The Christmas Promise

by Sue Moorcroft

  In alarm, Ava thrust her phone deep in her pocket. ‘What, make a complaint? Go through the interview process and make a statement?’

  Graeme’s eyes softened. ‘I could help you through it. But I understand if you really would prefer to find other ways to make it all go away.’

  ‘Without question,’ said Ava, fervently.

  When they finally arrived at Jermyn’s, Ava came out in an anxious sweat again. With no idea what was about to happen she was beginning to have nightmare visions of everyone at the agency sitting around and dissecting her stupidity. But it warred with a spark of hope that Sam could actually come up with something to make things better, so she pressed the intercom button and made her voice steady. ‘Ava Blissham for Sam Jermyn.’

  Crackle. ‘Please come up to the first floor.’ Crackle. The door clicked as the lock was released.

  Graeme clapped her reassuringly on the shoulder. ‘Let’s go see what it’s all about, shall we?’

  His warmth and solidarity made Ava feel a tiny bit better.

  Upstairs, Barb hugged Ava as if they were old friends. ‘Hello, darling! They’re in the big meeting room. I’ll show you.’ She segued effortlessly into flirtatiousness. ‘Who’s this? Your father? Blimey, what a good-looking dad!’

  Up a short corridor, lush green plants spilling from white planters, they followed Barb into a square room containing a round table. People were grouped haphazardly around it, some sitting and some standing, their chairs shoved out untidily. Huge whiteboards clothed two walls. Izz wasn’t there but Ava knew she would be glued to a computer somewhere, grappling with the database.

  Tod’s head popped up from the melee. ‘Graeme! Didn’t expect to see you.’ He crossed to shake Graeme’s hand and then to hug Ava hard, whispering, ‘Sam’s briefed us. Don’t let that bastard Harvey get to you.’

  Emerging from his embrace Ava found Sam already introducing himself to her dad. ‘We’ve got a lot to accomplish, so shall we sit straight down?’ He kissed Ava’s cheek. ‘Would you sit with Ruby?’

  Ava noticed Ruby for the first time, twinkling her fingers in a little wave and looking almost as nervous as Ava felt. Ava’s sensation of unreality increased as she took the empty chair beside the WAG that all of tabloid-land and social media now knew as Booby Ruby.

  ‘Right,’ began Sam, which had the effect of making anybody still standing instantly find a seat. ‘For the benefit of our guests let me make round-table introductions. Ruby Glennister, client; Ava of Ava Bliss Millinery; Tod, graphic design; Jake, photographer; Manda Jane, media buyer; Emily, social-media manager; Patrick, writer; Graeme, Ava’s dad.’

  Ava tried to smile at everyone, but Sam, obviously a very direct creative director, was already moving on. ‘The agency’s aim is to promote a better relationship between Ruby and the tabloids because they’ve been giving her a rough ride. It’s hard to change how people feel about someone but it can be done. My idea is for a campaign to involve both Ruby and Ava in these last few days before Christmas. It’s a cheeky and unsophisticated idea that relies heavily on Ruby sending herself up and dependent partly on the willingness of people to swap nonsense at Christmas when servers everywhere process more e-cards and jokes than work-related emails.’

  He paused as Barb bowled into the room with a trolley loaded with steaming jugs of coffee and tea, a platter of triangular sandwiches, and a dish of green salad that she passed straight to Ruby.

  The sandwiches circulated as Sam continued. ‘Ruby, something that happened to Ava has sparked this idea and my plan depends upon her willingness to be a vehicle. She’ll gain exposure along the way but I hope you’ll be happy with the mutual gain.’

  Ruby shrugged and nodded. She looked as clueless as Ava felt.

  Not really wanting food but dimly aware of not having eaten since yesterday, Ava took a sandwich to nibble. It also prevented her from seizing Sam by the lapels and shouting, ‘BUT WHAT IS THE IDEA?’ She accepted a white porcelain mug of coffee from Tod and forced herself to be patient.

  Beside her, Graeme beetled his brows and tapped something into his phone.

  Smoothly, Sam moved on. ‘As a platform for the viral part of the campaign, I propose a fairly standard feature in an online magazine. This will take the form of Ava making – or pretending to make – hats for Ruby. You have enough samples for the purpose of the feature, Ava.’

  ‘How’s that going to do anything?’ put in Ruby, looking disappointed.

