by Laura Ziepe
‘I’d have to pay you …’
Adele held her hands up in protest. ‘No way! I want to do it. I already have one little dog. I may as well have another. It’s no problem. I’d never take money from a friend.’ Adele gave a shrug of her shoulders.
Lisa had a dubious expression, but then her face lit up. ‘Really? You promise you wouldn’t mind?’
‘I promise,’ Adele smiled sweetly. ‘That’s what friends are for!’
‘Oh my God! Thanks Adele. That’s really kind of you. I can even leave you a key so I won’t wake you or anything. You can just let yourself in and pick up Cupcake in the day if that’s okay? Then I’ll come straight to you in the evening and get her.’
‘No problem,’ Adele said, feeling really good about herself. She was even getting a key now! This plan was going fantastically. She was a hero in Lisa’s eyes and she really loved the feeling.
‘Ah, babe, that’s well nice of you,’ Nicola said, looking pleased for Lisa.
Lisa looked emotional. ‘I literally can’t thank you enough.’
‘It’s no bother really. I want to do it,’ Adele assured her.
The atmosphere completely changed after they’d had that conversation, Adele realised happily. It was like the tension had been swept under the carpet and they were starting afresh. She watched Pretty Woman, feeling very pleased with her bright idea.
*
Lisa felt the happiest she had all day as she gazed down at her little dog that had just been dropped off. Cupcake was tired for once, thank God and had fallen fast asleep on her lap. She’d sat down at lunch earlier that day and worked out how much money she’d have left each month if she had to pay for a dog-sitter every day as well as vet bills, rent, house bills – the list went on. It wasn’t very much. She’d literally have to eat cereal for dinner and stay in every night and no matter how hard she tried to come up with a solution, she just couldn’t think of any. It was then she had realised she was going to have to give Cupcake up and sell her to someone that could look after her. The thought had broken her heart and she’d felt irritable and sad all day. She wasn’t annoyed with Jade or Kelly; she completely understood where they were coming from and thought back to how she’d never really asked them if they could do it; she just assumed they would. It was a big responsibility and a lot to ask them and she realised that she hadn’t thought it all through. She was astounded that it was Adele who had answered her prayers. Who would have thought it? She clearly wasn’t all bad if she was willing to do that for Lisa for nothing. She felt slightly ashamed with herself for being so cold and abrupt with her every time she’d come over to see them. Yes, she got in their faces a bit too much and helped herself to their dinner and drink, but the fact that she was happy to put herself out and take Cupcake every day went a long way in Lisa’s book. Lisa knew Adele had done some strange things in the past to Jade and Kelly, but she believed deep down she just wanted to be their friend. There were things that she didn’t like about her of course, but who was perfect? Everyone had flaws and she believed Adele deserved a second chance. She had redeemed herself.
Lisa looked over at Nicola who was busy texting on her phone. She’d been on a couple of dates recently with a guy called Charlie and she could tell she was falling for him. She was on the phone constantly, her face lighting up when she read her messages every five minutes, and as much as Lisa would miss her to go out with if he did become her boyfriend, it was nice seeing her so happy. ‘What’s he been texting?’ she asked, as Nicola grinned again after reading his message.
Her smile didn’t falter. ‘Oh, he just wants to take me out one night after work. Nothing really.’
‘Who’s this, babe?’ Adele questioned.
‘Just someone I’ve been on a few dates with, honey. He’s called Charlie.’
‘Nicola’s in looove,’ Lisa teased.
‘Leave off!’ Nicola giggled. ‘But yes, I do like him.’
‘Where’s he from?’ Adele looked over at her, interested.
‘Loughton. I love Essex boys, honey,’ Nicola said, her eyes gleaming.
‘Me too.’ Adele nodded in agreement with a yawn. ‘Right, I’d better go.’ She stood up and kissed them both on the cheek. ‘Thanks girls. See you tomorrow babes,’ she said to Lisa. ‘Can’t wait to look after Cupcake. Shall I take the spare key now?’
