'That's OK.' Thea couldn't stand it. A GA who'd been learning his five times table when she was jetting round the world getting exclusives on the Taliban was feeling sorry for her.

'I had an idea. For a possible big interview.'

'Oh, yeah?'

'Yeah. I was wondering about Minnie Maltravers.'

Thea smiled politely, deeply unimpressed at the unoriginality of the suggestion. Minnie Maltravers was a forty-something supermodel turned all-round phenomenon. She was famous mainly for three things: being gorgeous, being angry and being very, very late for everything. She was American, from humble origins, who'd risen to fame in the eighties, spent most of the nineties having a drug problem and most of the noughties in rehab. Now she was sober, married to a British film director called Max Williams and lived in a castle in Scotland and little was heard of her, apart from the occasional court case when a maid or whoever would sue her for wrongful dismissal among tearful tales of how Minnie had thrown a fax machine at her. Everyone was fascinated by Minnie, everyone would love to watch an interview with her, there was just one problem...

'Rhys, you know Minnie never gives interviews. That's the whole point of her. Her mystique.'

'Yes, but' Rhys proffered a print-out 'I saw this tiny piece on the news wires. Apparently, she's about to go to Guatemala on a charity visit. I thought maybe we could tie something in with that. Even if she only talks about her charity work it would be getting Minnie Maltravers to talk talk and that would be something.' and that would be something.'

Slowly, Thea took the piece of paper. 'Guatemala, you say?'

'That's right.' Thea read the brief print-out from Reuters.

Guatemala City There was excitement this morning as rumours spread that supermodel Minnie Maltravers is planning a visit in a.s.sociation with the charity Guatemala Children to open a new health clinic and visit some orphanages and children's centres...

'You have email,' her computer trilled. She glanced at the screen. 'Luke Norton'. He'd written in the header field: Booked Wolseley for 8.30. Looking forward to catching up x.

Glancing anxiously at Rhys as if she were browsing nude pictures of Justin Timberlake, Thea pressed delete.

'So what do you think?' Rhys asked.

'I think there could be something in this,' Thea said calmly. 'I've got a contact at Guatemala Children. I'll give him a call.'

'You don't want me to do it?' Rhys was disappointed.

'No thanks. It's my my contact. In fact he'd already hinted to me this could be a way to Minnie.' Thea ignored the look of disbelief on Rhys's face. She felt a bit ashamed, after all, he'd made a good spot and was ent.i.tled to want to run with it, but after how Marco had stabbed her in the back she wasn't feeling charitable towards anyone. 'It probably won't lead to anything, but it's worth a shot.' A beat and then, 'Good work, Rhys.' contact. In fact he'd already hinted to me this could be a way to Minnie.' Thea ignored the look of disbelief on Rhys's face. She felt a bit ashamed, after all, he'd made a good spot and was ent.i.tled to want to run with it, but after how Marco had stabbed her in the back she wasn't feeling charitable towards anyone. 'It probably won't lead to anything, but it's worth a shot.' A beat and then, 'Good work, Rhys.'

'Thanks.' As Rhys moved off dispiritedly, Thea knowing it would take too long to sift through her bag googled Guatemala Children. It was a number beginning 7485, which meant Camden Town. Rapidly, she dialled.

'h.e.l.lo? Yes. Jake Kaplan please.'

As she waited to be put through, she typed an email.

Afraid can't make tonight. Urgent work thing. Sorry. Another time.

As she pressed send, regret crashed over her. Quickly, she pressed a mental b.u.t.ton and her emotional portcullis came down. Luke had got to her in a moment of vulnerability. She should never have said yes to him. She wouldn't do it again. It was all long over between them and Thea was not going to look back.

22.

Jake didn't sound surprised to hear from Thea, but he did sound quite pleased.

'Sorry I was so brusque when you called the other day,' she said. 'We were coming up to deadline and it was a bit tense. I'd love to meet soon if you're free.'

He laughed. 'So you've heard about Minnie?'

'Minnie who?' Thea tried to sound innocent.

'Minnie Maltravers. There was some tiny mention on her website about her going out to Guatemala with us. Popped up five minutes ago and since then the phones haven't stopped ringing.'

'Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?' Thea asked.

'I told you I had a hot story.'

'I believed you,' she lied. 'I was just so busy I didn't see how we could meet. But, like I say, if you're still up for it...'

Jake sighed teasingly. 'How do you know I didn't give the story to the BBC? Or ITN? Or Sky?'

