Page 4 of One Week in Paradise
‘I know, babe,’ says Amber softly. ‘I just want to give youa big hug. Once I’ve got some actual furniture, you need to come over for a week-long sleepover. Or you could come now if you want, but we’ll be sleeping on the floor.’
I’m grateful for the offer, but truth be told, I’ve been avoiding Amber ever since The Video. I know she’d never judge me, but I can’t help but feel like such a failure.
‘I’ll wait for the furniture to come,’ I say.
There’s a brief pause, and I can see Amber is gearing up to say something. She has a tell. When she’s anxious about something, she always starts playing with her hair. I watch as she twists one of her wavy locks around her finger and wait patiently for her to get the words out.
‘You still haven’t posted,’ she says quickly. ‘Not since… well. You know.’
I grimace. To her credit, Amber has deftly avoided the topic almost entirely for the last three months, so I can’t be mad that she’s finally brought it up.
‘Don’t be mad,’ she says quickly. ‘I just don’t want you to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for.’
‘I’ve already lost it,’ I mumble.
Amber scoffs. ‘Bailey. Stop being ridiculous. You still have overtwo hundred thousand followers.’
Actually it’s 229,823 now. I checked in a moment of weakness after hopping out of the shower.
‘You need to post something again,’ she continues. ‘Get back out there. Show everyone that you’re still a boss bitch.’
She gets another snort out of me for that.
‘I promise, as soon as you start posting again, the brands will be sliding into your DMs like none of this ever happened.’
‘It’s not the brands I’m worried about,’ I say. ‘It’s the comments.’
After The Video went viral, the comments under all my posts were a toxic mess. I tried my best to ignore them for as long as I could, but after a week or so of casually being told to kill myself every few minutes, I had to turn the comments off. That was hard. It felt like I was letting the trolls win.
‘But, babe,’ she says, fiddling with her hair again, ‘don’t you think this radio silence makes you look kind of guilty? I know you’re not,’ she adds quickly, accurately deciphering the look of annoyance that must flit across my face. ‘Buttheydon’t. They saw The Video, and then you didn’t say anything. You didn’t even try and defend yourself.’
‘You told me not to!’ I say defensively.
‘I told you not to say anything in the heat of the moment,’ Amber clarifies. ‘You were supposed to sit and think about your response so you didn’t say anything you might regret. I didn’t think you’d go completely silent.’
She continues talking, but my attention is elsewhere. An email notification has popped up at the top of my phone. The preview reads:
YOU AND I COUPLES RESORT – PRESS INVITE
My stomach does a funny little flip.That’s an invitation from a brand. It’s been months since I last got one of these. I quickly tap on the email, ignoring Amber’s irritated ‘Did you just put me on pause?’
From:Penelope Smith
To:Bailey Clarke
Subject:YOU AND I COUPLES RESORT – PRESS INVITE
Dear Bailey,
I hope this email finds you well. I’m writing as we’d love to extend an all-inclusive invite to the brand new You and I resort in Jamaica to you and your partner. We’re huge fans of your content and would love to host you at the resort later this month for a week. We have an exciting schedule of activities planned for the week and will, of course, give yourself and your partner plenty of time to explore the resort as you desire. We do hope you’ll be able to join us. Please let me know by Friday if this will be possible, as we need to move quickly with flights.
Best wishes,
Penelope
‘Oh. My. God.’
‘What? What? What?’ Amber shouts.
