by Ruby Loren
“Maybe we should have bothered to learn Spanish before coming out here,” Auryn said a little guiltily.
“I’d say sure if we were coming to live out here, but we’re supposed to be on holiday, remember?” I gently nudged him. “I think we’ve done our part here. Shouldn’t we be getting on to having that meeting with Nile about the best starter marine animals for the zoo? Then we can get back to our work-free holiday.”
Auryn grinned sheepishly. “You’re right. We’ve just heard how much crazy is about to come to town here. I think we came for our visit at exactly the right time. We’ll be getting out right before the comet hits.”
“Little bit graphic.”
“I think the disaster movie we watched last night got to me.”
“It was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!”
Auryn nodded. “Scary stuff.”
When I’d stopped rolling my eyes at him we both looked around and discovered Nile was nowhere to be seen in the gradually dissipating room of people.
“He’s probably not far,” Auryn said with a shrug, and we set off to find the missing head keeper.
“Let’s hope nothing bad happens,” I whispered to my fiancé, who smiled at the joke.
But it turned out the joke was on me.
I’d thought I’d made myself clear when I’d agreed to look over the zoo with Auryn, as an outsider with a fresh pair of eyes, but not get involved beyond that. What happened when we caught up with Nile felt very much like getting involved.
Auryn spotted the disappearing form of the stocky head keeper as we were walking past the seal enclosure. He called out his name, but the keeper continued as if he hadn’t heard. If anything, I thought his pace might have even sped up a little.
We followed him through the park all the way up to the official entrance, which we’d assumed was closed off for the day. It was only now that I thought about it, I realised that, although filming of the documentary was to begin shortly, they still had to do a lot of setting up in order to film it. And the day the marine park was closed was a logical time to do it.
I narrowed my eyes at the back of the man we’d been following, wondering if I was getting paranoid. Was fame finally going to my head in a bad way? Perhaps I was making the wrong assumption. “Auryn, maybe we should go back and wait…” I started to say, only to discover he was already walking over to where Nile was talking to a woman with Hollywood style waves and a coating of pale foundation so thick, you could see it from twenty metres.
I decided to put away my paranoia and walked after Auryn, assuring myself that this wasn’t a complete set up.
“Hi, Madi, I was just saying to Auryn, I completely lost track of time and forgot the documentary team were all arriving now to set things up and have a look around. I’m afraid our meeting might have to be rescheduled.” Nile looked genuinely apologetic. “Do you think you could come back next Monday? I’m sure everything will be running like clockwork by then,” he said, turning back and flashing a white smile at the woman with the wavy hair.
“Oh my gosh, you’re Madigan, aren’t you?” a female voice said.
I turned to look and found I was looking at a face I felt I recognised from TV.
“You’re Leona Richards, aren’t you?” I said, dredging the name up from somewhere.
The woman with glowing dark skin and a stylish equally Hollywood inspired waved bob nodded eagerly and thrust out a many ringed hand for me to shake.
“I’m just the biggest fan of your comic! A fan bought it for me as a gift after I finished recording a show on lemurs in Madagascar. If I’m honest, I usually give away gifts from fans.” She shrugged self-deprecatingly. “I appreciate them, but I like to think that my stuff can benefit others more. But when I opened your book and read a couple of pages I was hooked right away.”
“Thank you,” I said, once more feeling how surreal it was that a celebrity who was, as my memory now served, becoming a familiar face in the world of wildlife documentaries, was actually a fan of me. All the same, I wasn’t sure I liked the attention. I’d far rather the comic was famous, rather than me, but from the very start, I’d been promoted right along with the comic as my interesting job had theoretically leant itself to marketing. It turned out that was correct, although no one could have predicted how successful a ploy it would be. It was only now that I felt I was starting to understand the real fallout.
“I’m Auryn Avery, Madi’s fiancé. It’s lovely to meet you.” Auryn stuck his hand out and the wildlife presenter seized it with both hands, her eyes lighting up when she looked into Auryn’s grey pair.
“You own the zoo the comic was based on, don’t you?” Leona asked, tilting her head enquiringly - even though she seemed pretty darn sure she was correct.
I used the moment of lapsed attention on me to frown. That wasn’t something that was written in the comics. Sure, anyone visiting Avery Zoo would be made aware of the inspiration, as per my agreement with Auryn, but it was strange that Leona would know that.
“I am the owner. Anytime you’re in the area and would like to come and look around, let me know,” Auryn said, charmingly. Knowing Auryn as I did, I knew he was entirely focused on the marketing opportunity it would bring to Avery and not on the woman herself. However, it didn’t escape my notice when Leona expressed her delight at the suggestion and rested a hand on his arm when she promised she would indeed let him know.
“You know, I’m so glad you’re both here,” Leona continued. “How long are you on holiday for?”
“Two weeks,” Auryn told her before I could kick him. He was far too trusting at times and I sensed a trap.
Leona’s smile widened, showing her dentally perfect teeth. “Wonderful! You must come and see us when we’re filming. It’s a lot of fun and you never know who you’ll meet.” She sparkled specifically at Auryn when she said those words.
