There were the naked pictures. He let himself look, now. Her wearing nothing but his interview tie round her neck, red hair falling in her face. Her fingers round a nipple, a picture she’d taken in a mirror in a hotel room and emailed him. Pretty tame stuff, honestly. Pictures from before the Cloud, before they’d all considered the possibility of hacking. Hamza wondered idly if a woman in Clio’s age and position would do this now. Gemma never posed for nudes for him; the girls he met in clubs, ten years younger than her and at least thirty younger than Clio, were always sending him shots of their wide-open pussies.

Clio had always just been herself. Like nobody else in the world.

Fuck it, he was going to do it. He was going to do a post for Clio, for everything she’d been. Just put it all out there. He found a good shot of the two of them, arms round each other, smiling even though it had been the day of that little Scouse drummer Lee’s funeral. He remembered that she’d wanted this picture; said something about it was important to remember the sad days too, told him repeatedly that she was glad he was there.

Lee. Overdose. They’d never done smack together but both of them stopped using anything at all for a while after that. She looked beautiful in that picture, smiling but sad, straight down the lens as he nuzzled his face to hers in profile.

No filter needed. He stopped for a second to think about what he was going to write, then realised he just needed to let it come.

This has been a difficult couple days for me. Been struggling with telling you all this or not. Decided I gotta let it out!! #knowwhatimsaying The lady in this picture is Clio Campbell. Me and her were together for 6 years. 6 awesome years. This woman helped me find my true calling. She believed in me when nobody else did. She was there through all the shit stuff and the knockbacks. She helped me find my voice and work out who I was supposed to be. She was a beautiful and talented lady with this amazing strong soul who always had something to say about the injustices of the world and fought the good fight for the little guys. I was never able to come out and say we was together because I was told it wasn’t a good look for me in my career having an older girlfriend and at the time I listened to the arseholes who thought that. So I hid her like I was ashamed of her. Clio queen I was never ashamed of you. Rest In Peace special girl. Warrior Queen. She still got a message and you all should listen. #ripcliocampbell #blessedtohaveyou #peoplegottariseup #warriorqueen #listentowhatshesaying #messenger #liveextraordinary

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