B00CAXBD9C EBOK (13 page)

Jay viewed the scene. He was horribly sober. They all seemed to be behaving like a bunch of wild monkeys. He felt disgusted.

A large crowd was gathering around the table, goggle-eyed at Claudia’s free show. The foreign ambassador rushed over with Lori. It was a fast striptease as Claudia only had her dress to take off. She kicked it from the table, and then proceeded to dance to the music. Bumping, grinding. Her body glistened proudly, and the men in the crowd pressed closer and closer while the women, suddenly jealous at such perfection, started to try and move them away.

A very harassed-looking man in pinstripe trousers and black jacket pushed his way toward the table. He represented the management. Shocked and horrified, he approached Conrad who waved him drunkenly away. ‘We shall have to call the police unless this – this – woman gets dressed at once.’

Claudia stuck her tongue out at him, the only part of her that hadn’t been exposed to public view.

Eventually, of course, the police arrived. They wrapped Claudia in a blanket, hauled her off to the police station, and booked her for indecent exposure.

The next morning it was headlines. Claudia was a star – for the day, that is. She was photographed and quoted while Conrad immediately cashed in on her wave of publicity by announcing that she would be appearing in his new film. He contacted her agent and signed her for two days’ work.

She was delighted. She returned from the police station at lunch time, triumphant. She gave a press reception, posed for countless more pictures, and then was taken off to the studio in a chauffeured car for makeup and hair tests. She didn’t see Conrad; efficient professionals took over. She was pleased – he had served his immediate purpose.

When she returned from the studio in the evening, David was propped outside her front door.

Sober and giddy with her sudden success, he didn’t look so good to her. ‘What do you want?’ she said coldly, and then added with a burst of enthusiasm, ‘Hey – did you see me in the papers today?’

He trailed her into the apartment and immediately fixed a drink.

She flitted around talking excitedly, forgetting her coldness of a moment before. After all, David did belong to someone else, and it was she he was coming to.

‘I’m going to take you out to dinner tonight. Where do you want to go?’ he asked.

She laughed. ‘Oh. I see. All of a sudden I’m a star, and you want to be seen with me. What about wifey tonight? Aren’t you frightened one of her spies will see us?’

‘You don’t have to worry about Linda. I’ve left her.’

Silence hung heavy in the room until slowly Claudia walked over and kissed him hard. ‘You’ve left her for me?’

‘For you.’ He ran his hands down her back, enclosing them around her buttocks. ‘When I saw you in the paper this morning and read what happened, I knew we couldn’t go on any longer unless it was together. So I told Linda. I said I want a divorce, and here I am.’

She shook her head in disbelief. ‘You really left her for me. Isn’t that wild!’

‘I’m going to divorce her and marry you,’ he said firmly.

She wandered around the room. ‘I don’t want to get married, but thanks for the thought anyway. Hey, baby, we can do what we want, go where we want. It’s too much!’

He followed her around the room. ‘Don’t you understand? I said I’d marry you.’

She laughed. ‘But I don’t want you to.’

‘But I want to.’ He grabbed hold of her. She was wearing a clingy orange sweater, matching slacks, and shiny white boots.

She slipped away from him. ‘Listen, baby – let’s get clear on the subject. I don’t – do not have, I repeat, any desire to make the wedding-bells scene – so don’t keep on making the offer like it’s such a damn big deal. I don’t want to marry you.’ She was almost shouting, and sensing her mood, he dropped the subject.

‘Where shall we go?’ he said. ‘We can go anywhere you like.’

She stretched, catlike in her orange outfit. ‘I’m tired. I don’t feel like getting dressed and going out.’

He looked surprised. ‘You’re always complaining we never go anywhere – and now that we can go wherever you like – you don’t want to go.’

She flopped in a chair, her legs thrown casually over the side. ‘Ever heard the story of the kid that wanted some candy – moaned and cried and carried on till eventually it got candy – then ate so much it was sick?’ She giggled. ‘Get the message?’

‘What the hell’s the matter with you? Don’t you understand what I’ve done for you today?’

She shrugged. ‘For me? I should have thought it would have been for yourself. Where are you going to live?’

