by Ruby Loren
“Will they?”
“I know we both think looking after animals is the best thing ever, but the press think the public wants drama and scandals. They want you to be secretly organising kangaroo boxing matches, or murdering any critics of the yet-to-be-named new zoo.”
“You think there will be critics?” I pretended to crack my knuckles.
Auryn shook his head. “No journalist would ever buy that you could do something like that. I’m telling you, so long as nothing interesting happens, it will all blow over. It’s just too bad that the storm has chosen to hit while we’re on our holiday.”
“Perhaps it wasn’t a great time to go after all,” I said, thinking regretfully of the documentary that just happened to be being filmed this very fortnight. “Hey, your meeting with Nile was part of the reason we came here, right? Was he really specific with the date when you set it up?”
“Yes, yes he was, and at the time I didn’t question it.”
I grinned. “So we are equally to blame.”
“Not sure about equally, but I’ll take a small percentage.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “How about we go out and do something somewhere where no one will ever find us?”
“That sounds mildly threatening, but sure, let’s do it!”
“Could be a good time to talk about the yet-to-be-named zoo’s name - if only so we can stop calling it that.”
Auryn’s face fell. “That actually sounds a lot scarier.”
“What?”
“Last time we talked about this I’m pretty sure you threatened to do all kinds of violent things if we went with one of the names I suggested! You know…” He looked thoughtful. “I bet the press would love to hear about stuff like that.”
“Don’t you dare,” I told him. “Anyway, you know the solution.”
“Do I?”
“Think of some better names.”
The next day, Auryn and I were feeling a lot more holiday-ey, if there was such a thing. We’d managed to go inland and walk up a mountain without bumping into anyone who wanted an autograph. The only people we’d seen were the owners of the restaurant halfway up the mountain. Considering that their only deliveries were essentials and a few additional food items, and there was no internet connection at all, I wasn’t surprised that they treated us with the same grudging politeness that was presumably reserved for all tourists. It was a strange kind of relief.
Unfortunately, one thing that we didn’t get to discuss was the name for the zoo. It was bugging me like crazy, but the mountain had turned out to be a lot steeper than anticipated and the conversation had mostly alternated between me commenting on the steep gradient and me asking Auryn if I could hold on to the rucksack he was carrying and be pulled up the mountain. Or alternatively, pushed in front of him. I hadn’t been fussy at that point.
This morning, we’d had an early start and were out on the beach watching the waves crash onto the shore and silently wondering if our legs would ever recover from the giant trek up the mountain. At least, I was wondering that. Working at the zoo had always kept me fit, but I’d realised I hadn’t actually done that much physical activity for the last several weeks. There’d been hard work done at Mellon Zoo, but also a lot of work promoting the comic book and then a lot of planning and organising beyond that when Auryn and I had got engaged and he’d announced his present to me. If I wasn’t careful, I could end up out of shape - fast. When you were my height, a couple of extra cakes a week made a big difference if there wasn’t any exercise to work it off. And I wanted to be able to have my cake and eat it - literally.
“We’ve got a super busy schedule when we get back,” Auryn mused aloud.
I nodded. “It will be nice to get back to it though.”
“We’ve only been out here two and a bit days!” Auryn joked, but I knew he felt the same. Avery was our home, and we weren’t used to sitting around doing nothing.
“I was just wondering,” he continued, “when do you think we should actually get married?”
I did some rapid blinking. He had a point. Unfortunately, the only answer I could come up with was ‘uhhhh’.
“Damn, I was thinking the same thing,” he told me with a sideways smile.
“I’d like my parents to come, but we don’t exactly see each other often. They’re busy, I’m busy… we’ll have to plan something a lot in advance.” I thought about it. “Or alternatively really, really last minute might be better. I don’t know. That’s kind of the problem.”
“I think we should definitely make sure your parents come. I still need to meet them! Hope they don’t disapprove of me at the last minute.” Auryn grinned, but he didn’t look as sure of himself as usual.
“They’ll love you, trust me. You’re the shining beacon of hope that they may one day have grandchildren.” I bit my tongue as soon as I said it. We’d never discussed having kids and I’d never envisaged myself as a mother to anything other than multiple cats. “Seriously, what’s not to like?” I said, covering for myself.
“So… probably a date in advance that people can make sure they’re available for?” Auryn continued, letting me off the hook with a double raise of his eyebrows that promised the line of conversation was merely being saved for another time.
“Probably,” I said. “But it should be after we’ve got the yet-to-be-named zoo up and running and have minimised the likelihood of any disasters happening. That could take a while, but hopefully not too long.”
“Right… unspecified amount of time for the zoo to sort itself out. What about the time of year? Summer, winter, autumn, spring?”
“I like autumn,” I said.
Auryn nodded. “So do I. But would this autumn be considered too soon? The zoo may not be running perfectly and I think wedding venues get booked a long time in advance.”
“We don’t have to make that big a deal of it, do we?” I grinned as something occurred to me. “Hey, the zoo’s restaurant was a wedding venue. If we could patch it together, we could book it whenever we like. Where better to have the actual wedding than at the zoo?”
