Friends & Rivals (49 page)

‘I'm fine,' Kendall assured her. ‘Really. And I won't be alone for long. Ivan said he'd be back by six. We need to talk about things on our own, anyway, before we face the world.'

‘But—'

‘I'm a big girl, Stella. Go. I'll be fine.'

It was a relief to go through the motions of washing and drying her hair, picking out a dress and doing her make-up. When Stella had broken the news, Kendall felt a short, sharp pang of shock, then nothing. She kept waiting for it to hit her, waiting to cry or yell, waiting to
care
in the way she knew she was supposed to.

She had failed. Ava had beaten her. Ava Bentley was number one.

But the truth was, she felt numb. Her anxiety, such as it was, was entirely focused on Ivan. Not only had he not come home at six as he'd promised, but he hadn't called and his phone was switched off. Nightmare images of him heading for the nearest bar and drinking himself into a stupor haunted Kendall's pounding head. Perhaps she shouldn't care any more, now that they weren't a couple, but she did. Old habits died hard.

Her reflection stared back at her, poised and confident. A perfect disguise. Given how sick she'd been this morning, she scrubbed up pretty well. Her long, dark hair was worn up, pinned in a loose chignon, nothing too formal. She wore a clinging white jersey dress by Alexander McQueen, sexy but understated with a plunging back and a bias cut, floor-length skirt. Her make-up was equally simple but striking. Smoky eyes, a little bronzer to take the edge off her exhausted pallor and a swipe of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream in lieu of lipstick. After a bit of deliberation she ditched the jewellery, with the exception of her wedding ring. She would have liked to take that off too – it felt like the right time – but it was a big step to take without telling Ivan, and the pale circle of skin beneath it would doubtless have prompted questions that she was in no mood to answer.

The doorbell rang. She ran to the buzzer. ‘Ivan?'

‘Good evening, Miss Bryce. Your car's here.'

Kendall sighed, throwing her cell phone and keys into her Marc Jacobs clutch. ‘OK. I'll be right down.'

Stepping out of the limo twenty minutes later, Kendall was surrounded by a sea of cameras.

‘How do you feel, Kendall? It must be a disappointment.'

‘How's Ivan taking it?'

‘Have you spoken to Ava?'

‘Where's Ivan tonight?'

She smiled sweetly at them all but said nothing. Inside, her publicist Sasha whisked her instantly aside. ‘You OK?'

Kendall smiled weakly. ‘I'd be better if people stopped asking me that every ten seconds.'

‘Sorry. Where's Ivan?'

Kendall looked troubled. ‘He isn't here?'

‘No. No one's heard a word from him.'

‘Damn,' said Kendall. ‘Neither have I.'

Martin Higgis walked over and pressed a drink into Kendall's hand. ‘I'm sorry,' he said. ‘I really thought we'd pulled it off.'

It was a rare admission of weakness on Martin's part and Kendall accepted it graciously. ‘Me too. But it's not your fault. At the end of the day she had a better song. I thought I'd stop in at the Annabel's party after this, offer my congratulations in person. What do you think?'

The PR man and the publicist exchanged approving looks. ‘I think it's a wonderful idea,' said Martin Higgis. ‘Ivan should go with you. Where is he anyway? People have been asking.'

Kendall frowned. ‘I have no idea.'

‘Kendall, there you are.' Aiden Lomax, the new head of Polydor, sidled up to her. He already had the wild-eyed look of a man who'd overdone the coke in the limo on the way over, and his sunken cheeks glowed red from too much champagne.

‘Commiserations, my dear, but well done on a well-fought fight.' He slipped a lecherous hand around Kendall's tiny waist. ‘We should talk about next steps at some point. I believe your deal's up for renewal.'

You know it is, prick.

‘That's right,' Kendall smiled graciously. ‘But if you want to talk business, you really need to speak to my husband.'

‘Of course, of course.' Lomax looked around. ‘Where is Ivan, by the way? I haven't seen him all night.'

It was going to be a long evening.

Over in Mayfair, the mood at the JSM party was distinctly more celebratory. Annabel's was packed to bursting with celebrity well-wishers, and those of the music business's great and good who hadn't already decamped to Mustique for the holidays.

