Athena’s burgundy lowlights emerged from around her office door, startling me. “Team update folks. In my office now please.”

“Not again,” groaned Cole over the top of his PC. “We’re in and out of that sodding office like it’s got a revolving door.”

I picked up my notebook and pen and followed the others into Athena’s gleaming glass domain.

I noticed her niece, Kerry, was already situated at the oblong meeting table. She delivered an awkward smile and I returned it.

Orion was last to traipse in, once she’d activated the office voicemail system while we were all out of action.

Good grief. How different was all this compared to the casual staff meetings we used to have at The Silver Ness News. Doug would saunter back from the cakeshop with glistening Danish pastries and we would devour those over steaming mugs of tea, whilst contemplating life in general and whether the latest issue of the paper could have been improved upon.

Then there would be a running joke about misspellings and grammatical errors. They hadn’t happened very often, thank goodness, but when they did, they tended to be real crackers.

We had printed the likes of “Mrs Allison presenting Mr Alcock with his cricket award for his googlies” and “Buy Carpets R Us – perfect for a good, hard shag.”

A pang took me unawares. I missed Frances, with her predilection for whacky nail colours, and I missed Doug’s dry wit and creased ties. I was so grateful to have another job in journalism. Of course, I was. But I still also longed for the tang of the sea waltzing in through the office windows whilst we worked. The office would be no more in a few weeks’ time. I resolved to take Harley for a walk along the beach front and see it again before it closed for good. A melancholy weight pressed down on me, until I realised Athena was staring at me.

I scrambled my brain to attention and pushed myself straighter in my seat.

Athena surveyed us all. “This short meeting is really just to keep you all up to speed and to let you know that Kerry will be investigating the inflated prices of a new skincare range launched by the comedian Lulu Stark.”

My brow creased with confusion. Surely, I should be leading on a story like that, seeing as I was the beauty writer? I became aware of several sets of charged eyes zooming in my direction, watching my response. Some of my colleagues must have thought the same.

It was still only Orion and me that were aware that Kerry was Athena’s niece, and from the snippets Orion had been able to feed me, Kerry had no training or journalistic background as it was. Lord knows how much longer that little gem could be kept a secret.

I cleared my throat and decided to confront the wrath of Athena.