Page 17 of The Perfect Blend
“I mean, looking at the pictures now, what am I going to say when I’m judging? ‘This one is nice and sparkly’ or ‘I love this unnatural shade of green’,” The disembodied voice continued to complain and I inched further around the stall, pretending to be browsing the Christmas tree ornaments, mentally straining to figure out who this man could be. The stall owner smiled at me, and I smiled faintly back, before another potential customer distracted them. What was the owner of this voice, apparently a judge of the animal grooming competition, doing hiding behind someone else's stall?
“Ah, come on Isaac,” said another voice, one I definitely knew, “you’re not really judging, that’s your co-judges area of expertise. You’re just acelebrityjudge. Smile and tell people they have a lovely pet.” I recognised this voice in a heartbeat, I’d certainly heard it down the phone often enough this past week.
What on earth wasZach Spencerdoing hiding behind a stall with a celebrity judge of an animal grooming competition? Would this man ever stop surprising me?
“Doesn’t it all seem a little ridiculous?” the judge said, and I wondered why Zach was apparently friends with a guy who would complain like this about a fun small town competition. “And look what’s just been added!” I glanced at the board and felt my stomach drop a little when I saw the photo the staff were currently pinning to the board. It was Ruby. We were about twenty feet from the board but she was pretty unmistakable.
“Is that a poodle groomed and dyed to look like Father Christmas? Christ, as if it wasn’t bad enough for the poor dog to suffer its owner using them like a piece of fashion, they get made to look ridiculous too! It takes a special kind of person to be invested in all this stuff, I regret saying yes to partaking in this whole farce.”
My stomach did a little flip, and I felt my indignation rise up that someone could be so snobbish and rude. How dare he look down on these people's hard work, they had put time and energy into their grooming and this guy was just sneering at it all? And the fact that he would be one of the people judging their work too! It was a good job Zoe didn’t over hear this because celebrity or not, they’d find themselves quickly put in their place.
“Well, you can always change your mind, I’m sure we wouldn’t be too inconvenienced if you decided it was all just too much for you,” said a voice loudly and acerbically from behind my shoulder.
I nearly groaned. Before the guys on the other side of the tree could begin searching for the person addressing them, Zoe had stomped past me, a bright red and white Ruby prancing happily alongside her, sparkles in her fur. The pawfect Mrs Santa Claws. Zoe must have come over after the photoshoot and I had been too engrossed to notice. Goodness knows how much she had heard. I couldn’t very well let her face this one alone, especially with Zach just round the corner. I slunk after her just as she began to lay into the mysterious celebrity judge.
“There’s no need for a judge who can’t take the competition seriously,” she stood right in front of the two men, head tilted up to glare at the guy who wasn’t Zach. “And the competition has no need for some washed up TV vet, not even a real animal practitioner, to be slandering them when they’ve put themselves out there for some Christmas fun.”
It suddenly struck me why I recognised the voice. That was a soft Scottish accent - it was Isaac Moore, the TV vet. First famous from the rebooted TV show Animal Hospital, he was now a regular feature on multiple shows. He was also well known for being extremely good looking; he had a fan club and everything. Sharon's Mum, my Aunty Eileen, was smitten with him, much to my Uncle Bert’s displeasure. Looking at Mr Isaac Moore now, he was actually even better looking in person. Slightly smaller than Zach, but stockier build, combined with features you might find modelling for Armani, he was shockingly good looking; it was almost hard to take your eyes off of him. Shame his personality was so ugly, apparently.
“It might be someone’s first competition out there,” Zoe continued, really laying into him, “and how would they feel if they heard someone like you sneering at their work. This is a competitive arena that cares deeply for their animals, Mr Moore, perhaps you should have done some research before moving your most esteemed VIP arse over here to judge.”
I peeked over her head and sheepishly met Zach’s eyes. He looked like a gentleman farmer in a period drama: smart coat, flat cap and handsome features. It was almost like déjà vu, meeting him in the heat of an argument, but unlike our first meeting, there was definitely no misunderstanding here. I’d been on the receiving end of a telling off from Zoe before, It was best just to let her get it out of her system. But Isaac didn’t know that, and he opened his mouth, stoking the fire in polite, velvet tones.
“Apologies, Ms?”
“Simmons, Zoe Simmons.”
“Ms Simmons. I believe I am entitled to my private opinions shared with a friend. I wish you the best of luck. Excuse me, but I need to set up for the competition.”
With that, he walked off, not leaving any space for Zoe to respond. She stood there for half a second, and I couldfeelthe rage simmering off her. I watched her cautiously. Suddenly she spun, cheeks flushed red, and opened her mouth wide,
“Arse-” her shout aborted mid vowel as I lunged for her, covering her mouth before she said something she might regret.
“Come on Zoe, come on now. He is indeed a massive piece of work, but you didn’t put the time and effort into making Ruby so magnificent, just to get disqualified over this. Take a breath, think it through, then take Ruby over and win the competition just to spite him.” I spoke quickly, then removed my hand from her mouth.
Angrily, she pressed her lips together. The one thing Zoe couldn’t stand more than anything was being looked down on. The second most hated thing on her list was unfinished business. I hoped she could let this one go for now.
She nodded her head, took a breath and gave my hand a squeeze.
“I’m good. Come on Ruby, let's go make that bastard extremely uncomfortable.”
Off she went, leaving me with Zach. He was still just as handsome as the last time I saw him, eyes just as arresting as they took me in. I was flattered to see his gaze flick up and down, giving me a quick once over. Yes, I did look rather good today, didn’t I, Mr. Business Partner.
“Friend of yours?” I asked wryly, as Beanie trotted over to him to say hello.
“Old friend,” he replied, offering an apologetic smile as he bent to pet her. “Sorry for the offence caused. He’s not usually this bad I swear, he’s just been through a rough patch recently.”
“Hmm.Imight be able to give him the benefit of the doubt for his rudeness, but Zoe won’t ever let this go.”
He straightened up. “I can’t say I blame her. Zoe’s your dog groomer friend you mentioned, right?”
I had brought her up in conversation a couple of days ago when we were discussing possible stalls for the market. It wasn’t traditional to have services rather than just goods at markets like that, but I thought it could work for services offering gift packages. “That’s right. She’s actually fantastic at what she does. It might seem silly to you, but there’s a whole industry out there that few people know a lot about.”
“I can tell, and I’m truly sorry about the whole debacle. I hope your friend doesn’t take it to heart, and I hope you aren’t hurt also.” He did look very apologetic. A sly thought entered my mind.
“Oh. I don’t know, are youtrulysorry?” I teased.
He took the cap off his head and held it with his hands in front of him, eyes mournful as he looked at me. “Truly, I am incredibly sorry for any insult given. Is there any way in which I could rectify this slight?”