There were all the people gossiping about Channel 6's failure to k.n.o.bble the PM. 'Did the BBC or ITN or Sky ask if you'd like to have dinner at a restaurant of your choice to discuss the story?' Thea tried.

There was a brief pause, then Jake said, 'You're lucky, Thea, for some reason I decided to hold on to the story until things were a bit firmer, so it's still up for grabs. But I may be too busy for dinner now. Things are crazy here today and they're not going to get any quieter. And I'm back off to Guatemala bright and early tomorrow morning.'

'You have to eat!' Thea yelped. 'Just a quick bite tonight while you fill me in.'

'Oh well, if I must,' Jake said cheerily.

'Good,' Thea said after just the tiniest pause. She was right, Jake definitely fancied her. Which was odd, given he was so much younger than her. And too short. Still, if it led her to Minnie Maltravers she wasn't complaining. 'Where would you like to go?' she asked. 'Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's? Locanda Locatelli?'

He laughed. 'Both if possible. And maybe the Savoy Grill as well? We could have a course in each.'

'Um...' That wouldn't go down too well with Foxy Roxy.

'I'm joking. Don't worry about the fancy meal. I'm going to be working late. I wouldn't have time to do it justice. There's a good gastropub round the corner from my office. Why don't we go there? Save me the schlep into town.'

'No problem,' said Thea, a thought formulating in her mind that she could treat someone else say her mother if she could persuade her to come up to town to a meal at Gordon Ramsay and then expense it as wooing Guatemala Children. Everybody did it.

At half past eight, Thea pushed open the door of the Sceptre and Pony in Camden Town. She'd been a bit miffed at how easily Luke had responded to her cancelling their dinner, with a brief, emailed: 'No worries, another time'. But it was for the best, she reprimanded herself. She was not to go running after Luke again just because she'd had a bad day at work. He was as over as cheques, as telephone boxes, as puffball skirts oh, not puffball skirts, they'd made a comeback recently. Well, anyway, he was over.

Jake was sitting at a corner table, a pint of Guinness in front of him, poring over an orange file. As he saw her approach, he stood up. She'd forgotten how short he was.

'Hey!' he said. There was an awkward moment when they both wondered if they should kiss, then both decided they shouldn't. 'How are you? Can I get you a drink?'

'I'll get them,' she said and was vaguely annoyed when he said, 'Oh, OK, thanks.' Weren't men supposed to say, 'No, no, let me.' But this wasn't a date, she reminded herself. She was here to woo him and, infuriating as it was, he held all the cards.

'Thanks,' he said again when she returned from the bar with a large gla.s.s of Barolo for her and another Guinness for him. 'It's been a bit of a day as you can imagine. One tiny item about Minnie going to Guatemala and it all goes beserk. The phones have rung more in one afternoon than they have in the past year.'

'So is is she going?' Thea asked, trying and totally failing to make it sound like a casual comment about the weather. she going?' Thea asked, trying and totally failing to make it sound like a casual comment about the weather.

Jake smiled. 'I couldn't possibly comment.'

'You mean she is?' Thea leant forward.

'Maybe,' Jake said. They both eyed each other, working out who was going to crack first and fill the silence. Time for another tactic.

'How's your mum?'

Jake grimaced. 'Not making a miracle recovery, shall we say. How about your gran?'

'The same.'

'It's c.r.a.p, isn't it?'

'To echo your eloquence: it's a sack of s.h.i.t.'

They grinned at each other.

Jake gestured at the blackboard.

'Maybe we should order some food?'

It took half a bottle of red wine and most of two rare ribeye steaks and chips before Thea could bring herself to acknowledge that Jake might be young and small, but he was still quite good value.

'I checked your website,' she said. 'It said you're an artist liaison officer, whatever the h.e.l.l that means.'

He dipped one of his chips in a pool of ketchup. 'Every charity worth its salt these days has a celebrity division. I'm head of ours. It's our job to ma.s.sage the egos of stars who want to do a little charidee charidee work.' work.'

'To enhance their profiles?'

'How cynical!' Jake waggled a Roger-Moore-type eyebrow at her. 'Maybe they're genuinely motivated by a desire to help the poor and needy.'

'Yes, I'm sure.'

'You journalists. Why can't you ever believe anything good about anyone?' He grinned as he popped a cherry tomato in his mouth. 'It's a tricky one. They need us to boost their images; we need them even more, but so often it backfires. When I worked for World Hunger we took a film star out to Malawi who insisted on staying in a five-star hotel and flying first cla.s.s. She drank the mini bar dry, then freaked out at all the flies and squalor and refused to do a photoshoot with a starving child in case she caught something. It cost us thousands of pounds and we got b.u.g.g.e.r-all back in return.'

