by Mel Sparke
Stepping on to the scuffed stairs, Sonja noted with annoyance that her long, black winter coat was covered in white hair where the traumatised dog had brushed past her. Tutting to herself, she tried to flick away the worst of it, without much success.
She’d taken such care to wear the right thing too, spending her Sunday scanning piles of magazines for one particular feature she remembered, where a model was photographed as she went about her work for a day. Sonja had found it at last and tried to copy the look as closely as she could: black zip-up ankle boots, natural-coloured tights, a short, grey skirt and a fitted black polo-neck top. Her only concession to the biting cold wind was her long coat; the coat that now had an unwanted furry trim.
Thinking fast, Sonja hauled it off and carried it over her arm as she continued her climb up to the first floor.
“Come in!” said the same voice that had answered the intercom.
Sonja tentatively peered around the office door and saw a middle-aged woman sitting behind a chipped wooden desk, a phone clamped to her ear with one hand and a cigarette held in the other. She motioned Sonja over to one of the low, beige, vinyl-covered seats by the wall.
Glad of the few seconds’ break to take in her surroundings, Sonja scanned the bare white walls of the office. The only sign that identified it as a modelling agency was a lone ‘First Call Models’ sticker on the grey filing cabinet.
“Mmmm, I know. That’s what I said,” murmured the woman into the receiver.
Sonja found her gaze riveted to the woman’s badly dyed, jet-black hair, its tonged curls held rigid by hairspray.
“Yes, I know. I heard that too,” she nodded to the invisible caller down the line. “And then she said to me, ‘June,’ she said, ‘you were right all along’—”
At this point, Sonja shuffled in her chair and gave a surreptitious cough. This conversation could drivel on for ages and Sonja was too keen to meet the guy she’d spoken to on Saturday morning to listen to any more discussion of some unknown person’s private life than she had to.
“Mmm, hold on, Arlene, I’ve got someone in the office,” said the woman, throwing Sonja an icy glare. “I’ll call you back in a minute.”
Sonja hid her victorious smile while the receptionist buzzed through to another office.
“Tony? There’s a Sonja Hardy to see you.”
“Harvey, it’s Sonja Harvey,” Sonja tried to correct the woman - to no avail; she was already dialling out a number that would no doubt reconnect her interrupted call.
A door on the far side of the small office was pulled open and a smiling, fiftysomething man in a V-neck Pringle jumper and slacks came striding across to her, his hand held out ready to shake hers.
“Sonja, Sonja, Sonja! Good to meet you at last! I’m Tony - come on through to my office!”
Perching herself on another beige vinyl chair, Sonja gave the room a two-second once-over and sussed out that it was a carbon copy replica of the room she’d just left - minus the frosty presence of ‘June’.
“So! Sonja! Find us all right, did you?” asked the man who’d introduced himself as Tony.
“Uh, yes. Yes I did, thanks,” smiled Sonja, omitting the part about her disappointment in the location of the agency.
“Great stuff!” said Tony breezily.
With his thick moustache and chunky gold neck chain, he didn’t exactly fulfil Sonja’s image of an agency booker either.
“Right! Let’s get down to business! You want to be a model then?” he asked, reaching down into a desk drawer and pulling out a familiar brown envelope.
“Well, yes. I—”
Sonja was just about to launch into her well-rehearsed spiel about how she wanted modelling just to be a sideline; how she would be free to work only at weekends and during holidays, when she was stopped short.
“Fantastic!” Tony said over the top of her words, pulling her photos out of the envelope. “And after looking at these, and seeing you here now, I can certainly see that we could do some business together!”
“Do you think so?” replied Sonja, softening despite herself at his complimentary enthusiasm.
“Oh, yes!” he nodded, his bushy eyebrows shooting up his forehead for added emphasis. “Lots of work, a beautiful girl like you.”
