33. Melanie
Melanie froze as Frank reached for her. She knew she should. She knew she needed to. She knew their relationship was on life-support, but she just couldn’t. He slowly rubbed her back as she tried not to squirm. As his hand moved lower, she leapt out of bed.
‘Come back here, you.’ Frank gave her a sexy smile.
How could it feel so awkward with someone you’ve been with for twenty years? Melanie kept her back to her husband and moved towards the bathroom door. Over her shoulder, she muttered, ‘Sorry, early meeting.’
‘Melanie, we have to make an effort. We need to reconnect on an intimate level,’ he reminded her.
She knew he was right, but the thought of having sex with him made her skin crawl. She thought about the tingling feeling she’d had when she was with Petrus. She wasn’t dead inside, just dead to Frank.
‘I’m sorry, Frank. I just can’t right now.’
She heard him sigh as she closed the bathroom door.
The twins were downstairs, which was a shock as it was only seven.
‘How come you’re up so early?’ she asked.
‘Guess, Mum,’ Janis told her, narrowing her eyes at her.
‘She’s forgotten,’ Joni said.
The musical! ‘No, I haven’t, it’s the musical tonight. You have early rehearsals, right?’
‘Yes, and Dad’s bringing us in because you have to prepare for a “very important meeting”.’ Janis rolled her eyes.
Melanie bristled. ‘I do actually. I’m meeting a young author. I think you may have heard of her.’
‘Stop!’ Joni raised her hand. ‘No offence, but we don’t have time to hear about your latest amazing new writer. We have to go over our lines.’
Melanie finished her coffee, wished them luck and left the room.
‘Do not be late,’ they shouted after her.
‘I won’t,’ she called back, as she closed the front door behind her.
Melanie, Ross and Jamie waited in the hotel suite.
‘I’m sorry, Xina is a little behind schedule,’ her PR person apologized and scurried out of the room.
Melanie looked at her watch. ‘We’ve already been waiting for half an hour. This is rude.’
Ross leant forward and picked up a glass of water. ‘If we can sign her for this book, it will be huge. She has two million followers on TikTok and it’s going up every day.’
‘I don’t get her,’ Melanie admitted.
‘Me neither, but the kids love her,’ Jamie said.
‘I watched hours of her videos and all she seems to do is sit in her bedroom and put make-up on, curl her hair and talk about her social anxiety. She doesn’t sing or dance, just talks and reviews make-up and hair products.
’ Melanie had really tried to understand what all the fuss was about, but she didn’t get it.
Still, two million followers and counting was a huge potential readership, and now that Xina wanted to write a book, publishers would jump on it.
Ross shrugged. ‘All Theo does is scroll on his phone watching TikTok. It’s all teenagers do. This could be really lucrative for us.’
‘Is it the direction we want the agency to go in, though?’ Melanie asked.
‘We want the agency to make money,’ Ross replied.
‘I know that, and we are making money, but we can do that by signing actual authors as opposed to flighty TikTok celebrities.’
‘We have to move with the times,’ Ross said, as if his was the final word on the matter.
He was beginning to irritate her. In the week following his big reveal, he’d been quieter and a lot less bullish.
He had apologized to all of them. He would make sure that Ruby never bothered them again, he’d said, and that his mistake would not affect the agency’s reputation.
But his loud opinions and pushy personality seemed to be coming back now.
‘As we all know, following trends is a short-term strategy,’ Melanie reminded him.
‘Look, Melanie, I had to pull a lot of strings to get this meeting, can you just go with it? She asked for a female agent, which is why you’re here. Otherwise I would have done it on my own.’
‘Chill out, Ross. Melanie knows how to handle authors,’ Jamie said.
‘Is she an author, though?’ Melanie mused. ‘Her manager said the book will contain a lot of photos, product placement and short paragraphs of her opinions.’
‘It could be like a TikTok version of a graphic novel.’ Jamie laughed.
Ross’s phone buzzed. He looked down. ‘Yes, finally!’
‘What?’ Jamie asked.
‘Ruby has signed the custody and child maintenance agreement.’
‘That’s good news, it must be a relief,’ Jamie said.
Ross’s face visibly relaxed, he sat down beside Melanie. ‘It’s a huge relief. I can’t wait to tell Amanda. She’ll be so happy it’s all sorted. She’s been a rock.’
Melanie felt there were no words for how strong Amanda had been.
The Instagram announcement that had been drafted by Ruby, with considerable input from Ross and Nancy, had finally been agreed on by both sides, then posted.
