Page 53 of Bad Influence
‘Oh God, I’m honestly fine, just a little dry.’ I cleared my throat to emphasise the point.
Jimi seemed to find this amusing and was giggling behind his hand.
‘Thank you.’ I took the glass from Blair and sipped. There was no way I could make eye contact with Jimi again, he would definitely set me off. I managed to steady my breathing and swallow without spitting the water out or collapsing into giggles.
‘So, coffee?’ asked Coco, mercifully taking the attention off me, and pouring from the cafetiere. Philippa had melted into the atmosphere.
Normally we would help ourselves to coffee from the kitchen mid-morning, so this indicated a formality, whichput me on edge. The air in the room settled back into silence as we all watched Coco, like pouring coffee was the most fascinating thing we had ever seen.
Blair broke the ice. ‘How was your trip, Jose?’
Jose sucked air into his cheeks. He looked more clean-shaven than normal today, and with his pronounced jawline, tanned, blemish-free skin, and bright, clear, brown eyes, he was a good-looking guy – it was obvious he and Jimi were related.
‘All good,’ he replied. ‘Busy. I came back early in the end. The snow was coming in as I left.’ He seemed reluctant to give away many details.
‘I love snow in New York!’ Blair and Coco said practically in unison.
All the while Mandy had her arm tightly linked with Jose’s, as if she were clinging on to him for her life.
We were saved from more excruciating small talk by the bell ringing and a clattering sound from the front door. A minute later, Julie-Ann hurried into the room along with mutterings about the M25, weather, and bad drivers. She was visibly flustered and seemed embarrassed to have kept her biggest client waiting. She hastily set up her laptop on a mahogany table, moving it closer to us all. Everyone shuffled forwards to get a good view as the thumbnails from the shoot began to appear on the screen.
I held my breath. Julie-Ann seemed to know what she was looking for and scrolled through the thumbnails briskly, not stopping to pause on an image long enough for us to take a detailed look: The lounge set-up, the spare room, someproduct shots … she skipped along quickly, suggesting that she wasn’t open to opinions on these. At last, she seemed to find what she had been searching for. Julie-Ann double-clicked on an image from the master bedroom set-up, and a photo of Mandy appeared, filling the whole of the screen.
It was the portrait of her lying on the bed. I recognised it instantly as the candid moment just after our exchange, when she had pulled off her boots in a huff and stared out of the window. It was more ‘undone’ than ‘done up’, thoughtful, more body on show than many of the others. I would even call it raw. Yet there was something so beautiful about it too, almost otherworldly. The sun had been shining in that moment and it caught her eyes, making them sparkle intensely green. The blue of the winter sky outside, the sharp, spiky foliage creeping around the window, at a juxtaposition with the soft, womanly shape of her body splayed across the bed. Her skirt was riding up a little, her thigh skin was visibly puckered, cellulite and stretch marks on show; there were indentations on her legs where the boots had been. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders and her lip gloss was barely visible. Nothing about it was provocative, it was just real, feminine, human.
‘This,’ Julie-Ann said. ‘I think this is really special.’
‘Are you serious.’ Mandy spat out the words more as a laugh than a question. She looked among our stunned faces, all of us gawping at the photo. I felt her eyes glance over me, then fix on Jimi, she was desperate to garner support from one of us.Surely family will fall into line?Jimi looked away.
‘Seriously, this cannot be The One,’ she continueddesperately. ‘At least not without a ton of Photoshopping, surely?’
I realised I was still holding my breath. I gulped it down as she spoke again: ‘Someone, for God’s sake, speak some sense …’ She looked around the room in a panic. ‘Right about now, would be good?’
I fiddled with my bracelet, twiddled a piece of hair, and did what I could to avoid Mandy’s gaze, feeling responsible for the image in question. All the while, a hundred reasons why thiswasthe perfect photo – just as Julie-Ann had said – whirled around my mind.
The love handles, the crow’s feet, laughter lines, it was such a brilliant photo. I wished Mart was here to give his take on this candid portrait.
Finally, Jimi spoke. ‘This is you.’
Mandy let out a pained wailing sound. One that you might expect a cat to make if you accidentally stood on its tail. We all looked in trepidation as she turned her face away from the screen. And then her eyes filled with tears. Jose held her close, and no one said anything.
I could understand it must be intense to see yourself looking so vulnerable in front of an audience, but it wasn’t as though Mandy wasn’t used to being the centre of attention. She had lived in the spotlight for most of her adult life. Yet the UK instalment of Mandy’s life had a lot of pressure resting on it, if her fame and fortune were to soar higher over here too. And there lay the problem, times had changed. Audiences were becoming less engaged with high-octane glamour and impenetrable perfection.
I could see Julie-Ann on my right, looking fidgety.
‘Personally, I think it’s beautiful,’ she said softly.
I wanted to agree with Julie-Ann, but I felt too nervous to stick my neck out again. I couldn’t afford to lose this job, my future home depended on it.
Mandy pursed her lips and turned towards the screen again. She cocked her head to one side as she studied the image.
‘What do you think?’ She turned to Jose and asked pointedly, ‘Do you think it’s beautiful?’ I felt a familiar pull in my stomach.
‘I think Julie-Ann is right,’ Jose replied, looking at her directly, telling her with his eyes that he meant it. ‘I think you’re beautiful, vulnerable, and sexy in this image – this is the you that I see.’ He put a hand on her knee.
‘Oh Christ, Jose. This is how youseeme? Seriously? I don’t know whether to hug you or leave you!’ she exclaimed, but her appearance had softened. ‘Does anyone else agree?’ She looked around the room at Blair, Coco, Jimi, and me, and we all nodded slowly in agreement.
Blair smiled at Julie-Ann, cautiously. They knew what this meant too, Jose championing the team over Mandy. This was big.
