Geli Voyante's Hot or Not Read Online Free PDF Page B

tried to tell me off but strangely found he couldn’t. In the Gherkin he’d always been able to stand his ground; something strange happened that afternoon and he seemed to… I don’t know… fall in love with me ? I recollected for the panel how he couldn’t stop staring at me or laughing at my rubbish jokes. He even ordered us a bottle of Dom. It didn’t quite go with the cream scones, but free champagne is always free champagne.
    I guess I should have been more surprised – this wa s the man who would reject a receipt for splashing out on a Venti from Starbucks; he bitterly reimbursed a Tall like the money was coming out of his pocket – yet bizarrely he offered to extend what I thought was our afternoon treat. We went for a Nonshing Kyphi body treatment at the Sanctuary, by which point I had stopped blinking in disbelief at his bill-paying change of heart and I didn’t think twice at his suggestion of an early dinner at Clos Maggiore. (OK, I was a little bit tipsy.)
    I suppose I should have twigged from the rather romantic table we had, as well as the second bottle of champagne, but the first time I learnt that Callum was supposed to be telling me off for my expenses that afternoon was at his disciplinary meeting.
    The memory of my delightful afternoon is tainted now by recalling Callum’s not-so-delightful screaming that I had bewitched him, projected a hypnotic desire onto him outside the safe zone of New News , and that I was nothing more than a “cock-tease” as I’d not invited him in for “coffee” after he’d spent all his ( New News’ ) money on me. I swear, I was clueless to his intentions, but I knew from that moment on it was safer not to expose myself to any male outside the New News sanctuary for fear that they too would become infected by the Callum virus.
    Luckily , my bewildered statement was believed and Callum was transferred. I was told not to worry about my expenses because New News would always take care of the bills, as long as I didn’t take action against them for Callum’s sexual harassment… I wasn’t sure what harassment they were referring to as I’d enjoyed my afternoon but who was I to question the ruling of the almighty HR floor when I was still on probation?
    When I got hauled into a disciplinary hearing after going out with Jake, another Accounts man who bumped into me when I was walking into the building and asked me out, I twigged it would be safer to keep away from my work colleagues in a social context. Since these incidents I’ve only seen females or Jerry outside of work – he’s gay, he’s immune – which makes me very apprehensive about this lunch with Theo. I know I’ll be the one sent away if the Callum virus hits Theo. He’s their star columnist; I’m me .
    Despite my recent feelings of boredom, I like working here. There is no way I want to be sent to the Yummy Mummy magazine and have to choose what’s Hot or Not in parenthood because I’m not at that stage of my life yet. Or, even worse, be sent to the pre-teen mag Cupcake and have to dictate what’s Hot or Not for the tween crowd. I’m so over my childhood, it’s untrue; plus, I freely admit I’m kind of jealous of the little blighters.
    You can see why I need to talk to Sara and use up valuable research time to find out how I can stop Callum disease from afflicting Theo. She’s qualified to write the psychology column here, so she’s good enough for me. Besides, I can hardly phone Glinda when I share a pod-wall with the topic of conversation, can I? 
    ‘Hi Sara,’ I chirp. ‘How’s it going?’
    ‘Not bad, not bad.’ She stirs her tea.
    Her mug reads “I love Freud” in the “I love New York” t-shirt style (only Hot in the New York scenario – “I love my cat” doesn’t make the grade in my column). It’s ironic because, of course, she hates Freud, despite her column perspective often being Freudian-based. Her New News take has to be less based on the statistical