Guilty Pleasures

‘How much do you want me to stay with the company, Isaac?’ said Cassandra.

‘What do you want?’ he asked, sipping his bourbon.

‘I want the American issue.’

Isaac looked at her.

‘Does Glenda know that?’

‘She’d be a fool not to suspect.’

‘What about France? I can get rid of Françoise at the end of the conference.’

Cassandra tried to hide her frustration.

‘I don’t want the French edition.’

‘Why not? It is the most influential fashion title in the world. Fashion is in your blood.’

‘But it is not the company’s biggest money-making and flagship title. That’s where I want to be.’

Isaac swirled the bourbon around in his glass, looking troubled.

‘Glenda is doing a good job,’ he said flatly. ‘Circulation is up 5 per cent. She is popular with the staff. There is no reason to get rid of her. Not yet anyway.’

Cassandra paused for one moment, letting the whirring sound of the ceiling fan fill the silence.

‘But I do mean what I say,’ said Isaac, ‘I don’t want to lose you. What will it take?’

‘I want a written assurance that I will be the next editor-in-chief of American Rive when you finally do come up with a reason to get rid of Glenda. In the meantime, I want a one hundred-thousand pound pay rise.’

Isaac almost choked on his bourbon.

‘I thought we were already very generous with your salary!’ he spluttered.

Cassandra stared at him.

‘I’ve got a call to Charles pencilled in on Wednesday.’

‘Cassandra, you are impossible,’ said Isaac, slamming down his glass.

‘Oh, and there’s one other thing,’ said Cassandra. ‘Jason Tostvig. I find him very difficult to work with. I think you saw today that we’re not exactly on the same wavelength.’

Isaac nodded slowly.

‘I’d agree with you there. What was he talking about? All those horrible free gifts, phone-lines and cheap flights. This is Alliance Inc he is working for, for heaven’s sake!’

‘And I suppose you heard what happened with Phoebe Fenton?’

He pursed his lips. ‘I hear it caused a bit of a furore. What was the upshot?’

‘All positive, of course,’ she smiled. ‘Sales up 30 per cent year

on year, advertisers all happy when they heard it was our biggest selling April issue since launch.’ Cassandra paused, deliberately failing to mention the 250 reader complaints.

‘The problem was that Jason panicked,’ she continued. ‘He frightened the advertisers, then recommended we pulp the issue before he’d even spoken to me. I just don’t think he’s cut out for magazines, let alone Rive.’

‘Perhaps we move him onto Smile,’ said Isaac thoughtfully. Smile was Alliance Inc’s big-selling young women’s magazine. A successful title. A prestigious title.