Why is he is sitting so close to me?

Thankfully, I checked with Faith when he was out of the room and she confirmed I smell only of Elizabeth Arden Green Tea Scent. ‘Refreshing’, it said on the label, so I’d sprayed it liberally before I left the flat.

‘Harry, that’s great. Only, I’m not up for a revolution, thanks all the same.’ Annoyingly, I like that this makes him laugh. ‘I’m a chef,’ I go on, softer. ‘I’m not whatever this… Eat Me requires me to be.’

‘I don’t know, I heard your performance the other day was thoroughly entertaining,’ Harry encourages. ‘Witty. Irreverent. Seductive. Shall I go on?’

Hmm.

‘There wasn’t a performance, Harry. There was a conversation between Faith and me that got taken out of context. And now here we are.’

‘Here we are,’ Harry says.

‘We always talk to each other like that,’ Faith confirms.

Harry gazes into my baby blues with his dark-as-chocolate eyes.

‘So, the show is banter between two besties.’ Harry’s dropped the overly saucy bravado of earlier, which, now he’s talking like a normal person, was sort of funny. ‘Throw in a bit of cooking. Some man candy for good measure. What could possibly go wrong?’ He flicks through the contract on his lap. ‘Also, your pay has been tripled, and I’ve insisted on better residuals.’

‘My managing partner agreed I can take a three-month sabbatical, if I want it,’ Faith announces.

‘It’s a ten-episode season and filming begins in two weeks,’ Harry says.

‘It’s meant to be,’ Faith says.

‘But… your career in venture capital?’ I ask.

‘Will wait three months,’ Faith insists. ‘Gracie, we’ll be paid to hang out together. What will you do otherwise? Go back to chefing in a pub? Come on. You can teach me to cook.’

Everything is happening so fast. I don’t know what I think any more.

‘You really want to do this, Faith?’

‘Yes!’

If Faith is willing to do this, perhaps for the hoot, but probably also to help me not lose my job, how can I say no? As she says, it’ll be the two of us getting paid to hang out together. Two besties.

‘Can Poppy be on the show with us?’ I ask. I owe her. And if I get roped into this, I’ll need her around to do her magic with my make-up. Plus, with her bonkers look and bubbly manner in front of the camera, she’ll be a great distraction. Between her and Faith, viewers will barely notice me slaving away at the hot stove – for this performance, that’ll suit me just fine. ‘Would you be her agent too, Harry?’

‘Poppy?’

‘My previous assistant. She’d be great on screen for this thing. She’s absolutely mad. In a very sweet way.’