  Sam silenced her with a movement of one finger. ‘It’s just a platform. As we’ve got no lead-in for the print media, Manda Jane’s called in a favour from online magazine Alive Today, which gets a huge hit rate on its celebrity gossip pages. The feature will go in tomorrow, so this afternoon I’d like Jake and Patrick to go with Ava and Ruby to Ava’s studio to do the words and pics.’

  Patrick snorted. ‘With a deadline of this evening?’

  ‘Six o’clock.’ Sam confirmed. ‘Ruby, the slant on the feature will be that you found this fantastic young milliner and fell in love with her product and it helped you through a bad patch.’

  Ruby shrugged again, looking no more enthusiastic than before. ‘Doesn’t seem particularly original, but OK.’

  ‘The interviewer,’ he pointed his pen at Patrick as he consulted his notes on his tablet, ‘will tease out of you that you realise you’ve been unwise in your recent responses to the press. Patrick, your angle will be “defensive response” and “understandable lapse”, right? You’re brilliant with persuasive language – steer clear of brutal words like “lies”. As an attention grabber, use a subheading or a box-out with a joke about making a clean breast of things. Then, in the final line, Ruby must say, “Hats off to Ava Bliss.” Alive Today’s content often gets into BuzzFeed and the like. That’s what you’re aiming for.’

  Patrick looked interested. ‘Got it.’ He began tapping notes into his laptop.

  ‘The interview will have to be done while Ava’s trying hats on Ruby as if she’s there for a fitting. OK, Ava?’ Sam glanced her way.

  ‘Easy enough so far.’

  Beside her, her father took up his phone again, tapped the screen and exclaimed, ‘Ha!’

  Ava glanced over but Sam had already moved his pointing pen to Jake. ‘While this is going on, take loads of pics of Ruby looking fantastic and WAG-ish in Ava’s hats. I asked Ruby to bring several tops, jewellery etc.’ He glanced questioningly at Ruby.

  She lifted up a mock-croc bag and pointed to it in confirmation.

  Sam opened his laptop beside his tablet. ‘Those shots will take the minor places in the feature. You’re all aware how image heavy Alive Today is. The two major pics will be Ava and Ruby, each based on this.’ He picked up a small remote and pointed it. A screen slid almost noiselessly down one wall.

  A few keystrokes on Sam’s laptop then Harvey’s ‘cute’ picture of Ava sprang to life on the screen, three feet high. Ruby laughed delightedly. ‘That’s awesome! Ava, you look gorgeous, babes.’

  Patrick whistled under his breath.

  Ava felt heat boil up from her neck to her hairline. She couldn’t look at her dad.

  Graeme cleared his throat and frowned blackly at Sam. ‘I trust that this is necessary.’

  Sam met his stare evenly. ‘I believe so.’

  ‘Really?’ Ava blurted. ‘Are you serious that that picture of me is going in Alive Today? Why me?’

  ‘’Cos you look gorgeous, babes,’ Ruby repeated, still grinning at the picture. ‘Can’t you see us both wearing nothing but your hats over our boobies? We’ll look amazin’. Sam, you’re such a cheeky sod – what a sly dig at my boob job.’

  When Sam smiled, every line of his face softened. ‘You have to be seen to send yourself up. And you’ll look every bit as good as Ava, won’t she, Jake?’

  Jake was still studying the image of Ava. ‘No prob. You’ll both be on fire. That’s an amazing picture, Ava.’

  Ava didn’t think she could go any redder but at least nobody was looking a
t her in horror and disdain.

  In fact, Patrick was looking at her in all-too-frank admiration. ‘Incredibly hot,’ he agreed.

  Sam cut him off. ‘Jake, it’s imperative that you don’t use the same two hats for Ava’s new photo. We want the taker of this particular image not to be able to claim that we stole his copyright as he’s Ava’s ex-boyfriend and he and she are … not currently on good terms.’

  ‘Oh!’ squeaked Ava, disregarding this masterly understatement as she got a glimmer of what Sam had meant when he’d talked about revenge and success. ‘But if he sees the image, he’ll know he sparked the idea.’

  A satisfied light flitted through Sam’s eyes. ‘Exactly.’ He paused to pour himself black coffee. ‘And he will see the image, don’t you worry.’ Fatigue lurked in the lines of his face but his voice was energetic and enthusiastic. ‘The viral part of the campaign is trickier and it’s going to involve Tod doing absolute shitloads of work, at furious speed. To give up his evening, and probably work into the weekend.’

