party on wheels’ clips, as might millions of others hooked up to the web via their phones. But Douglas, Denton Scoles and Marv Schultz would be reading the Mail and the Sun and the Chronicle. That was their reality, whatever lip service they paid to the onward march of the new digital order.
She began scrolling through her emails, but didn’t get very far. The first one her eye fell on was marked with a red exclamation mark: urgent. And it was from josie.price @genesis.inc, subject title: Douglas Meeting Today. She barely needed to open it to know what it would say.
Amy: urgent. Douglas would like to see you as soon as you get in today. Please come straight up. J.
‘What, no kiss-kiss at the end?’ muttered Amy, clicking off and reaching for her bag.
As the lift doors opened, Josie’s face was the first thing Amy saw. She was expecting a sly smirk, but instead Josie gave her a warm smile.
‘Thanks for coming, wasn’t sure if you’d got the message.’ She tilted her head sympathetically. ‘Sorry to hear about last night.’
Amy tried to remain calm and professional.
‘I believe the party on the train has gone viral, so you can’t call it a complete disaster.’
‘You can go in,’ said Josie, ignoring her comment and motioning towards Douglas’s office.
Amy hated that she had to get permission from Josie for anything, and didn’t look back as she rapped twice on the door and went inside. Immediately she knew it was going to be a bad morning. Douglas’s face was stony. The overall atmosphere of the room was sub-zero.
‘Take a seat, Amy,’ he said. Whichever version of events he had absorbed, it clearly hadn’t pleased him. He looked at her for a moment, as if he was deciding how to start. ‘Not the result we were hoping for, was it?’ he said finally.
Amy couldn’t help smiling, though clearly Douglas hadn’t been aiming for irony or gallows humour.
‘No,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t exactly a triumph. But not a total train wreck either. If you’ll excuse the pun.’
Douglas, however, didn’t crack his totem-pole face.
‘Yes, I have seen the digital coverage, but I think we can all agree that is down to chance rather than planning. Certainly not what you and your team have spent the last six months preparing for.’
‘Douglas, the most important thing was getting Louisa to hospital. Everyone accepts that. The car on the crossing was a freak incident we couldn’t plan for. Given the circumstances, I think we’ve got decent PR out of it. Money can’t buy publicity, actually.’
‘None of this would have happened if you hadn’t insisted on transporting most of the guest list by luxury train. What was wrong with “make your own way there”?’
‘Douglas, we needed to tempt people to the party.’
‘Tempt? If the idea of a Verve party was good enough in the first place, surely people wouldn’t have to be tempted.’ He tapped one stubby finger on the desk in front of him. ‘Look, you should know that in the light of this and other recent developments, we’ve decided we just can’t take your Mode application any further. It’s a big job, attracting the very best candidates . . .’
Amy was determined not to let this slip through her fingers. ‘Douglas, I can do incredible things with that magazine. If you’ve read my vision, you’ll know I can. Don’t let what happened on the train last night detract from the fact that I am the best person for Mode.’
‘It’s not just the party,’ he said flatly.
Amy felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. They had simply gone for another candidate.
‘Have you spoken to Marv Schultz? I saw him in New York. He wants me to present my strategy for Mode—’
‘Amy, please. Just leave it.’
Amy nodded, struggling to stop the hot tears from flowing. ‘Well thank you, Douglas, for considering me,’ she said. ‘I would have relished the opportunity, but I’m sure you’ll find the right candidate for the position.’
She glanced up, expecting him to stutter out a few platitudes: ‘your application was strong’, ‘a fine candidate’, ‘moving in another direction’, all the usual flannel. Instead, he looked at her unflinchingly.
‘We think you should take some time off, Amy,’ he said. ‘It’s clear you’re overworked and that fatigue is having a negative impact on the magazine and your staff.’
Now Amy felt the breath catch in her throat. What?