do it but I’m warning you it’ll cost you dinner some time.’
‘You’re on,’ he said. ‘Dinner it is.’
‘In Paris,’ she added.
He smiled as he hung up the phone.
CHAPTER TWO
THE telephone started to ring as soon as Mia entered her flat. She stared at it for a moment, wondering if she just ignored it she could put off the inevitable for a little while longer.
‘Are you going to get that?’ Gina, her flatmate, called out from the bathroom, her voice muffled by the sounds of tooth-brushing.
Mia picked up the phone. ‘Mia? Is that you?’ her younger sister Ellie’s voice sounded in her ear.
‘Hi, Ellie. Where are you calling from? Are you still in South America? This line is terrible.’
‘I know…’ Ellie said, breathing hard. ‘Listen, Mia, I’m in trouble. Big trouble.’
Mia felt her insides drop between her knees. ‘What’s wrong? Where are you? What’s happened?’
‘I’ve been arrested.’ Ellie let out a little sob.
Mia’s eyes widened in shock and her grip on the phone became white-knuckled. ‘Arrested! What on earth for?’
‘You know that rainforest-logging protest rally I’ve been involved with in Brazil? Well, I got arrested and I need bail money wired over to get me out of here.’
‘Oh, my God!’
‘Please don’t call Mum and Dad,’ Ellie said. ‘I don’t want to ruin their holiday with Jake and Ashleigh.’
‘But we’ll have to call them!’ Mia insisted.
‘No, Mia, please. Dad would have a heart attack on the spot, you know how his doctor told him to take things easy since that last scare.’
‘But what about Jake? He’d gladly help out financially. I just know he would.’
‘No, Mia. Please don’t tell Ashleigh and Jake about this. Ashleigh will be hysterical and it will upset the kids. Promise me you won’t tell.’
Mia was all too aware of her sister’s fierce pride and had no choice but to reluctantly agree. ‘All right, I promise.’
‘Thanks, Mia. Just send me some money via my credit card. I’ve luckily still got that and my passport, although my backpack with my return ticket has been stolen.’
‘How much money do you need?’
Ellie told her and Mia’s stomach threatened to hit the floor this time. ‘I’ll send it as soon as I can,’ she said. ‘It might take me a couple of days to find that kind of money. I have a little in my account but not quite that much.’
‘It’s all right, I’ll manage until you can get it to me,’ Ellie said. ‘I’m so sorry about this. Please don’t tell anyone about it. Not even Gina. I don’t want people to worry for nothing. This will all be sorted out in no time and I can’t bear the embarrassment of having to explain it all ad nauseam when I get back.’
‘What about the Australian Embassy? Should I call them and get them to help?’
‘No, just do as I said, Mia,’ Ellie said. ‘Once that money’s in my credit-card account there’s a guy here who can help me. It’s how things work over here.’
‘I’m so worried about you…’
‘Don’t be, Mia. I’m fine, truly. Look, I’ve got to go. The guard’s making a fuss about the length of the call. I had to bribe him with my last chocolate bar. I’ll call you when I’m free. Love you.’
‘Love you…’Mia stared at the dead phone, her heart sinking in despair. The amount of money Ellie needed wasn’t huge but things had been tight lately and now, with her café job over, if Theodore didn’t keep her with the company things could get rather desperate.
The phone rang again while she was still holding it and she answered it to find Theodore on the other end informing her of his decision to drop her from the company. He cut the conversation short as soon as she began to protest.
‘Sorry, Mia. My investors are threatening to pull out on the deal after that review. Goodbye.’
She couldn’t believe it. Her first foray into live theatre had come to an ignominious end. One bad review and she was back to waiting on tables full-time, except for the fact that, because of this morning’s encounter with Bryn Dwyer, she no longer had any tables to wait on. And with Ellie’s life in danger thousands of kilometres away she had to have money and fast.
She took a deep, calming breath. Right, I just have to find another acting job, she told herself firmly. No matter how small or demeaning it was, she had to find work.
She quickly dialled her agent but the conversation, like the one she’d just had with Theodore, was brusque and just as disheartening.
‘What’s wrong?’ Gina asked on her way past a short time later. ‘You look like you’re about to murder someone.’
‘I am,’ Mia said, gritting her teeth as she searched for her car keys. ‘I’m going to track down the person responsible for making me lose two jobs in one day and tell him exactly what I think of him.’
‘You’ve been dropped from Peach Pie Productions?’ Gina’s eyes went wide.
Mia tossed one of the sofa cushions aside to retrieve her keys. ‘Not just the company but the café as well, and as if that weren’t enough my agent just made some pathetic excuse about being too busy to represent me any more. Grrrrr!’
‘But why?’ Gina asked. ‘I thought you were brilliant last night, no matter what the review in this morning’s paper said.’
‘So you saw what he wrote, did you?’ Mia asked, scowling furiously. ‘God knows who else has seen it and completely written me off as an actor. I can just imagine what everyone is saying. I’m probably the laughing stock of the whole of Sydney by now. No one will ever offer me a role again and as for getting a new agent, who is going to take me on now?’
Gina did her best to be reassuring. ‘Try not to worry, Mia, all actors get bad reviews from time to time. It comes with the territory. Maybe a new agent will be a good thing in the long run.’
Mia ground her teeth without answering. Her worries about Ellie made her anger towards Bryn Dwyer escalate to boiling point. He was responsible for this and he was going to pay—big time.
‘But why did you lose your job at the café? I thought Tony liked having someone nearly famous working there part-time?’
She gave her flatmate another furious scowl. ‘Because I tipped a cup of coffee in a customer’s lap, that’s why.’
‘You mean…’ Gina gave her a wide-eyed look ‘…on
