Chapter 9
OLLIE
Ollie pushed open the door of the Once Upon a Time Café and was immediately assaulted by the most delicious aroma that had ever wafted his way.
If it wasn’t for the fact that his militant trainer insisted on a strict low carb/high protein regime, he’d pull a chair up in front of the cake display and stay there until there was nothing left but crumbs and huge dollops of remorse and self-loathing.
He held the door open for Calvin, whose expression was slightly more tense than it had been when his old friend had buzzed Ollie’s door that morning.
Ollie felt awful that he was causing stress to someone he cared about.
His inherent personality was to try to placate situations, help the people he loved and treat everyone with decency, but that could be a double-edged sword because it sometimes meant that he wasn’t brutally honest because he didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings.
Or that he stalled on knocking back a project because he hated to be the person who crushed someone else’s dreams. His mum used to drum into him that he should always just be honest and upfront about everything, but that was easier said than done when other lives were involved.
Today was a perfect example. The decision he had to make on whether or not to renew his Clansman contract could have dramatic repercussions for so many people, including himself.
His management company and the team that looked after him.
The producers of the show. The network. The writers.
The friends he’d made in the brilliant cast and crew.
The Clansman had given him so much – including the opportunity to work with the woman who was walking towards him now, bump first, her wild mane of copper hair tied up in a large bow on the top of her head.
Georgie had already told him that she would only be joining him for the first couple of months of the next season, so that she could return home to London while it was still safe to fly.
After that, she was hanging up her Hollywood hat, choosing instead to build her new life in London with her boyfriend, Lachlan.
At first, she’d thought she could make travelling with the baby work, but, ultimately, she’d decided that the time with her family was more important, so at least whatever decision he made about subsequent seasons wouldn’t impact her life.
‘I’m hugging you first, Georgie darling, because I want to go study the cake display,’ Calvin told her, embracing her and air kissing each cheek, before heading over to the counter.
‘Hello, gorgeous,’ Ollie greeted her, and yes, he knew HR at the studio would be having palpitations if they heard him referring to his personal hairdresser in such terms.
‘Alright, big handsome. How are you doing?’ And that’s why he knew HR had nothing to worry about.
He’d met Georgie a couple of years ago when his mother moved to this village and began getting her hair done by Georgie’s mum and co-worker, Jessie.
Over the following months, Ollie would sometimes pop in if he was on a flying visit to the city, and one day, he asked Georgie to give him a quick trim.
After her initial objections on the grounds that, ‘I might fuck it up, and then the press will destroy me’, she had given him the best haircut of his life, and then, eventually, agreed to come on location with him.
They were more than just colleagues now.
He considered her one of his closest friends.
‘I didn’t know you were going to be here this morning,’ he said, giving her a high five. They’d stopped hugging when her bump had begun to make her back ache. ‘I thought we were meeting at the Academy later. Did Lachlan come up with you?’
Georgie’s fiancé was another stranger who’d become a friend this year.
Georgie shook her head. ‘No, he’s at home.
He’s working on a job in Essex, so he couldn’t take time off…
’ Lachlan was a successful builder with his own company, specialising in high-end renovations for athletes with big dreams and too much money.
‘So I just came up myself. And you’re right – I’ll be at the Academy later.
I just came here early to give my mum a hand.
We’ve already had Ginny here this morning.
She’s just left. And your mum is on the way in. ’
‘Yep, I texted her this morning to arrange a chat and she said she’d be here and couldn’t miss her appointment. I know where I stand in her priorities. Right below Jessie’s cut, colour and blow-dry.’
He had a minor twist of the gut when he thought about the conversation he needed to have with his mum, but then covered it up by carrying on as if nothing was wrong.
Sometimes his acting chops came in handy in real life.
‘How was Ginny?’ Ollie asked, pulling out his phone and firing off a good luck text to one of his favourite coaches.
Ginny was a real talent and they were lucky to have her, even if it was just a rung she was climbing on the ladder of her career.
She deserved her talents to be recognised and Ollie truly hoped today’s audition would make that happen.