“It would be great to get the opinion of an animal welfare consultant to add to the documentary - especially one as famous as yourself,” the other glamorous woman said, finally speaking up.
Auryn and I looked at her for a moment.
“Gina is one of the directors,” Nile said when it was evident that the woman wasn’t about to introduce herself.
“Great,” Auryn said, but his smile was starting to wobble as he finally sensed what I had. This was going exactly the way I’d suspected as soon as we’d followed the mysteriously disappearing Nile and had been led right to the star of the documentary and the director.
Nile had set us up.
“We are on holiday,” I said, knowing I sounded huffy, but feeling I had a right to. First the over enthusiastic publicist turning up at the airport and now this! If I didn’t know better…
“It would be wonderful to have your input,” the director continued, now paying me her full attention - something which I assumed I was supposed to be basking in. “I think it will be beneficial for both parties.” Then came the smile, the one that was meant to seal the deal.
“You’d look great on screen!” Leona pitched in, her voice rising up just a little too much at the end. It was a good thing she was a presenter not an actress because boy was she a bad liar.
I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to be both tactful but firm when I turned them down, but I was distracted by the sudden kerfuffle happening just beyond the entrance.
“I’m with her, I swear! I work with her!”
“Oh no,” I heard Auryn say just as I too recognised the clipped public school accent and the pale creased linen.
“There she is. Madi! Hello, Madi! See? She knows me. We work together!” Colin the publicist waved amidst the two heavily built men wearing black t-shirts with ‘security’ written on the back of them.
They turned to look at me. I saw a golden opportunity and hesitated for a moment.
“Nnngh I can’t do it. It’s too mean,” I muttered and heard Auryn sigh. “This man is, theoretically, a publicist working for my publisher,” I confessed, loudly eno
ugh that the security team heard me and released Colin.
The director blinked a couple of times and then turned back to me. “So, are you interested in being a part of the documentary?”
“We accept! We absolutely accept,” Colin said, stepping in front of me and shaking the director’s hand, vigorously. “Excellent. Excellent. Does anything need to be signed? I’ll be happy to take a look at it for my client.”
I shut my eyes and wished that it was all a bad dream. I mean, it was a bad dream, but it was happening in real life.
Colin shook the hands of both Leona and Nile before the group moved away from us, talking about the week’s proposed itinerary. Auryn and I were left alone with Colin.
“Great to catch up with you both again and what perfect timing! So sorry about the mix-up at the airport. I don’t know who security thought I was, but I got out of the holding cell four hours later, so it wasn’t too bad. I just have one of those faces.” He smiled. “Anyway, glad you got to where you’re staying. Where is that, by the way?”
“I’m glad everything worked out okay,” Auryn said, stepping in and thankfully not answering his question.
“It always does in the end, doesn’t it?” Colin grinned.
I opened my mouth and shut it again. Answering that question was harder than anticipated.
“How did you find us?” I asked, both suspicious and curious. Had Auryn and I made a mistake by visiting an animal park - an obvious place to look? Or was this all part of some giant plan?
“Having the kind of contacts I do, I heard that Leona Richards was on the island and in this area. A little more detective work turned up that she’d be here, so I thought I’d arrange a little meeting and try to set you two up for a joint interview.” He shook his head. “Little did I know, you were already a step ahead of me! Excellent work. Normally I have to really push clients into publicity opportunities, but you’re a natural at seeking them out.”
There was another silence filled only by mine and Auryn’s shared dismay.
“So,” Colin continued when no one said anything, “what exactly have we just signed up for?”
3
For the Love of Choc
I only realised things were getting worse later on when I looked up from my laptop and discovered I’d just spent an hour researching Leona Richards.
“What am I doing?” I said and then looked across at Auryn, who was holding an annoyingly large airport hardback thriller book.
“You said you were going to check a couple of things on the comic site and upload today’s strip.”
“I know. I got distracted.” I looked at the page in front of me. “Did you know, Leona Richards worked at animal sanctuaries and rescues on several different continents until she was twenty five? It was only when she reached her thirties that her animal YouTube channel took off, and she was scouted for an animal documentary on the changing habitat of the British earthworm. Surprisingly, from that, her career skyrocketed.”
“Great,” Auryn said, going back to his giant book.
“She really does like animals for real,” I muttered and then slipped back into my research.
Another half an hour later, I looked up, like a diver surfacing for air.
I felt like I knew everything about Leona Richards’ life. She was a well-travelled thirty-six year old who had managed to succeed in spite of a troubled home life. There was absolutely no mention of her father on the rather personal profile pages on the internet. Her mother had interestingly been an actress - a small-time theatre performer. I wondered if the knowledge of her profession had pushed Leona to accept the role of presenter. I read on. When her mother had given birth to Leona the page strongly hinted that, with the parentage of the child in doubt, she’d made the choice to pass the baby over to a close cousin and had then disappeared. Two years later, she’d been found murdered in a hotel room. It sounded like the tragic plot of a badly written play.
