How to Get a (Love) Life Read Free Page A

you’re welcome,’ Caroline laughed as he re-closed his office door. She turned to me and shook her head. ‘That man needs to slow down or he’ll have heart failure by the age of thirty-five.’
    ‘I concur.’ I nodded, as I reluctantly dialled Chris’s number.
    Chris was one of our agency’s most successful actors. Which was good. But was a complete nightmare to deal with. Which was bad. He liked me, though, which made him marginally less irritating to deal with. When I’d first met him he’d been sitting at James’ desk laughing uproariously, beautiful head thrown back, perfect bleached teeth flashing dangerously as a deep growl of a laugh reverberated around the room. It was rare that any man made an impression on me, but even I had to (begrudgingly) admit that Chris was very, very good looking. He had the lazy confidence of a man who was used to being looked at by women. He’d landed a ton of commercials playing the smouldering hero and was now a main character in a soap. He’d recently been requested for a digital camera ad. The ad agency creatives wanted Chris to play a smouldering hero who meets a smouldering woman for plenty of smouldering looks, etc. He’d known about the advert for a week but still hadn’t confirmed if he could do it. Other actors would visit the office weekly, ask what we’d put them up for, update their CV, ring us back the second they picked up our messages. But not Chris. Oh no. I sighed as his answerphone kicked in and his smooth drawl announced: ‘You’ve reached Christopher Sheldon-Wade’s phone … you know the drill.’
    I cringed at the message. ‘Chris, it’s Nicola calling from The Sullivan Agency. We need an answer on the camera commercial so we can set it up with the client. Could you please call us back when you pick up this message. Thank you.’ I replaced the receiver, careful to straighten the phone so that it was in line with my notepad.
    Caroline didn’t look up from her work, ‘He won’t call you back, you know, Nic. He’ll make you chase.’
    ‘I know,’ I muttered grumpily.
    ‘He’s just sitting there, Nic, looking at his phone as it rings, laughing at us!’
    I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. ‘I’m sure he’s not!’
    ‘I bet he is. That boy needs a good … a good …’ she waved her pen around again, struggling to find a suitable phrase. ‘A good smash round the ear,’ she finished triumphantly.
    ‘Er …’ Smash?
    ‘Honestly, Nic,’ she continued, warming to her topic. ‘He swaggers about, flicking his hair and refusing to say yes or no to anything, never has the decency to tell us when he becomes “ill”.’ She put her pen down so that she could mime the quotation marks. ‘Never cares if we secure him a job or get him an audition, and he never calls back, never, never, never, nev—’
    The ringing of the phone silenced her rant. I smirked at her as I lifted the receiver to my ear.
    ‘Well, it won’t be him,’ she said, crossing her arms.
    I poked my tongue out at her and smiled smugly as I replied into the phone receiver, ‘Ahhh, Chris, how nice of you to phone back so quickly.’
    Caroline rolled her eyes at me. The grin was soon wiped off my face, however, when Chris purred down the line ‘Nicccccola … will I ever see your kniccccccckers?’
    Instantly flustered, I ignored his question and instead replied with a formal, ‘Right, okay, so this camera ad wants you to confirm—’
    ‘—Your voice is so sexy on the telephone, Nicola,’ he whispered laughingly.
    As always, I tried to remain professional. Chris was used to having women fall at his feet and he’d been pretty put out that I never had. Consequently, he now seemed determined to make me agree to go out with him. It was tricky because he was one of our biggest clients and I had to keep him on side, meaning I’d spent four years making up feeble excuses and dreading his every phone call.
    ‘Um, Chris, I just want an answer one way or another so I