Skinny Dipping (17 page)

“Oh,” Roger said, light coming back into his eyes. “I hadn’t realised.”

She felt tension washing away from her. Maybe she could do something to help him, in a recession. “It’ll be easy.”

“The last time I had an interview was when I first started at the Ministry of Defence.”

“You need to see at least three recruiter interviews.”

“Really?” He frowned, perplexed, this was all new knowledge to him. “Isn’t one recruiter enough?”

“You need a range of recruiters. They have relationships with different firms. It’s good to have a large agency, a medium sized one, and a boutique firm. It will give you coverage over the market.”

He nodded. “Do you think you can help me do all this?”

“Sure Dad, of course I can help you do all this.” She looked at her wrist watch. “Now, make sure you send me your resume, and tomorrow bring your swimsuit.”

***

The next day, Sophie cancelled on Friday burgers with Jessica, who was more than slightly put out, a hand on her hip. “This is because of your new sport obsession. I thought we’d discussed you were only to do swimming.”

Sophie sighed. “No, I’ve got to go to the pool, and it’s not to go swimming. If you want to get some advertising experience, this is your chance because I’ve got Bradley hounding down my back for new business. I can’t do everything.” She knew the offer of advertising experience was too great a carrot for Jessica. “I need you to work with Desmond and Flora on the ‘
Skinny Dipping
’ campaign. I need to take something to Bradley soon.”

Jessica agreed enthusiastically, and Sophie left her office and met her Dad at the
Highbury Aquatic Centre
. He was dressed in sweat pants, and had a casual bag slung over his shoulder.

“Hello Princess,” he called.

She kissed him on the cheek and pulled back, watching his goofy expression soften into a smile. “You’ve brought your stuff.”

“Yeah, course. But your Mum almost had a coronary seeing me take my swimming trunks.”

“Yup, but you told her you’re just doing some laps to get fit, right?”

“What will she think of me wanting to get fit?”

“You’re normal.”

“Your mother’s going to start jumping to conclusions and asking me some questions.”

“There’s nothing wrong with people getting slim, trim, and terrific.”

From his canvas bag he handed her a piece of paper, his resume, and Sophie scanned the contents. He had only listed one job, with bullet points. She couldn’t even understand what he really did.

“There must be a better way to sell this?” she mused, reading over the resume. “Let me take it to work. I’ll wordsmith it. That’s what I do.”

She looked up noticing her Dad nodding vigorously, tears in his eyes.

“Dad, it’s going to be okay. Take the time now, because you won’t get it when you start a new job. You’ll wish you had this time back.” How could she have missed his depression for so long? If she’d been honest with him about Derek, maybe he would have opened up to her. Her trust issues were a bigger problem than she ordinarily thought. Although, she wished he would have told her earlier, then he may not be a bumbling mess. “I’m going to do everything I can to help. Look we better go in.”

Sophie urged her father into the reception, and found Matthew Silver conveniently behind the reception counter, bashing a few numbers into a calculator.

“Hi Sophie,” he said, a huge smile on his face.

She blushed furiously. “Matthew Silver, this is Roger Smart, my Dad.” They shook hands.

“Pleased to meet you Roger. Sophie’s told me all about you,” Matthew said.

“Really?” Roger raised his eyebrows. “She’s spoken about her old man?”

“She’s Daddy’s little girl. She told me that she used to help fasten your tie, the first time we met.”

Sophie swallowed, how did Matthew remember that?

Roger cast Sophie a proud smile and then looked back at Matthew. “So are you the man that got Sophie into the pool?”

It was Matthew’s turn to go beet red. “Yes. I have lots of experience, sir,” he explained. “I’ve got years of practise teaching kids, teaching adults, and – in situations like Sophie’s I really enjoy teaching them.”

“Well it can’t have been easy for you, getting Sophie in. Must have taken a lot of persuasion?” He rubbed beneath his chin.

“I’m so proud of her, too.”

***

Sophie left her Dad at the pool, walking away in a bubble of pure optimism. The problem of her father’s employment was not solved, not exactly. But there were now steps in place. He had somewhere to go each day: Her house. She’d also helped him get into an activity to fight the depression. She felt a stab of uncertainty. Guilt. Her mother should know about what was happening. It was her right, them being married, and truth was the basis for all relationships, wasn’t it? By helping her Dad, was she also part of his cover up, was she guilty, too?