“That place basically needs rebuilding. It’s not something we were going to do for a long time because of finances.”
I sucked in a cheek, thinking carefully before I spoke. “Look, Auryn… I know you bought the zoo for me, which was very sweet, but, I do have money saved of my own. I was going to buy a house but we have a huge place to live now - although I know we’ve talked about downsizing.”
“It’s way too big and doesn’t exactly hold the best memories now,” Auryn concluded and shook his head. “Just another thing to think about.”
“But not one we need to make a decision on soon,” I reassured him. “I haven’t exactly been on top of my finances because of how quickly this all happened, and I know I need to get a good accountant who can figure out what my hefty tax bill is going to be, but I also suspect that there’s going to be a heck of a lot left over. I can pay for the renovation.”
“There’ll be other things you’ll need that money for. Shouldn’t it be kept for a rainy day?”
“I really think there is quite a lot there, although I do need the accountant to say for sure. You’ve taken a risk and bought the zoo. I can do the same for the restaurant. I bet my investment pays itself off faster than yours.”
“Not a chance. Not with you in charge of the zoo.” He cleared his throat. “Also I’ve looked into how much profit a restaurant generates and it doesn’t measure up to the overall profit brought in by a zoo and all of its inner up-sells. I may have paid more for the zoo itself, but there’s no way you could make it worth the money sooner.”
“I see your facts and demand we make the bet anyway,” I said. “I’ll finally get to design an entire dessert menu and extravagant hot chocolates. And it will all be for free,” I said with a happy sigh.
“You’re definitely not going to win this bet” Auryn pointed out and then pulled a face. “Well… unless you singlehandedly managed to push it
into profit by actually deciding to buy the food you intend to eat.”
“Who cares? Dessert!”
Auryn ruffled my giant sunhat, knocking it askew. I tried to fight back, but my shorter arms meant I couldn’t reach him when he used his hand to hold my head back away from him.
“We got a little distracted,” I pointed out when I’d stopped trying to cover him in sand a couple of minutes later.
Auryn shrugged, brushing golden sand off his already unfairly tanned torso. We’d only been out here one morning! “I thought we had it all sorted. Rebuild the restaurant over several years and then either have a last minute wedding in five years time, or send the invitations out now, so that everyone can save the date.”
“Maybe we should just get married out here and have a party to celebrate,” I suggested, but then sighed. “My parents…” They would want to come, and I really didn’t want to exclude them. “What about your family?” I asked Auryn, treading carefully.
“I do have some cousins and great aunts and uncles who it would be nice to invite. Other than that, there’s just the zoo and a couple of friends from uni and the other courses I did.”
“Same… but just the zoo friends,” I confessed. I’d never been brilliant at making friends, but the ones I’d made at Avery I held very close to my heart.
“Not going to invite any of your secret service mates? And surely you can’t miss out Colin! You two are best buddies!”
“I will write rude words in suncream on your back if you don’t stop talking.”
Auryn was midway through grinning when it faded a little. I followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything particularly concerning.
“Is it just me, or have things got a lot busier around here all of a sudden?” he said.
“You’re right,” I replied, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. What had started as a fairly empty beach, due to the proliferation of rocks amongst the sand, was now suspiciously busy with people who were milling about - rather than sitting down to sunbathe. “What’s going on?” I said, starting to worry my hat wasn’t big enough.
But no one was looking our way.
I was still trying to figure out where their furtive glances were directed when I found myself looking at an incredibly well-toned set of abs that halted only a metre away from my face. I raised my gaze and found all of my questions had just been answered.
“You’re Ben Ravenwood,” I said, feeling starstruck all of a sudden. Of course the beach hadn’t been filling up for me. People were here to see one of the most well-known zoologists on the planet. It was like finding David Attenborough floating around on a lilo except - no disrespect to David - this man had an edge in the model-good-looks department.
“And you’re Madigan Amos! Took me a while to find you with that hat on.”
“I’m Auryn Avery,” my fiancé said, rather pointedly. I shot him an amused look. How the tables had turned since yesterday when I’d been huffy because of Leona!
“Nice to meet you,” Ben amiably said, shaking Auryn’s hand before shaking mine.
“What can I do for you?” I asked, managing to find my professional attitude now that I’d got over the sudden appearance of one of my all-time animal idols appearing topless in front of me.
“I’m here working on the documentary. A whole lot of chatter at The Big Blue clued me in that you might be on the island,” he said with a casual shrug. “Love your comic by the way. I’m a big fan.”
As much as I wanted to gasp and blush with delight, I found I was surprisingly cool. “So, is there something I can do for you?” I repeated but added a smile. I had a shrewd idea why my idol had just happened to pop up on the beach right by our villa (which had somehow apparently become public knowledge) but I also didn’t want to start any fights. I just wanted to know what he’d been put up to.
