Dean was on the phone when we arrived at the restaurant, one of the plush places I’d spotted in the VIP village earlier. It had a marquee-style roof and proper linen tablecloths and food that looked as ‘exotic’ as I’d been described in the showbiz column I never wanted to set eyes on again. He waved us over as he ended the call.
‘Thanks for joining me, guys. Ava, did you fill Marcus in?’
‘Fill me in on what?’ asked Marcus coldly.
I scraped back a chair and sat down, with Marcus moodily following suit.
‘I thought it would be better coming from you,’ I said to Dean.
Surely that was fair – this whole thing was humiliating enough without me attempting to put the unfortunate string of events into a coherent sentence. Plus, Dean knew Marcus best – he’d be well versed in how to manage things in a way that didn’t cause Marcus to have one of his tantrums, although on this occasion I wouldn’t blame him if he did. If I wasn’t such a people-pleaser, I might have smashed a racquet up myself right about now.
‘Can someone please tell me what’s going on?’ said Marcus, the dark look of yesterday reappearing. It was going to get even darker in a second, I was certain of it.
‘You and Ava have been photographed by the paparazzi and it’s splashed all over the press. They’re saying she’s your new girlfriend,’ said Dean.
Blimey, he didn’t mess around, did he? I cringed, probably visibly.
‘Is this true?’ asked a seemingly incredulous Marcus, turning to me.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Somebody sent me a link.’
‘Show me,’ he said.
I opened up the column and handed it to him. You could have heard a pin drop at our table as he scanned the screen. The restaurant’s other diners, mostly well-dressed tennis types who loved the sound of their own voices, were too caught up in themselves to notice that one of the best players in the world was metres away and currently a rather unhealthy shade of green.
‘Fuck,’ said Marcus, scrolling through the images with his thumb while shaking his head in disbelief. ‘It was that stupid French woman, wasn’t it?’
‘Probably,’ I agreed.
Here was a thought: maybe if Marcus hadn’t been so rude to her, she wouldn’t have done this in the first place! I decided against pointing this out, even though I was desperate to. The most important thing here was to keep Marcus calm. If he got too wound up, he might threaten to pull the interview altogether.
‘What are we going to do about it?’ said Marcus to Dean, still holding my phone in his hand.
‘I was thinking nothing?’ said Dean mysteriously.
Had I heard him right?
‘Nothing?’ I clarified.
‘I like the idea of showing the public a different side to Marcus,’ he said.
‘Which side are we talking about, here?’ Marcus quite sensibly asked.
Dean looked him in the eye, his confidence unwavering. ‘A sweeter, softer side. The sort of side that might be more obvious to the general public if you were in a relationship with Ava, for example,’ he said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms as though he hadn’t just dropped a massive bombshell slap, bang in the middle of our beautifully laid-out table.
‘What are youtalkingabout?’ asked Marcus, using more or less the exact words that were on the tip of my tongue. Had Dean missed the point entirely? He was supposed to be ensuring the rumours went away, not making the situation ten times worse.
‘Can I ask both of you to take a moment to think about this?’ asked Dean, finally acknowledging the icy change of atmosphere.
Think about what, exactly? It was like he was talking in a foreign language all of a sudden, one that included utterly confusing vocabulary likeif you were in a relationship with Ava, for example.At least Marcus appeared to be as blindsided as I was – this clearly wasn’t a normal scenario for him, either, so it wasn’t like it was an elite tennis world thing. I turned back to Dean.
‘Just so we’re clear, you’re expecting me and Marcus to ... do what exactly? Magically develop romantic feelings for each other, just because our picture was posted online?’
Dean laughed softly, which I took immediate offence to – how was any of this remotely funny? ‘You misunderstand me, Ava. I don’t expect you to have real feelings. I’m proposing that we simply let this play out for the cameras. Leave people to come to their own conclusions. And looking at those sizzling photos online, I have a sneaking suspicion that they’re going to fall for those headlines hook, line and sinker.’
Sizzlingphotos? Was Dean looking at a different set of images? I took back everything I’d ever said about him, he was an uttersnake.
‘You’re joking, right?’ said Marcus, who now looked even angrier than he had the time somebody’s phone had rung just as he was about to serve. Of course he found the idea of pretending to be in a relationship with me abhorrent, I was probably the furthest thing from his type.