She exhaled, she was feeling too much. She was usually so controlled that she didn’t worry about things. But she just kept thinking of what her Mother might think of Roger at the pool.

***

At her desk, her eyes darted every few moments, breaking from her Dad’s resume on her computer screen to Bradley’s doorway. Sophie wouldn’t lose it. She was excellent at multi-tasking, typing furiously, formatting the resume, embellishing (only slightly) on his skill sets. The resume was a tool to get his foot in the door. The interview stage was always the maker or breaker. He’d then have to use all his charm to sell himself.

Chapter 13

The next day Sophie entered the office with renewed energy. She’d sent her Dad the updated resume last night and contacted recruiters on his behalf. Now she was ready to focus on winning new work. She needed to focus on
Clarks
!

“Sophie? Sophie?” Jessica called out to her as soon as Sophie got to her desk. “I’ve put something on your desk.”

Sophie sat down, and her eyes gleamed as she noticed a stack of papers, paper clipped with care. “Excellent,” she said and picked the papers up and started leafing through the content. “Wow. This is the finished ‘
Skinny Dipping
’ art sketches and the commercial script. If it’s good I can take it to Bradley to sign off.”

Jessica stood next to Sophie’s desk and watched as she examined the work. She held a cup of Star Bucks coffee, the size almost as large as her head. The coffee shook slightly in her unsteady hand. Her normally straightened, perfectly maintained, brown hair was dishevelled, frizzy, almost a fro. Her smile, although was turned up into a broad grin, but her eyes were sunken. Jessica tapped her foot and flicked her pen.

“Do you like it?” Jessica demanded as Sophie finished reading the script.

Sophie looked up at her and squeezed her arm. “You’ve done well. Really well.”

Jessica brushed down the creases in her skirt, her blouse half hanging out. She sighed and a smile crept onto her lips.

“You haven’t slept have you?”

A broad grin spread over Jessica’s face. “No.” Jessica pointed to the papers. “So, are you going to take it to Bradley now?”

“Absolutely.” Sophie stood up.

“We were all on such a roll last night, the brain juices were flowing, we had to keep going until we got it done.”

“I’m impressed. Your first all-nighter. That’s an initiation into a team. Congratulations. A top tip: don’t let Desmond hit on you.”

Jessica barked with laughter and her cheeks flushed red. “Of course I wouldn’t. Besides, I’m engaged.”

“That hasn’t stopped him before.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Jessica said. “So…Flora’s not coming in until eleven, and Desmond..., I have no clue what he’s doing.” Jessica stifled a yawn.

“Remember you spoke to me about work-life balance. How is that fiancée of yours?”

Jessica gave Sophie a goofy grin. “He understood.”

“I’m glad you gave him a call. Okay, as long as he understands.”

“I mean it won’t happen each night.”

“No, but times are tough,” Sophie sighed.

“By the way, we all missed you. I know you’re the project manager and not really supposed to do creative work but focus on business management. But the team all still love getting your input.”

“Thanks,” Sophie replied. She’d left work on time the night before, too busy working on her Dad’s resume and finding him a job. “Any time you need me, just say the word.” A warm feeling flowed through her body. “You can’t go home, can you?” Sophie half-smiled, as Jessica leaned on Sophie’s desk.

Jessica shook her head. “Bradley.” She shrugged. “I’ve still got Bradley’s tasks to do. But when I get my degree, I might be able to get a role in one of the teams – accounts, creative, something. You’ll put a good word in for me.”

“Of course.” Sophie nodded. “I’ll speak with Bradley now.”

Sophie walked into Bradley’s office. Using her best sales skills she went through the work the team had done. Bradley practically fell over himself, salivating, when Sophie brought the Silver Account, ‘
Skinny Dipping’
campaign idea to him. Bradley loved risqué. He was excited about the idea and gave her the go-ahead for the rest of the team to finish off the work. For all purposes, the Silver Account was careering ahead with no bumps in the road. She backed out of his office when he started asking about whether she’d secured any
new
clients.

“Working on it. Working on it,” she said, closing Bradley’s door and she returned to her desk.