‘Yes, one minute,’ Lisa replied as she went to find it in the kitchen. This was such a perfect idea. Now she could just leave Cupcake when she went to work, knowing that Adele would be round soon afterwards to pick her up. She had felt awful when she woke Jade up every morning at just gone seven. Jade must have wanted to throttle her every day having to wake up so early, but she hadn’t shown it. Lisa was lucky to have such good friends. She handed the key to Adele and thanked her once again, then went to get ready for bed. As she drifted off to sleep she wondered what Charlie was like. He must be nice for Nicola to be so keen, she mused. Hopefully it would all work out for her.
*
‘So you’re sure it’s not there?’ Jade asked Tony on the phone, trying to control her panic.
He sounded sympathetic. ‘No. I’m sorry, Jade, but I’ve searched everywhere I can I think of. There is no red notebook here at all.’
Jade sighed heavily. It was lost then. It had simply disappeared because she’d been so careless. She swallowed hard. ‘Okay, I’ll have to buy a new one,’ she said resentfully.
‘On the plus side, your website has just gone live. Have you done the press release?’
‘Yes, it’s all done. I had to make note of all the media contacts again, which took ages to do, but I sent it out yesterday.’
Tony was pleased. ‘Excellent. Now all you need to do is follow it up with some phone calls. Journalists can be a nightmare and unless you go out of your way to chase them, they may never get back to you.’
‘Okay, I’ll do that now. Thanks Tony.’
‘No worries. Call me if you need anything.’
She hung up the phone and Kelly looked up at her with a hopeful expression.
‘Anything?’
‘Nope, it’s gone,’ she replied miserably.
‘Oh that’s shit, babe,’ Kelly said as she carried on sewing at the little desk they’d bought. ‘Did he say the website is live now?’
Jade nodded, feeling her hopes rise. ‘Yes, Vajazzle My Bikini is officially open for orders!’
Kelly beamed. ‘I’m not being funny, but how exciting is this?’
‘I know. I’m going to call a few magazines now and chase them up about the press release. Let’s hope they’ll be interested in writing about us. We need to advertise and could really do without paying for now.’
‘Exactly, hun. We have the most reem bikinis ever. I bet they’ll love it.’
‘Fingers crossed,’ Jade replied, crossing her middle and index fingers on both hands.
Jade looked through the list and decided to try Allure magazine first.
‘Hello, Allure,’ a posh woman answered.
After Jade explained why she was calling, the woman stopped her halfway through abruptly. ‘We already have something too similar we’re writing about. Thank you.’
Jade sat there agog as the phone went dead. How rude, she thought, stunned, as she looked through the list for another magazine to call. What a lie the woman had told about there being something similar. They’d done their research thank you very much, and they knew that no one was doing anything like them at all.
Jade dialled the fashion desk number for IT Girl magazine next. Her heart was racing as she waited for the answer.
‘Hello, IT Girl,’ the cheery voice answered.
Jade calmed down a fraction as she read out the passage she’d written earlier on. She put on the most professional accent she could muster. ‘Oh hi. I’m calling from a company called Vajazzle My Bikini. We sent a press release to yourselves …’
‘All press releases are handled by Chelsea. One moment and I’ll connect you,’ the girl replied
hastily as the phone beeped.
‘Hello, Chelsea speaking. How can I help?’ came the no-nonsense voice down the line.
Jade composed herself again and started speaking in a poised manner. ‘Hi Chelsea. I’m calling from a company called Vajazzle My Bikini and we’ve just launched. We sent a press release to yourselves and were wondering if you’ve had time to look at it. We can send it again if not?’
‘Oh yes, I remember. Vajazzle My Bikini … here it is, I’ve just found the email.’
Jade felt positive. Chelsea sounded excited, she was sure of it. Maybe she was about to tell her some good news. ‘Great. Is this something IT Girl would be interested in covering?’
‘It’s a fab idea. I loved the bikini images you sent over, they look lovely. The only issue for us is we’ve just had a really similar company come up and we’re doing an article about them. Maybe we’ll be able to squeeze a mention of your website too? I can’t promise anything, but …’
‘Another website?’ Jade cut her short, incredulous at what she’d just heard. Isn’t that what the other woman said? ‘What website? What’s it called?’