‘I always said me daughter would be a star,' Dave Bentley was loudly and drunkenly proclaiming to a cornered Annie Lennox. ‘You watch this space, luv. She'll be the next bloody Celine Dion or I'm not a Yorkshireman.'

A few feet away, Jack was enjoying being schmoozed by the same Columbia Records assholes who only this morning had been tearing a strip off him.

‘We always knew she had it in her,' the head of the label's London office was saying, without a hint of irony. ‘But it's a funny old market in the UK, especially at Christmas.'

‘When can we talk about a European tour?' The head of A&R interjected. ‘Obviously we'll have to fit around her US schedule, but I know Lenner wants us to sit down ASAP and work out an integrated, global strategy.'

Does he now? Well Don Lenner can kiss my lily-
white ass.
‘I'll have to talk to Ava about all that,' said Jack. ‘And my partner, of course.'

He glanced over at Lex, who was hovering beside Ava at the bar. The two of them had finally shaken hands this afternoon back at the hotel and made things up. Kendall wasn't mentioned. But Ava's success was a triumph for all of them. Not only did it reopen doors for Ava in the UK, but it raised the very real possibility of JSM expanding to include a London office.

‘Who'd run it?' asked Lex.

‘Me? You?' Jack beamed. ‘Personally I'd be happy on either side of the pond.'

No decision had been made, but they'd have plenty of time to discuss it between now and the New Year. In the light of Ava's unexpected news, both of them had cancelled tomorrow's flights to LA.

Looking at Lex now, Jack was taken aback by how down he looked. You wouldn't think the guy had just scored a major career coup, not to mention that he was here celebrating one of the biggest nights in his girlfriend's life.

A flurry of popping flashbulbs disturbed his train of thought. Turning around, he was astonished to see Kendall, looking tired but stunning in a long white gown, battling her way through the crowd towards him.

‘Hey!' His face lit up. ‘You're the last person I expected to see tonight.'

She kissed him on the cheek and the flashbulbs went wild. ‘I thought I should come and congratulate Ava in person. Let her know there are no hard feelings.'

‘Well, now's your chance,' said Jack. Noticing the commotion, Ava had made a beeline for Kendall. She looked at her warily, almost as if she might be an impostor, or had stowed an explosive device in her clutch bag.
Perhaps I can't blame her after such a bitter campaign
, thought Kendall,
but she could act a little more magnanimously in victory.

‘Congratulations.' Kendall stuck out her hand. ‘It's an awesome song. You deserve the success.'

‘Thanks,' said Ava, blindsided by this spontaneous show of generosity, especially after some of the horrible things Kendall and Ivan had told the press about her in the past few weeks. But her distrustful look had more to do with Kendall's looks than her sincerity, or lack of it. She'd forgotten quite how stunning the girl was close up, like a Greek goddess. Until Kendall walked in, Ava had felt sexy in her black leather trousers and off-the-shoulder top from Current Elliott. Now she felt like Buttons beside Kendall's Cinderella – and this was supposed to be her pantomime, her party, her night. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Lex was drooling over Kendall too, but was gratified to see he had turned away and was busy chatting with her parents. ‘It was sweet of you to stop by.'

The two girls hugged, and Ava hurried back to Lex's side.

‘That was big of you,' said Jack, wrapping an arm around Kendall's shoulder and giving her a paternal squeeze. ‘Not many people would have had the courage to show up here tonight. You look amazing, by the way.'

‘Thanks,' said Kendall. Her voice was getting croaky again. ‘I feel like shit.'

Across the room, Lex finally gave in to his curiosity and turned to sneak a quick look at Kendall. When he did, his heart sank into the pit of his stomach. She and Jack were all over each other again, arms wrapped around one another like they didn't care who saw them.
Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable. After all that bullshit Messenger gave me about ‘nothing happened'. He's clearly trying it on with her, and she's lapping up every second of it.

‘Would you like some free advice?' Jack asked Kendall.

‘If it's about my love life, then no, thanks all the same. I'm becoming a nun and that's an end to it.'

He laughed. ‘Now
that
I would pay to see. It's not about your love life. It's purely professional. You should focus more strongly on live performance.'

