Free Celebrity Shopper by Carmen Reid

high-heeled shoes, Svetlana would probably still be there doing her guest slots beside her.
    ‘So in the next week or two, hopefully.’ Tamsin was tapping on her notebook, calling up her schedule. ‘We can’t send a whole crew to Paris, way too expensive. I want to come in under budget for these episodes just to impress everyone and up the profit margins. You, Bob and his camera and maybe Amelia – because she can look after just about everything that you two can’t – should go over to Paris for two days and bring us back lots of really exciting footage. Have you recovered from your shopping stalker incident?’
    ‘Oh, she was hardly a stalker,’ Annie protested.
    ‘I’ve looked into the cost of getting you some security,’ Tamsin added.
    Annie’s response to this was an astonished snort, followed by: ‘You have got to be joking me.’
    ‘No. After what happened, I think when you go round the shops for us, you should have someone with you – discreetly. Joe the driver, perhaps, he’s ex-army. But we’ll pay for that. Obviously on your own time, you’ll have to decide what you want to do.’
    ‘No!’ Annie was shocked. ‘Even Svetlana doesn’t have security and she’s loaded.’
    ‘Yeah but you’re a TV star.’
    ‘I am not.’
    ‘You are,’ Tamsin insisted, ‘you’re a celebrity now. What happened with the suicidal lady was scary. What if she’d had a kitchen knife in her handbag instead of packets of pills?’
    ‘Then I’d definitely have made the cover of Pssst! magazine,’ Annie joked.
    ‘That’s bound to come soon,’ Tamsin warned.
    ‘Plain Jane the Brain was harmless, she was just upset,’ Annie said, ‘and I felt quite touched that she thought I could help her.’
    Annie cast her mind back to the fraught changing-room scene. Just as she and the shop assistant had exchanged nervous glances, wondering what on earth they were supposed to do next, Jane’s phone had rung. Annie had decided to pick it up as Jane had been in no state to answer.
    It had been Jane’s sister and as soon as Annie had explained where Jane was and how upset she was, the sister had dropped everything to come and get her.
    Annie had stayed for the forty minutes it had taken for the sister to arrive, curious to see the svelte and pretty contrast who had dressed Jane up as ‘an ugly toad’.
    The sister hadn’t been any prettier at all, which didn’treally surprise Annie. How many sibling rivalries were based on absolutely nothing at all? But you just needed one parent to express a mild preference for one child’s hair or eyes or length of leg and the damage could be done.
    ‘Don’t worry about me,’ Annie assured Tamsin. ‘If things get really bad, I’ll just start wearing a dark wig in public. It’s probably time I discovered my inner goth.’
    As soon as Tamsin had finished the call, Annie saw that she had voicemail. She dialled up the message and listened to it in some confusion.
    ‘Hello, this is Christine from Everest Camping. We trust the package arrived safely. Obviously we hope you’ll be able to make use of the items, but if not, please return them at your earliest convenience.’
    Annie listened once again, stared at her phone in surprise and decided this must be a wrong number. Camping stuff? She’d definitely never ordered any camping stuff.
    Glancing out of the window, she did a double take. There was Lana, she was sure of it, striding along, her dark hair pulled into a loose ponytail and her pale, pretty face wrapped up in thought.
    ‘Oh! Can we pull over?’ she asked the driver with a polite tap on the window.
    ‘Your wish is my command, ma’am,’ he replied, smoothly manoeuvring the large estate car to the side of the road.
    Annie flung open her door and called out: ‘Lana! Want a lift, babes?’
    Lana looked up, her face full of surprise. ‘Hello, darlin’,’ Annie greeted her, treating her to a hug and a kiss.
    ‘Hi, this is nice!’ Lana settled herself and her bags