'Who was that?'

He shrugged and made a zipping motion over his mouth. Fair enough. Anyway, Thea knew it was Justina Maguire: everyone had had a laugh about it at the time. PRs were so naive, thinking they could keep a lid on gossip like that. 'What were you doing before all the charity stuff?' she asked.

'I started off at ParaShoot,' he said, naming one of the biggest celebrity PRs in town. 'But the work was so vacuous I moved to World Hunger and then to Guatemala Children.'

'Are you religious?' Thea was genuinely curious.

When he laughed you could see Jake's tonsils. 'No. Do you need to be religious to want to help people?'

'Not many people do something for nothing.'

'Cynical, again! I get paid. Just not as much as in my old job. And I'm happier now.' He looked at Thea. He had nice eyes, humorous ones, but there was a directness to them she found oddly unsettling. 'Are you you happy?' happy?'

It was as if he'd asked her if she used v.a.g.i.n.al deodorant. Thea felt p.r.i.c.kles zigzag along her hairline. 'What an incredibly personal question.' She paused for a second, then snapped, 'Of course I am. As happy as anyone is.'

'Good,' Jake said. 'Just wondering. Do you have a boyfriend?'

An image of Luke flashed up in Thea's head, like an annoying pop-up on a website. Mentally, she pressed the 'close' b.u.t.ton. 'Are boyfriends the key to happiness?' she asked. 'Do you have a girlfriend?'

He looked her straight in the eye. 'No, I'm single. For now.'

'And so am I,' she said, irritated by the 'for now'. Presumptuous little so and so! 'I'm getting sick of being treated as if I've got some terminal disease. I like the way I am. I love my job. I love travelling. I love knowing I can get on a plane in the next hour and wake up the following morning anywhere in the world. If you have a boyfriend you can't do that kind of thing.' Unless your boyfriend does it too, she thought, then gulped some more wine.

'What happens when you get old though?' Usually people sounded critical of Thea's footloose approach to life. But Jake's tone was merely curious.

'You can't spend your life worrying about getting old.' Thea realized she was drunk. G.o.d, in the old days half a bottle of red would have just been the warm-up act before getting seriously stuck in. What was happening to her? 'Sorry, what was I saying? Oh yeah. You can't worry about getting old. Well, not much anyway. You have to live in the moment.'

'I agree,' Jake said.

'Really?'

'Yeah.' He took a gulp of wine. 'After what happened to Mum, you have to think that way. She was so active, so busy, enjoying life when wham! her brain starts to wither and within months she's the living dead. That's why I packed in ParaShoot. Life was just too short to waste promoting the winner of I'm a Celebrity I'm a Celebrity's autobiography. I had to seize the day.'

'To seizing the day,' Thea cried, raising her gla.s.s.

'Seizing the day!' They clinked.

'Ahem,' said the waitress, plonking the bill in front of Jake.

Thea looked at her watch. 'Jesus, it's nearly midnight.'

Jake laughed. 'And I've got to be at the airport at six.'

'And you still haven't told me what's going on with Minnie,' Thea slurred.

'Are you drunk?'

'Cheeky! I'm... relaxed.'

'If you say so.' He smiled. 'OK, I'll put you out of your misery. Minnie is is going to Guatemala to do some work for us. I think you should send out a team to cover her visit.' going to Guatemala to do some work for us. I think you should send out a team to cover her visit.'

'Will she give us an interview?' Thea said.

'I very much doubt it,' he said, 'but you never know. And if you're not there you won't get it.'

'We can't spend a huge chunk of budget sending a team off to Guatemala on the off-chance Minnie talks to us. I need a guarantee.' Crossly Thea jabbed her pin number into the waitress's machine. She felt as if she'd just indulged in a long foreplay session only to be denied the climax.

'I can't give you a guarantee, Thea. I'd be lying.' Jake held out his hands. 'Wasn't that what we were just talking about? Was it Abraham Lincoln who said there are no certainties in life, just death and taxes?'

'I think it was actually Cliff Richard. No, it was Benjamin Franklin.'

'Know it all.' He scratched his head. 'Look, I can't say too much at this point but a big news story may come out of this and Minnie may decide to talk to someone. If the Seven Thirty News Seven Thirty News has a team in place then I will do my best to make sure that someone is you. I can't say more at this stage, I'm sorry.' has a team in place then I will do my best to make sure that someone is you. I can't say more at this stage, I'm sorry.'

'All right,' Thea said sulkily. She stood up. 'I'm going to get a cab. What about you?'