Kendall blinked. ‘What?' This wasn't the advice she'd expected.

‘I don't think you and Ivan are seeing the big picture, here. Ava beat you to number one because she had a better song. She has better writers and better producers, not because she's more talented but because she has a huge US label behind her.'

‘Tell me something I don't know.'

‘So play to your strengths, not your weaknesses. You're twice the live performer she is. If you focused on filling stadiums around the world rather than flogging mediocre singles in your domestic market, you could be up there with Christina and Beyoncé.'

Kendall raised a sceptical eyebrow. ‘Since when did you get into flattery?'

‘Since never. I'm serious. What happened today was a setback to your UK career, not an end to it. Don't focus on the setback. Focus on the opportunity.' He pulled out a business card and handed it to her. ‘This has my new cell and …' he scrawled something on the back ‘… private email. I'd like you to think about signing with JSM.'

Kendall shook her head. ‘I couldn't do that to Ivan. Not now. I'm really worried about him.'

She told Jack about Ivan's radio silence since the chart was announced and his no-show at their own party earlier.

‘Discuss it with him,' said Jack. ‘Believe it or not, I'm not doing this to kick the guy when he's down. I care too much about Catriona and his kids for that. But you may find he wants out too.'

This hadn't occurred to Kendall, but she supposed Jack might have a point. Now that her big new UK deal was dead in the water, was it really worth Ivan's while economically to stay on as her manager? If not, and he was serious about making a go of things with Catriona, he might be willing to let her go.

‘What about Lex?' She bit her lower lip nervously. ‘I thought you said he didn't want me back. That he was dead against it.'

‘He was.' Jack glanced over at Lex and Ava, who were chatting to Ava's father, arm in arm. ‘But things have changed since then.'

‘You really think he'd go for it?' Kendall failed to keep the hope out of her voice.

‘Ask him,' said Jack.

‘Ask him
'
, thought Kendall.
Yeah, right. Like it's that easy. ‘Hey, Lexi, have you forgiven me for being a total bitch and trying to ruin your life? You have? Great! How about we work together?'
But despite her misgivings, she found herself inching slowly in Lex's direction. She waited till Ava had wandered off to work the room before tapping him on the shoulder.

‘Hi.'

Lex spun around and looked at her. The dress was stunning, and her perfectly made-up face as magnetically beautiful as ever. But beneath the artistry he could see she was tired and drawn.
She's upset she lost today. But I guess now she has Jack to comfort her.
His expression hardened. ‘Hello, Kendall.'

Oh dear
, thought Kendall.
He's still mad at me for the other day, finding me in Jack's bed. But surely Jack explained? He said he'd cleared everything up, that he and Lex were cool again.

Desperately nervous all of a sudden, she couldn't think of a single thing to say. Finally she blurted out, ‘Do you have any plans for Christmas?'

‘No.'

‘I suppose you'll have to stick around in Britain for a while, now that Ava's gonna be in such demand.'

‘Possibly.'

It was like getting blood from a stone. Kendall took a deep breath.

‘Jack and I were just talking about the possibility of me signing on with JSM, maybe even coming back to LA for a while.'

‘Of course you were,' said Lex contemptuously. The conversation was not progressing as Kendall had hoped.

‘I wouldn't do it if you didn't feel comfortable with it,' she said hurriedly. ‘JSM is your company too. I wouldn't dream—'

Lex swatted her words away like an irritating fly. ‘I couldn't care less. You and Jack do as you please.' He started looking around for someone to talk to, an escape route. It was unbearable, listening to her lay the groundwork for a romance with Jack, but her pity for his feelings was the last straw.

‘If you prefer I didn't come to LA—' began Kendall, but Lex cut her off again.

‘It makes no difference to me,' he said brutally. ‘In fact, I'll probably be setting up a new London office next year, so our paths need never cross. Johnny!' He waved to an acquaintance like a man flagging down a lifeboat and left Kendall standing there without another word.

She was still standing when Jack came up to her. ‘What did he say?'

‘Hmmm?' She awoke as if from a dream. ‘Oh. He said he was fine with it. He said he'd be running the London office, so if I came to LA our paths wouldn't cross.'