A Week With Ray Summers

One

 I took a risk taking the job at Magnify. It was a brand new magazine when I applied. There was no certainty as to whether it would be a success. The pay was less than my other job back then, but they were keen to have me on the team, and something about it enticed me. I’d never really followed celebrity gossip closely, but the idea of getting up close and personal with them was exciting. I quit my job at the local newspaper and stopped playing safe. I went for the job at Magnify and never looked back. It’s now regarded the best magazine in Britain for celebrity gossip.

 But that’s not the reason I’m glad I took the job. It’s more the people I met there. And one person in particular comes to mind.

 It was the 1st of May. The start of a new month and a new project. I was up early, though I didn't have to be at the office until ten. Celebrities always seem to be late starters, anyway, so I've never had to worry about keeping them waiting. I made breakfast for me and Jamie: waffles and syrup. He came out of the bedroom at seven, punctual as always. He always stuck to his schedule: he'd be out the house by seven thirty on the dot to catch the seven forty five train. Five minutes walking time, five minutes to queue for tickets, five minutes to spare. He sat at his place at the table, dressed smartly in his blue suit. He never came downstairs in his pyjamas. I planted a kiss on his lips. He tasted of morning Jamie. Of toothpaste.

 "Morning," I said. I'd learnt the art of having his breakfast ready for the moment he sat down. I placed his waffles in front of him and he smiled.

 “Morning, sweetheart,” he said “Busy day?”

 “Hopefully!” I said. My job usually was hard work, though often equal parts fun. My column “A Week With…” featured in the magazine once a month. It took up over ten pages of the magazine, which meant a lot of writing, and quite some pressure. I didn’t mind though. I was on my way that day to meet the newest celebrity the magazine had snared to be interviewed. They got all the messy Terms and Agreements stuff out of the way for me the day before, so I could get started right away. My job? To spend the next week with the celebrity, getting into all the nooks and crannies of their lives, and then to write an excruciatingly personal article about their daily routines.

 Being nosy as I am, I love my job.

 “How about you? Busy day at the bank?”

 “It’s a Saturday, so should be. Will you be home for dinner?”

 “Not sure yet. It depends,” I said vaguely. It depends on who I interview, normally. Some of them tend to suck up to me and take me out places to get me to give them good press. Others, on the other hand, have a bad reputation to keep up. They were the ones I saw least of during interviewing weeks. I hadn’t been told who my next assignment was, so I had no way of knowing. I was hoping for a flatterer. They were much nicer to work with.

 Conversation stunted after that. It always did at breakfast. Jamie wasn’t a morning person, really. His brain didn’t start functioning properly until he’d drank his morning coffee. But I didn’t mind. It was enough to see him in the mornings.

 After breakfast, Jamie continued to get ready for work while I ambled through my waking up process. On the first day of interviews, I was always given a tour of the celebrity’s house, and then we’d sit down to discuss trivial things about their work and love life. The second day was all about photo shooting (though I always kept my camera around for good photo opportunities.) After that, it was up to the interviewee what we did. That was when the fun started. Since being at the job, I’ve been to concerts, funfairs, wine tastings, fancy dinners, and even on the red carpet once.

 For that reason, I always struggle picking out clothes. Balancing professional, chic, cheap, appropriate and comfy is not easy. I have to look like I fit in. In the end, I picked out a black blazer over a white shirt, accompanied by grey checked trousers and a pair of heels. The heels didn’t fit under the category of comfy, but hey, you can’t have it all. I picked out my favourite black handbag to carry my laptop, camera and a spare notepad and pen as a back up.

 I was out of the house by eight. I walk to work most days when I’m writing, though sometimes I cycle, depending on what I’m wearing. Normally for the interviews, I have to do a week trip to their hometown, but I was told the celebrity I would be working with lived locally, within ten miles. I never asked my boss who the celebrity was. I liked the surprise when I met them.

 With the celebrity being local, it had been decided we’d meet at my office building. I ambled slowly through Liverpool, up Covent Garden and to Chapel Street to where the Magnify office building was built. It’s been moved to London now, but Magnify was born in Liverpool, the city of the Beatles and art and creativity.

 Jamie always said that Liverpool was an acquired taste. Like cinnamon or Jo Brand. But I had fell in love with Liverpool the moment I arrived. Jamie and I had been together a while, and he wanted me to move in with him. I’d been to Liverpool before then, but living there was different. I loved the high rising buildings. I loved shopping in Liverpool One, where there is a huge book store, five times the size of the one in my hometown. I loved working in the city. I even loved the shabby parts of Liverpool, where the only things available are run down pubs and cheap nightclubs. I kind of like trashy every now and then.

 The Magnify office building was a big glass construction with blue tinted windows. The busy staff members could be seen running around past the windows as the day got busier, and it always made me smile. I’ve always liked a busy work atmosphere. It makes me feel like I’m working hard.

 I headed inside, greeting Simon on the front desk with a wave and grabbing a coffee from the machine, before getting in the lift and pressing for floor six. Editorial.

 What I wasn’t expecting when I got there was my boss, Gordon Grove, to be waiting for me. Yet there he was, anxiously checking his watch. The second he saw me, he grabbed my wrist and began pulling me along.

 “You didn’t answer your calls!” he said, speeding up. I frowned.

 “I…is there something wrong?”

 “Let’s just say this lady doesn’t like to wait. She’s been here nearly an hour. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil the surprise. You’ll get to meet her soon enough.”

 I stumbled on my heels, not prepared to walk as fast as we were going. We kept going down the blue carpeted hallway, past the toilet block and the store cupboards, into the open office space at the end of the hall, where all the desks for the Editorial team were. Sat at a desk with her back to me, I could see a woman dressed in red. She was wearing a red silk headscarf.

 "She's here!" Gordon said. He sounded a little nervous. Meanwhile, my heart was thumping hard in my ribcage. I knew who was sat before me. Ray Summers turned her chair around and lowered her sunglasses from her eyes with a disappointed raise of her eyebrows.

 "There you are!" she said, pursing her lips "I've been waiting for hours!"