“What kind of jobs do you get?” Sonja managed to ask without interruption. Even though she’d shouted Anna down for suggesting it, she did want to make absolutely sure that this wasn’t a “take-your-top-off-and-stick-your-chest-out-love” type place.
“Fantastic stuff! Advertising work - lots of dosh in that, let me tell you. Catwalk shows, editorial work like newspapers and magazines - the lot. The girls and boys on my books get plenty of work, mark my words!”
Sonja was instantly relieved.
“Well, that sounds—”
“Yes! And you can be part of it, Sonja!” boomed Tony.
“Um, well, I’d love to—”
“Fantastic!” he boomed again. “I think we can have you out doing castings as soon as you like - once we get you some proper photos done for your portfolio!”
“Proper photos? But I thought—”
“These?” said Tony, pointing to Billy’s pictures. “Nice work, but nah - not right for taking to clients. Too arty. But don’t worry - got a studio here. We can get you in front of the cameras soon as you like!”
“I, um, well…” Sonja bumbled, totally thrown by the forcefulness of the man sitting opposite her.
“You’re at school, yeah?”
“Well, sixth form, normally, yes. I mean, today I—”
“So how about next Saturday? I don’t usually do much beyond a bit of paperwork at weekends, but it wouldn’t be too difficult. What d’you say?”
“I guess that would be—”
“Fantastic! Great to have you on board, Sonja!” barked Tony, rising to his feet and ushering her towards the door. “Let me see… about four-ish? Got to take the wife to Tescos first, you know how it is.”
“Four-ish? Oh, OK,” nodded Sonja, finding herself propelled past June - who was still nodding away to her phone friend - over to the door.
“I’ll get June to sort out the paperwork this afternoon; contract, details of commission,” bellowed Tony with an ear-to-ear smile. “Cost of the photo session, joining fee, that type of thing. You know?”
“Cost of photo? Joining fee? But I thought—”
“Nothing to worry about. You’ll make up the money in work in no time. Mark my words,” smiled Tony, now standing in the doorway and waving her off down the stairs. “Till next Saturday, then. Fantastic. Bye!”
In the silence of the dusty stairwell, staring at the firmly shut door, Sonja’s foot hovered uncertainly above the top step. Her head was reeling from the super-speedy meeting and she didn’t know what to think.
But one thing’s for sure, she finally reassured herself as she turned to descend the staircase, I’m on my way to being a model!
CHAPTER 16
TRUE LOVE AND HURTFUL TRUTHS
Matt was over the moon. Right at that moment, he’d have loved to close his eyes and indulge in the luxury of daydreaming about Gabrielle. But he couldn’t - driving with your eyes shut was against the law, he was pretty sure.
Having just dropped Gabrielle off. Matt was in no mood to head home and hang about aimlessly in his huge empty house. His head was buzzing too much for that; he needed to speak to someone, to tell them that his heart was aching with happiness.
But who to tell? It couldn’t be Ollie or Joe - it was Tuesday night and the band would still be mid-rehearsal. And it would be a full-on rehearsal now that they had their first gig lined up for Saturday.
Anyway, he wasn’t sure if he’d feel quite right blabbing his emotions out to the lads: this confession needed to be heard by a girl. A girl would get it. A girl would understand why his head felt floaty light with joy.
Matt flipped on his indicator and turned off towards Sonja’s.
With a house full of girls per
fectly capable of looking after themselves (they hoped) Sonja’s parents regularly took advantage of their freedom and disappeared off for long weekends and midweek breaks.
This time, the destination had been France and all three Harvey daughters were clustered round their parents and their luggage, each one of them as expectant as any little kid in search of holiday goodies.
As caught up as her sisters in this welcome home ceremony, Sonja was slightly irritated to see Matt’s car draw up outside the house, under the yellow glare of the street light.
“C’mon in,” she beckoned him, opening the door before he’d got as far as the bell. “Sorry about the racket - Mum and Dad just got back from a week in Paris.”
“Oh, I don’t want to interrupt!” said Matt, automatically starting to back away.
