“What’s up, Kaia? You don’t usually come this way?”
“Nothing. Hey, walk with me to the market, will you?”
“Okay?”
She loops her arm in mine, and I put my earbuds away.
“How’s the job hunt going?” she asks and leads me down the road towards Camden Lock.
“We live together, Kaia. I talk to you every day.”
“But maybe something new happened today.”
“I applied for the animation studio role this morning,” I say. My excitement feels genuine, finally. It seems like a legitimate route for me after everything I learned at Infinio. It’s a low-level role, but it could be a new start.
“That’sgreat.”
“How’s your big new secret project going?” I ask. Kaia and the others have all been working extra hours lately, and it makes me miss the office even more. But at least I’ve been drawing, which calms my mind, when I’m not studying for my job interviews.
“Oh, my, what is that?” Kaia says instead of answering me.
I follow her hand and look up.
There’s a new billboard above the Japanese restaurant on the corner of Camden Market and the high street. It’s an illustration of Robin Hood and Alice in Wonderland. I stare at it. Robin and Alice aren’t naturally together.
“What the actual fuck.”
I look at Kaia, but she’s picked up her phone and isn’t even looking.
When I turn back to the billboard, it changes to a man. An exquisite man who’s almost naked, except for what looks like thousands of tiny flowers in front of his private parts. He’s got a playful look on his face. That crooked smile makes my heart jump.
“Mark?”
I turn to Kaia again, and she’s pointing her phone at the billboard.
“What is going on?”
“Read the bloody billboard, lady,” Kaia says, and I look back. I hadn’t even noticed there were words on there.
The screen goes back to Robin and Alice.
“Should Alice forgive Robin for being an absolute twat?” I read out loud. “Can you write twat on a billboard?”
“That’s the part you care about?”
“I—” Before I can answer, my mind is all scrambled, the billboard switches back to the near-naked Mark. There’s a QR code on this screen, and it says ‘scan to vote and watch the flowers disappear—get a free teaser of our upcoming gameWorldBuilder’.
“No fucking way.”
“I’m voting,” Kaia says.
“Show me.” I watch her click through the website and confirm she’s over eighteen, then Mark appears on her screen. The words under his picture make my heart swell, and I take Kaia’s phone from her to read.
CEO Mark Becker has always avoided the public eye, but to win back the heart of the woman he loves, he’d do anything. Should she give him a second chance?
Vote ‘yes’to remove one flower and donate £1 to ‘Save the Bees’ charity.
Vote ‘no’ to keep the flowers where they are.
