Never Mind the Botox: Meredith

Penny Avis

Description

Never Mind the Botox is a series about four professional women all working on the sale of a high profile cosmetic surgery business. Each book reveals how the women cope with one of the most glamorous but challenging deals of their careers, and the dramatic impact it has on their personal lives. With a briefcase in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, can they navigate their way through a surreal world of boob jobs by day and intrigue by night - and still keep their own love lives on track? Meredith Romaine is an ice cool senior banker whose competitive world revolves around men and money. This deal will cement her reputation as the office rainmaker and put her in line for a huge bonus. But only if no one finds out about her relationship with a doctor at the American buyers and the completely unethical way she set the deal up. Can she pull it off without her past coming back to haunt her?The series can be read in any order.

Informations

• Publié par: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783060740
• Langue: English

Extrait

Also in the Never Mind the Botox series
Alex Fisher is a high-flying lawyer close to making partner and busy planning her perfect wedding to Elliott. But life suddenly becomes complicated when she’s faced with a hot junior lawyer on her team and an actress threatening to jeopardise the deal by exposing her dodgy cosmetic surgery. Soon Alex is forced into a series of impossible choices that are all inextricably linked and life will never be the same again.
Rachel Altman is a corporate financier with a prestigious accounting firm who’s desperately trying to keep on the straight and narrow. Hopelessly led astray by her bar diving boyfriend, she gets the chance to turn things round when her boss gives her the break she’s been waiting for. But when the deal doesn’t go as planned Rachel panics, sparking off a chain of betrayal and lies that threatens to ruin both her love life and her career.
Stella Webb is a successful but bored cosmetic surgeon whose career is going in a very different direction to that of the A&E doctor she’s dating. With credit card bills larger than the latest implants, this deal should be the answer to her prayers, but it seems that not everyone has been playing by the rules. Desperate to leave her working-class roots behind, will she be forced to choose between money and love?
The series can be read in any order.
Praise for the Never Mind the Botox series:
“Glamorous, high-octane fun, it’s best read with a cocktail and a smile! Each book in this clever series intertwines with the others, but can be read in any order.”
Cosmopolitan
“If you’re bored of the usual chick-lit formula... the smart characters in a swish corporate world provide a fresh twist. We want a job in the City now, please.”
Heat Magazine
“Our very own Sex and the City. A series celebrating the lives and loves of four professional women... good fun and a little bit different.”
Bella Magazine
“A rip-roaring read with plenty of humour and warm, believable characters – best read with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio.”
Candis Magazine
“A fabulous new contemporary women’s fiction series and recommended holiday read.”
Daily Mail
“One of the best beach reads this summer – Chick Lit with a welcome twist.”
The Sun
“The must-have read of the summer. A brilliantly biting novel that does for cosmetic surgery what Absolutely Fabulous did for fashion.”
Waterstones
“A sassy read that gives a real insight into the fast-paced life of a city girl. A must-read and our book of the week.”
Now Magazine
“Fabulous fun! With their own business experience the authors have created a top read.”
Star Magazine
“It’s our Best pick of the week.”
Best Magazine
“A rollicking summer read. If you’re looking for something to read on the beach this summer, then look no further.”
Cosmetic Surgery Today
“A classic slice of chick-lit. The humour is sharp and indulgent and the characters are terrific. Can’t fault it.”
Books Monthly
For more reviews, news and events see www.avisberry.com