“Don’t be silly!” smiled Sonja, her good humour and manners coming back at the sight of her friend’s embarrassed shuffling. Matt always turned into a bumbling small boy in the presence of Sonja’s noisy, massed family. “Look, we’ll go up to my room. I can catch up with the folks later.”
“I haven’t seen Maya since she got back from Florence. Did she have a good time?” asked Matt, following Sonja up the stairs.
“Don’t know,” said Sonja over her shoulder. “I haven’t been in the End the last couple of nights.”
“What about college? Haven’t you seen her there?” he asked, walking into her room and plonking himself down on to the padded velvet window seat.
“Nope, not today. And I didn’t go in yesterday.”
“Oh. Why not?”
“Well,” answered Sonja, flopping down on her bed with a little smirk on her face, “I was up in the city - I had an interview with a modelling agency!”
“Yeah?” Matt responded. “And?”
“Mmm, they want to take me on!”
“That’s really great,” he nodded, with a glazed expression on his face.
Sonja noticed the way he was fidgeting manically with his car keys and had the impression that he wasn’t totally listening to what she was saying.
“Something up, Matt?” she asked irritably. There was nothing more annoying than having someone ignore you when you were talking, she realised. Especially when your news was so exciting.
“Oh, Son! I had to come and talk to you! I can’t believe it!” he grinned.
“What?” she asked, suddenly curious, and wondering what had made Matt lose his cool quite so much.
“Tonight, when I was dropping Gabrielle off, I… well, I told her I loved her!”
Sonja stared at him for a second.
“So?” she shrugged finally.
“What do you mean, ‘so’?” he frowned at her. “Son - I told her I loved her! Do you know how that felt?’
“Yeah, but it’s no big wow, is it?” said Sonja without a trace of tact.
Matt stared at her, dumbstruck.
“Well, you’ve told us often enough that you’re in love with her, haven’t you?”
“I know that,” he blustered, his face pink with embarrassment and annoyance. “But the thing is, I never had the courage to tell her before! And then…”
Matt’s face came over all cherubic for a second and he shook his head as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was going to say next.
“…she told me she loved me back!”
“Well, whoopee,” shrugged Sonja, sweeping over her friend’s emotions with one offhand remark. “It’s very nice and all, Matt, but it’s no big surprise. I mean, it’s been obvious from Day One that you two have been nuts about each other.”
Matt gripped his car keys silently for a second. He’d expected some whooping and hollering at this point; maybe some hugs and l’m-so-pleased-for-you tears. This sarcastic response wasn’t what he’d hoped for from Sonja. Cat maybe, but not Sonja.
“Son - have you listened properly to anything I’ve been saying?” he barked at her, his self-consciousness at pouring out his emotions now turning to anger.
“Matt - did you bother to listen to what I was saying about my modelling before you interrupted me with all this ‘ooh, she wuvs me’ stuff?” she responded.
Sonja hadn’t meant to come out with it quite that bluntly, but once the words were out, the damage was done.
“Right,” said Matt, his face a mixture of hurt and rage, “I won’t bore you any more! I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than listen to me - like get your moustache waxed before your next photo shoot!”
And, with that, he stormed out of her room and hammered his way down the stairs and out of the house.
Her father was watching the 9 o’clock news and catching up with a week’s worth of happenings, Lottie was gabbing away on the phone to a friend, Karin was lazing in a bath filled with something that smelled expensive and herby from France, and Sonja was enjoying having her mother to herself.
Her mum was cool. At least she’d be excited by Sonja’s news. Both her parents were keen for their children to be successful and happy in whatever they chose to do.
But the conversation was not going as Sonja had expected.
“Hold on a sec!” Helena Harvey interrupted her daughter’s update “You mean you’ve already been to see this agency?”
“Uh-huh, I went yesterday. They said—”
“But, Sonja, college started back yesterday, didn’t it?”
“Well, yes, but…” Sonja grinned at her mum. Both her parents were laid-back enough not to mind the odd bit of liberty-taking on the part of their children.
