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alarm.
    Helene stifled a sigh. “What does immediately usually mean, Tess? How does tomorrow sound?”
    “Tomorrow? Are you mad?” Fear made Tess sound a lot more forceful than she felt. “I’ve never been on-air before. And I don’t have anything prepared! There’s no way I can do this tomorrow!”
    “Well, as I was saying earlier, how hard can it be?” Helene turned back to face her. “Make up a few problems to get yourself started. I’m fed up with talking about how things have to change around here. But have you ever noticed how everything somehow remains exactly the same?”
    Tess
had
noticed, as a matter of fact. But she didn’t see how making a show of herself on-air was going to improve that.
    “Helene,” she said reasonably, “I really don’t have a handle on how this slot is going to work. It’s all very well to say to make up a few problems to start us off. But what then? What if we run out of problems? How are we going to sustain it?”
    “Run out of problems?” Helene looked at Tess incredulously. “I have just given you a list of problems. And there’s more where they came from. Women whose love affairs have gone pear-shaped. Whose careers are facing meltdown? Who might be joining the ranks of the unemployed pretty soon!” Helene’s voice rose slightly. “Because in case you haven’t noticed Tess, we could all be out of here on our ear if this station closes down! And believe me, that is a possibility. So if you would just give it some thought, you might find plenty of problems
from your own
life
to be getting on with.” Helene snapped her fingers. “Because just as soon as you think you have your life sorted, it ups and throws a curveball at you just for the hell of it! Don’t you find that, Tess?”
    Tess swallowed. She thought life might have just thrown her a curveball right now. She could hardly solve her own problems – dead-end career, non-existent love life – never mind anyone else’s.
    “I won’t be ready to start it tomorrow, Helene,” Tess said firmly. “Or the day after. I ... er ... need to brainstorm around the concept a bit.”
    Helene shrugged. “Brainstorm all you want. For a week. That’s all I’m prepared to give you. After that? Just do it, Tess!”
    Tess raised her eyebrows as she watched Helene stride out of the office. Andrea had inserted headphones in her ears and had turned back to her computer screen and the report she was working on. Tess felt it wasn’t a good time to ask her friend for much needed advice.
    Chewing her bottom lip, she typed “agony aunts” into her search engine. She had to start somewhere and tomorrow’s show was pretty well organised, albeit with mundane stories that Ollie Andrews was going to scream blue murder about – pretty much as he had about this morning’s programme. But that was tomorrow and the only way Tess could get through working with Ollie was by working on today’s problems. She jiggled her foot, impatient for the results to load.
    “O! My! God!” Sara exclaimed suddenly. Tess looked across at her. Her mouth formed a perfect O of astonishment. She had her silver mobile pressed to her ear.
    “What is it now?” Tess asked easily. Sara’s O My Gods occurred several times a day, sometimes simply because her favourite make-up was out of stock or because she’d broken one of those nails she spent hours painting designs on.
    “I’ve just heard something big. I need to check that it’s accurate!” Her face was alight with excitement.
    Tess could hear her side of the conversation.
    “And you’re absolutely certain?” There was a note of incredulity in her voice. “You are? O! My! God!” Sara closed down her phone and hurried over to Tess’s desk.
    “Did you hear any of that?”
    “I heard ‘Oh my God’,” Tess replied. “Several times. So what’s happened? Your favourite nail bar fallen victim to the recession?”
    “It’s Atlantic 1 FM!” Sara’s blue eyes were dancing. “It’s about