“Always knew you were secretly a Madonna fan. I’ll make sure you’re notified next time I feel like singing ‘Like a Virgin,’ we could do a duet for the office.”

“Yes I’m sure they would all enjoy that,” Ted sarcastically replied. “Now the reason I came here was because I actually have some real work for you to do. I-.. Alice shut up.” Alice had proceeded to gasp with surprise at Ted’s statement, going so far as lying on the floor, pretending to have fainted. Ted just continued, ignoring his friend who was now acting out a rather bad interpretation of a seizure. “Yes, I know Alice; I almost fainted when I heard you’d be doing something useful as well. I have an interview scheduled for this afternoon with a Miss Dana Fairbanks, who is a tennis player, just moved here to play professionally apparently” he said, reading off the info sheet that had been faxed to him this morning. He looked up at Alice continuing “Anyway, Freddy’s away on vacation, and neither Sarah nor Phil can fill in for me this afternoon, so the interview is yours.”

“Okey dokey,” replied Alice. She was already bored with the story and hadn’t even done the interview yet. A tennis story, on a tennis player who may not even be very good – well she could understand why all the others suddenly made themselves unavailable.

“When’s the interview?” She asked, looking at her watch. It was already two o’clock, and Ted always gave a few hours before interviews so that they weren’t rushed, which meant Alice wouldn’t get off until at least six.

“It’s at 5, at The Planet. I figured if you had the interview there, it would mean you’d get it over and done with quicker.” Al smiled, realising that Ted really didn’t want to impose this on her. “I am sorry about this Al; I know tennis isn’t exactly your forte, but who knows? Do well on this and you may just get that raise you seem to think I’m so keen on giving you.” And with that, Ted got up and left, just catching the sound of doom metal as he walked out the door.

—————————————————————————————————————————

It was 4:45pm when Alice arrived at The Planet. She was quite happy with herself arriving so early, and got comfy in a nearby lounge chair to await her interviewee… Dona or Dana? Al looked back down at the info sheet Ted had left her. Dana. Dana Fairbanks. They hadn’t left a photo on the sheet, which Al was a little annoyed at – it was as if this Fairbanks lady had already assumed she was famous enough for everyone to know what she looked like. Al smirked. ‘She’s gonna get a rude awakening from me. I’m missing out on drinks for this bloody interview.’ For the next fifteen minutes Al tried to curb her boredom by counting the number of lights in the coffee shop, as well as guessing the ages of the fifteen patrons. She finally succumbed to practicing her fake smiles in the reflection of her teaspoon… and that is the first impression Dana Fairbanks had of her.