On a Beautiful Day by Lucy Diamond

Author:Lucy Diamond
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

Still, there was work to keep her busy at least – endless expectant mothers to interview, in the name of product feedback; endless meetings about keywords and brand values; endless pictures of smiling fertile women to choose from; and . . . oh God. Aversion therapy, they called it, didn’t they, where you were forced to confront your fears head-on, to look them in the eye, as a means of speeding up the healing process, but Laura wasn’t convinced it was working all that well for her. She’d never been one for ripping off a plaster in one swift wrench, after all, preferring to approach it slowly, cautiously, one tiny corner peeled away at a time.

And then one afternoon she was faced with working through the questionnaires that the panel members had filled in for her, uploading every last pertinent detail onto a database so that the company could build a solid bank of potential product-testers who could be called upon for future case-studies. This was a task she’d been putting off for ages, because it was dreary and menial, but a virus had swept through the department recently and unfortunately there was nobody else to whom she could conceivably delegate it.

She began with the very first trio she’d interviewed: the young blonde woman with the milkmaid plaits, the rather grumpy one who didn’t like people touching her bump, and the older woman who’d seemed delighted with every aspect of her pregnancy. A mixed bunch, to say the least.

The milkmaid’s form was full of exclamation marks, her writing rounded and childish, the content fulsome but essentially bland. The bad-tempered one had been terser in her replies, focusing on quite negative aspects of her pregnancy: how tired she was, the aches and pains, the indigestion and heartburn. (Ungrateful cow, Laura thought.) And the third one, the older woman, had beautiful cursive handwriting and was measured and thoughtful in her responses, expressing her hopes and joy. Except . . . Ah. This woman – Catherine, her name was – hadn’t completed all the sections of the form, Laura noticed. In particular, the details of any partner. Perhaps she was gay. Had she mentioned a significant other? The other two had been very keen to witter on about their husbands – Mr Turbo-Sperm and Mr Rich – but this lady had been rather more circumspect about divulging such information.

Laura dialled her number. ‘Hi. Catherine? This is Laura Bassett from BodyWorks Beauty Products,’ she said. ‘Thanks so much for coming in as part of our panel, it was lovely to meet you and get your feedback.’

‘Not at all, my pleasure. I’ve been enjoying trying out the samples,’ Catherine replied.

‘Great! Glad to hear it,’ Laura said. ‘I was just ringing today because I was adding your details to our database and saw you hadn’t filled in any partner’s details. Was there anyone you wanted me to add to the system? We can send them things to try as well, you see or—’

‘No, it’s fine. There’s no partner.

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