get out of here.â
âBut where do you want me to go?â This had been Magentaâs office sinceâwell, she could hardly remember; it had been hers for so long now.
âYou work in the typing pool, remember?â Nancy told her urgently, poking her head out of the door to check the coast was clear.
âThe typing pool?â Magenta laughed. âIs this some joke of Quinnâs to get us all in the right mood for the sixties campaign?â
Nancy gave her a funny look.
âTo be more accurate, you used to work in the typing pool,â she finally replied, nudging Magenta towards the door. âThe guy who ran the place before hotshot Quinn arrived from the States took his office manager with him, so Quinn promoted you.â
âWhy didnât Quinn text me? And whatâs this?â Magenta demanded as Nancy bundled her towards a mean little desk set to one side of her office doorâa door she now noticed with outrage that already bore the legend, âGray Quinnâ.
âThis is your desk now, Magenta,â Nancy explained. âItâs a great improvement to the typing pool, donât you think?â
âDo you want to hear what I think? No. I didnât think so,â Magenta agreed as Nancy shook her head. âI donât know whatâs happening around here, but this isnât my deskâand Quinn definitely canât take over my office.â
âBut, Magenta, you used to work in the typing poolâyouâve never had your own office,â Nancy insisted, looking increasingly concerned about Magentaâs state of mind. âDonât you remember anything?â
Magenta swept a hand across her eyes as if hoping everything would change back again by the time she opened them again. But, to make things worse, people she didnât even know were staring at her as if she was the one who was mad.
But how could this have happened? She gazed around and felt her anger rising. Quinn had to be some sort of monumental chauvinist; men occupied all the private offices while the women had been relegated to old-fashioned typewritersâeither in the typing pool, where they sat in rows behind a partition as if they were at school, or at similar desks to this one outside the office doors. Ready to do their masterâs bidding, Magenta presumed angrily. She remembered her father telling her how it used to be for the majority of female office workers in the sixties. âWhy are all the girls typing?â she asked Nancy in a heated whisper.
âItâs their job!â Nancy said, frowning.
âBut why arenât they working on the campaign?â Magenta noticed now that many of the women, some of whose faces were adorned with heavy-framed, upswept spectacles, were pretending not to look at her.
âWhat campaign?â Nancy queried, stepping back as a keen teen brushed passed her.
âWow, Magenta, you look really choice!â
âI do?â Magenta spun on her heels as the young man she had never seen before gave her a rather too comprehensive once-over. âWhy, thank youâ¦?â
âJackson,â Nancy supplied, having cottoned on to the fact that Magenta needed all the help she could get.
âJackson.â Magenta raised a brow. âStop staring at your Auntie Magenta and go find yourself a girlfriend.â
Jackson laughed as if Magenta could always be relied upon to say something funny. âYouâre a gas, baby.â
Had Quinn changed all the personnel? Of course, he wasperfectly entitled to, Magenta reasoned. Quinn ran the show now. But what had happened to her friends? And what had happened to their working environment?
So many questions stacked up in her mind, with not a single answer to one of them that made sense.
CHAPTER FIVE
âL OOK, Magenta, I donât want to rush you,â Nancy said in a way that clearly said that was exactly what she wanted to do. âBut Quinnâs