Chelsea hesitated. ‘Oh … one moment, I’ll see if I can find it …’ Jade could tell Chelsea knew she’d said the wrong thing. She was unaware that they had no idea there was another similar website. ‘It’s called Reem Bikinis?’
‘Reem Bikinis?’ Jade echoed, completely bewildered. That was one of the options they’d written down when they were deciding what to name their website. She wondered if it was possible she’d sent the wrong name on the release? She double checked her sent items quickly and when she noticed she hadn’t just felt even more confused.
‘Yes, that’s right. They do similar bikinis to what you do for pool parties. Did you not know about them?’
Jade felt the blood pulsating round her head. Know about them? There had to be some sort of mistake. ‘Sorry, I’m a bit confused,’ Jade said with a nervous laugh, noticing Kelly was now looking at her with a worried expression. ‘You’re telling me that there is another website, called Reem Bikinis, doing the exact same glamorous swimwear that we’re doing?’
‘Yes,’ Chelsea replied abruptly, sounding bored. ‘To be honest, I thought you were the same company at first, but then I noticed your images were slightly different. Anyway, thanks for your call. Maybe we’ll do you a little mention if we can.’
Jade gulped despondently. ‘Thanks.’
‘Okay, bye!’ Chelsea hung up.
Jade was galvanised by what she’d just heard. She turned to Kelly, who was waiting for the news and watching her closely.
‘Oh my God, Kelly,’ Jade shook her head morosely.
‘What, babe? Did I hear you say there’s another company?’ Her eyes were wide open with fear.
‘Yes, that’s what she just said. There can’t be though, can there?’ Jade looked at Kelly disbelievingly. ‘We checked any kind of competitors about a week ago, didn’t we? There was no one doing anything like us.’
‘Maybe she’s over-exaggerating?’ Kelly said hopefully, biting her lip. ‘Maybe the website is nothing like ours but she just didn’t want to write about it?’
‘Well there’s one way to find out.’ Jade typed ‘Reem Bikinis’ into Google and held her breath. It couldn’t be the same, it just wasn’t possible. It was too much of a coincidence that someone else had come up with the same idea and given their website a name that they had even considered! Kelly stood behind her as they waited for the page to load. When it did, they both gasped in unison.
‘Oh. My. Good. God!’ Kelly exhaled, closing her eyes and shaking her head, wanting to block out what she was seeing.
Jade couldn’t believe her eyes. She was finding it hard to believe that after all their hard work, someone, somehow had the same idea! These people were creating and customising pool party swimwear. And not just any swimwear, but almost the exact same designs as their own! ‘How is this possible?’ Jade’s face crumpled with anger and frustration. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Someone has got there before us, I can’t believe it,’ Kelly said, her voice cracking. She was obviously gutted.
Jade looked at the website and clicked on their categories. ‘Wait. Look at this, Kelly!’ She pointed to the screen in indignation. ‘They’ve copied. I don’t know how, but these people, these thieves, have copied us!’
Kelly read through their swimwear categories. ‘Viva Las Vegas, Marbella Belles, No Carbs before Barbs …’ She looked at Jade with a puzzled expression. ‘No Carbs before Barbs? What the hell is Barbs?’
Jade opened her mouth to respond, then shut it quickly and looked back at the screen, not exactly knowing the answer. ‘Ah-ha! It says here. Barbs is short for Barbados. It’s a Caribbean section.’
Kelly inhaled sharply. ‘They’ve copied us! They’ve just changed the words slightly! They were our categories! It’s meant to be No Carbs before Marbs, not Barbs!’
Jade was just as appalled. ‘I don’t believe it. I just can’t understand who would do this? And how the hell do they know about us?’
Kelly shook her head and narrowed her eyes angrily. ‘I don’t know, but they’re pathetic, whoever they are. They’re so jell of us and our ideas that they’ve copied them all. Losers!’
