Free Bad Friends by Claire Seeber Page A

the edge of my desk, crumpling my ‘ Welcome Back ’ card in the process.
    ‘He does seem a bit odd, yes.’ I moved the card.
    ‘Anyway, darling, we need to discuss the show –’
    The phone rang and I snatched it up, glad of the distraction. ‘Maggie Warren.’ No one spoke. ‘Hello? Hello?’ Eventually I hung up.
    ‘So, look, I’ve been talking to the team about the You’re Dumped show.’ Charlie admired his reflection in the glass partition and adjusted his collar minutely. ‘Everyone’s very excited.’
    I seriously doubted that.
    ‘But we do need to book a celeb couple pronto, for the kudos. Get Donna on it.’
    ‘Oh Charlie, come on.’ I actually laughed. ‘No one in the public eye is gonna dump their partner live on air, are they. Not even the Z-list.’
    ‘Really? What about Jade Goody? Or that blond kid from East- Enders , the one that’s always fighting in the clubs –’
    I fought the urge to sink my head onto the desk. ‘If you say so,’ I murmured.
    ‘Pull all the stops out, Maggie, yeah? You know you can do it.’
    ‘I’m not sure I’m quite there yet, Charlie.’ I held his gaze.
    ‘Well, you’d better be, my darling. Because Sally and Donna are chomping at the bit for your job.’ Charlie flung the folderonto my desk. A photo fell out of the side. ‘I can’t stave them off for much longer.’
    The photo looked horribly like –
    ‘Is that …?’ I pulled the picture towards me.
    ‘What? Oh yes, your little friend. She’s dying to appear on any show, apparently. I do love the fame-hungry, don’t you?’
    I turned the black and white headshot round to face me. Fay.
       
    Somehow I got through that first day, though I practically willed the clock to strike six. I was hugely relieved to realise I hadn’t forgotten everything I knew, although my memory and my concentration were still tested.
    Around five I’d taken a deep breath and made a phone call. She was horribly pleased to hear from me.
    ‘Don’t worry, Maggie. Charlie’s explained it all. It makes perfect sense – you know you love someone, but you also know you’re doing the right thing by finishing with them.’
    How very ingenious of Charlie.
    ‘I need to talk to Troy first, obviously, sound him out. But Charlie said, well, he said he’d make it worth my while, you know.’
    ‘I bet he did,’ I muttered. ‘You know, Fay, you should really, really think about this before you do it.’
    ‘I have.’
    ‘I mean, how will Troy take it if you do something like that live on air, in front of an audience? There’ll be no going back once it’s done.’
    I almost couldn’t believe my own ears. Me, who was usually trying desperately to persuade, to coax people into doing things on live telly that I’d never ever countenance myself.
    Fay was absolutely blithe. ‘He knows it’s on the cards anyway. I’m sure he’d like to be on TV too, you know.’
    ‘Yeah, but Fay, this is real life. It’s not play-acting.’
    ‘Oh, yes, I know.’ I could picture her dreamy smile. I had theunsettling feeling that she was actually quite mad. ‘He’ll be happy for me. He knows I want to be famous.’
    ‘Famous?’
    ‘I’ve already got recognised in the street since the show. It’s so exciting.’
    I cringed inside. ‘Look, Fay, I can arrange for you to be on another show. You don’t have to dump your boyfriend live on air to be famous, really.’ I was so tense my head was starting to ache.
    ‘It’s not dumping,’ she gabbled on. ‘It’s just telling the truth. And Charlie said he’d take care of me anyway.’
    It was too late to save her. She’d been truly brainwashed.
       
    In the end Fay and Troy split up long before the show. Instead she came on an episode that Sally produced called ‘ I’d Do Anything To Be Famous ’, where Fay showed the crash photo reverently and cried a bit, and then performed a rather innocuous pole-dance live, which resulted in one of the glamour agencies signing her up. I