The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady

Always!’” She sniffed. “She became very emotional.’”
    “Well, she would do,” Tess said reasonably. “In the circumstances.”
    “Whatever,” Cindy said offhandedly. “The point is – what should I do?”
    “What should you do?” Tess cast around in her mind for an answer.
    Ollie was leaning back in his chair, his mouth curved in a wide smile, hugely enjoying her discomfort.
    “Well, if you ask me it all sounds very clichéd,” Tess said finally.
    “ If I ask you?” Cindy sounded mystified. “Of course I’m asking you. Isn’t that why I rang up the show? And what do you mean by it all sounds very clichéd? Are you saying I’m making it up?” Her voice rose. “Or that I’m some sort of fantasist?”
    “Well, it’s an old story, isn’t it?” Tess pointed out patiently. “The married man. The girl who thinks he’s going to marry her. The wife who finds out. I’ve read about lots of similar situations in magazines.” Especially the magazines she’d been swotting up on all last week.
    “Would you read in a magazine that the wife said she’d come and cut me?” Cindy challenged.
    “Well, maybe not that part,” Tess admitted.
    “Well, anyway.” Cindy took a deep breath. “It’s even more complicated than that.”
    Jesus, Tess thought. She looked out at Helene again, making a throat-cutting gesture to indicate she should cut the caller off. Now!
    “Em … so how is it more complicated?” she asked.
    “Well, I gave up my job for him, for one thing.”
    “What did you do that for?” Tess couldn’t keep the astonishment out of her voice.
    “We worked in the same firm and he said it would look bad if it got out about us. Anyway, being a trophy girlfriend was a job in itself, I can tell you,” Cindy said with feeling. “All those manicures and pedicures and waxes and shopping. He said that me looking good made him look good. Hah! We’ll see how good he looks when his wife gets around to him. I wonder will she threaten to cut him ?” Her voice rose hopefully.
    This was insane. Tess was going to have to end it. “How old are you, Cindy?” she asked briskly.
    “Twenty-five.”
    “And your boyfriend is?”
    “Forty-five. Ish.”
    “And before his wife rang you to say she’d cut you if you didn’t leave him alone, did you never suspect that he might be married already? At forty-five years of age?”
    “He said he was separated,” Cindy said sulkily.
    “So what did you work at before you became a … er … trophy girlfriend?”
    “I was a secretary. His secretary. He’s a partner in a law firm.”
    “And how much did you earn?”
    Ollie leaned forward on his desk again, interested now despite himself.
    “Thirty thousand euro.”
    “And so was he going to pay you thirty thousand euro a year for being his girlfriend?”
    “ No! ” Cindy was horrified. “What do you think I am? A prostitute?”
    “I just wondered how you thought you could afford to give up your job, that’s all,” Tess said mildly.
    “I didn’t think of it like that. We were having fun. We went to restaurants, weekends away …” Cindy sounded wistful now.
    “But now you’re left with no job and no boyfriend and a wife threatening you.”
    “You’re not very sympathetic!” Cindy burst out. “You’re supposed to be an agony aunt. Aren’t you supposed to be giving me advice?”
    “Yes, well … I’m getting to that,” Tess countered. “I think you should dump him.”
    “That’s it?” Cindy was incredulous. “That’s your advice?”
    “Yes, it is. You’re involved in a situation that is making you unhappy. And unsafe. Who wants to be in a situation where someone is threatening to come around and cut them? So, yes, Cindy – I say dump him. Go out with your friends. Research new career options. Read a good book. Get a life!” Oh dear. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh. Still, she had asked. “So anyway, that’s my advice,” she said in a softer tone. “And er … thank