“Sonja, I’m not very happy about this,” her mother stunned her by saying. “I don’t like the idea of you bunking off college just like that.”
“Don’t worry - I caught up on all my notes and stuff today. I just copied them off people in my classes. It’s no big deal,” Sonja tried to appease her.
“Sonja, I think it is quite a big deal. You know your dad and I let you all have plenty of leeway, but you don’t do something major like this without running it by us first!”
“But you weren’t here!” Sonja whined. “What could I do?”
“What could you do?” repeated her mother, looking more stony-faced than Sonja could ever remember. “What about put it off for a while, till we came back?”
“But why? It wasn’t like I was doing anything dodgy!”
“No? Going off to some office in a back street in the city - alone - is sensible, is it? Sonja, for God’s sake, anything could have happened to you!”
“But, Mum!” Sonja protested. “It wasn’t sordid or anything; it’s a proper agency!”
“Well, maybe it is,” said her mother with a frown. “But you didn’t know that before you went. You put yourself in real danger - you could have been in trouble and no one would have known!”
Sonja felt prickles of indignant hot tears come to her eyes. Putting it like that, she realised that her mum had a point, but her pride wasn’t about to let her admit it.
“Mum! Why are you talking to me like this? Why are you talking to me as if I’m some stupid, irresponsible little kid?”
“Because you’ve behaved like one, Sonja,” she was shocked to be told.
CHAPTER 17
SOMEONE LETS SLIP
Anna straightened up the cushions on the sofa for the sixteenth time, decided they looked too formal and mussed them all up again.
Next, she turned her attention to the walls where she’d just hung some pictures - made from greeting cards she’d stuck in cheap clipframes - and tried to work out if they were hanging squint or not.
Too bad if they are, she sighed to herself, knowing that the girls could turn up at any minute.
Right on cue, the doorbell went and in tripped Cat, cooing at how prettily Anna had done the place up since she’d last seen it when she’d given Anna a stunning make-over a few weeks ago.
“You’ve done the walls too!” Cat noticed, stroking the formerly floral speckled wallpaper that was now painted a cool, relaxing, pale leaf green.
“Mm
m - I did it on Monday. I had a day off,” beamed Anna, enjoying showing off her newly-improved home. She was totally broke now, especially with buying food and drink for the evening on top of everything, but it was worth it. “I didn’t tell Nick that I was decorating the flat - do you think he’ll mind?”
“Mind?” laughed Cat. “I guarantee that you could plonk him down on that sofa and he wouldn’t even notice!”
Nick’s flat in the next-door building was a straightforward two-bedroom affair, but it was much grander than Anna’s little garret above the café. From what Anna had seen of his flat (comfortable but stuck in a 70s time warp) she realised that Cat was probably right.
The girls heard a “yoo-hoo!” from the courtyard behind the café and opened the door to see Kerry on her way up, her smiling face hidden behind a large, bushy jasmine plant, as she carefully climbed the open metal stairs to Anna’s front door.
“I know you’ve lived here for ages, Anna,” she panted as she reached them, “but this is a bit of a flat-warming present anyway!”
Inside, Anna tried positioning the plant on the windowsill and was just asking the other two for their opinion when she spotted Matt’s car pull up outside.
“Here comes Gabrielle,” she said to the others.
“Look at that,” said Cat with her usual edge of sarcasm, peering out at the blue Golf. “He’s such a gentleman he’s even escorting her here!”
“It’s a wonder he’s even letting her out of his sight!” Kerry joked, conveniently forgetting how claustrophobically inseparable she and Ollie had been in the first few weeks of their relationship.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s planted a bug on her,” Cat drawled, watching her friend reach over in the car and kiss his girlie goodbye.
“What do you mean?” asked Anna.
“Well,” Cat laughed, “he’s in a real state - he thinks I’m going to be a total bitch tonight, and stir it up for him with Gabrielle.”