Page 85 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

Jo shook her head. ‘Nah, she’s too busy looking at her phone. I talk to her sometimes.’

‘Get away, you don’t.’

‘I do, it’s true. Anyway, it’s been nice talking to you, but I need to get home.’

She picked up her bag, gave him a quick goodbye wave and headed out of the office. She didn’t notice her pitch document still sitting on the tray of the printer.

*

Jo’s phone was silent all weekend. She’d been hoping Razz would text her, might ask why she hadn’t been at Scrabble club or check she was okay, but he didn’t.

She tried to put him to the back of her mind and spent the time rehearsing her pitch in front of the bathroom mirror. It was tricky without the printout – she’d been halfway to Hebbleswick before she’d realised she’d forgotten it – but she managed nonetheless. She worked out how to explain each round in a succinct way and practised smiling as she spoke. She tried to second-guess what questions David might have and pondered how best to answer them. She was ready for this. Thoroughly prepared and utterly convinced that he would say yes.

*

Monday morning.

Jo could barely sit still in the team meeting as they ran through the usual agenda: this week’s viewing figures, audience feedback, what filming was happening during the week and who was involved. This was her big chance; her Scrabble game show was her best idea yet. She had to keep calm and present it in a clear, concise manner, like she’d practised at home. Her mouth was dry, her heart thudding; she wasn’t sure if this was nerves or excitement or a mixture of both.

‘And now we move on to ideas,’ said David.

Finally. The moment Jo had been waiting for. She took a deep breath, visualised the Word document in her mind, the bullet points, the details of each round, and said, ‘We could…’

‘I’ve been working on an idea,’ said Leona. ‘I thought we could do a game show based on the board game, Scrabble. It’s an extremely popular game; 150 million sets have been sold and it’s been around since the 1930s.’

‘Fantastic,’ said David. ‘Tell me more…’

33

Jo couldn’t believe her ears.

‘There might be four or six players in the first round,’ Leona was saying, ‘but at least one of those would be knocked out so only some would go through to the second round. Viewers like eliminating players like that, don’t they?’

She looked round the room, smiling at everyone, but avoided making eye contact with Jo.

‘By the final round,’ she continued, ‘there would only be two people left. Facing each other one-on-one, going head-to-head over the Scrabble board, to see who would emerge victorious.’

‘And these rounds?’ David said. ‘What would they consist of? Because watching people playing a game of Scrabble wouldn’t be that exciting. Rather slow, I’d have thought.’

‘I’m coming to that.’ Leona smiled again. ‘For the first round, each player would have their own board and the same set of letters. They’d have one minute to make each word. And now here’s the good bit…’

She paused.

Jo glanced at her colleagues; they were all hanging on Leona’s every word. She wanted to say, Hang on a minute, that’s my idea, but her mouth was dry and Leona was presenting the whole thing so well, so confidently. Better than she would have done, for all her rehearsals.

No-one would believe you, she thought. Leona’s really nailing this pitch. She’s owning it. No-one would believe it wasn’t her own idea.

‘We’d devise an app to link with the show,’ Leona was saying now. ‘A bit like the WordPals app. Have you all heard of that? Jo’s always on it, aren’t you, Jo?’

‘Yes, but not when I’m meant to be working,’ Jo mumbled through gritted teeth.

‘Of course not, Jo.’ Leona smiled sweetly. ‘I wasn’t implying that. So this app that I’ve thought of – it would allow viewers to play along at home. Our audience wouldn’t be passively watching from their sofas; they’d be actively taking part. You’re always saying how it’s good to engage our viewers more, David. And – you’ll love this bit – it would be interactive. We’d encourage the audience to use social media to tell us their highest scoring words.’

Jo looked down at the table. As Leona continued, Jo mouthed the words. She knew exactly – exactly – what was coming next. She must have found the document that Jo had left on the printer on Friday and managed to memorise the entire thing before the team meeting.

‘I thought we could call it Love Letters,’ Leona was saying now, ‘because it’s for people who love letters!’

‘Brilliant,’ said David. ‘Absolutely brilliant. Genius idea.’