There followed a few days of intense gossip with nosy industry people trying to winkle out more information, but the agency had stonewalled them.
The news soon died down and everyone moved on to the next book-world drama.
For Amanda, though, it had meant constant messages from ‘concerned friends’ in London.
She’d had to field all their prying questions and comments, which had been really hard on her.
She didn’t complain, but Melanie could see the toll it was taking on her.
‘Amanda really has been a rock. You’ve put her through the mill.’ Melanie wanted him to know how lucky he was to have such a supportive wife.
Ross winced. ‘I know. I’ve been such an idiot. She’s incredible.’
‘She’s a diamond. I’m not sure Katie would have stayed with me,’ Jamie said.
‘I’d have been long gone,’ Melanie admitted.
‘I have a lot of making up to do,’ Ross said.
‘We all make mistakes,’ Jamie said. ‘Look at Katie calling Mum a poisonous bitch.’
‘How are things between them now?’ Melanie asked.
‘Non-existent. She drops Lucy up to the house and collects her. I’m not sure Mum will ever forgive her. White wine and Katie are not a good combination.’
Ross leant over. ‘Well, I’m in the doghouse with Mum now, so Katie’s probably in the clear.’
‘She should be. She’s been a very good daughter-in-law except for that one blip,’ Melanie said.
‘Is Mum still giving you the ice treatment?’ Jamie asked his brother.
‘Yes, she keeps saying how disappointed she is and how foolish I’ve been, that she never had the opportunities I had, the privilege to work in a family business …’
‘Oh, I hate when she does that. It makes you feel like you’re five years old and a really crap son. She’s used that line on me and Frank, too.’
‘It’s effective, I felt very small.’
‘Like a tiny speck,’ Jamie said, and the two brothers laughed.
‘Were you able to get the house Amanda found to rent?’ Melanie asked.
Ross crossed his fingers. ‘We’ll know tomorrow. I’m praying we will. We all need to move out and move on. It’s claustrophobic.’
‘Amanda needs her own space.’
‘How do you feel about being a dad again?’ Jamie asked quietly.
Ross grimaced. ‘I honestly don’t know. My head is so scrambled. I want to be a father to the child, I don’t want to let them down, but I also need to be respectful of Amanda and Theo. It’s a minefield.’
‘You planted the mines,’ Melanie reminded him. She glanced at her watch. If Xina didn’t come out soon, she’d be late for the girls’ play. Just as she was about to blow a fuse, the door opened and Xina entered.
She was tiny. Like a little doll. She looked much younger than twenty-one. She was pretty in a ‘girl-next-door’ way, but she had presence: you wanted to keep looking at her. There was something magnetic in her persona.
‘I’m sooooo sorry, I was having, like, a full anxiety attack. I needed to meditate before meeting you,’ she said, in her mid-Atlantic, I’ve-watched-too-much-American-TV-and-now-have-a-weird-accent-even-though-I’m-from-Bristol accent.
Ross went to shake her hand but she recoiled. ‘I don’t do hand touching. The germs are endemic.’
‘Right, sure, well, hello.’ He gave her a half-wave.
Melanie and Jamie did the same.
They sat on the couch opposite her chair, which was placed at quite a distance. Ross asked her about her business and TikTok followers and praised her success.
‘So what exactly do you want the book to be about?’ Melanie asked.
Xina fiddled with the sleeve of her jumper. ‘My life.’
But your life consists of you in your bedroom. How on earth can that be a book? Even if it was seventy per cent photos, they’d all be of you in that room.
‘Right, and I believe you want it to be very image-heavy?’ Melanie prodded.
‘Yeah, totally. My fans love aesthetics. So, lots of make-up and fashion and hairstyles.’
‘Okay, I can tell you that any editor who takes this on will want to shoot at different locations to make it more interesting and visually appealing.’
Xina’s eyes widened in horror. ‘I don’t do outside.’
‘Well, would you do inside locations?’
‘Only hotels because they’re cleaned daily.’
‘That could possibly work. What is your message going to be? What do you want your readers to know?’
‘That they can be beautiful and on trend and fierce without having to spend lots of money. That self-care is just as important as the air we breathe.’
Or not, in your case, as you never go out .
‘Amazing message, young people will eat that up. You’re an inspiration to so many.
’ Ross laid it on thick. ‘I’m more over the whole social-media and media side of the agency, so I’d probably be a better fit for you than Melanie, although I know you requested a female agent.
Melanie covers more of the literary side of things. ’