I don’t even know where to begin with that. Where to start. I don’t know what she wants me to say. Whether to fake light heartedness, or give her a soul baring monologue about what I’ve been through since hell broke loose. So, I go for the basic. The obvious.
“I’m, um, ok. Enjoying my proposals.”
“So I’ve read. Five stars all round.”
I manage a smile. “Yeah, so far so good, right?”
She pauses, and the silence gives me chills I can’t bear, so I spur myself into action, filling the void myself.
“Look, whatever has happened, I’m never going to compromise The Agency. Not for anything. There may be a load of crap flying around, but that isn’t going to crossover into work. I wouldn’t let it. I’d never sell out, I promise.”
“Relax for a second,” she says, and her voice is calm, which soothes me far more than being wrapped up in my pjs. “We’ve got no concerns about any of that, Ella. Our primary concern has been about you. About how you’re coping. I’d have reached out before, but you weren’t online, and we are never an organisation to seek contact outside of the app, or through anyone associated with you. Still, I know you’ve got a good support system. I know people will have been taking care of you.”
She’s spot on with that, but of course she would be. She knows Josh, and Tiff, and Ebony. Bodica and Harlot.
My voice hitches as I smile.
“I really wanted to reach out to you. I just… I was so worried. I thought my account would be blocked. And I didn’t want to see that. It would have been too much.”
She laughs a little. “Blocking one of our key performer’s accounts because a wannabe rockstar made some unsubstantiated claims? No. You don’t need to worry about that. Rumours happen constantly in our industry, and dropping our valued entertainers on the back of that isn’t our style. If anything, we’ve been doing the complete opposite.”
“The opposite? What do you mean?”
“We’ve been trying to take care of you behind the scenes. The proposals in your inbox have been vetted before you’ve seen them, and the Users trying their luck at cashing in on said rumours have been sent strict account warnings. You are Holly here, at The Agency. Not Ella. You will be treated as Holly, the entertainer, and nothing more.”
My mind whirs through her words.
“So Users have been recognising me? Wanting to book me because of Connor?”
“Some of them, yes. Not too many, luckily. As you know, we are very strict when it comes to our vetting process. Most of our Users value their own privacy and anonymity far too much to exploit a leak in yours.”
I see the colour coming back into my ghostly pale cheeks onscreen.
“I don’t know what to say, other than thank you. Thank you so much.”
“There’s more as well,” she says. “We aren’t just leaving it at that.”
I have no clue what she’s talking about. I look blank as I stare at the O onscreen.
“More?”
“Yes. We’re also doing what we can outside of direct engagement with Users. The Agency is a very well connected organisation behind the scenes. A social media breakout like Connor’s can be hard to contain, but we have our fingers in a lot of pies when it comes to moretraditionalforms of news outlet. Give it some time, Ella. We have had things in motion, but outbreaks still take time to get under control.”
My mind whirs afresh. I remember the idiot estate agent who first showed me around the Belgravia apartments when I was a new entertainer, and then tried to blackmail me when he got a sniff of what I did for a living. He was fired from his role almost immediately when The Agency caught wind of it.
I know they have power, but with something like this. As explosive as Connor going viral. I don’t know what she means.
“When you say traditional forms of news outlets. You mean like newspapers?” I ask. “News stuff online? TV shows?”
“The media in general. It has many outlets.”
I think of Belgravia, and how the paps have left it barren recently. Tiff told us so. I wonder if…
“Connor is making things a lot easier of his own accord,” Orla says. “He’s creating plenty of new outbreaks to draw the camera lenses the other way.”
I know exactly what she’s talking about on that front. I let out a sigh.
“Lucky for me Connor is such a goddamn fucking prick. You wouldn’t believe his ego, honestly. It was inflated enough already, back in Camden. I can’t even imagine what a twat he is now.”
