Burning Bright

Chapter 29

Eoin spooned a portion of his dessert into my mouth and said, ‘So, we have some money to raise. How else can we do it?’

‘Mmmm, that is good. So, what sells?’

‘Sex? Oi, don’t I get to taste yours?’

‘Oh. OK. I bet I know what would sell. T-shirts with a picture of you and that tiger cub.’

‘Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Not sure about your dessert, can I taste some more?’

I fought off his spoon with my own. ‘Well, if we can’t get some printed in India, where can we get them? I’m sure someone in the compound will know if you can sort out a good shot. Oi!’ and he sneaked some more of my pudding from under my defences.

It took Eoin about twenty minutes to line up some stills for the T-shirt, and me over an hour to choose from them. In the end, I narrowed it down to three and made Eoin decide. He couldn’t, so we e-mailed them to Moira who reluctantly chose the one which had “the most amount of vomity cuteness” (as she put it) as it would sell the best.

The following morning, we walked across the compound to the shop. Veronique was in the pool and swam over to us. Well, to Eoin. Seeing her, sleek and slim, I had a sudden question mark over what Eoin was doing with me. Eoin asked her if Pierre was at home. He was, so I left Eoin talking to Veronique and asked Pierre if he had any manufacturing contacts. Of course, he did, made a phone call, and set us up a meeting that afternoon with a Mr Noor.

Veronique and Eoin arrived together and I updated Eoin while Veronique went off to shower.

‘Pierre, what do I need to know about, er, copyright, is it? We’ll need to protect the image.’

‘That’ll be the first time I’ve ever done anything to protect my image,’ Eoin commented.

‘Some things can’t be salvaged. But at least we can try to stop this photo being used other than to raise money for the tigers.’

‘OK, Intellectual Property Rights,’ Pierre said, beginning to search through the documents on his laptop. ‘Ah, here it is,’ and he printed off a checklist and ran through it with me as Veronique returned from her shower.

She offered us drinks which we accepted. Obviously bored, Eoin followed her into the kitchen to help, which seemed to consist of him making Veronique laugh and her scold him for being outrageous. Fortunately I couldn’t hear what he said.

Pierre glanced up at me. ‘I should tell Vee she doesn’t stand a chance with him, shouldn’t I?’

‘Erm . . .’

‘You . . . and him?’ he prompted. I nodded. ‘Serious?’ I nodded again. ‘I thought so. In fact, I’ve already said the same to Vee but she wouldn’t believe me.’

‘We were trying to keep it quiet, what with the suspension and the press and everything. I must have given it away.’

‘Oh, it wasn’t you, it was him. Can’t keep his eyes off you when you’re together. And if I could see it, then it must have been pretty obvious. I’ll have another word.’ He was smiling at me, and I suddenly felt more confident about us. That there was an us. 

‘Well, that was easy!’ Eoin said as we walked back to my car after meeting Mr Noor. ‘You know, you are pretty fantastic sorting all that out.’

‘Me? I just asked Pierre.’

‘I meant, in there. All that haggling.’

‘Negotiating, Eoin.’

‘Yes, but . . . you made it sound such a good deal for them while you were mercilessly slashing their prices.’