NSFW by Lucy Kirkwood

Author:Lucy Kirkwood [Kirkwood, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780011875
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

3.

Nine months later. The editor’s office of Electra magazine, a weekly publication for young women. As before, the magazine’s name in neon on the wall. Framed past covers. Healthy-looking women Photoshopped to perfection. There is a massage table to one side, strewn with products that the magazine is road-testing. Products are very important here.

MIRANDA, trendily but classically dressed in black. She sits on the edge of her desk, which holds papers, magazines, and a desktop Apple computer. SAM sits in a chair in front of her. In the background, the sound of heightened office chatter, female laughter, voices. They’ve knocked off early, the sounds of socialising rather than work. Maybe some faint strains of music.

MIRANDA. It’s a fun office.

SAM. Great.

MIRANDA. Bit crazy.

SAM. Yeah?

MIRANDA. Yeah. You don’t have to be mad to work here – but actually you do a bit!

They laugh. MIRANDA picks up a tube of moisturiser, moisturises her hands.

We often go for drinks after work.

SAM. Uh-huh.

MIRANDA. Do you like going for drinks after work?

SAM. Sure.

MIRANDA. Then you’ll fit right in.

An eruption of female voices, laughter, screams, off.

You can hear, can’t you? Lot of fun. Lot of laughs. Lots of work too of course.

SAM. No, of course.

MIRANDA. We don’t always start drinking at three o’ clock on a Friday afternoon.

SAM. I did wonder about the champagne!

MIRANDA. Yeah, it’s not funny actually. Meredith, our Beauty Ed. She’s having a really rotten time of it.

SAM. I’m sorry to hear that.

MIRANDA. Yeah, it’s very upsetting. We’re all very upset. She’s been in chemo four weeks now. And she had this gorgeous hair, I mean advert hair, and I don’t want you to think she’s a vain woman, because she’s not, but losing the hair has definitely hit her hard. But so what we were going to do tonight, was we were all going to shave our heads, bit of a you know little act of sort of solidarity.

SAM. Wow, that’s. That’s so nice, what a lovely –

MIRANDA. Yeah well, that’s just sort of the atmosphere here.

SAM. So it’s Dutch courage is it?

MIRANDA. What?

SAM. The champagne. For the big… shave.

MIRANDA. Yeah well, actually, in the end what happened was, was factors came in to play so what we’re doing instead is throwing her a little party instead, just for her, and we’re all dressing up as our personal heroines, because that’s what Meri is, to us.

SAM. So you’re – sorry, you’re dressing up as her?

MIRANDA. No, different women, like Beyoncé or Catwoman. Or Isabella and Angela both wanted to come as Marilyn Monroe so we’ve got two of them and Fabienne’s being a sexy Joan of Arc!

SAM. She’s French is she?

MIRANDA. Well, French-Canadian. We do talk very freely here, about female issues. If that bothers you –

SAM. It doesn’t bother me.

MIRANDA. Great. The pay’s quite minimal at first, I’m sorry about that.

SAM. That’s fine.

MIRANDA. No but I do feel really bad about that. I feel so sorry for you guys, coming out of uni now. I mean the climate.

SAM. Yeah.

MIRANDA. You really just have to take what you can get, don’t you? And the perks are good.

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