Maya waits nervously in a buzzing reception area as big faces of big TV stars look down on her from digital walls. The Doctor incumbent points at her from the largest, most fanfare-like spot in the lobby.
She picks up a copy of the staff newspaper and flicks through. A familiar face shines on page three.
Nena Oliveira is the new face of Children’s…
‘Oh put that down!’
Seemingly the photo can talk.
‘Look at you! All grown-up!’ says Maya, turning to the figure standing over her.
They hug. The smudgings of Nena’s DIY clown make-up are long gone: sleek but heavily applied gold sparkles line her eyes and her red lips have been toned down with a blush beige. The apples of her cheeks look rosier than ever. Nena is a girl who doesn’t need make-up, and with so much on she looks like a cartoon caricature of herself.
‘I look ridiculous! Let’s get outta here.’
‘Hang on, you have to take a picture of me in front of that, my nephews will go nuts.’ Maya points to the blue telephone box down the hall and gives the man on the wall a quick glance to see if he’s still disapproving.
‘You’re such a tourist,’ Nena scoffs as she glides across the shiny reception floor in her Bloch ballerina flats, hair swishing independently behind her. She takes her phone out of her pocket. ‘Come on then!’ she whispers urgently, worried that Maya’s starry eyes might embarrass the new star signing.
Maya stands in front of the Tardis and beams for her nephews.
‘Want me to take one of both of you?’ leans in a tall man wearing a flat cap and a superhero smile. His pale, penetrating eyes shine.
‘Erm, no!’ Nena snaps. ‘I mean, thanks, but no, it’s just my friend here seems to be a geek – I’ve known her almost ten years and I didn’t know that.’
Is it me or is Nena flustered?
Maya didn’t know Nena could look flustered in front of a man. Where is the purring girl who would have guys falling at her dancing feet while she tangoed them into a spin?
Tom extends a confident hand. ‘Hi Nena’s friend, I’m Tom, her…’
‘My boss.’ Brown apples go rosy as Nena twists her hair into rope at the side of her cheek.
‘Hi Nena’s boss, I’m Maya,’ Maya says with wide, gossipy eyes.
‘We were just heading out to get a bite to eat,’ interjects Nena, gold eyeliner fluttering like the wings of a hummingbird.
‘That’s cool, I’m off to get Arlo. Maya, great to meet you – and can I say, your friend is AMAZING. Never been on camera and she just lit up the studio. Nena – the controller came to watch and she thought you were brilliant. We all did.’
‘That’s my girl,’ beams Maya brightly.
‘Thank you,’ Nena smoulders modestly. She had a feeling it had gone well.
‘When can I catch her on air?’ asks Maya excitedly.
‘January. New Year, new look, new talent.’ Tom looks towards Nena proudly and pauses before remembering himself. ‘Anyway, I shall leave you beautiful ladies to your dinner, I have to go. Maya, it’s a pleasure,’ Tom nods at Maya then cups her hands in his as an affirmation that it really was lovely to meet Nena’s best friend. He then turns to Nena, gives her a nod but doesn’t say anything. He walks out hastily through revolving doors, into the dark evening illuminated by the Christmas lights of Regent Street.
‘Well he’s lovely,’ gushes Maya as she gives Nena a knowing look.
‘I know. And he’s my boss. And he has a kid,’ Nena sighs and a little crinkle appears in that flawless forehead of hers.
Maya offers a consolatory arm and Nena threads her hand through it. The girls head out of the revolving doors, following Tom’s path down Regent Street only they’re heading towards their favourite Thai restaurant, past the giant illuminated robins silently flapping over Carnaby Street.
*
‘How’s the new pad?’ asks Nena, as she slides into her seat on the bench at a shared square table with the agility of a limbo dancer.
‘Lovely. Quiet! I didn’t realise how much background noise Jacob made. On the phone to Amelia, listening to the radio while he cooks, watching Stargazing Live on catch-up…’ Maya pauses thoughtfully. ‘The quiet’s a bit weird actually, but it’s nice to have my own space and not feel like I’m in the way. Even though Jacob never said I was. And I can make macarons at midnight if I want to.’
Glitter-lined eyes roll. ‘Jeez Maya, is that what you get up to when the rest of the world is partying?’
Maya raises her chopsticks and stops. ‘We can’t all enjoy sexual gymnastics with three guys at a time.’
Fellow diners squished on corners either side of them look up. Maya takes a bite and lime leaf and chilli buzz in her mouth.
‘Hang on!’ protests Nena, dropping a piece of stir-fried cod. She turns her voice to a shouty whisper. ‘I never shag more than one guy at a time!’ Nena scrabbles to pincer the cod back up. ‘Anyway,’ she says returning to a normal volume, ‘Tony’s going back to New York on actual Christmas Day, so I’m not even sure if I’ll see him again now I’m not doing the show. He has eight shows a week for the next two weeks. And Liam… well…’
‘Liam? I thought he was called Pete!’
‘Oh Pete was the plumber, Liam’s the electrician. It was over with Pete ages ago.’
‘What about Tom? He’s gorgeous.’
‘And he’s my boss. And he has Arlo. Who is equally gorgeous – but no. Not going there. Anyway, what about Train Man?’ Nena switches the subject as deftly as she switches the bowls around so she can try some of Maya’s smoked chicken noodles.
‘I love him.’
‘So why don’t you talk to him?’ pleads a friendly face. Nena can’t comprehend why Maya doesn’t.
‘I can’t. I see him every day. I see what he reads. I glance at his beautiful face. And I’m silenced. If I wasn’t too scared to talk to him, I’m not even sure I physically could, he is that mind-blowingly beautiful and perfect, I am silenced.’
‘What’s he reading now?’
‘I, Claudius.’
‘Well he’s not that perfect,’ Nena says, as she rolls her eyes and makes a bored faced.
‘He’s perfect.’
Maya looks at a bowl of calamari tangled up in beautiful green bubbles of peppercorn and can’t eat.
‘Well why don’t you ask him out for a Christmas drink as you’re getting off the train in the morning?’
‘Mulled wine at 8.52 a.m. is excessive, even for you Nena.’
Nena sucks up a noodle.
‘I thought about giving him a mince pie and a Christmas card on the train, of putting my number in the card, but Sam at work said that if a stranger on the train gave him a mince pie and a Christmas card he’d think she was a nutjob.’
‘You make good mince pies.’
‘Come to Hazelworth, see my new flat, I’ll make some especially.’ Maya feels needy.
Nena doesn’t acknowledge the invitation. ‘Oh fuck it, just slip him your number, girl. I do it all the time and guys do NOT think it’s weird.’