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‘Thanks for meeting me,’ Rocco said as he pulled out a chair in the Drumkeldy Arms to sit opposite Ben, a little later that Tuesday night.

‘No worries. Is this about Frankie?’ Ben asked warily.

‘Frankie?’ Rocco now realised that Ben looked quite apprehensive. ‘Oh! Do you think I’m about to give you a hard time for standing up my sister the other night?’

‘We saw each other a couple of times but came to the conclusion we’re nothing more than friends. It was mutual.’

Rocco gave a little laugh. ‘This isn’t The Godfather! I know we’re a close-knit Italian family, but relax! This has got nothing to do with Frankie.’ Not directly, Rocco thought, but he did hope it would have a knock-on effect to her happiness.

Now he had Ben’s attention.

‘I know you work in television, doing political shows, but do you know anyone who does entertainment?’

‘Yeah, a few.’

‘And when I say entertainment, I mean the kind of shallow reality entertainment.’

Ben continued to nod. ‘Yeah.’

‘You met Jay, right?’

Ben smiled. ‘Jay Costello, yes I did.’

‘He’s going through a divorce. He’s also trying to…’ Rocco looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. ‘Can this be off the record?’

‘I’m not a journalist.’

‘Okay, well, don’t tell anyone, but the guys from Drive With Care all want out. It’s complicated because Jay’s wife, who he’s in the middle of divorcing, is the daughter of someone high up in their record company.’

Ben sucked his teeth. ‘Messy.’

‘Very. Now, the record label guy is playing hardball because his darling daughter wants to get back with Jay.’ Rocco knew this for a fact as this little bit of information had come straight from Rocco’s father, which in turn was direct from Harris himself. Roman d’Arcy was a notorious bastard and even worse when the happiness of his only child was involved.

‘Okay. Shouldn’t they be having marriage guidance?’

‘No, because Jay doesn’t want to and his estranged wife only wants to get back together because some channel has said they’d make a documentary of them going through lots of weird dippy shit therapy.’

Although Rocco’s meeting with Sienna in the chemists had been painful, it had also been useful as it gave Rocco a glimmer of an idea on how he could possibly be of help to Jay.

‘You see, Astrid d’Arcy is desperate to get a television series. She’s some kind of influencer.’

Ben got out his phone and started searching her name. ‘Astridarling?’

‘That’s her.’

Ben sat up slightly. ‘Wow, she’s got a lot of followers.’

‘Now, I’m thinking that if someone were to offer her a different kind of series, one that was more focused on life after divorce where she is looking for love again, she might get Daddy to lay off Jay in the band contract debacle. She could visit different types of gurus to help her find love. A different one each episode. Like a shaman, or a white witch for a love potion. Even goat yoga to open up chakras or whatever?’

Ben laughed.

‘Do you think something like this could work?’

‘To be honest, I haven’t a clue, but I’ll ask around. She’s clearly photogenic, has a lot of followers, as well as a sob story to sell. And her father is an interesting character.’

The way Ben said “interesting”, Rocco knew it wasn’t meant as a compliment.

‘There’s been rumours floating around about Roman d’Arcy for a while. He’s an unsavoury character and has been sidling up with some politicians in a cash for questions kind of way. If it’s leverage your friends need, there might be more than one angle at play here, if you let me ask around a little?’