find myself saying however.
Idiot, Geli. Idiot . What do I know about political campaigns and running causes? Theo looks like I’ve just announced I’m taking him to heaven on my return from the kitchen. OK, that grin was worth my remark.
‘I’d love to,’ he practically roars at me , in such a happy voice it sends shivers up my spine. ‘You know, I’m really seeing a different side to you today. Maybe we should go out for lunch?’
Forget shivers up my spine ; my whole body is exploding. Forget Glinda and her Tiggy council of war. Finally! Theo has finally seen my inner beauty and it’s all thanks to the New York marathon/US nomination race. Who cares if Tiggy marries Calvin? I have Theo!
‘Great! ’
I manage to smile calmly at him, even though panic has kicked in, which is over-riding the desire I have to jump Theo in his pod and… y’know … After all, lunch does not leave me much time to Wiki and Google everything I can to keep up this bluff.
A huge snort of laugh ter erupts from Jerry’s pod.
‘I’ll get the tea. ’
But first I turn my attention to Jerry and what’s going on in his pod to cause such hilarity. As suspected, no YouTube.
‘What’s so funny, Jerry?’ I ask through gritted teeth, knowing the answer full-well.
He’ s really restraining himself from exploding into fits of giggles, the little girl that he is. ‘I’ll tell you later,’ he giggles. ‘ After your lunch with Toblerone.’
I ignore his smirk. ‘Tea?’
‘Love one.’ He giggles again. I should pour it over him.
Jerry’s meanness aside though, I guess today isn’t going to be another same old, same old day after all.
Chapter Five
In the kitchen, thankfully, I do bump into Sara, our psychologist columnist. Whilst I do want to rush off and scour the Internet for US Presidential nomination snippets in preparation for lunch – lunch! – with Theo, I need to ask Sara why I have Trouble with men in the first instance. This is equally as important, if not more so, because I do not want Theo to depict me this way.
At work it’s OK between us because every male in the Gherkin – our view of London is so spectacular – sees me as sweet, lovely and un-sexy which, of course, includes Theo. This is probably because of New News ’ strong insistence on old-fashioned family values. I think they only emphasise those values because they want to balance out how phallic the building we inhabit looks. Either that or all the men feel a little intimidated by it and this makes them behave themselves because they know us women folk are secretly comparing them...
Theo has never seen me outside the building so he could never form a non-Gherkin view of me. I know from past experience that me outside the building with a male colleague equals Trouble, as happened with Callum from Accounts.
Callum took me for a coffee outside the safety of the Gherkin because he had been told to have a friendly word with me as my expenses claims were getting “a tad dramatic”, to quote Callum’s boss, the evil Malcolm.
I ssues like this are always dealt with beyond the New News building as New News believes in aura and doesn’t want our office tarnished with negative influences. I only found this out at the disciplinary hearing, where the full-tale emerged.
We grabbed a cab to take us to The Wolseley for afternoon tea; Callum’s instructions said Starbucks, the one by the Tube station, and to use a free drinks voucher he had. The Wolseley and cab were exactly the kind of expenses Callum should have been advising me against. In a friendly New News manner, of course.
This all happened back when my column was relatively new and I didn’t get as many bills taken care of by management as I do now. My three favourite words aren’t “I love you” – the chance of hearing that sentiment would be a fine thing – “on the house” or “half price” have become my lullabies.
At Callum’s disciplinary hearing he did insist he