Jade chewed her nails disconsolately. ‘We need to find out who it is. They’re completely out of order.’ She was devastated. Whoever it was had managed to get their website up and running before them, and now they were going to be advertised in magazines as though they were the first company to think of the idea! It was so wrong and unfair. She’d never felt so furious in all her life.
‘Do they have a contact number?’
Jade searched the website and clicked on the ‘contact us’ page, disappointed when only an email address appeared. ‘No, just an email. We can’t very well send them a message saying “who are you, you bastards, you copied us”, can we?’
‘No, babe. We’ll look well silly. We have to look as though we’re not bothered. We have to make sure our website is better than theirs. To be honest, I think ours is already anyway.’
‘Me too,’ Jade agreed, trying to muster some positive thoughts. Her mobile vibrated, making her jump. It was a text message from Sam asking if she’d found her notebook yet. She texted back.
No, it’s officially gone. Tony didn’t have it. X
As she clicked the send button her heart began to gallop when she realised what had happened. The notebook. The missing notebook with all the information in was the reason for this other website. Someone had found it and copied them! ‘Kelly, I’ve just thought. I lost my notebook and now someone else is doing the same thing. That’s it! The person who has my notebook is the one that’s copied! We even had other names we were going to consider calling our website and Reem Bikinis was in there!’
‘Yes!’ Kelly slapped her forehead, as though she should have known that all along. Then she winced because she’d done it harder than she meant to. ‘But who? Who could possibly have found it? You must have dropped it in the street?’
Jade shook her head and then answered slowly. ‘I have no idea. There is one thing I do know though,’ she said seriously.
‘What?’
‘This means war.’
CHAPTER 9
Adele couldn’t believe how well the press release had gone. So far she’d heard back from six magazines and two newspapers wanting to write a piece about her new website. It was even going to be featured in The Sun the next day; she couldn’t believe it! She’d already had two orders and was on her way to the post office, which fortunately was down her road. They were slightly delayed being sent because the two customers had been bigger sizes than she had, so she’d had to quickly decorate them first. One wouldn’t stop emailing about when it was going to arrive and she was driving her nuts. She hoped not every customer was like this annoying one. She wondered if Jade and Kelly knew about her website yet. She hoped so. They would be wondering what genius came up with the same idea.
They wouldn’t have to wait long to find out either; Essex Fashion Week was two days away and she couldn’t wait. She had booked five models from top agencies and had even gone to meet them to check they weren’t minging in real life, like Skye. They were perfect. Tall, slim and naturally beautiful.
She could see why Jade and Kelly didn’t want to look after Cupcake. The dog had so much energy and was constantly chewing anything she could get her tiny paws on. Buddy didn’t like her either, but she left them both in the kitchen together so they didn’t disturb her. They were worse than children!
She was pleased when she heard her mobile ring and saw Donna’s name flashing on the screen.
‘Alright, hun?’
‘Hi Adele. You alright? Just returning your call.’
‘Yeah. It was about Saturday night actually. I’ve booked a table at Movida in the West End. It’s going to be an amazing night, babe …’
Donna paused. ‘Oh, I can’t do Saturday, sorry. What about Friday or something?’
‘What do you mean you can’t do Saturday?’ Adele asked, disappointed. If she had another ancient relative’s birthday again, she could forget it.
‘Aaron is taking me out for a meal. I’ve been out with him twice already! He’s lovely. We get on so well. I can’t describe it; it’s like we were made for each other. It’s official too; he’s asked me to be his girlfriend. I know it’s happened fast, but it just seems so right!’
Adele had forgotten she’d been on a few dates with him. Donna had told her Neil had wanted her to go too, but she couldn’t think of anything worse! Sitting there with a complete goon while Donna played footsie with the footballer all night was not in any way, shape or form her idea of fun. Now Donna was turning down her offers because she’d met a bloke. It was ludicrous! Saying they were made for each other? The only person Donna was made for was someone like James Corden! The thought made her smirk. How could Aaron seriously want Donna for his girlfriend when he could have anyone? ‘Tell him you can’t go. See him another night or something. Don’t you think you’re rushing into this?’
