She went over to Ginger and began examining her with delight, testing the auburn curls styled into fat, glossy waves. ‘Your make-up is incredible and this tan – the contouring. And the swimsuit ... Why do you always wear trousers? Those legs!’
‘Hidden masterpieces,’ said Lulu. ‘I’m Lulu, Ginger’s friend. Swimsuit shots need work for non-professionals.’
‘Screw that,’ said Fiona, gesturing down at her outfit, an old and much-washed jungle camo T-shirt and leggings. ‘This is my look. I’m not wearing a swimsuit for bloody Mattheson. You don’t take down a guy twice your size using an Israeli martial art wearing a bikini and if she doesn’t like it, she can shove it.’
Jodie giggled.
‘You ladies ready for this?’ said a slightly bored voice outside.
Lulu went out and the women heard conversation.
Moments later, Lulu came in, grinning.
‘Jack’s ready to go. I’ve told him this will take time. We want the nice lighting, mood music and another photographic assistant to hold up the gold reflectors.’
Fiona smiled. ‘Nobody tells Jack what to do. He’ll probably put the fish-eye lens on for a laugh.’
Lulu gave her a shimmering, dangerous smile: ‘He’ll do what I’ll tell him and it won’t be using fish-eye lenses.’
The women came out and Jack, clearly either primed or slightly pushed around by the force of Lulu’s personality, was like a different man.
‘OK, instead of doing this as a speedy shot, let’s thinkVanity Fair,’ he said, spending more time than was entirely necessary staring at Ginger. ‘Ginger, right? You look – different,’ he said, eyeing her in a way that made Ginger feel weirdly aware of her own body.
‘Yes,’ said Lulu, ‘my fault really. I advised her not to hit the newspaper staff with the full blast of her amazing sexuality when she started working there.’
Jack’s mouth fell open as he considered this.
In the background, Fiona broke out laughing.
‘I hear you,’ said Fiona, recovering. ‘I mean, that’s why I wear this sort of stuff. I don’t want to let the full blast – were they the words you used, Lulu? – the full blast of my sexuality out in case anyone in the office couldn’t cope with it. Us lesbians have to be careful with the full blast stuff.’
‘Exactly,’ agreed Lulu. ‘I’d probably be too attracted to you if you wore a bikini.’
‘Yeah,’ nodded Fiona. ‘Us girls, all we think about is sex, right?’
‘Right,’ Lulu agreed.
Jodie and Ginger bit their lips as they all watched Jack try to compute this.
‘We ought to stop tormenting him,’ Lulu whispered.
‘Nah,’ said Fiona. ‘It’s fun.’
‘Let’s get started,’ said Jack, definitely confused. This was not the way he had figured that this photo shoot would go. Carla Mattheson had told him it was a quick shot for the magazine of three female staff members who were going to do various things for the bikini diet. He had not expected one of them to turn up in combat clothes.
Nor had he expected another one of them, the big red-headed one he thought it was going to be hardest to get a good picture of, to turn up looking like something out of a 1940s movie. She looked incredible, like some pin-up, but a modern pin-up, with those amazing long legs.
He had always known Ginger was tall but she just seemed sort of big because of all those big dark long jackets she wore. He’d got the impression she was a large girl underneath it all, but hey, there was a lot of action under all those clothes.
‘Right,’ he said, realising he had been staring at her a bit too long. ‘Let’s set this up.’
Lulu wasn’t a stylist for nothing and before Jack knew it, she and his assistant were dragging out props from the cupboards, putting out a couple of cardboard palm trees, a few sun loungers, a little table and corny-looking plastic Martini glasses that might make it look as though the girls were on holiday somewhere.
‘You could always put in a cool background,’ she said, looking at him.
‘No budget,’ he said. ‘They won’t do it. This is what we are stuck with.’
‘OK then,’ she said, ‘you have to gold-light it up, it’s the only way we’re going to get that summer look for it.’
