Invisible string (Robin Le Normand)

Chapter 3

"Do you know what's sad?", asked the guy on the video to anyone watching it. "Thinking you found a new favourite author only to then realise she just got lucky when she wrote the first book. Leire Aguirre should be ashamed of this book she's about to publish. How on Earth did she write this crap novel and sent it to an editor? And how did the editor not burn it and move to the next? The characters are unbearable, the writing is subpar and making one of the female characters so bitchy is so sexist. Like...it's 2024! I want strong female characters not a dumb bitch and a...well, and a bitch".

Leire rolled her eyes. Yes, calling women bitches was mega-feminist. But who cared? This person had so many followers on TikTok and his video had already gotten almost a million views. How could it be that her book had flopped before it was even published?

"It'll be ok", said Gorka when he noticed the tears in Leire's eyes.

"It won't. The reviews for my last book weren't the best either and now this...no one is going to buy this book".

"That's nonsense, Leire. This is just one video".

"One video with a million views!"

Gorka knew that Leire was right. They had sent an ARC to this specific person because of how many followers he had. Also, he usually did pretty positive reviews, mostly of big authors. He didn't have the balls to insult New York Times best-selling authors...but insulting a smaller author like Leire was easier. He even seemed to be having a great time while doing it.

"Maybe we can reach out to other channels with big follower counts and ask them to do good reviews. In exchange for something...".

"I can't pay people to do positive reviews of my books", reminded him Leire. "It's unethical. And probably illegal".

"Then...".

"Then what?"

"Fake date him".

Leire knew who Gorka meant and couldn't believe what he was saying. "I'm not doing that. And what do you mean fake dating? You wanted me to be friends with Robin again not to date him".

"Then just hang out with him again and let people assume things".

It was people assuming things that ruined what they had once. She couldn't do it twice. But then she read the comments people were leaving on the TikTok video. Leire had to laugh whenever someone said they wouldn't read the book if it wasn't feminist. Performative activism drove her mad. Demanding "strong female characters" that could only look one way proved those people didn't understand women and didn't care to learn to understand them. Priscila, her newest book's main character wasn't a dumb bitch. She was introverted and had plenty of reasons to act the way she did all throughout the novel. She wasn't weak and her character development showed that. A woman didn't have to literally punch people or raise her voice all the time in order to be strong.

The other female character, Yoana, wasn't a bitch either. She was a troubled woman with a complicated past whose trauma led her to kind of be stuck in the mind of a 9-year-old while she was actually 28. Her actions might seem harsh at first but it was clear by the end of the book that there was a reason for how she acted and that she felt remorse, even if she didn't apologize. But people like the ones saying they wouldn't read her book because it didn't have the "right female characters" would never understand complex women. So Leire's books weren't for them either. But she couldn't really say that out loud if she wanted people to buy her books.

"I worked so hard on this book...trying to get all the characters right...for that. For a stupid guy who thinks it's fun to try and ruin someone's career to do that. Selling books is my job! It's what puts food on my plate. It's not a fucking joke!"

"I'm sorry, Leire. The book is great. This is the only bad review. Think about the other ones".

"The other ones don't have 1 million views", she repeated.

"We'll fix it".

But she understood there was only one quick way to fix it before the book came out in three weeks. Leire's first book got a huge boost in sales when a group of footballers were seen holding the book on social media. And they had the book in the first place because Robin bought one copy for each of them because he wanted them to read his friend's book. He was even more famous now so...

"I'll do it".

"We can find another way", told her Gorka. But Leire shook her head.

"No. I'll just sell my soul to the devil. It seems to be the only way to get what you want nowadays".

Robin hadn't fully forgotten about the offer that his agent made to Leire. It was humbling to be rejected, especially by Leire. He had imagined Jesús showing up to say she had changed her mind a few times. So when he did, Robin almost pinched his arm to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"She now said yes".

"Who said yes?"

"Leire", deadpanned Jesús like it was just the most normal conversation they had ever had.
"I thought she had said no".

"Yeah, but there was some drama on booktok because of her book".

"Booktok?"

"Yes, like TikTok but for books".

"I didn't know that app existed", said Robin.

"It's not an app. It's on TikTok. Just people talking about books".

Well, he was on TikTok so he would have to find that review later to see how damning it was. But Leire had said yes. To what exactly?

"What is going to happen then? I haven't spoken to her in two years".

"She's moving to Madrid and you'll be a good best friend and let her stay in your house".

"What?"

Robin got up from the sofa and started to pace around the room. He couldn't go from not speaking to Leire for so long to literally living with her.

Jesús was trying to understand Robin's reaction fully. It would be helpful for him, as an agent, to really understand the nuances of Leire and Robin's relationship. He didn't have much to work with for now.

"She'll be doing a lot of promo for the book here and will need a place to stay. She'll mention it in interviews how she's staying with her good friend and you'll have to prove it with some posts on social media".

"She could just take the photos and then go to a hotel".

"Robin", sighed Jesús. "The fewer the amount of lies told, the easier this will be".

"I guess".

"She'll have to attend matches too. We don't even need you to do much except for being near each other. Social media will do its magic".

"How does that help me?", asked Robin. So far it seemed it was all about helping Leire, which he was fine with but...he was promised something else.

"Well, you'll be seen with a beautiful and smart woman who writes books instead of being caught by the police when you look drunk so...you tell me who this will help you, buddy".

"Right".

The moment Jesús left the house, Robin started to check all the rooms to see what needed to be tidied up, cleaned, ...the guest room should be fine. He hadn't had any visits since the last time the cleaner was there.

Thinking about Leire was going to drive him mad. So he didn't fully stop doing it but changed the subject of his thoughts slightly. Picking up his phone again, Robin opened the TikTok app to try and find the review that had caused this mess and he found it easily. 1.8 million views...that wasn't good.

"Bullshit...bullshit...this is all bullshit".

None of the things said in that review made sense to Robin. He had read Leire's books but he had also read many stories she never published. Once, Leire wrote a story just for him, which he still kept. He could never get rid of it.

But what this so-called reviewer said made no sense. So Robin decided to report his video for targeted harassment. Could he also get his account deleted somehow? He was about to find out.