7. Mabel
Mabel
March – Official Start of the Season – Philip Island, VIC
It’s a completely different day today. Where I have been preparing, planning, and able to take my time with socials, marketing commitments, and photoshoots for Javi and the team, today it will be busy keeping him on schedule through a gauntlet of media interviews.
Different broadcasters, media types, social media, and paddock photographer photo opportunities, media debriefs and press conferences.
It’ll be a solid day for Javi; Rayna and myself overseeing.
“How are we tracking, Mabel?” Rayna asks after a social media interview.
“Great! Only a few more to go, and then Javi can call it. But you don’t have any other press to meet with,” I reply, ticking off a list item on my phone.
“Excellent! I’ll be in my office catching up on calls. Thanks, Mabel!” Rayna sings out and heads off with a wave.
Javi approaches and whispers, “I need to run to the bathroom. If they arrive soon, hold them off for me! Won’t be long.” He runs off without waiting for my answer.
“Oooookaaay,” I say as an interviewer approaches .
“Where’s Javi?” he says, gruffly, his black, hair shaggy and disheveled t-shirt askew, stuck up higher on one side of his body with sweat and the strap of his bag.
Off to a good start.
“Sorry, Javi had to run off…” I check my list for his name, “Alfie.”
“I’m not Alfie. Geez, you are worse than the last one. Can’t even organise a media day.” He rolls his eyes.
“Sorry, I had Alfie down for 1:00 p.m. Which media outlet are you from?” Panicking, I scan up and down my agenda, wondering how I got it wrong. I confirmed everything via email.
He sighs. “Geoff from Yellow Goat Media. Only over a million subscribers.”
I look and see ‘Yellow Goat Media’ on my list.
“Ah, yes, I see you here. Unfortunately, I have you down for 10:00—”
He interrupts me, “Well, my email said 1:00 p.m. Not my fault you don’t read your emails correctly.”
“One moment. I’ll pull it up now.” As I open my mail app, I see he sent an email this morning at 9:00 a.m, well and truly after everything had been confirmed and locked in.
“Yeah, everything was confirmed by 3:00 p.m. yesterday. I didn’t see this email sent at 9:00 a.m. this morning, and I didn’t confirm the time change,” I continue.
“Well, I couldn’t be here until 1:00 p.m., and your 1:00 p.m. isn’t here. ”
“I understand, and once Javi gets here, we can do your interview. But when the 1:00 p.m. interviewer arrives, you will need to cut your interview short.” I stand my ground.
“Go get him then,” he demands, setting up way too many things for a time-limited meeting. I know what he is going to do. He’s not going to stop and leave when the 1:00 p.m. interviewer arrives.
I find my resolve, and in my most professional PR voice, I say, “Ok, that’s enough. You’re not setting up.”
“What?! Where’s Rayna? I want to talk to her.” He stops what he’s doing and tries puffing up his chest.
“You want to talk to Rayna, you can send her a late email as well.”
“This is ridiculous. Who do you think you are?” he scoffs.
“I am the PR Director and I am here for a long time, so next time you see me, you can treat me with respect,” I reply.
“You can’t tell me what to do!” he starts yelling.
“Yes, she can.” Riley steps out from nowhere and settles beside me.
“Come on, Geoff. No need to be an asshole about it. You fucked up, didn’t get here until late, and you’re taking out your disorganisation on Mabel.
If you don’t leave now, none of the riders will do any more interviews with you. ” Riley looks at me and winks.
Geoff looks between the two of us and then sees Alfie, the 1:00 p.m. interviewer, arriving to the side .
He mutters something to himself, probably crude and unfriendly, and starts throwing his stuff in his bag. Leaving without a word to either of us.
“Sorry for jumping in. You were handling it well, but he’s an absolute asshole to deal with. I was kind of hoping he would keep going so we could ban him and not talk to him again. All the riders would have loved that,” Riley says.
“I’ll try to piss him off more next time for you all,” I reply with a smirk, my head reeling a little at Riley’s unwavering and unexpected support. Normally, I would have hated someone swooping in to fight my battle, but he didn’t fight it for me. He backed me. Stood by my side.
Javi sidles up to us. “What did I miss?”
“Just Geoff putting Mabel through his usual shit,” Riley replies.
Javi throws his head backwards and groans, “Argh, he’s the worst!”
Alfie has set up and looks over at us, and I point Javi over at him.
“You all good?” Riley asks, concerned.
“Yeah, I’ve had to deal with jerks like that before. Water off a duck’s back,” I reply and smile at him.