  Tod nodded philosophically. ‘I knew I was here for something.’

  Sam flicked to another slide. ‘What we need, Tod, is an animated Christmas card along the lines of this one – one of those where people can upload their own headshots to become part of the animation.’ He clicked on the triangle in the centre of the image and it turned into a band of cartoon bodies with photograph faces singing ‘Jingle Bells’ and dancing.

  ‘Oh, I know, a sort of “star in your own cartoon” thing.’ Tod grinned when he saw that each band member wore the face of a Jermyn associate, the chins bobbing up and down to create rudimentary working mouths.

  ‘You’ve got it. I want singing and dancing. The punters won’t be able to mess with two of the characters – those will have Ruby’s and Ava’s heads and wear the same hats as in Jake’s photos on their chests. The three supporting cast members will be the ones that people can use to become part of the cartoon themselves, by uploading their images.’

  ‘This could be awesome!’ Emily was almost dancing in her seat. ‘If this is clever and funny enough we ought to be able to make it fly round social media. We can link it to the platform feature in Alive Today and everyone will get the joke. The feature and the card should be everywhere!’ She wriggled with excitement.

  ‘Amazin’,’ breathed Ruby.

  Sam turned to Ruby with a wink. ‘There’s going to be a punchline.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ She quirked a quizzical brow. ‘This is where good old Ruby gets sent up, is it?’

  The grin broadened. ‘You remember the final line of the article? “Hats off to Ava Bliss?” Your character will say that – we’ll use you to voice it – and fling off the hats. Ava’s avatar will blush and look aghast. The supporting cast of animations will burst into applause.’

  Ruby stared at him for a full five seconds. Then burst into delighted laughter. ‘Sam Jermyn! My cartoon’s really going to flash her boobs?’

  ‘Really,’ he confirmed. His grin was wicked.

  Ruby threw back her head as her laughter peeled out. ‘You’re a cheeky sod, Sam Jermyn. Yeah, go on then, if you think it’ll get on the right side of the press jackals. Anythin’. Ava, babes, we’re going to go viral. We’re going to look hot!’

  ‘Mm,’ Ava said uncertainly. It was confusing, but exciting. She had trouble keeping up as Sam tried to iron out more details with people starting up side conversations in furious whispers, stabbing at their tablets, interrupting Sam for information.

  Ava, a creative person herself, worked alone. Never had she been in a small room with several other people literally jumping out of their seats with ideas. She began to feel as if someone had plugged her into the mains.

  They were doing it all for her and Ruby. She even felt tears begin to prickle as she listened to Emily instructing Ruby to comb her Twitter followers for WAG and footballer mates who would agree to send out Tweets – carefully constructed by Emily – and also those who’d agree to be featured in the card as supporting cast then post it to their Facebook pages.

  ‘I almost believe in Christmas.’ Ava sniffed. ‘All you little elves working furiously to make things happen.’

  Even Ruby, who would be more used to having a team of people doing stuff for her, had a beaming smile all over her face. ‘Awesome! Awesome. You guys rock.’

  Sam didn’t pause in firing out instructions. ‘Ava and Ruby, a car’s waiting for you downstairs to take you to Ava’s studio. Get your make-up on when you arrive. Patrick and Jake, car for you in thirty minutes, so get your shit together. Jake, I’ve emailed you the original image for reference. I want fun to shine out of these lovely ladies. Take plain backdrops.’

  ‘Black,’ put in Ruby. ‘White makes me look ten years older.’ She didn’t look as if she intended to let that happen.

  Sam rose. ‘Tod, do you need me to ideas-storm the animation with you?’

  ‘You’ve given me plenty to work with. Leave it with me for now.’ Tod grabbed his tablet and almost ran from the room.

  Ruby linked arms with Ava. ‘Come on, Ava, babes. When we’re in the car I’ll ring my beauticians and see if they can send someone to your place. We’ll get our nails done as well as our faces, yeah? ’Cos our hands will be on show. French, probably, so our nails don’t clash with your hats.’

  Ava glanced at her hands. ‘I don’t have nails. I have working hands, always in steam and stiffener.’

