Dirty Break (18+)

In Which Push Comes To Shove

Lydia tried hard not to be nervous - in general, but certainly as she stood outside her manager's office, awaiting his summons so that she could present her idea to him. Nerves were sometimes good - but not when you were wearing a 1940s silk blouse that wouldn't fare well with sweat all over it. She'd dressed not to impress, but to make her feel confident as hell today and - for the most part - it was working.

"Miss Granger."

The intercom buzzed with her name and then fell silent. She gathered up her notebook, her coat and her confidence, and stood to let herself into the office of Mr Lockwood.

"Please sit down, Miss Granger. I understand you have your proposal ready for me?"

Clichéd as it might have been, as soon as she sat down in front of Mr Lockwood and opened her MacBook to begin going through her slides, all of her nerves went away. Perhaps her nervous system had realised that flight wasn't an option and had gone for the fight mechanism, or at least the nearest thing to it. Perhaps she simply knew that her idea was good enough, when she had felt doubt before. Either way, she laid out all the pertinent points for him and then sat back to let him voice the questions she knew were coming.

"Very well. I like the idea - I think there are a few details to iron out but we can arrange a brainstorming session for that with no issues - but it is by-and-large a good idea and I am willing to give you the go ahead with it. I will arrange for Courtney to reach out to Strangeways and as long as we get their go-ahead, we move forward with the idea."

Lydia stared at her boss, speechless, and wearing an expression that she was quite certain was not her most intelligent. She had prepared for question upon question to be thrown her way. She definitely knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but considering the bad luck/naivety she'd had thus far, she really couldn't believe it had been that easy.

"That's it?"

He laughed, but the amusement definitely wasn't shared; he was laughing at her and she really didn't appreciate that.

"What did you want? An inquisition? I like the idea, Miss Granger, and I'm willing to give you the shot - I very much suggest you take it."

When he put it like that, there wasn't an argument she could - or even wanted to - make. Instead she closed her MacBook with a authoritative click and held out her hand for him to shake.

"I'll have the proposal put together under your name - I'll get the request to Courtney to get on with the admin side of things and we'll arrange a brainstorm for tomorrow afternoon ... 3 o'clock, if that suits?"

"That suits me fine. Thank you very much for your time, Mr Lockwood."

She somehow managed to grab everything she needed and make it out of the office without falling over, even in her excited state. She had the presence of mind not to drop everything and call Andrea from just outside the office, but when she reached the corridor that led off to the communal office, all bets were off. Her iPhone was at her ear so fast that she barely remembered it getting there. Andrea answered three rings in with a voice that screamed 'just woke up' - although Lydia didn't really need the reminder that her friend rarely woke up before 11am due to a fortuitous University schedule and late-night filming.

"S'up?"

"I'm making a TV programme, Andrea! It's happening."

The voice at the other end of the phone was suddenly wide awake.

"I knew it! I'm so proud of you, baby girl. I knew you would do it but still, my heart's full for you! Arghhhhhhh!"

Lydia knew she was grinning from ear to ear, but she couldn't stop - didn't want to in fact. Eric walked past her and gave her a very wide berth, eyes flickering up to her face and then back down again.