Page 132 of The Reboot
Vince sighed and leaned back in his chair. ‘Fine. Go ahead. Bale on everyone, like you always do. Leave your friends and colleagues in the lurch. I should have expected this. You always find a way to fuck up, don’t you, Roly?’
Roly shrugged. ‘Yeah, I guess I do.’
‘Have you any idea the lengths everyone’s gone to to accommodate you? The strings I’ve pulled? The work everyone else has put in just so you can prance around on stage for a few hours wiggling your arse? Which is twice the size it should be, by the way.’
‘You’re saying my bum looks big in this?’ Roly just let it all wash over him. Vince was nothing but a thug, a playground bully, apoplectic because someone was standing up to him.
‘You’re such a loser, Roly.’ He shook his head. ‘Well, we gave you a chance and you blew it. Again. If you’re going, go. We’ll pick up the pieces, as usual. That’s weeks of rehearsals down the drain. You’ve wasted everyone’s time. Boo will have to rethink the video, all the dance routines…’
‘I’ll do the single, if you want, and the video. I’ll even turn up at a couple of the shows if you like, and do a guest appearance. But that’s it.’
Vince’s face turned very red. Roly didn’t care either way, but this was what Vince wanted, and he couldn’t stand Roly having a hold over him.
‘That’s very big of you,’ he said drily.
‘Well, think about it. Let me know what you decide and my agent will be in touch about the contract.’
He turned and walked out of the room without looking back. Then he ran down the stairs and jogged half the way home, fired up on adrenaline.
37
All week,Roly couldn’t get what Ella had said out of his head – especially when he called his mum on Friday and she was all excited, planning the weekend with Mike. ‘Tonight, I’m cooking dinner just for the two of us. His flight gets in around six. Tomorrow we’ll go out – I’ve booked a table at Chapter One. But you must come for dinner on Sunday – Mum’s coming too. I can’t wait for you to meet him.’
‘Great! I’m looking forward to it,’ he said, even as he had a sick feeling of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.
‘Oh, Roly, I’m so excited! I’m all jittery, and I can’t settle to anything. I feel like a bloody teenager. I can’t believe I’m going to meet him finally.’
‘Are you picking him up from the airport?’
‘No, he’s getting a cab here. He’ll be so relieved to finally get here after all he’s been through the past few months.’
‘I bet. Mum, could you send me a photo of him?’
‘What do you want a photo for?’ she asked, laughing.
‘It’s just … I want to make something for Sunday. It’s a surprise,’ he said, hating himself for lying to her. But he still hoped Ella would be wrong, and he didn’t want to make his mum feel like a fool for no reason.
‘What are you up to? You’re not going to get his face put on a cake or something, are you?’ She sounded so happy and light-hearted, and it killed him.
‘You’ll have to wait and see.’ If it turned out Mike was legit, that wasn’t a bad idea.
‘Okay, I’ll send it to you now.’
Roly found instructions online for doing a reverse image search and uploaded the photo of Mike his mum had sent him. The results were everything he’d dreaded.
He tried calling his mum, but she wasn’t answering her phone. He really started to worry an hour later when she still hadn’t responded to his constant calls and messages. He checked his watch. It was almost seven. She’d probably know by now that Mike wasn’t coming. He’d just have to go over there.
Almost without thinking about it, he called Ella. She sounded surprised to hear from him.
‘So I did that image search thing on Mum’s boyfriend,’ he said.
‘Oh?’ Her tone was wary.
‘Yeah. And you were right. It’s a scammer. His photo came up on loads of social media profiles, different names…’
‘Oh no! I’m so sorry, Roly. I really wanted to be wrong.’
‘I know.’
