Free A Dream Come True by Cindy Jefferies

in her office now,” said Francesca. “We’ll keep an eye on reception until Carlotta gets back. Now, Ellie…”
    Ellie trembled under Francesca’s intelligent gaze, but was determined to stick up for herself. It simply must have been one of the others who had made the call. But why would anyone working for Heart do such a thing?
    â€œYou do realize what a serious situation this is?” Francesca leaned against her desk and folded her arms. “We’ve now missed the opportunity of working with Sapphire for ages and, much worse, we have five blank pages to fill, and almost no time to do it.”
    â€œI do realize that it’s awful,” said Ellie hastily. “But why would anyone working here want to cancel a shoot?”
    â€œThat’s what I can’t understand,” said Francesca.
    â€œWell…are you sure it wasn’t the model agency’s fault?” said Ellie, thinking hard. “I mean, maybe someone took a message in their office from a different magazine and got it wrong. Maybe the mistake didn’t happen here at all.”
    Francesca smiled slightly. “Ever thought of becoming a detective?”
    Ellie blushed. “It just seems so unlikely that anyone here would have been responsible,” she said. “What would be the point?”
    â€œYou’re right,” said Francesca. “Of course I thought that too. I’m sorry you were under suspicion, but Angel is going to tackle everyone in turn. You haven’t been singled out. I expect she’ll speak to Carlotta after Piano.”
    Francesca sighed. “The thing is that this is going to play hell with Angel’s budget, and make her look sloppy. She might be in charge of us , but she still has to answer to the board, and she knows this mess isn’t going to reflect well on her.” She thought for a moment and then gave Ellie a smile. “I know, why don’t you go and see if the post has come, and forget all about it. You like spending time with the post girl, don’t you? And I need to get on with thinking about an alternative to fill the gap.”
    Ellie noticed how stressed Francesca looked. It must be difficult working closely with a boss as demanding as Angel. And it occurred to Ellie that Angel might well try to shift the blame onto her deputy. But there wasn’t anything Ellie could do about that. She needed to worry about herself. She couldn’t prove that she hadn’t cancelled the shoot. What if Angel decided to tell her she wasn’t allowed to finish her work experience? Everything had been going so well. The interview, and her article…was it all going to be wasted for a mistake some unknown person had made? If so, it was too unfair. Suddenly, Ellie felt totally out of place. She’d tried so hard to fit in, but really she knew she was seen as a nuisance at best. Piano would no doubt be feeling pretty bruised when she emerged from Angel’s office, and the chances were that she’d vent her feelings on Ellie. Ellie didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that. She hurried down to see Sophie, as Francesca had suggested.
    The post hadn’t come, but was due any minute, so Sophie put the kettle on and pulled a packet of biscuits out of a drawer labelled F. “It used to be labelled B,” said Sophie, noticing Ellie’s quizzical look. “But I decided F was better. It reminds me how Fat I’ll get if I eat too many,” she added as Ellie still looked puzzled.
    Ellie laughed. “F could also mean Fillings in your teeth,” she suggested.
    â€œEven worse!” said Sophie, rolling her eyes. “So,” she went on, ladling instant coffee granules into two mugs, “how’s our grand celebrity interviewer today?”
    â€œ I’m all right,” said Ellie. “But you’ll never guess what’s happened upstairs.”
    Ellie explained about the photo shoot, and Sophie