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Chapter Four

‘But, baby, you’re spending all your time with those dull animals.’ Yvette pouted at him.

‘Some of them are actually pretty cool. It was really awesome when we got the cat back to her family — the little girl had been really worried about her.’

‘It’s just a cat.’ Yvette rolled her eyes. ‘And you didn’t even vid it.’

It hadn’t seemed right to record a crying child — but he wasn’t going to try explaining that to her, so changed tack. ‘I didn’t, but you saw how much love the one with Ernie got.’ He grinned, thinking of his donkey friend. The way the donkey grinned, stomped and rolled his eyes, whistling whenever he saw Rick, made him feel warm and gooey inside. It was very clear he’d decided that he liked Rick, and wanted his attention. It was a little odd to Rick, used to only getting likes and follows in response to carefully planned, edited and sometimes even . . . not scripted, exactly, but maybe a little staged videos. Whereas he was sure Ernie didn’t give a stomp about social media. When he’d tried to show Ernie his own video during a break, the donkey had hawed in what he was convinced was laughter, then mouthed Rick’s hair.

‘You’re not even listening to me, are you?’ Yvette stamped her foot. Rick struggled not to compare her behaviour to Ernie’s, and briefly found himself thinking it was cute when the little donkey did it.

‘Sorry, babe, I’m just tired.’

‘You’re always tired.’ Again the pout. ‘And you’re no fun anymore. You just want to sit around and Netflix — you didn’t even want to chill last night!’

‘The sanctuary is hard work.’

‘I thought you said it would just be cute fuzzy animals with lots of reel potential.’

He couldn’t remember saying that, but wasn’t in the mood to argue, so just shrugged. ‘I guess I was wrong.’ He shot her one of his best smiles. ‘I have just had the best idea. Why don’t you come down to the sanctuary one day? Then you can meet the animals and see some of the work Angela does. It really is quite amazing.’

‘Can’t you just quit?’ She ignored him. ‘It’s not like they’re paying you.’

He sighed heavily. ‘You know I can’t. It’s court-ordered.’

‘So?’

‘So,’ he explained very slowly, ‘I have to do it. If not, they might send me to jail.’

‘You’d probably be happier to see me if you were in jail.’ She huffed and slammed out of the room, swishing her hair back and forth. He found himself thinking that she must have put a lot of effort into stomping up the stairs to make the lights rattle and flicker as much as they did. He sighed and opened up his computer to edit and upload his latest vids.

Barely ten minutes later the lights rattled again as Yvette all but threw herself down the stairs.

‘I can’t believe you! I can’t believe you would let me go off upstairs so upset and not even bother to come after me!’

What the hell? ‘Yvette, I thought you went upstairs because you were mad with me and didn’t want to be near me. I was just trying to give you some space.’

‘You want space from me? Is that it? What type of man upsets a woman and then leaves her to cry by herself?’

Even while he struggled to explain himself, part of him gave a mental thumbs up to her latest make-up sponsor. If she really had been crying — and why would he doubt her? — her mascara was still flawless.

‘But if you really loved me, you wouldn’t want to see me upset at all,’ she reasoned, flicking her long extensions over her shoulder, doing that thing with her arms that made her boobs pop out.

‘You’re right, I’m sorry.’ He reached out to her.

‘Well come on then, you need to get ready.’

‘Ready for what?’

‘The club, silly. I’m going to go change, just as soon as the votes are in on which dress I should wear. They’re both pink — natch — but so, so totally different. Maybe you could wear that salmon shirt I got you for your birthday. You know, the one with the zips and rips. It’s just so on trend.’

‘Yvette . . .’ He pulled away, settling back into the couch that somehow managed to look a lot more inviting and comfortable than it actually was. ‘I told you, I don’t want to go out tonight. I’m really tired. And I need to be at the sanctuary on time tomorrow, and if you’re giving me a lift . . .’

‘Giving. You. A. Lift?’ Her tone was vicious, her usually pretty face pulling into an ugly scowl. ‘Why would you think I’d do that?’

‘Because that was what you’d agreed. You said you’d be happy to help drive me around . . .’

‘Yes, but I didn’t mean like every day. I thought it would just be a couple of days with some content ops.’