Page 49 of Never Too Late
‘Hi, Steph, take a look. It’s the latest edition ofHello!magazine and look who’s on the front cover.’ He sounded positively bubbly.
Steph took a copy from him, and her blood froze. The front cover was taken up almost entirely by a photo of the band, including her, with the headline:Royalty Re-form After Ten Years!It was a decent photo, taken in the studio at Keith’s villa, and everybody – herself included – looked good. Much less welcome was the photo that occupied the bottom right-hand quarter of the cover with the title:Meet the New Royal. The title wasn’t the problem; it was the fact that the photo was of her in her damp bikini. Hurriedly she flicked through the inside pages and found no fewer than six full pages devoted to the news that the group were back together again, that they had a new album about to come out, and, in particular, that they had added a woman to the group. Five of the ten glossy photos were of her, and the captions ranged from the factualSteph Zanin (29): first female member of the supergroupto the more hyperbolicGorgeous replacement for tragic keyboard playerand even the contentiousBeauty among the Beasts, alongside a selection of archive shots of scenes of the band’s former misbehaviour.
‘Pretty great, eh?’ There was no doubt what Zach thought of the coverage. ‘And now that the news is out there you bet the rest of the media will be getting very excited.’
The extent of the media excitement was brought home to Steph next morning when she went down to catch the tube across London to the studio. As she stood waiting for her train she couldn’t miss a series of massive posters plastered on the wall in front of her consisting of a photo of the group and the wordsBACK TOGETHER AGAINprinted across them. Far worse, however, when she walked out of the station she passed a newsstand and saw that not only had the tabloids got hold of the story and were splashing it all over the front pages, some of them had also somehow got hold of the bikini photos and there was more of her naked flesh on display than she had ever thought possible.
This morning Zach’s beaming smile stretched from ear to ear. He looked positively triumphant.
‘Look, Steph, even theFinancial Timeshas got the story on the front page and Pop tells me the news has spread across to the States with most of the papers running it in a few hours’ time. How does it feel to be famous?’
Steph took another look at the photos of herself in what looked like an ever-smaller bikini – had it been Photoshopped? – and she shuddered. ‘Oh, God…’
Zach didn’t appear to notice her reluctance as he counted off on the fingers of one hand what they had coming up. ‘Sky News at eleven, BBC at twelve thirty, ITV at two and Channel Four and a couple of others right after that. Then this evening there’ll be some of the US media sources along with a selection of popular podcasts. Yup, it’s all going great. Today’s Tuesday, so that means we only have two more days here and then we fly over to LA. The company’s throwing a big party on Friday night to celebrate. All the great and the good of the music business will be there. You’ll love it.’
Steph had a feeling she wasn’t going to enjoy it as much as he predicted.
He went off humming happily to himself, and Steph slumped down on a chair and took a couple of deep breaths. She couldn’t say she hadn’t been warned. If she had had any doubts about how irrevocably her life would change, these had now been well and truly extinguished. Not only her name but also her body were in the public domain, and she would have to learn how to deal with it.
But it wasn’t going to be easy.
The rest of the day was febrile. Somehow word must have gone out that she and the band were recording in the London studio and, as they left mid-morning for the first of the TV interviews, they found reporters and photographers crowding around the door outside. Staff from the studio had to come out and push intrusive journalists out of the way so she and the others could climb into the cars and set off. As they drove away, Steph’s ears were still ringing to the shouts of ‘Steph, Steph’ that had been thrown at her from all sides. She felt a hand on her arm. It was Ben.
‘I think this is what’s called a baptism of fire. I’m afraid you’ll find it a bit of a struggle at first, but you’ll soon get used to it. Just remember that it’s the novelty they like – the group getting back together and, of course, the new girl. In a few weeks it’ll all calm down, don’t you worry.’
‘In a fewweeks!’ Steph groaned. ‘Please, can you do me a favour? Stick by me at these interviews and if you think I’m making a fool of myself, just give me a kick, would you?’
She didn’t get back to her mum’s house until past nine that evening and she arrived feeling exhausted. She found her mother glued to the TV and received barely a wave from her. ‘Come in and watch the news. They’ve been talking about you and the band all day. I’ve been getting phone calls from people I haven’t heard from in years – old neighbours, some of your school friends and at least three boys who say they used to go out with you.’
Steph slumped down on the settee alongside the old white cat and gave a heartfelt sigh. ‘What a day. It’s all right for you, Snowball, just lazing about here at home without a care in the world.’
At that moment her phone bleeped, and she saw that it was a WhatsApp message. Suspicious that this might be somebody unwelcome who had seen her face on the news, she checked the number cautiously before opening it and discovered a charming photo of a familiar black Labrador with a one-line caption:Please don’t forget us. R.
She passed the phone across to her mother who glanced at it and smiled indulgently. ‘That’s rather nice, isn’t it?’
‘He’s a very nice dog.’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘I know what you meant. I must admit it would be good to talk to Rob. With his background, I’m sure he’d be able to understand the sort of stress I’ve been through today.’
‘Well, why don’t you call him?’ Her mum grinned and stood up. ‘It’s all right. I’m going into the kitchen to make two mugs of hot chocolate. I promise I won’t listen. Go ahead and call him.’
After a few seconds of reflection, Steph pressed the video call button and waited. Rob must have been holding the phone as he answered almost immediately, and his face appeared on the screen. ‘Steph, hi. It’s great to hear from you. I’ve been following the various news stories. Royalty and you are big news all over the world. There was even a piece on the TV here in Italy. How’s it going?’
In spite of her doubts, seeing him and hearing his voice sent a thrill of pleasure through her that she couldn’t stop. She found herself smiling back at him as she answered. ‘It’s been exhausting… and far more intrusive than I was expecting.’
‘When you say intrusive, might that be a reference to the photos of you on the beach that are doing the rounds?’
‘I swear with every new photo I see, the bikini gets smaller and smaller. Are they allowed to play around with images like that? It makes me feel like a page three model.’
‘You look a damn sight better than any page three model.’ There was a momentary hesitation before he corrected himself. ‘Sorry, I promised myself I wouldn’t start throwing out compliments.’
She couldn’t help herself. ‘And why’s that?’
‘You really want to know?’
‘Of course.’
