The solution had appeared as unexpectedly as if God had delivered it to her by hand. She would start her own Vlog.
‘You should definitely do it, babes,’ her closest friend Phoebe had advised. ‘If that lot can do it, why can’t you? You’d be a natural. You’re smart, funny and very persuasive. You could sell meat to a vegan.’
Roxi had thrown everything but the kitchen sink at her content. Some weeks her posts focused on budget fashions; in others, she offered advice on keeping a relationship fresh. Everything from sex to shopping, beauty and motherhood were covered. But, to her frustration, her audience numbers were slow to grow – and she was not being seen by the brands she coveted.
Her attention returned to Autumn and her followers. The majority were in the lucrative teen and twenty-something female market with high disposable incomes. But one profile image took her by surprise – it belonged to Darcy. She wasn’t aware her daughter had even activated an Instagram account. Roxi skimmed though her posts. They were mostly made up of videos of Darcy and her friends pouting before the camera or performing choreographed dance routines. It was only as she was about to leave that she clocked Darcy’s follower total. It was approaching 12,000 on one platform alone. Bewildered, she went back to Autumn’s homepage.
‘If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a girl-crush on her,’ came a voice from behind.
‘Jesus, Owen!’ Roxi gasped as her husband pecked her on the cheek and peered over her shoulder. His sports bag and hockey stick lay in the doorway.
‘How is the lovely Autumn today? I see her in this house so often that she feels like part of the family.’
‘Another thirty thousand people have followed her in the last week.In the last bloody week. Why? Please explain it to me.’
He shrugged. ‘People like her? She’s fun, she’s enthusiastic, she’s young and she’s pretty.’
Roxi’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is that what you want to see online, young pretty girls?’
‘Careful.’ Owen pointed to the Audite on the kitchen side.
The small, black cylindrical device seemed to be staring back at her. Upgrading to a Smart Marriage allowed it to record ten random minutes of their conversation and alert them to any problems it might find in their relationship. She changed her tack. ‘Any idiot can do what Autumn does. I want to help people; she wants to humblebrag.’
‘You’re kidding yourself if you think you’re Vlogging out of the goodness of your heart. You want what she has. And you’re jealous she’s better at it than you.’
‘Thanks, Owen, that’s really what I need to hear right now.’
‘You know there’s a shelf life when it comes to being an Influencer. Perhaps no matter what you do, age isn’t on your side.’
‘So if I looked younger, I might get more work? Is that what you’re saying?’
Owen shook his head. ‘You look perfect to me,’ he added before leaving her alone to research the internet for a discount code for face-tightening procedures. She only stopped when a news alert appeared on her screen, along with Jem Jones’ image.
2
Jeffrey
Jeffrey reached for a bottle of transparent cola from thefridge, unscrewed the cap and settled himself at the dining-room table. He hadn’t realized how dehydrated he’d become until he took a long, thirst-quenching gulp. He hoped it might replace the electrolytes he’d expelled in the physical exertions of the afternoon.
A yawn escaped almost before he had time to open his mouth. The long, exhausting day was taking its toll, and there was more to do before it finished. He willed the patch stuck to his arm to rid him of his headache and made a mental note to hydrate more frequently in future. A sour odour drew Jeffrey’s attention to his armpits, but a short, sharp sniff revealed they weren’t the cause. The smell was coming from his hands and arms.
A sudden dull thump upstairs caught his attention so he pushed his tablet to one side and cautiously went to investigate.
In the bedroom, his suitcase had fallen to its side, so he pulled it upright. The sour smell grabbed him again, so he peeled off his clothes and stepped inside the walk-in shower. He continued to drink his cola as the piping hot water cascaded over him, flattening his mousy-brown hair, then streaked through his stubbled cheeks and bounced off his broad shoulders and chest.
He squeezed liquid soap onto his hands from a dispenser and washed the rust-coloured stains from his palms. Next, he dug underneath his fingernails and rubbed at the ribbons streaking across his forearms and wrists. The water in the shower tray was becoming cloudy.
With no clean clothes of his own, he flicked through the rails inside Harry’s walk-in wardrobe, pulling out anything that caught his eye. Harry towered above him at 6 foot 5 inches compared to Jeffrey’s more modest 5 foot 10 inches. They shared the same waist size but he would need to roll up the legs of the jeans to make this look work. Jeffrey was naturally more muscular than Harry so the sweaters and t-shirts he’d stuff inside his suitcase next would be a little on the clingy side. But they would do for now.
Before returning to the dining room with his suitcase, Jeffrey took one last look at the bathroom and the roll-top tub in the centre. He considered draining it before he left, but changed his mind.
Now back at the table, he interlocked and stretched his fingers until they cracked. He swiped across the screen to unlock his tablet. Human Resources had advised him many times to activate the fingerprint or optical scanners for security purposes, but he had yet to get round to it. Besides, the device was rarely out of his line of sight. The likelihood of it ever falling into the wrong hands was negligible.
His inbox contained seven new unread messages, none of which were flagged as urgent. He’d respond to them later. His finger hovered over an App on the home screen before he pressed it. It required three separate passcodes before the display filled with words and images. There were several ways for him to scour the contents – randomly, by latest additions, imagery, geographical location, ages or by length of time.
Random selections didn’t work for Jeffrey. It was an approach he’d tried and it had taken a Herculean effort for him to remain invested for the full allocated timeframe. He preferred to first identify a potential connection by photograph before he took a deep dive into their personal data. That included everything from their biographies to finances and social media presence. Today’s list had yet to be updated, which was probably for the best as, after his most recent clients, he required time to decompress. Tanya and Harry’s behaviour had drained him. So he logged out.
As a Relationship Responder, it was Jeffrey’s job to spend up to two months in close proximity to a married couple whose marriage was judged by Audite to be in crisis. He was responsible for unravelling the knots in the rope that bound these people together. Only when they were untangled could he decide if the AI system had been accurate. He’d then decide if the couple should remain married or go before a Family Court where magistrates would make a ruling on their future together. And the courts often favoured their recommendations, as Relationship Responders were the eyes and ears that witnessed the intricacies of these relationships first-hand.