‘Nervous. Excited. Glib. Hilarious. Just Ginny, really.’
‘Is that my granddaughter you’re talking about there?’ Hugo Canavan asked, as he came over to where they were standing, just inside the door.
Ollie shook his hand. ‘It sure is. Only good things, though. How are you doing, Hugo?’
‘Aye, fine, son. I’m manning the fort on my own for an hour or so because our Alyssa is out with a delivery. Can I get you a coffee?’
Ollie glanced around the room. There was a group of elderly ladies at one table and then a squad of mums and toddlers at another.
A couple of the women were shooting furtive glances his way, but he knew they wouldn’t approach him.
They were used to him around here, and the villagers rarely cornered him or made a fuss.
They were a protective lot too. Hugo had let down the tyres of a Sun photographer who was trying to get shots of Ollie getting a haircut last year.
‘If it’s okay with you, Hugo, I’ll just take a couple of lattes up to the staffroom.
I’m just in for a quick chat with my mum and she’ll be here any minute.
Is it okay if we hide out back there for ten minutes?
’ Speaking to his mum in the salon wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do, because he wanted to talk to her before she went into the Academy.
It was better that they have this chat here because all the rooms at the Academy were still wired with cameras and Ollie was always careful what he said in there.
However, the Copper Curls/Once Upon A Time Café staffroom, despite being a hotbed of gossip and drama, was a CCTV-free zone.
‘Of course it is. You all go on up there and I’ll bring them back for you,’ Hugo offered, just as Calvin rejoined them, brandishing a strawberry tart.
‘Are you sure?’ Ollie didn’t like to put him to any trouble. ‘We can wait here and take them up when they’re ready.’
‘It’s no bother at all, son. Besides, I don’t like to have you standing here for too long – don’t want yer feelings hurt because you’re not the best-looking bloke in the room when I’m here.’
With that, and a chuckle, he went back behind the counter with a spring in his step.
Georgie shared Ollie’s amusement. ‘I’ll come keep you company until your mum gets here. Happy for an excuse to sit down. I feel like an oil tanker trying to manoeuvre myself around here. I think I’m incubating a hippo.’
Ollie and Calvin followed her, passing Jessie, who was spraying a cloud of hairspray on the white blonde bob that Ollie recognised as belonging to Val Murray, another of his mum’s pals.
‘Morning, ladies,’ Ollie greeted them, kissing each of them on the cheek.
‘It’s afternoon, Ollie,’ Val retorted. ‘Have you not got people who keep you right on this sort of stuff?’
‘Nope, I only have people to shop for me and stroke my ego by telling me how great I am,’ Ollie fired back, enjoying the exchange.
‘I’ll do that for free,’ Val offered. ‘As long as there’s a twice weekly chippy and holiday to Los Angeles involved.’
‘Done,’ Ollie agreed.
‘Oh, and a hairdressing budget. I’m having it done for your big night tonight.
Your mum is so looking forward to it. She was just saying that Academy has been the highlight of her career.
Well done on making that happen for her.
You’re not a bad lad, apart from your apparent lack of awareness of the time of day.
’ Teasing was Val’s preferred method of communication.
‘I’m glad you approve,’ Ollie bowed, feigning amusement, even though her comment about his mum was ricocheting around his head. The highlight of her career. And he could be about to make a decision that had the potential to wreck it.
He reached the empty staffroom and plonked down on the couch. Calvin and Georgie sat on the opposite sofa, but Ollie noticed that Calvin was frowning as he read something on his phone.
‘Everything okay?’ Ollie asked.
Calvin’s sigh was instant. ‘Just another email from security. They’ve forwarded on an email from the Daily Mail asking if it’s true you’ve been in a secret relationship since before you married Sienna. They’ve had a tip-off from someone claiming to be your bit on the side.’
Ollie closed his eyes. The last thing he needed was to deal with that stuff right now. Not today. Before he could respond, the staffroom door opened again, and his mum came in clutching a tray with two glass mugs of frothy coffee.