  Ruby shoved her way flamboyantly through the agency door. ‘She’ll give you fake ones for the day. Easy.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The collateral consequences of criminal convictions

  What had been a hive of activity became a quiet room containing only Sam and Graeme Blissham. Sam sank back in his chair, the fatigue of a two-hour night washing over him as the energy of the meeting ebbed. But satisfaction at the way his ideas had been seized upon shimmered through him. That was his job. To excite the others.

  For the moment, it didn’t matter that his schedule for today and the weekend had gone to hell. Everyone had been enthused, Ruby had been pleased. Ava … Ava’s big eyes had been fixed on him as if he were the guy who had all the answers.

  Graeme reached over to pour more coffee into Sam’s cup. ‘If you can bring this off, I think we’ll all be tipping our hats to you.’ He sent him a contemplative glance. ‘You look knackered, but do you have an hour to spare? I’d quite like you to come with me to Harvey Snaith’s place of work.’

  Picking up the coffee and inhaling the steam, Sam’s tired brain tried to unscramble Graeme’s words. ‘Where does he work? Why do you want me there?’

  Graeme sat back comfortably. ‘He’s an accountant in Hoxton. I want to mark his card for him and I want a witness. The kind that will only remember the bits I want him to. It seems to me that you might be that man.’

  ‘OK,’ Sam heard himself saying, curiosity beginning to charge his batteries anew. Being that man might work for him, too.

  Ava was getting tired of placing hats on Ruby’s glossy dark hair and taking them off again, tired of being careful of her unaccustomed manicure. Tired of Jake saying, ‘Once more, Ava. Glance up at me as you do it,’ at the same time as Patrick was ‘interviewing’ Ruby into the voice recorder on his phone, which seemed a giant waste of time as they both knew what he was supposed to be asking and what Ruby’s replies should be.

  Patrick was good at returning to a subject in a different way until he got answers he could use, Ava acknowledged, as she tilted a canary yellow straw hat over one of Ruby’s eyes. Just like the day he’d turned up at the gym, really. Approaching his goal indirectly, hoping to get under someone’s defences.

  ‘Doesn’t that yellow make me look sallow?’ demanded Ruby.

  Jake tipped his head, considering. ‘I think it’s just the autumn colour of your top. Try it with the white one.’

  Patrick waggled his phone under Ava’s nose. ‘Where would she wear this hat?’

  Ava resisted the urge to swat him
away like a fly. ‘Ascot or a posh garden party. Or a wedding.’

  They all waited while Ruby shrugged out of a bronze-striped blouse and stood unselfconsciously in her bra and camisole while she searched out a layered floaty white top and changed her earrings to white stars dangling from gold chains.

  Watching her check herself out in the mirror and make miniscule adjustments, Ava was reminded of being at Ceri’s, where monied clients had often relieved their own tedium by adding greatly to Ava’s, primping and preening long after there had been anything left to achieve.

  But, this time, Ava didn’t mind. Anything to put off the evil hour when Harvey’s ‘cute’ picture was to be replicated in what Jake referred to as the ‘boobs-in-hats shots’. Jake had already selected four cocktail hats, black and puce for Ruby, sky blue and gold for Ava. For now, she was secure in a plain black stretchy dress that wouldn’t compete with what Ruby wore.

  ‘Ava?’

  She blinked. ‘Sorry?’

  Jake waved an impatient hand. ‘Hat? On Ruby’s head?’

  ‘Oh! Sorry.’ Ava stepped forward with the canary yellow again.

  Ruby turned her head, studying her reflection. ‘Thanks, babes. Can we do the white one with black feathers next? Can you twist my hair up high for that? I’ve brought a black flowered silk dress that will go amazin’.’

  ‘OK, Ruby, smile up at Ava from under the brim, Ava tilt your head as if you’ve just applied the finishing touches … now, Ava glance at me and smile, Ruby gaze at your reflection.’

  The canary yellow straw done with, Jake and Patrick turned their backs while Ruby changed into the black and white dress that was amazin’.

  Ava watched enviously. Ruby having so much made Ava realise how used she was becoming to having so little.

  But finally they finished with the Ruby-supposedly-shopping-for-hats shoot. ‘Time for boobs in hats,’ announced Jake. ‘Patrick’s going to help me with the backdrop while you girls change.’

  Ava’s heart tripped. But she had no choice except to lead Ruby to her bedroom so that they could remove most of their clothing.