‘It’s a shame you didn’t realise that before.’
Devon looked at her face, which had sharpened with spite.
‘We agreed to split everything down the middle.’
‘Yes, but sadly that’s the negative equity so I have to absorb mine and you have to pay yours to me.’
‘That seems fair.’
Marina put a hand on his arm. ‘Of course it’s fair.’ She patted his arm, flirtatious charm back in place.
‘Unfortunately we can’t split Larry down the middle.’
‘No, and we agreed she should stay in her home.’
‘We did. So, I was thinking. You’ll be selling the puppies.’
‘Yes, Devon, I can’t work and look after eight puppies. However,’ she gave a saccharine sweet smile, ‘we had decided that we would sell them to the highest bidders and give all the money to charity. It would be great PR.’
‘“We”?’
‘The production team.’
‘Ah, but if we split everything down the middle, four of those puppies would be mine.’
Marina’s face sharpened. ‘There are costs involved. Do you want to halve those too?’
‘Half of everything, that’s fair. Yes.’
She looked slightly mollified. ‘But it would look odd if only four of the puppies were sold for charity.’
‘True. OK. Sell them all for charity, although I would like to keep one.’
Her lips pursed. ‘We can talk about that later. Once they’re all born.’
He folded his arms and leaned back against the breakfast bar, starting to enjoy himself. ‘Today’s been quite a success.’
‘Amazing. Honestly. It’s exceeded all our expectations. Breakfast TV have already asked me to do a slot tomorrow morning.’ She sat down on one of the bar stools, arranging herself to best advantage. It was an artful pose he’d seen many a time, showing off her perfect legs and making her look up at him from under her lashes.
‘What sort of expectations did you have?’ Devon pretended to look puzzled. Thanks to Ella and his chat with the goatee boys, he had a much better insight into how some of this media world worked.
‘It all hinged on how many people would tune in. Social media. The Facebook page. The website almost crashed at one point but luckily we’d got contingency in place.’
‘A good day at the office.’
She grinned, her teeth white against her fuchsia pink lipstick. ‘You bet.’
‘What would half of today’s profits be?’ Devon crossed his feet at the ankle. ‘You must have done quite well. Half the cost of the sponsorship? Facebook advertising?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. That all belongs to the production company.’
‘But the house doesn’t. The studio doesn’t. Surely the production company has to pay for hire and use of the studio.’
Marina paled. ‘W-well. It’s not that simple. It’s more complicated than that.’
‘How so? The production company films here. As half owner of the studio, I should also receive half the hire charges.’
Marina stared at him, her jaw tense. ‘But I part-own the production company.’
