This Charming Man by Marian Keyes ( Ma Li An Kai Si )

Author:Marian Keyes ( Ma Li An Kai Si ) [Keyes, Marian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780241959367
Amazon: 0241959365
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2012-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Interview with Madonna

Please forward detailed readership demographic of the Spokesman. Also circulation figures for last eight quarters.

Madonna’s PR had already asked for examples of my work. Then she’d asked for a few more. Then I’d had to write an essay on why I loved Madonna. If she’d moved on to checking circulation figures, I must have done okay. This was looking very positive. God! I was seized by a mixture of terror and elation. What if it happened? What if it actually, really happened? I would meet Madonna. I mean, Madonna!

‘Here’s Jacinta,’ TC whispered.

‘I can’t see the bag, the photocopier is in the way.’

‘And she’s got her coat over it.’

‘I think it’s green.’

‘No, it’s black.’

‘No, it’s green.’

It was green.

‘Very well done on the Dee Rossini coverage,’ Jacinta said briskly.

In silence I waited for the stinger.

‘Cat got your tongue?’ she asked.

‘No.’

‘So what happened to “thank you”?‘

‘Thank you.’

I followed her into her office.

‘You needn’t think you can sit back on your laurels and freewheel today. You’re only as good as your next story. What’ve you got for me?’

‘Romance at office Christmas part – ’

‘It’s only the seventeenth of November!’

‘The average spend on Christmas pres –’

‘No!’

‘The homeless at Christmas.’

‘Is it uplifting?’

‘… No. They’re homeless.’

‘And it’s still only the seventeenth of November. No! This is what I mean –’ she muttered. Her eyes slid past me and whatever she saw caused her to freeze as though she’d been turned into a pillar of salt.

I looked behind me. It was Casey Kaplan, in his tight black jeans and tangled hair.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Jacinta quivered with murky emotion.

‘I work here.’ He smiled a wide, cocksure smile.

‘I thought you were allergic to daylight. We’ve never had the pleasure of your company at this hour of the morning before.’

Casey brought with him an aura of cigarettes and pubs and good times. He’d obviously come straight from a party or club.

His slipstream wafted through the office and when the smell reached Jacinta, she leapt to her feet. ‘Get back!’ She flapped her arms. ‘You’re smelly!’

‘Someone wound your top too tight this morning, Jacinta.’ Casey laughed and lounged away.

‘Thanks, Casey,’ TC muttered. ‘That’ll definitely calm her down.’

From the far side of the office, I heard Casey ask, ‘Morning, Rose. Coleman in?’

‘Yes,’ Rose said nervously. She was Big Daddy’s PA and guardian of the gateway. ‘But he’s not to be disturbed.’

‘It’s okay. He just texted me. He’s expecting me.’

My phone rang. It was my parents’ number. I didn’t know how, but whenever they called, they seemed to be able to make the ringing sound more urgent than normal. They always got my attention.

‘It’s Bingo,’ Dad said.

‘For the love of Christ.’

‘He’s in Wales.’

‘Wales? Wales the country? Across the sea? How?’

‘He got the ferry.’

‘How?’

‘We assume he made his way to the terminaland boarded when everyone else did. And got off when everyone else did. A civic-minded Welsh citizen, male, found him on the open road, headed for Caernarvon and rang the number on his collar.’

‘Didn’t they

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