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Authors: Sam Aubigny
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personal secretary,’ she slurred, ‘and this, Mr Rudge, is Gale Buckingham the famous actress.’
‘An honour to meet you, Ms Buckingham, at long last,’ Rudge said with a bow, ‘I’ve been a fan of yours ever since I saw Desert Island Dykes as a teenager.’
‘My first big part,’ she replied, ‘I was a mere slip of a girl myself, Mr Rudge. Of course that was back in the days when producers paid for proper location shooting. Now they’d have me running around naked on a beach in Wales, or some other cold and desolate spot.’
‘When are we back up in London?’ interrupted Becky. ‘Gale wants me to go for tea at her place.’
‘Probably within the next couple of weeks,’ he said looking unsure, ‘it depends on what the publisher has got lined up.’
‘Well I’d better give you my card then, Ms Caine,’ said Gale, delving into her expensive-looking evening bag. ‘Just give me a day’s notice and pop round. I’m in town for the next month or so, and then I’m off to L.A. So please don’t let me down, I really would like to have a long intimate chat with you.’
She handed Becky the card, then leaned down to kiss her on the lips before turning away and gliding away towards the exit.
Chapter 6 – Bubblewrapper’s Delight
Rudge was seated at his desk at Einstein & Unger, talking on the telephone to Mr Hewlett from his accountants, Isaac Allen and Partners. Hewlett sounded quite excited as he broke the news to Rudge about Disciplinary Attraction’s initial royalty payments.
‘You’ll be quite pleasantly surprised, Mr Rudge. In fact you could say you have an embarrassment of riches coming into the company account, so we’ll need to address this sooner rather than later.’
‘How do you mean?’ replied Rudge, ‘The book’s only been on sale a few weeks.’
‘From the retail outlets’ reports given to me by the publisher, sales went from seven hundred and fifty eight on the first day, to fourteen thousand three hundred and nineteen by the end of the first week.’
‘Good grief,’ replied Rudge, ‘that’s pretty good going.’
‘That’s nothing, Mr Rudge, by the end of the second week it was one hundred and sixty three thousand. And now it’s over half a million. Mr Newman at Fantasy Lit is over the moon, because they’ve never had a book that’s sold as many copies in such a short space of time. It isn’t even available in paperback yet.’
The office manager, Dave Banstead walked over to Rudge’s desk and stood in front of it glowering down at him.
‘I hope that’s a business call, Rudge,’ he barked, ’We don’t pay you to make idle chitter-chatter on the firm’s time.’
Rudge cupped his hand over the receiver’s mouthpiece and smiled up at Banstead.
‘Yes, Mr Banstead, it is business,’ he said politely. ‘I’m placing an urgent order for some bubble-wrap. The rolls we have in Despatch have been contaminated with some sort of horrible grey sticky stuff.’
A ripple of knowing laughter went around the room, and Banstead beat a hasty retreat back into his office.
‘Sorry about that, Mr Hewlett,’ said Rudge into the handset, ‘I was interrupted by a slug crawling around my desk.’
‘I see, well now we seem to have something of a dilemma, Mr Rudge,’ Hewlett continued, ‘so I’d like you to come up and see me fairly soon if that’s convenient. Then we can see what we can do about all this cash-flow.’
‘Okay,’ replied Rudge, smiling, ‘how about tomorrow at ten?’
‘That would be fine, ten o’clock would suit me.’
‘Great,’ said Rudge with a broad grin, ‘I look forward to seeing you.’
When Banstead walked into the main office again later that afternoon, Rudge beckoned him over.
‘I’m taking tomorrow off, Mr Banstead,’ he said, ‘I have to go up to London again.’
Banstead smiled emptily at Rudge,
‘An honour to meet you, Ms Buckingham, at long last,’ Rudge said with a bow, ‘I’ve been a fan of yours ever since I saw Desert Island Dykes as a teenager.’
‘My first big part,’ she replied, ‘I was a mere slip of a girl myself, Mr Rudge. Of course that was back in the days when producers paid for proper location shooting. Now they’d have me running around naked on a beach in Wales, or some other cold and desolate spot.’
‘When are we back up in London?’ interrupted Becky. ‘Gale wants me to go for tea at her place.’
‘Probably within the next couple of weeks,’ he said looking unsure, ‘it depends on what the publisher has got lined up.’
‘Well I’d better give you my card then, Ms Caine,’ said Gale, delving into her expensive-looking evening bag. ‘Just give me a day’s notice and pop round. I’m in town for the next month or so, and then I’m off to L.A. So please don’t let me down, I really would like to have a long intimate chat with you.’
She handed Becky the card, then leaned down to kiss her on the lips before turning away and gliding away towards the exit.
Chapter 6 – Bubblewrapper’s Delight
Rudge was seated at his desk at Einstein & Unger, talking on the telephone to Mr Hewlett from his accountants, Isaac Allen and Partners. Hewlett sounded quite excited as he broke the news to Rudge about Disciplinary Attraction’s initial royalty payments.
‘You’ll be quite pleasantly surprised, Mr Rudge. In fact you could say you have an embarrassment of riches coming into the company account, so we’ll need to address this sooner rather than later.’
‘How do you mean?’ replied Rudge, ‘The book’s only been on sale a few weeks.’
‘From the retail outlets’ reports given to me by the publisher, sales went from seven hundred and fifty eight on the first day, to fourteen thousand three hundred and nineteen by the end of the first week.’
‘Good grief,’ replied Rudge, ‘that’s pretty good going.’
‘That’s nothing, Mr Rudge, by the end of the second week it was one hundred and sixty three thousand. And now it’s over half a million. Mr Newman at Fantasy Lit is over the moon, because they’ve never had a book that’s sold as many copies in such a short space of time. It isn’t even available in paperback yet.’
The office manager, Dave Banstead walked over to Rudge’s desk and stood in front of it glowering down at him.
‘I hope that’s a business call, Rudge,’ he barked, ’We don’t pay you to make idle chitter-chatter on the firm’s time.’
Rudge cupped his hand over the receiver’s mouthpiece and smiled up at Banstead.
‘Yes, Mr Banstead, it is business,’ he said politely. ‘I’m placing an urgent order for some bubble-wrap. The rolls we have in Despatch have been contaminated with some sort of horrible grey sticky stuff.’
A ripple of knowing laughter went around the room, and Banstead beat a hasty retreat back into his office.
‘Sorry about that, Mr Hewlett,’ said Rudge into the handset, ‘I was interrupted by a slug crawling around my desk.’
‘I see, well now we seem to have something of a dilemma, Mr Rudge,’ Hewlett continued, ‘so I’d like you to come up and see me fairly soon if that’s convenient. Then we can see what we can do about all this cash-flow.’
‘Okay,’ replied Rudge, smiling, ‘how about tomorrow at ten?’
‘That would be fine, ten o’clock would suit me.’
‘Great,’ said Rudge with a broad grin, ‘I look forward to seeing you.’
When Banstead walked into the main office again later that afternoon, Rudge beckoned him over.
‘I’m taking tomorrow off, Mr Banstead,’ he said, ‘I have to go up to London again.’
Banstead smiled emptily at Rudge,
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