‘I’m taking an apartment. I thought in the meantime I’d stay here with you, then we can move into the new place together.’

She studied her fingernails, admiring the pearly glow. ‘Is it a penthouse?’

‘Is
what
a penthouse?’

‘The apartment you’re taking.’ There was a pause. ‘Well,
is
it?’

‘I don’t know. What the hell does it matter? We’ll find a penthouse if that’s what you want.’

She smiled at last, pleased and purry. ‘Yes, that’s what I want. Can I start looking tomorrow? It’s going to be too crowded for the two of us here.’ She held out her arms to him. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been bitchy but it’s been a busy day.’

He fell into her arms and kissed her, feeling the familiar immediate desire rise in him. She kissed him hard, running her tongue across his teeth and scratching the back of his neck with sharp nails. He started to reach for her body, but she pushed him away and leaped up. ‘Not now, baby. Let’s go to dinner, and then – think of it – we can come back home together. It will be a whole different scene.’

She switched on the stereo, and the sound of the Stones filled the room. She danced around, throwing off her sweater and wriggling out of her slacks in time to the music. She wore a brief white bra and the shiny white boots.

He watched her, mesmerized. ‘Don’t you ever wear panties?’

‘Why spoil the line?’ She laughed. ‘Does it bother you? I’ve never had any complaints before!’

She vanished into the bathroom, and he heard the sound of a bath running. He followed her in. She was bending over the bath, filling it with bubbles. She had discarded the bra, but the boots remained.

He grabbed her from behind. She struggled weakly, half laughing. He tried to hold onto her and get out of his clothes at the same time, but she slipped and fell into the bath. By this time she was helpless with laughter, very wet, and covered in bubbles. She stuck her legs over the side of the bath with her boots still on.

He undressed hurriedly and followed her into the bath. The water cascaded over the side.

‘I think I’m going to like living here,’ he said.

The sun was streaming into the bedroom and David couldn’t sleep any longer. Claudia lay sprawled beside him, taking up more than her share of the bed. She claimed she couldn’t sleep with the curtains closed, which accounted for the fact that every morning the light woke him too early. He glanced at his watch. It was only half-past six, and they hadn’t got to bed until four. He felt tired and dreadful and hung over. It was no use getting up and pulling the curtains now, as he couldn’t go back to sleep once he was awake.

The spacious bedroom was a mess. Claudia had a habit of stepping out of her clothes all over the place and just leaving them. One had to pick one’s way through the debris in the mornings.

It’s amazing, he thought, how my life has changed in six short months.

The new dress he had bought her lay in a crumpled ball at the bottom of the bed. It was red pleated chiffon. She had seen it in a window in Bond Street, and he had surprised her with it the next day. The surprise had cost him a bomb.

He picked it up. She had spilled a glass of wine on it, and there was a crumpled stain.

In the green-marble bathroom leading off the bedroom, the mess continued. She had not emptied the bath, and it was filled with cold, dirty water. Bottles of makeup and hairbrushes and perfumes were scattered everywhere. The sink was clogged with soap and hair left to congeal beneath a dripping gold tap.

Beneath the mess it was a beautiful apartment. A penthouse, as she had wanted, in a new apartment building in Kensington. It cost far too much money a week. A fortune, in fact. But Claudia loved it and did not care to move.

He emptied the old water and picked up the bath towels. He really wished she would learn to be tidy, but it seemed impossible for her. With Linda, there had never been a thing out of place.

He went through a mirrored hallway to the kitchen. Here there were stale cups of half-drunk coffee, dirty dishes piled high, full ashtrays creating a bad odour.

Fortunately it was Friday, which meant that they had a new cleaning woman starting. The last one had left in disgust when she found out they weren’t married, leaving a cryptic note saying, ‘I’m not used to such filth.’ At first he had thought she was referring to the state Claudia left things in, but the porter had told him what she really meant.

He made a cup of strong tea and managed to burn a couple of pieces of toast. Claudia had acquired a small, yappy Yorkshire terrier, which suddenly came bounding in, anxious for a walk, no doubt. It usually slept on the bed with them and would burrow beneath the covers at night. David hated it. He couldn’t stand small dogs.

