Maybe she can influence my life via Instagram.
Instagram influencers are not included. You’ve got to have real-life interaction with your five. You are the average of the people you spend the most time with, remember. Spend time with, he repeats. His eyes darken for a moment, as if he’s just thought of something. Anyway, what’s your Instagram account, he asks, taking out his phone.
I don’t want to share it because it’s not really me on the account. But he’s not going to give up, and he’s in on everything in this scheme so far, so I tell him.
He scrolls through his phone. I focus on the windscreens that we’re passing, stopping occasionally to get a better look at a ticket.
Did you take these photos, he asks.
No. I got them online.
He stops walking and bends over laughing. He’s laughing at me, which should sting, but the sight and sound of him in fits is irresistible, it’s contagious, and I join him. He can barely speak, he’s laughing so much. Allegra, I think you’re missing the point of this.
I shrug.
What’s her name.
Daisy.
On Instagram.
Oh. The Happy Nomad.
He frowns as he types, lips slightly pushed out, which makes me smile. He’s fast at typing, fingers moving furiously, two-handed texter, flying across the buttons. Ah. There she is. He scrolls through his phone, zooms in, out, examines her from what seems like every angle in his mind.
She’s nice, Tristan, I say. I looked up to her. I have zero friends right now.
He drops whatever smart remark he was about to make about the Happy Nomad. He taps away on his phone and then puts it back into his pocket. I’m following you now. You have two followers. This is really good coffee by the way.
Told you. Spanner in the Village Bakery.
What kind of name is Spanner.
What kind of name is Rooster.
What kind of name is Freckles.
What kind of name is Jazz.
He sucks in air. Jasmine.
So what’s with the stinky mood this morning.
I called an early meeting. No one showed up. After yesterday, showing you around, I was embarrassed by their unprofessionalism. But it’s hard to get your mates to work for you.
They’re your friends.
Most of them from school. We grew up gaming together. My dream is their dream and as soon as I could set up this business, I asked them to work with me.
For you.
Yeah well.
For you.
Okay.
And your uncle with the fancy office with the best view in the building, who does he work for.
Well he’s in kind of an advisory, consultant, management, agent type role. He did the deals for me from the beginning, organised the sponsorship. He’s the one who saw the potential in a fourteen-year-old gamer on YouTube.
What does he do now in his big office.
He, well … he, well, there’s no actual product yet for him to sell. All the games are in development – loads of them actually, are in development, some of the ones I showed you yesterday. I brought Andy and Ben in for that. They’re qualified game software developers, they’re focused on the more technical side of building the game, whereas I’m on the creative side. I need them all. The more time I’m away from gaming though, the less of a fan base I’ll have, so my uncle is keeping that Rooster awareness campaign going. Conventions, sponsorships, the occasional game endorsement, teaming up with other YouTubers, that kind of thing.
And you pay him. He works for you. Just as your friends do. You’re the boss.
I’m not. It’s a different kind of business. I’m young, they’re young, he’s my uncle, my mum’s his sister. I can’t be … you know, barking at them. I prefer to create a place where people want to be. That’s why we have the pets, the games room – they’re allowed to have fun, so they want to come to work.
Only they don’t.
I don’t want them to be afraid of me. I don’t want my mum to be stuck between me and my uncle.
They don’t have to fear you to respect you. Jazz doesn’t know her arse from her elbow, Andy’s one of the rudest people I’ve ever met, and they’re masquerading as people who know what they’re doing.
You always say it how you see it.
Sugar-coating is for Belgian waffles, I say. Now I understand why the phrase was on your mind, why you passed it on to me. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’re the one who has built a team around you. You’re trying to surround yourself with a certain type of people to become a certain type of a person. But did you get the people right, I muse. Hmmm. Have you, too, become lazy, obnoxious and working in the business you used to love for all the wrong reasons.