Chapter 26

“Does she know about this?” I asked after I’d finished reading the article which had given Julez a real kicking.

Emma shrugged. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. It’s only been up for a few hours so it will depend on just how engrossed in their shopping the girls are. She probably got alerts set up the same as we have, but—”

“Alerts?”

Emma grinned. “You really are a dinosaur, aren’t you, sweetheart? There are various services that allow you to set up an alert—usually by e-mail although some now have phone apps as well—to tell you when someone posts something on the internet containing certain keywords. We have alerts for our names, the company and the titles of our movies. I’d imagine that Julez does something similar, but I can’t say for certain. And I can’t say how she gets those alerts. If she only has a digest e-mail once a day, she probably won’t have had it yet.”

“So that’s how you found the article?” I said.

She nodded. “And I’ve sent the link to Mel and asked her to come home so we can discuss it. But she hasn’t replied. They’re shopping.”

“How much of a problem could this be for us?” I asked.

Emma shrugged. “Difficult to say. It may not be a problem at all, to be honest. You know that old saying that no publicity is bad publicity?”

“Yeah, always thought it had a bit of a double meaning. It’s bad to have no publicity but just because the publicity could be viewed as negative, doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t benefit from it.”

“Exactly,” Emma said. “The second one, that is. Do you remember last year when that idiot politician accidentally—” She made air quotes with her fingers. “—liked Mel’s tweet?”

I nodded. “I remember the scandal but didn’t realise that it was Mel’s tweet.”

“Well, it was before you met her, so I’m not surprised you didn’t put two and two together six months later. Anyway, she played it beautifully, raised her profile within the business, and got some work in the U.S. out of it.”

“So ... you think we could benefit in a similar way?”

She shrugged again. “Who knows. Let’s wait and see. The article mentions me and you by name—”

“Yes, I noticed that. Quite surprised they did.”

“I’m not. Don’t be surprised if you start getting a few abusive tweets sent to you over the next few days from the righteously offended. But really, by using our stage names and mentioning the title of the movie, they may as well have just posted a link to the scene. Mind you, Julez has a link to it on her website, and they have linked to that. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we get another spike in views today. It might even keep the views higher for the next view days rather than the usual tail off we’ve been seeing for a new scene. But there’s really no way of knowing.”

As she finished speaking, the front door opened and Mel called out. “Hey, we’re back!”

“In the lounge, Mel,” Emma replied.

Mel walked past the doorway and looking behind her said, “Go and grab a seat while I get us a drink.” She looked towards me and Emma. “Do either of you want anything?”

“We’ll have whatever you’re having,” Emma said as Julez entered the room and sat in the armchair closest to the sofa that Emma and I were sitting on.

She had a big grin on her face.

“Did you get my text?” Emma asked.

Julez nodded. “I’d already read it. I got an alert and Mel and I read the article while Amber was in the changing room with Dom.”

“Where are the troublesome twosome?” I asked.

Julez shrugged. “Still shopping.”

“You don’t seem very upset or angry about the article,” Emma said.

Julez shrugged again. “Why would I be? The Echo have been looking to take me down for a while now. Ever since I turned down their approach to write a column for them.”

“They offered you a column?” I said.

She nodded. “A few papers have been after me. With the number of subscribers I have on both my blog and my channel, it’s only to be expected. They want me to bring my readers with me, for eyes on the web ads or, heaven forbid, getting my subscribers to buy a physical copy of the paper. I considered a couple, but I wouldn’t touch that filthy gossip rag with a barge pole and I told them so. They’ve been digging away at me ever since looking for some real dirt. So I was expecting this at some point. Hell, I pretty much handed this story to them on a plate. Have you read the comments on the article?”

I shook my head. So did Emma before reaching for her tablet again. She tapped the screen a couple of times.

“Sort the comments so you see the Most Liked comments first,” Julez said.

Emma tapped the screen again and her eyebrows raised about three inches. It wasn’t often I saw my wife surprised. Not much fazed her. But...

“You commented?” Emma said.

Julez shrugged. “Seemed like the polite thing to do. Then, naturally, I tweeted the link to my followers.”

Emma started sliding her finger up the screen to scroll through the comments. “This is unbelievable.”

“Not really,” Julez said, “my subscribers are very loyal and very passionate.”

Emma shook her head and then held out the tablet to me. I read a half dozen of the Most Liked comments and that was enough. Julezella’s fans certainly were loyal. Every comment I read was a passionate defence of their heroine.

“Now sort them by Most Disliked, ” Julez said.

“Is there any point?” I asked. “I’m guessing that any comment critical of you will have been voted down massively.”

Julez shrugged again and smiled. “My subscribers—”

“Are loyal and passionate,” I said. “We get it.” I paused. “So? What now?”

“Well...” Julez said. “Mel and I got talking on the way back and we’ve had an idea. The interview was fun and all, but hanging around with you guys and with the girls in particular last night and this morning has been ... eye-opening. And I was thinking, why don’t you guys create your own channel? You could use the interview we did as the first video and then after that you could do sort of A Day in the Life of a Porn Family sort of things. The title needs some work, but the idea is, I think, sound. It’d work really well. Kind of like the Behind the Scenes video Mel showed me that she made related to your movie—I hadn’t seen it before but really enjoyed it. Obviously, it would need some parts edited out for YouTube, but if you’re careful—a lot more careful than you are with your Twitter, you dirty old man—then it could be a real success.”

Julez was in her element here. This was the world she knew and understood. And it showed.

I looked at Emma who shrugged.

“Seems like a lot of work. A lot of—”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Julez said. “I can help Mel set it up and run it. She’ll make most of the videos and I’ll chip in when I can. All you guys will have to do is speak into the camera sometimes either just before or just after you go on set or when you’re here at home or out and about wherever it is you go and stuff. There’d be hardly any work for you at all really. And I swear, it’ll be worth it. I’ll—”

I held up my hands. “Okay. Okay. Set it up and we’ll see how it goes for a while. A few weeks maybe. Or months. Whatever. Just ... Don’t ask me to do anything technical.”

Julez grinned and looked toward Mel as she came into the room with a tray of cold drinks.

“Mel, they went for it. Well, Dick did and you said he was the one that—”

“Really?” Mel looked at me. “Really? I thought you’d think it was ... I dunno, too mainstream or something, I dunno. But you’ll really let me do it?”

I shrugged. “It’s your business we’re running just as much as mine.”

“Yes, but you’re the majority shareholder. And between the two of you, it’s a big majority.”

“And you’re the expert in this industry,” I looked at Emma, “Both of you.” I looked back at Mel. “And I’ve always said that I’ll be guided by you. If you think it’s a good idea, then I’ll listen. I’ve always told you that. On top of that, we’ve got one of the country’s leading experts in this Vlogging thing or whatever you call it, so if she’s also saying it’s a good idea, then who am I to say otherwise.”

“Oh, thank you!” Mel rushed to put the tray on the coffee table and then came back to me, bent down, took my face in her hands and planted a big kiss on my lips. Then she pulled away and looked into my eyes. “Thank you!”

She was almost immediately pushed out of the way by Julezella, who also bent forward, took my face in her hands and gave a kiss. Then she pulled away, giggled and said, “Yes, thank you.”

“Slut,” Mel said under her breath but loud enough for Julez to hear.

Julez turned her head to Mel and smiled. “And you’d know all about that.”

The two of them then giggled like teenage schoolgirls.

“Come on,” Julez said, taking Mel’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” I asked.