He left it sniffing around the kitchen and went into the huge, open-plan living-dining room. This was the
pièce de résistance
of the apartment, a beautiful spacious room, one wall completely glass, leading onto a landscaped patio. Another wall marble and the rest of the wall-space mirrored. The room was chaotic. They had had people in for drinks before going out the previous evening, and half-empty glasses seemed to be all over the place. Overflowing ashtrays, spilled nuts, magazines, photographs of Claudia, cushions on the floor. Thank God it would all be cleared up today. David liked order.

He went to the front door and collected his papers, extracting
The Times
and
Guardian
from among the various film and fashion magazines Claudia seemed to have delivered daily.

He drank his tea – it was too strong. Ate his toast – it was burnt. Read the papers through bleary eyes. Soon it would be time to get dressed and go off to work.

* * *

Linda woke early. The sun was shining and it was a lovely day. She felt good. At last she was starting to enjoy the selfish pleasures of sleeping alone. Taking up the whole of the bed, waking and sleeping when she pleased, always being able to get into the bathroom.

It had been hard at first, the decision to get a divorce. She kept thinking of the children without a father. But the fact that David had moved out and set up home with Claudia had helped her to be strong.

She had found a good lawyer and put herself in his hands. It was quite simple, really.

Today was the day she was going to appear in court, stand calmly before a judge, and state the facts. Her lawyer, a short, stocky, grey-haired man, would be by her side. An inquiry agent would be there to offer relevant information. Her counsel was tall, attractive, and sympathetic. They had all assured her it would go quite smoothly. It was undefended and clear-cut.

She dressed, choosing her clothes carefully. A dark-brown neat suit, low-heeled shoes, not too much makeup. Surveying herself in the mirror, she thought she looked the part. An abandoned wife, sad, courageous, alone.

The children were staying with her mother. She ate a solitary breakfast of boiled eggs and coffee, wishing that she hadn’t sent them away, wishing that their noisy laughter filled the house.

When she finished in court, she was going by train to join them for the weekend, and they would all return to the house together on Monday.

The house belonged to her now. Financial arrangements had been amicable. She had the house and a fairly generous support settlement for herself and the two children.

David visited the children every weekend, either on Saturday or Sunday. Linda always managed to avoid seeing him. In fact, she hadn’t seen him for three months, and then it had been in her lawyer’s office to make the financial settlement final.

She made only one stipulation about his seeing the children, and that was that she didn’t want them in Claudia’s company at all. He didn’t argue on that point.

She finished her coffee. Soon it would be time to go to her lawyer’s office and accompany him to court.

* * *

Claudia woke at eleven. There was someone ringing the doorbell. She groped her way to the front door, struggling into a flimsy pink negligee covered with makeup stains.

A short, squat woman stood facing her. ‘I’m Mrs. Cobb,’ she announced. ‘The agency sent me.’ She had heavy red hands and a scrubbed old face.

‘Come in, Mrs. Cobb,’ Claudia said, stifling a yawn. ‘I’m afraid it’s an awful mess, but I’m sure you’ll cope.’ She took her into the kitchen and gestured under the sink. ‘You’ll find everything you need there. Excuse me if I leave you to it. I had a very late night.’

Mrs. Cobb looked grimly around and didn’t say anything.

Claudia took an open can of peaches from the fridge and tipped them into a dish. ‘My breakfast,’ she said with a bright smile, and stopping to collect the magazines and papers from the living room, she went into the bedroom.

Propped comfortably back in bed, she leafed idly through the papers, the
Daily Mail
being her favourite. It was the show page that interested her. She scanned it eagerly, looking as usual for any mention of Conrad Lee. She was delighted. Today there was a whole article on the location of his film in Israel. It stated that the company would be returning to England at the end of the week for studio work.

She made a big pencil ring around the piece and phoned her agent on the shell-pink bedside telephone. She still had two days’ work to do on Conrad’s film. Things had become rather complicated, and the unit had gone on location before reaching her scenes. However, the film company had given her agent constant promises that as soon as they returned she would be needed for her two days’ work.