Page 20 of Total Creative Control

Lewis glared at Aaron but said nothing.

Aaron lifted an eyebrow. “And on that note, shall I put in ten minutes with Toni, so you can say sorry for yelling at her like that? Or shall I just go straight to HR and ask them to book you in for anotherAppropriate Behaviour in the Workplacesession?”

“Bloody hell.” Lewis turned back to the tea, fishing out the teabag and adding milk. “All right, stop nagging. I’ll go and see Toni now.”

“Good. Take her a coffee. And some cake.”

“Where the hell am I going to find cake?”

“Grinder is two minutes away.” Aaron snagged the tea before Lewis could add sugar, keeping it for himself. “She’d love a latte and a slice of Double Choc Fudge cake.”

Lewis glowered at him. “You know, sometimes I wonder whether you know who the boss is around here.”

“Oh,” Aaron said, sipping his tea. “I know.”

Chapter Five

Lewis

Lewis went straight to Toni’s office when he got back from Grinder.

She looked at him over the top of her tortoiseshell cat’s-eye glasses, her dark eyes cool. “Do you need something?”

“No,” he replied shortly. “Just delivering this.” He set down the brown paper bag on her desk.

She looked inside and drew out the carefully wrapped slice of cake. “Ooooh!” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Double Choc Fudge cake! Thank Aaron for me.”

“I bloody bought it. You can thank me,” Lewis complained, sinking into the chair in front of her desk.

She raised her eyebrows at him, and he sighed.

“Fine. Don’t thank me. It’s an apology.” He scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Hmm.” Her tone was sceptical. “I could argue with you about that, but it’s a reasonable proxy for an apology, so I’ll take it. Have you calmed down now?”

“Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p’ extravagantly.

“You’re going to have to before we go to Safehaven.”

Lewis groaned. “Please don’t call it that.”

“Why not? That’s its name”

“Safehaven.” Lewis rolled his eyes. “It was called Belchpark Manor when Charlie bought it, you know.”

Toni laughed. “Was it? I didn’t know that. I knew he changed the name. He told me he called it Safehaven because he wanted it to be a ‘safe space where his guests could be their authentic selves’.”

Lewis shook his head. “Safe’s the last thing I feel in that hellhole.”

Toni chuckled and swigged her coffee. “I know. He spouts all that shit and then turns around and tells us we need to make Faolán straight.”

Lewis sighed. “Remind me why we’re doing a US version.”

“Because the money is amazing,” she said. “And it’s going get you known Stateside. That’s the main reason you agreed, isn’t it?”

Lewis gave a grunt of assent. Since he’d first started work in the industry, breaking into the US had been his dream, and this deal with Telopix could be his foot in the door.

“And itwillbe awesome,” Toni continued. “They’ll throw resources at this we could only dream of. Besides, Charlie’s promised you’ll get creative control—he swears you’ll get final script approval on every episode.”