thrusting at my trainer, his tail quivering in excitement.
‘Enough,’ I said, swiping his phone away from me. ‘I can’t bear it.’
‘But you’re an internet star!’
‘Eugene, I do not wish to be an internet star because a dog fancied my shoe. I don’t want to be an internet star anyway, but I definitely don’t want to be one for this.’
The door jingled as Zach swept through it.
‘Morning, you viral sensation, what a triumph! The Instagram account has been tagged about a million times, look…’ He walked towards us and held his phone out.
‘I don’t want to see,’ I said primly, opening the drawer for the Stanley knife.
‘Oh come on, it’s funny!’ said Zach. ‘Eugene, back me up.’
‘Not interested,’ I replied, running the blade across the packing tape. ‘I knew interviewing her would be a disaster and now look what’s happened.’
‘It’s not a disaster,’ insisted Zach. ‘We couldn’t have paid for this kind of publicity. It’s amazing! And it’s all thanks to you. You and a horny pug, anyway.’
‘I don’t want to hear another word about it,’ I said. I could feel my cheeks burning again. It was all Zach’s fault. If he hadn’t started working here, there wouldn’t have been the event, and if there wasn’t the event, I wouldn’t be all over the internet being violated by a dog.
He changed the subject. ‘I like your sister!’
‘I don’t want to hear about that, either.’
I felt Zach and Eugene exchange looks behind my back and carried on lifting books out of the box.
‘OK, if anyone needs me, I’m going to sift through my photos from last night,’ Zach announced. He thudded downstairs and I glared over my shoulder at Eugene, who was still looking at his phone with a grin.
‘Do you want to help me with these?’ I snapped, gesturing at the boxes.
He looked up from his screen of memes as if I’d just caught him sneaking a tenner from the till and slid his phone into his pocket.
‘How was the pub?’ I asked a few minutes later, trying to sound carefree while running the knife along another strip of brown tape with the intensity of a murderer.
‘Fine. Had a few shots and went home again.’
‘Nothing I should know about? No gossip?’
Eugene looked up at me blankly. ‘What sort of gossip?’
‘Never mind,’ I replied, reflecting how fortunate it was that he worked for a bookshop and not the security services.
By lunchtime, the situation hadn’t improved. Nor had my mood. If anything, both had worsened. As the memes had spread on Twitter, the shop front had come under siege from Fumi and Percy fans taking pictures outside. They posed individually and in groups, making the peace sign with their fingers underneath the Frisbee Books Ltd sign. A few of them dared come into the shop and ask if I’d be in their photo with them. The fifth time I was asked this, by a lanky boy in a Superdry T-shirt, I stomped downstairs. Zach was sitting at his laptop editing photos.
‘This is a nightmare and it needs to stop,’ I said.
He spun in his chair and stretched his hands back behind his head. ‘Listen, I’m sorry you’re upset but it’s great for the shop and it’ll all blow over in a couple of days.’
‘That’s it, is it? That’s your answer to me being harassed all morning? I’m a national laughing stock, Zach!’
He sighed and puffed out his cheeks. ‘Why don’t you go home early? Eugene and I can manage. Go home and have a drink tonight. By tomorrow it’ll be old news.’
‘Fine,’ I said. Normally my sense of duty would make me feel guilty about sloping off early but today I couldn’t give a fig. I marched back upstairs.
‘I’m off,’ I said to Eugene, reaching for my bag from behind the till. ‘See you Monday.’
I opened the door feeling like a celebrity who has to leave their hotel and face banks of waiting paparazzi and fans outside. Except there were only two girls standing there, giggling as one extended her arm to take a selfie of them both, and they didn’t notice me. Still, as I started walking home, I was livid. And I blamed Zach entirely.
Chapter Six
RORY HAD EMAILED ME a list of items to bring for our country weekend with his parents. It included wellington boots, a waterproof coat and something ‘smart’ for the evening. This panicked me into borrowing a strapless red dress from Mia.
‘Is it not a bit… red?’ I said, looking doubtfully in her full-length mirror that night.