Page 24 of Tabloid Princess

As much as I hated one-percenters and what they stood for, I wanted Janine and Bright Futures to succeed more.

Next time I met the prince, I would keep my mouth shut.

Next time.

Six

“Hey, Emilia?” I crooked my phone under my ear as I stirred the pasta in the boiling water to stop it sticking to the pan.

“Hey, Leia. What’s up?” She sounded rushed and I cringed.

“I’m disturbing you. I can call back.”

There was a brief pause followed by the clatter of keys. “Nope. I’ve just walked in. Muuum! I’m home.”

I found myself smiling a little until I realised, I was being one of ‘those’ people. Someone full of their own importance because they’ve done something good. I needed to remind myself that there were many more Emilia’s out there who hadn’t been helped yet.

“Sorry I haven’t been in for a coffee while you’ve been on shift. It’s been crazy at work.”

“What is going on? I haven’t seen anyone for a couple of days. It’s not like Paula to not have her six lattes a day.”

“I know. Her clothes will be falling off the way things are going.”

“Leia!”

I chuckled darkly. “What? It’s not like I don’t say it to her face. She can’t drink six full fat lattes and then think she can balance it with salad. The maths just isn’t right.”

Emilia snorted and I found myself doing that smug grin again. “So, are you going to tell me what you are all up to? I was saying to Mum last night I was worried you were going out of business.”

“Nah, no chance. Anyway, how are you?”

“I’m good.” She paused. “Strangely, I’m doing really good.”

“There’s nothing strange about it, Emilia.”

“I feel like I’m not worthy of my second chance.”

“If you aren’t, then who is?”

She didn’t have an answer and silence stretched between us until I coughed and cleared my throat. “Listen, I was calling for advice.”

“You want advice from me? Do you need some better clothes designed?”

“Sweetheart, when I can afford for you to ‘sort me out,’ I’ll willingly pay. Until then you will have to help me keep looking for my charity shop finds.”

Emilia chuckled. “How about I come shopping with you at the weekend?”

I gave the pasta another stir, leaning my face into the steam to assess how soft the pasta was. “It will have to be after pay day.”

“Sure. So, what do you need now?”

“I’m trying to think of ways to improve the social media coverage of Bright Futures, but I think the problem is that the people I want to connect to probably don’t have access to that much social media, and those that do want to hear different things. Do you know what I mean?”

Another pause. “So really, it’s like designing clothes. There are the designs for runways and clothes shows: hi-spec, concept items that no one would actually wear. Then there are the designs for the shops… even mass produced.”

I mulled this over. “Two different accounts?”

“Possibly, yeah. You know what you need? Something which people on the streets will talk about, something to go viral. And also, it’s not like they don’t have access to anything, the shelters have computers and televisions that they can use.”