Copyright © 2020 Penny Avis and Joanna Berry
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Matador Unit E2 Airfield Business Park Harrison Road Market Harborough Leicestershire LE16 7UL Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador Twitter: https://twitter.com/matadorbooks
ISBN 978 1783060 740
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
For our parents, who gave us the confidence to try.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 1
Meredith slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Her eyelids felt heavy and sore, her mouth was bone dry and her throat felt so swollen that she was terrified she might choke.
‘Water,’ she croaked to a blurred image of a nurse in a white coat.
‘Welcome back,’ said the nurse, leaning over to reach a glass of water. She gently lifted Meredith’s head and helped her take a few sips. ‘I’m Audrey from the nursing team. How are you feeling?’
‘Like someone’s run over my head,’ Meredith groaned, reaching up to feel her heavily bandaged face. But the strapping around her swollen breasts stopped her from lifting up her arm properly.
‘Ouch, shit! And that hurts!’ said Meredith, quickly dropping her arm back down.
‘That’s normal, don’t worry. Try not to lift your arms up,’ said the nurse. ‘I’ll go and get you something for the pain.’
‘Better make it a large one,’ Meredith muttered as the nurse left the room.
She laid her head back down on the pillow and closed her eyes. Twenty-eight-year-old Meredith had been born with a big nose and small breasts, but thanks to a certain Doctor Cassidy at the Beau Street Group, they were now the other way round and a new chapter in her life was about to begin. She was in the middle of three months’ leave before starting a new job in London with prestigious investment bank Clinton Wahlberg, giving her plenty of time to complete her well-planned transformation.
Once the painkillers had kicked in, Meredith decided it was time to look in the mirror. Images of her previously prominent nose and non-existent chest danced before her eyes, like over-exposed ‘before’ photos from some cheap cosmetic surgery website, and a mixture of fear and excitement washed over her as she tried to imagine what might now replace them. She lifted herself gingerly onto the side of the bed and shuffled like an old lady into the bathroom. She’d been warned that she’d look pretty bruised and swollen, but even so, the sight that greeted her in the mirror took her breath away. Her halfshut eyes were puffy and bloodshot and the concentric circles of bruising around her eyes were a scary-looking rainbow of red, deep purple and blue. She had a huge plaster-cast over her nose, held tightly in place by sticky tramlines of white bandage across both cheeks that made the sides of her face looked like a trussed-up Sunday roast. Her black curly hair was matted and sticky with what she guessed was a mixture of blood and sweat. She carefully undid her pyjama top and peered in the mirror at the sight underneath, trying to get a sense of her new shape. Her implants were hidden by the mass of gauze dressings spread liberally around her swollen chest, making it hard to tell exactly how big they were. Meredith sighed heavily and did the buttons back up on her top. She would just have to be patient; it would be several days yet before she could begin to get a proper idea of her new look.
There was a knock on the bedroom door and a friendly-looking lady in a blue frock coat came in holding a tray of food.
‘Meredith Romaine?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said Meredith, poking her head out of the bathroom.
The lady had mad wiry hair and big glasses that she tried to push back up her nose as she balanced the tray on one hand. She peered at the piece of paper on the tray.
‘Your dinner for the evening − pork loin with cabbage,’ she said, placing the tray on the wheelie table at the end of Meredith’s bed. ‘I’ll be round again in a jiffy with tea and coffee.’
‘Thanks,’ said Meredith, looking suspiciously at the plate of anaemic-looking food swimming in an oily sauce. She pushed the wheelie table halfway down her bed and carefully lowered her tall frame back onto the bed, propping herself up with several pillows. She picked up her knife and fork, but the simple act of trying to cut up a piece of rubbery pork loin was agony. Every inch of her ribcage ached and leaning over the plate was making her head pound like mad. When she did finally get a mouthful, the pork tasted like a damp trainer insole. She spat it back onto the plate in disgust, reached into the drawer in her bedside table for her mobile phone and dialled her parents’ number.
‘Hi, Mum, it’s me. I’m back in my room now, so thought I’d just give you a quick ring.’
‘Darling, how are you? How did it go?’
‘Fine, Mum, everything went fine. It’s a bit bloody hard to tell, though, to be honest. I look like I’ve just done ten rounds with Muhammad Ali.’ Meredith gingerly touched her face and winced.
‘Oh gosh, don’t say that. Your father can’t bear the idea of you all battered and bruised.’
‘Well, tell him it was his fault for giving me that nose in the first place,’ said Meredith, smiling ruefully.
Meredith’s mother was half-English, half-Iranian and was tall and elegant with naturally long, slim limbs, straight black hair and pale, dewy skin. Her father was French and a giant of a man with thick, stubby fingers, huge shoulders, dark curly hair and strong Gallic features. As a result, Meredith was tall, lean and rather exotic looking with ebony hair, smooth honey-toned skin, vivid green eyes and, until now, a large Romanesque nose that she had hated since childhood.
‘We should be there with you,’ said h