I spared a thought to wonder who had taken the time to find all of this out about Leona Richards and then put together an entire web page dedicated to her history. Then I realised that I was on the site reading it, so didn’t really have a leg to stand on.
My thoughts drifted to my own parents, who were far away in America. I hadn’t seen them for a long time, but we Skyped pretty regularly. We were always saying we should meet up, but both of us led pretty busy lives. It was something I thought was both a great strength and a great weakness for our family. We were workaholics, and happy in the work we did, but that meant there wasn’t a whole lot of time for family get togethers. I’d sent them a copy of my comic when it had been released and we’d spoken over Skype about how thrilled we all were. But when it came down to organising a get together, we’d struck out as usual. When I’d told them about the engagement, just a few days ago, they’d been surprised, but enthusiastic, especially when I’d told them about the zoo that was now mine - something which I couldn’t quite believe. We’d made more noises about a get together, but only time would tell. I suddenly felt a pang of missing them, having read the sad article about Leona’s missing parents and her mother’s tragic end. Perhaps I should work harder to see my family. You never knew when it would be too late.
I sighed and sat back from the laptop, looking out of the villa’s sliding doors at the view of the sea and the mountains beyond. Why did I just spend an hour looking at the history of a woman I don’t even know? I wondered. When I thought about it, I realised that I hadn’t believed she was genuinely interested in animals. She’d looked so glamorous and had seemed sort of above it all when we’d met earlier that day. When she’d claimed she was a big fan of my comic, I’d suspected even more that Auryn and I had been manipulated all along. I wasn’t even sure whether to believe that she had read the comic. Now I had a newfound respect for a woman I guiltily realised I’d wanted to dislike.
Yes, that had definitely been the reason why I’d stalked her online. It was definitely nothing to do with the way she’d sparkled at Auryn.
I looked across at my fiancé and silently chided myself. There was no need for jealousy when there was trust. I’d behaved badly.
I stood up from the breakfast bar stool and tiptoed over to Auryn, slipping down on the sofa behind him and making him jump. He shut the thriller book with a bang, guilt written all over his face. But I’d already seen what he’d been up to.
“Really Auryn? The zoo’s cashflow forecast? I think I’d rather have caught you looking at a trashy magazine,” I said with a grin.
“You’re just as bad, researching your new famous buddy.”
My eyebrows shot up. “My new famous buddy? I thought you were getting on far better together.”
“So that’s why you were researching her,” Auryn observed with a grin. He looked at me seriously. “So, what do you think? Have I got a chance?”
“She’s much too old for you,” I told him primly.
“I dunno…” Auryn started to say, but I took the book and lightly whopped him over the head with it. Any seriousness evaporated into a tickle fight. Cashflow forecasts and eligible TV presenters were forgotten for the time being. This holiday was supposed to be about us, and I knew Auryn and I were determined to keep it that way.
We decided to go out for dinner that night. Colin the publicist had found us and we’d been unwittingly tricked into being a part of The Big Blue Marine Park’s publicity drive with this documentary. There really didn’t seem much point in holing up in the villa when the worst had already happened.
Or so we’d thought.
Dinner started out normally at the quiet beachside restaurant we’d picked on a whim. It was only when the sharing platter of paella was brought out that I started to notice people whispering and then glancing our way.
“Auryn…” I started to ask him if he thought we might have done something wrong, like inadvertently sitting in the wrong place, when one of the waiters arrived back at the table.
“The restaurant owner would like to give you yo
ur meal on the house, Señora Amos. It would please us all a lot if you would let us take a photo of you with our food?”
I looked across at Auryn, seeing my own dismay echoed back at me. “I’d be happy to pose for a photo, but we would like to pay for our meal. We both appreciate being fairly compensated for hard work, believe me. It would make us really happy if you’ll let us pay,” I said, perhaps laying it on a bit thick. The waiter certainly looked surprised.
“I will go and talk to the owner,” he said, before walking off.
The whispers and curious looks rose to a hum as tables all around us turned to look, having overheard the conversation. It didn’t take long for the first people to approach and ask for photos to be taken. Auryn gamely snapped away with various phones, and even a disposable camera I assumed was being used ironically, or as a revival of a trend.
“I know this is going to sound crazy… but can we skip dessert? I bet we can get something to takeaway somewhere else,” I whispered, not wanting to offend anyone.
“Agreed,” Auryn said, sounding just as tired as I felt.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling the need to apologise. “I really don’t know why this is happening. Perhaps there’s something I’ve missed in the news…”
“I can look into it, if you like?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, wincing at the thought of Auryn reading anything written about me by anyone who didn’t actually know me. The newspaper article we’d both read the day before coming here had been bad enough, and papers usually reined in the gossip to such an extent that they could avoid a libel claim.
We argued with the owner a little bit and then paid half of our bill, which was the most we could get him to accept. Then I took a picture holding some poor customer’s paella serving, surrounded by the staff of the restaurant.