Back at her desk, a post-it note was stuck on Sophie’s computer monitor. The handwritten message sent a thrill of excitement up her spine. The hand writing read:
Tom Johnson from Barney’s Chocolate Bars called. He like the idea you discussed with him at the London Advertising Awards, and wants a formal presentation.

“Jessica! When did Tom Johnson call?” Sophie yelled across the office. Jessica skirted to Sophie’s desk and smiled in amusement as she watched Sophie throw her fists up in the air, and punch at the sky. “Jessica, you know a win like this is worth two million pounds to
Clarks
!”

“Okay what do we need to do?”

“Team meeting with Flora, Desmond, and Harry. We need to revise the initial idea, as we discussed it ages ago. We’ve got to get everything in order for Tom Johnson from Barney’s to see.” Sophie paced and ideas sprung into her head. “We might need to develop a few extra ideas for our back pocket, just in case.” She’d been caught out before, generating ideas on the fly when clients suddenly changed their mind on something they’d already said they’d liked. It was always prudent to be prepared for a shift in attitude. Until they signed on the dotted line, they could always pull out. Nothing was a certainty.

“Okay, did you want me to call them and get everyone to come back in?”

Sophie nodded vigorously and at that moment Kelly sauntered past, her shoulders shifted back. “I just cracked another client, Sophie.” Kelly wore the grin of a barracuda, her white teeth glistened. “Am I getting your quota, too?”

“Congratulations,” Sophie said in a dry voice.

Jessica avoided meeting Sophie’s gaze. “Top job,” Jessica mumbled and hurried back to her own desk outside Bradley’s office.

Kelly leant over, noticing the handwritten note with the Barney’s message on it. Sophie shuddered as a thought niggled in the back of her mind. Was the lack of building new business becoming so noticeable? It wasn’t like she wasn’t building increased revenue. The billings on the Silver Account had actually quadrupled. It was just that she hadn’t acquired any
new
clients or
new
company groups, like the Silver hotel chain, to add to her portfolio.

“Barney’s hey? Do you think you’ve got a chance?” There was a glint in Kelly’s eye.

Sophie swallowed. “Certainly do.” Feigning confidence she smiled up at Kelly. “You did great work. I’m sure Bradley’s impressed.”

A sickly feeling sloshing in her stomach as Sophie became aware of the challenge in Kelly’s gaze. “Oh Bradley will be very impressed with
me
,” Kelly said. What was the implication there? Kelly marched to Bradley’s office and went in, closing the door behind her.

Sophie stared at Bradley’s closed door. She knew the words Kelly would say. She knew the words Bradley would reply. Congratulatory words. Suddenly it didn’t seem fair. She worked hard. Bloody hard. She was a fair project manager. She liked to share the work load around.

She looked at the handwritten note on her desk and was fuelled by the need to sell. She grasped her telephone and then called over to Jessica. “Jess, if you want to help I need you to call Flora and Harry. I’ll call Desmond. They need to come in as soon as they can.”

In the back of her mind she had another business development opportunity, Matthew Silver and the hotel chain. She would see Matthew tonight at the pool. If she didn’t get the hotel chain, why was she bothering to face her phobia of swimming? Her business development was on the trajectory up.

***

Sophie sat on the pool step, her hands in her lap. A child was playing in the water, a meter from her, and a memory roused. The memory was of Sophie choking, feeling like she was suffocating, and her eyes almost popping out of her head from lack of oxygen. She sat shivering on the step.
The hotel chain. Remember the hotel chain.

Her head darted around looking for Matthew. She couldn’t see him. She inhaled. Did what he always told her to do. Breathe. Stay calm. Sophie focused her thoughts onto something positive, a grass meadow, and field of sunflowers. She could almost smell them. A sense of calm began to filter over her body.

She felt something move onto the step. A splash stirred her. She opened her eyes. Matthew sat awfully close. She could practically touch the hairs on his legs.

“Are you getting in?”

She shuddered involuntary. “It’s bad today, can I sit here for a bit?” she asked, referring to the drowning memory and then waiting on the step until her heart rate calmed down. “I’m almost building up a sweat and it’s winter.” Sophie suddenly felt unbearably shy, and also a little foolish as she explained her feelings.