‘Summer will take your slot on an interim basis, starting from tomorrow. While working your notice you’ll be mentoring her through the transition and responsible for the content she puts out. Train her up in all that extra stuff you do, so we keep hold of the viewers. She’ll attract a whole new demographic, but I don’t want that cancelled out by losing your lot. I’m prepared to reduce your notice to four weeks. Don’t want to drag it out longer than necessary. HR say you’ve still got two weeks’ holiday owed, so you can clear your desk in a fortnight.’

‘Wait, what?’ I sat back in the chair, beyond stunned while at the same time very aware of Summer right beside me. ‘Are you firing me? Because I’ve not resigned.’

‘Yet.’ His smarmy smile sent a shiver of revulsion down my spine. ‘Nothing gets past the boss, Bree.’

It didn’t seem the right time to point out that my correct name had still got past him.

‘I’m not planning on resigning at all,’ I gabbled, while my brain frantically tried to work out how to get me out of my own non-resignation. ‘Quite the opposite. I actually had a proposal about how I could develop my role further. Have you seen the online engagement stats for the Christmas period? I think now’s the perfect time to take things to the next level, if I could share some of my ideas with you?’ I stuck on my television smile, steadfastly avoiding Summer in my peripheral vision. ‘Although, I’d be very interested to know where you heard that I was leaving, given that it’s completely untrue.’

‘You haven’t been offered a national role with BWM Today?’

I swallowed, hard, and tried to resist squirting my water bottle in Summer’s smug face, just in case Mike had heard straight from Baxter.

‘I have, yes.’

Summer gave a minuscule flinch that I wouldn’t have picked up if I hadn’t been on hyperalert.

‘I turned it down.’

‘What?’ Summer screeched, losing all composure as she spun to face me. ‘Why the hell would you do that?’

‘Yes,’ Mike added, giving Summer a hard stare that confirmed his information source was sitting in this meeting room. ‘Do explain.’

‘I didn’t want the job, for various reasons. Attending the interview only cemented how much I want to stay here, working on local stories with local people. I know it seems like I lost some focus over the past few months, but I am fully committed to seeing East Midlands Weather grow even bigger and better.’

‘That being the case, Bree—’

‘It’s Bea.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Bea Armstrong is a household name across the region. It probably doesn’t look great if you can’t get the name of your top weather presenter right.’