'You've been at Femme for

'You've been at Femme for -' Calvin looked at the stapled pages in front of him. 'Four years?' 'Four years next month,' Lisa murmured, with an expertly judged mix of deference and confidence. 'And you've been editor for nearly two years?' 'Two wonderful years,' Lisa confirmed, fighting back the urge to stick her fingers down her throat and gag. 'And you're only twenty-nine,'Calvin marvelled.'Well, as you know here at Randolph Media we reward hard work.' Lisa twinkled prettily at this patent lie. Like many companies in the Western world, Randolph Media rewarded hard work with poor pay, increasing workloads, demotions and on-a-second's-notice redundancies But Lisa was different. She'd paid her dues at Femme, and made sacrifices that even she'd never intended to make: starting at seven-thirty most mornings, doing twelve, thirteen, fourteen-hour days, then going to evening press dos when she finally switched off her computer. Often she came to work on Saturdays, Sundays, even bank-holiday Mondays. The porters loathed her because it meant whenever she wanted to come to the office one of them had to come in and open up and thereby forgo their Saturday football or their bank-holiday family outing to Brent Cross. 'We have a vacancy at Randolph Media,'Calvin said importantly.'It would be a wonderful challenge, Lisa.' I know, she thought irritably.Just cut the chase. 'It will involve moving overseas, which can sometimes be a problem for one's partner.' 'I'm single.'Lisa was brusque. Barry wrinkled his forehead in surprise and thought of the tenner he'd had to hand over for someone's wedding present, a few years before. He could have sworn it was for Lisa here, but maybe not,perhaps, he wasn't as on-the-ball as he once used to be... 'We've looking for an editor for a new magazine,'Calvin went on. From the book "Sushi for beginners" by Marian Keyes