“Sweet! Oh! I came to ask you if you wanted tacos for dinner? I do a crap load of fillings. It’ll be an explosion in your mouth. Of flavour! Explosion of flavour…in your mouth.” He sheepishly trails off, but I burst into laughter before realising people are recording and hush myself .
“Sounds good. What time do your interviews end?” I ask, moving him a little further away from said interviews being conducted.
“4:00 p.m. What about yours?” he asks.
“6:00 p.m.” I frown, sticking my bottom lip out. “Guess reigning champ is in high demand,” I tease.
“Ouch! Vicious.” Riley feigns hurt. “I’ll head back to the hotel and get everything ready, then.”
“Thank you! That sounds great.” I reply.
“No problem. Catch you tonight,” he calls out and heads off, but something happens that’s not happened before. My eyes trail down his broad back to his cute ass. Has he been working out more the last few weeks? When did that pop out? Did I just check Riley out?
Last interview was at 5:30 p.m. and it. Fucking. Dragged. On.
I have no idea how Javi can maintain his energy and answer coherently. I feel brain dead, and I didn’t answer any questions!
Thankfully, Rayna herds us into a cab and we head back to the hotel. She's in the front seat, eyes on her mobile. “Oh, Mabel. Looks like you had to deal with Geoff today.”
“Yeah, sorry, I was a bit abrupt with him,” I reply. How will Rayna take this?
“No, we all know what he's like. He comes in and thinks he owns the place. I am sure you handled him professionally and had to do what was needed,” Rayna continues .
“He was a Grade-A asshole, Rayna,” Javi adds. “Riley even had to pipe in and pull him up with Mabel.”
Rayna shakes her head. “We have wonderful visiting media, and it’s always one that makes it unenjoyable. And it’s always him. Hope he didn’t rattle you, Mabel?”
“Nah, dealt with far worse than him,” I palm off.
“Sorry to hear that, but I trust your judgement, and if anyone does the same and you need to pull out big bad PR bitch, you have my blessing,” Rayna offers, waving her hand around like she’s holding a little wand.
“Thanks,” I say, a little surprised.
Javi asks, “How has it been living with Riley this past month? He driven you mad yet?”
“We’re having such a great time. It’s nice to get to know someone else from the paddock outside the team, and it’s been a bonus that he’s right there to ask questions so I am not bothering Rayna too much,” I reply.
Rayna’s ears prick up. “You can hassle me anytime!”
“I know, but I feel bad sending you texts at 10:00 p.m.!”
“You need a shut off time, too!” Javi directs to Rayna.
“Yeah, yeah,” she replies and moves back to her phone.
“We should all head out on Monday for dinner. Have you been to the Japanese place a few towns over? Amazing food,” Javi exclaims. I can hear him salivate just thinking of the food.
“Sure! That sounds like a great idea. I’ll let Riley know. ”
“I was surprised he headed back to the hotel after his interviews were done. He normally hangs around for mine to end,” Javi queries.
“He said he was making dinner tonight, so he wanted to head back to get it bought and prepared,” I offer.
“That explains it,” Javi says with a small smile across his face.
Trudging through the hotel, it's busy and buzzing with riders and their team. The night before the first official day of the season, and it’s like a live wire through the foyer. Excited chattering and laughing echoes through. You would think no one is stressed!
My confusion must have reached my face, as Rayna says, “Wait until Friday night. Everyone is carefree and relaxed now because the next two days are getting down times and fine tuning the bikes. Friday, it will be dead in here at this time.”
A few people turn seeing Rayna, and coax her into their huddle before she waves me off. Javi has made a beeline for Sophia sitting in the restaurant, and greets her with a long kiss. I head upstairs, looking forward to some quiet.
I don’t even need to enter the room to smell all the deliciousness that hits my nose as soon as I exit the elevator. My mouth is already drooling as I open the door.
“Hey!” Riley greets from the kitchen. “Perfect timing. I just finished everything up.”
My eyes take in the kitchen bench, and all the colourful vegetables on plates with meat, and sauces in bowls across it .
“Wow, that’s a lot of food!” I exclaim, putting my laptop down.
“I know it’s meant to be simple, but I’ve always enjoyed having options. Plus, there will be enough for tomorrow’s dinner,” he replies, gesturing for me to sit down. “Mid-season break, we should do this and make margaritas.”
“We probably won’t be living together mid-season, though,” I remind him, which fills me with a bit of sadness. This past month has been really fun and easy-going, and I have really appreciated Riley being a support so readily available.
“Oh, of course.” He pauses, his face dropping slightly before he recovers. “You’ll just have to come over and hang with me for dinners when we aren’t rooming together.”
“I’m down for that,” I reply enthusiastically, smiling at the thought.
“Great! Let’s eat,” Riley exclaims, and we both dig in.