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‘Did you update the—?’
‘Yes, I updated your bloody to-do list. Go.’
‘OK that’s great. At some point I need to sync that up to our forecast . . .’
Louisa sighed but said nothing. She knew, just as Melanie did, that there were lots of things that needed doing. Perhaps when they were more settled it would get a little easier. Melanie quickly opened up her phone, pressing her emails by mistake as she did. She stood still as she read the message. She glanced over most of it, until she got to the bottom.
“Thank you for being so speedy with this. It really is appreciated. And clearly with that sort of ability and work ethic you’ll be the best person to lead on this project. I’ll send you over the details re budget and scope.”
What the . . . ?
Her legs wobbled as if the email carried actual weight.
So now she was organising the whole art project was she? What was the saying? If you want something doing, give it to a busy woman. Melanie walked round the back to the tiny private car park, jumped in her car, threw everything on the passenger seat, before setting off.
‘I can’t fit it in, I’ll have to say no. But then we’re new to the Alliance and I probably need to show my worth.’ She straightened her glasses quickly before putting both hands back on the steering wheel and continuing to talk to herself. ‘But this could be a huge project — how would I even . . . ?’ Stopping at the lights she pulled at the bobble in her hair. ‘No, it’s not possible . . . but then I would have more influence. Maybe I could then sway the group as to where the mural actually goes. No no no. I don’t have time to think about this now. Focus, Melanie.’
With that Melanie gently shook out her hair, straightened her glasses again, and pretended she hadn’t even seen the email from Councillor Houghton and made her way to her sister’s house.
Chapter Five
Melanie
‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I haven’t been in your bar before. This is influencers’ heaven. Oh hi.’ Her new guest quickly stopped talking, probably at Melanie’s shocked expression. Well, she really hadn’t been expecting Sophie Bowman, influencer extraordinaire, to walk into her bar. It wasn’t that they hadn’t met before, in fact Melanie could still cringe over their first meeting. She’d gone to Barbarella to re-introduce herself to Paige, thinking that it was the right, polite thing to do. Paige wasn’t there and instead Melanie had fangirled herself into a corner. Torn between immediately wanting to hug Sophie, having watched enough of her videos and her daily socials to believe that they were already best friends, and complete and utter dumbfounded shock.
With a shake of her head she realised she wasn’t faring much better this time around either. Luckily some of the Friday lunch crowd were clearly fans, and so, Sophie was in the middle of taking selfies and smiling politely, making perfect small talk. Admiring eyeliner on one person, giving tips to another. Until finally, Sophie was released and Melanie had composed herself into a relatively normal human being.
‘Hi!’ Melanie was stunned at the sound of her own voice, having never heard it screech in welcome quite like that before. She straightened her already straight glasses and did a little cough before trying again, ‘Hi.’
Sophie grinned, and Melanie noticed that her grin was just a little wider than the one she had shared with her fans.
‘Hi. How’s it going?’ Sophie asked as she perched on the barstool. The bar wasn’t quite set up for lots of people around it like Paige’s was. It was smaller with limited seats, the focus being the tables where people could eat brunch, lunch, and then nibble on high-end bar snacks for the rest of the night, while drinking copious amounts of prosecco, and of course taking lots of selfies. But still Sophie perched and Melanie didn’t really know what to do, or more specifically, she didn’t know what to say.
The break in conversation was just getting to the point where Melanie was about to fill it with whatever unfiltered thing was first to come out of her mouth before Sophie carried on.
‘I’m really sorry we didn’t get chance to talk properly when you came over to Barbarella that time, and I’m even more sorry that I haven’t been in here sooner, because this place is unreal. I mean, I’ve seen some of it on the ol’ ’gram but, it’s really clever. I feel inspired.’
‘Thanks. I mean I can’t take all the credit. Louisa, my business partner — we worked on it together.’
‘Oh,’ Sophie said, ‘just business partner or . . . ?’
Melanie answered before she even really processed the personal nature of the question. ‘Just business partner and you know, friends. Nothing more. Nothing more with anyone actually. There isn’t time. I mean before you got with Marcus, I’m sure you were the same, right? Just so busy spinning so many plates.’ Melanie quickly shut up when she realised she’d compared herself to mega influencer Sophie Bowman.
Sophie smiled warmly, like Melanie had seen her do hundreds of times before. ‘I get it. But, I’m here with a purpose, well two now actually. No, wait, three. Maybe even four.’
‘Well er, how can I help?’ Melanie asked wiping down the bar as she did so, but also wondering if she would need her phone to make notes.
‘The first thing is that I think you should come over to Barbarella tonight, if you can? I imagine it’s pretty hard when you run a bar?’
‘Louisa does the lates,’ Melanie said to explain the situation.
‘Great, so we’ll see you later then, yeah? Brill.’ Sophie had carried on and Melanie realised that in trying to explain the situation she had inadvertently agreed to socialise. She grabbed her phone, and while Sophie was talking, made sure she wasn’t on Alfie duty. A very quick glance showed her she was. She quickly put her phone down not wanting to be rude as Sophie continued talking.
‘Second, I would love, love, love it, if I could come in one time, maybe early morning, and take some pictures in front of your influencer walls? Maybe I could be really cheeky and set up a little table and use one of your walls as the backdrop while I do my make-up? Better still, I could give you a makeover, what do you think?’ The sheer joy radiating from Sophie’s face was what Melanie imagined being blessed by an angel would feel like.
Melanie was lost for words but that was OK, Sophie carried on. ‘And not that I think you need it at all because I’m sure your business is booming but of course I’d tag you and your bar into it all. In fact, you could tell my viewers all about yourself and the bar while we’re at it.’
Melanie’s jaw dropped. That would be amazing. That would be incredible. That would be the boon that most small businesses could only dream of. It was so generous. It was a little overwhelming. What would that mean? Would they be too busy? No, they’d make it work. They’d be foolish not to. Right?