The rockstar of animal shows sat down on the sand next to me. “You’re so new to this fame game and you’ve already got the hang of it. It might have been suggested to me that if I asked you to be a part of this documentary, it might get you to officially say yes.” He shrugged. “Personally, I think there shouldn’t be so much pressure. I got told you’re on holiday! You don’t need this. All the same… if you did want to come and check out the filming set up and allow me to give you a tour around how everything works and just hang out and chat about animals for a day, I would love that.” He made special care to smile at Auryn, too, when he said that. This guy was good at more than just presenting. I recognised reverse psychology when I heard it.
Especially when he’d just given away that the whole thing was a complete setup.
“Unbelievable,” Auryn muttered and I knew exactly what, or rather, who, he was talking about. Behind a bunch of rocks about ten metres to our left was a familiar sandy-haired man in a linen suit, lying on his front, presumably to make himself less conspicuous. It hadn’t worked. As we looked over, he lifted his hands and gave us the double thumbs up. My apparent knack for publicity generation was striking again.
“How about I say yes right now and we can get it done as fast as possible, so no one’s time is wasted,” I said, knowing I was beginning to sound less polite. But we were on holiday!
Ben nodded. “Okay, I can pass that along. I’m sure it won’t be much. From what I’ve heard, they just want you to interview me, for novelty effect.”
I shook my head. “I’m not even a marine life expert!”
“With the exception of your hilarious penguins, I did notice a general lack of marine animals in your comics,” Ben confessed. “Still… maybe that will change soon?”
“Maybe,” I agreed, knowing full-well that I’d started sketching comics that included turtles and seals the instant we’d returned from our visit to the park. The only thing I really needed was a little more experience, so I could nail their storylines. Even tales told by the keepers would help.
Who was I kidding? I really did want to go back to the marine park. And was it so bad that I’d have to interview one of my idols and potentially hang out with him, too? I was being silly. A holiday didn’t have to be lazing around doing nothing. In truth, I knew for a fact that Auryn and I hated doing that!
“Auryn,” I began, but he beat me to it.
“I want to go back, too. We’ve done enough beach stuff, haven’t we?”
I smiled at him. “You’re so perfect.”
“So are you,” he replied.
“And me three!” Ben joked, getting up and brushing sand off his tanned legs. “I’ll let the slave drivers - I mean - the directors know, and then maybe someone can actually give you guys a call to fill you in.” He raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to enjoying this unusually busy beach. Looking forward to hanging out soon.” For just a moment, his eyes focused on me instead of the all inclusive thing he’d been doing. As per usual, I felt my cheeks heat a little and prayed the hat covered it.
Judging by the way Auryn had his arms crossed and was staring at me when Ben walked away, it hadn’t. “What? It’s like you meeting Taylor Swift randomly and completely out of the blue!”
“How dare you insinuate that I like Taylor Swift and the beautiful soul-touching message of hope that her songs penned from the heart give to the entire world.” His eyes misted for a moment.
“Uh-huh.”
I assumed I’d been forgiven when Auryn looked back over at Colin, who was now dancing some sort of victory jive, and asked if I could make one of my diva documentary demands be that he was barred from the park.
I was definitely willing to consider it.
5
The Star of the Show
The Big Blue Marine Park had undergone a strange transformation when Auryn and I arrived the next morning. It was as if the circus had come to town.
We walked in amongst people running around carrying cups of iced coffee, or stacks of paper. It was strange, but it was kind of nice to be ignored. Everyone was too busy looking busy to pay much attention to the comic book writer who’d da
red venture out without her brand new giant floppy hat.
“Hey, look at that. Is that really the local cuisine?” Auryn commented nodding towards a food truck that was emblazoned with a picture of smiling eggs and bacon and the name ‘Smithy's Nice Nosh’.
“At least the apostrophe is in the right place,” was all I could think to say.
Auryn squinted. “I dunno, I think that could just be dirt. I suppose some people get homesick for British fried food.”
“No idea why,” I said. Full-English breakfasts, bacon butties, and endless builders’ tea had their place, but I wasn’t so sure it was in Mallorca.
“Look out, he’s here,” I heard someone mutter as they walked past, talking to the person they were walking with. I glanced over and noted the marine park uniforms they wore.
“Madi! You came!” a cheerful voice called. Auryn and I turned to see Ben Ravenwood striding across the plaza area with a welcoming smile on his face. Today he was dressed a little more formally i.e. he had a t-shirt on. Although - it was a rather tight v-neck. Auryn muttered something about him having some nerve. I didn’t know why he felt threatened, his own physique was the envy of both male and female staff members back at Avery Zoo.
“Hi, Ben. We were hoping to find someone who could tell us where to go. I’m sure you must be busy shooting,” I said, tactfully trying to show Auryn I wasn’t about to get starstruck again.
“No trouble at all. I’ve got a ton of free time. They’re filming reconstructions with the actors today. It should really add to the drama of the documentary.”
“What are they reconstructing?” I asked, finding that an unusual addition for a wildlife show.
“Quite a few different scenarios. It’s pretty shocking stuff. There have been a lot of reports of animal cruelty and, frankly, a flagrant disregard for the environment from time to time around the Balearics. As always, it’s a small minority who often don’t understand the wider implications of their actions. But we want to bring the concerning reports to life and the marine park here is a great place to do that safely for all involved.”
