Free Food Fight by Anne Penketh Page A

she’d thought that Jimmy Granger had asked her for a kiss in the school playground because he was after her body. Then she found out all he wanted was to be introduced to her friend who lived next door.
    Story of my life. I’ve always had friends who were prettier than I. Lily would certainly have no difficulty in attracting a long line of suitors if she were to try Internet dating. Maybe she had, already.
    She found herself mesmerized by the floating photos. Some of those 50-year-olds were quite well preserved. But how could you judge from a picture? As Jessica had said, there’s only one way to find out.
    *
    She stood nervously at the end of the boardroom table, looking through her notes. She was about to present the marketing plan for ‘Guilty Secrets’, the name of DeKripps’ new product targeting rich professionals, to the company’s senior executives. The CEO, known to everyone as Bubba, would be watching from DeKripps headquarters. It was a big moment and she had dressed for the occasion, her hair tamed in a switch.
    She was excited by the launch. Barney, with the air of a conspirator, had presented the results of Project Candy to the strategy group a couple of weeks earlier. Each of them was given a chocolate, inside which was a piece of fresh fruit. Hers was mandarin. Judy, the communications chief, had a strawberry, and Randy, the lawyer, a blueberry. Barney stood back and savoured their reaction.
    “Awesome,” said Judy, licking her lips. Susan was equally impressed: “Can I have another? Just for comparison?”
    “No. I want you marketing people hungry. Go away and remember the taste of that first bite. Think pleasure principle. An explosion tickling the taste buds.”
    “But this is fresh fruit,” said Ellen, who had bitten into a raspberry chocolate and was holding it up to her eye. Susan, trying to analyse the sweet’s slight fizziness which was almost like sherbet, was wondering simultaneously how they’d keep the product from going mouldy on the shelf.
    “That’s right,” Barney said. “Fresh fruit. So how do we keep it fresh? By selling it in fridges . Once again, DeKripps has innovated with a special recipe and a very short sell-by date thanks to our technology and our balls. They are the first chocolates ever sold from the fridge. Wait till the folks at Chewers get their heads around that!”
    When they were all assembled in the boardroom, Susan described the ad campaign, which would launch the golden boxes of Guilty Secrets on billboards across the country. There would also be a separate TV spot with the slogan: ‘Forbidden Fruits Taste Sweeter’. They’d agonised over the best outlet for the chocolates and had finally rejected supermarkets in favour of Partridge and Peartree. It was a gourmet grocery store, affectionately known to its customers as ‘P and P’, with only about a dozen branches in the major American cities.
    It might be a risk but they’d decided less was more, given the target demographic. The price was considerably higher than any other DeKripps chocolate products.
    “Everyone has their fingers crossed,” Susan said. “After licking them, that is.”
    The billboard ad was projected onto a screen that descended as the office blinds came down. A glamorous blonde in a blue silk dressing gown and heeled slippers was shining a torchlight on a half-opened golden box. By her side was a tousle-haired little boy in pyjamas. The DeKripps logo was almost invisible in a corner.
    “You think of midnight feasts, and you want something you know you shouldn’t have,” Susan said. “Transgression makes the ad all the more powerful. It should resonate with both parents and their children.”
    She added, “You’ll notice each chocolate is individually wrapped, which amplifies the secret pleasure inside.”
    The wall-mounted screen crackled. It was Bubba.
    “Ms Perkins, I like this.”
    Every time she saw the elderly Quaker, she was reminded of his resemblance to his