Jennie's Joy (13 page)

“Nearly a million pounds!  That will help with the operating expenses for the first year,” exclaimed Lucy joyfully.

Bertie smiled. He was the Chairman of the Foundation.  “Dan, Lucas and I will add whatever we need to make it an even million…and Jennie, I’d like you to get a story about this into your magazine, with a donation coupon, or email address, or whatever…”

“Done, Bertie!”

They all went down the street to
Freddie’s
, for a late meal. Dan and Mick made sure that the champagne was flowing like water. Everyone was in a marvellous mood, not only had Dan’s return to the English Art Scene been an outstanding success, but the Foundation’s first fund raiser had achieved unbelievable results, five times more than they had hoped for.

The limousine pulled up at eleven. 
Mick and Jennie were the first to leave. After all, they had to be up at five…

Mick
had been right.  The paparazzi were waiting for them outside the door.  Mick hurried Jennie into the waiting car, and held her close all the way home.  He hoped like hell she wasn’t scared off.  She was very quiet…

“Darling, is there a bit actress on the film named Barbara?”

“Yes, sweetheart, there is. She plays my secretary. Has about three lines. Why?”

“Someone phoned that tabloid and said she was me.
You know, the picture that somebody snapped at lunch yesterday. The tabloid had a competition to get my name. The prize was a hundred pound gift certificate.”

Mick laughed. “It was probably Barbie herself, trying to get her name in the paper. She is blonde, Jen, but she doesn’t look at all like you.”

“Well, maybe it will keep the press away from us, Mick.”

“Maybe it will,
sweetheart.” But Mick knew it wouldn’t.

He undressed her for bed, but left her diamonds on, made beautiful love to her, and went to sleep with her wrapped in his arms, as if to protect her. 

Jennie lay in his arms, thinking.  She had been quite convinced Mick wanted to keep their affair hidden.  She wasn’t famous or important….and now, now it would be in the tabloids in the morning.  Poor Mick.

He woke her at five, kissing and fondling her, fucking her gently until she responded and then the lovemaking caught fire, and they shared enormous passion.
Jennie thought sadly that this might be the last time he loved her, that he might send her away, now that their affair was public knowledge. She took her diamond necklace off, and put it on the dresser.

“I’ll lock it in the safe, baby, until Saturday. I want you to wear it to the Screening of my
last film,” said Mick offhandedly.

They showered, and dressed. 
Jennie looked in the medicine cabinet for her birth control pills.  They weren’t there.  She searched the counter, her bag, the floor, everywhere.  She couldn’t find them.             

“What are you looking for,
Jennie?”

“My birth control pills,
Mick.  I can’t find them…”

“Oh those.  I threw them away last night
when we came home.”

“You threw them away?”

“Yes, darling.  I’ve decided to make a baby with you.”

“O
h.  You’ve decided to make a baby with me?”

“Yes.  I think we’
ll make a lovely baby, don’t you?”

“I didn’
t know you wanted to be a father, Mick?”

“I didn’
t Jennie, until now, with you…”

“Oh.”

“I need you to quit your job at the magazine as well, Jennie…I need you on set, beside me, to keep my eyes smoldering…”

“Oh.” Relief flooded through
Jennie like a wave…he wasn’t sending her away.

“How much notice do you have to give?”

“Probably a month, Mick.  But I could give it today, and I have three weeks’ holiday due.  So I would really only have to work a week of that month…”

“My darling, wonderful
, Jennie. I adore you so much, Jennie…especially when you are very, very good like now, and don’t argue with me.”

Jennie
kissed him.  “I’m not wearing panties on the way to work, sweetheart…or on the way home…”

“As I said, my wonderful
Jennie, who always does just what I need her to…”

The limousine dropped
Jennie at the office at ten past seven. She made her usual stop at the coffee bar, and saw the girls behind the counter staring at her.  She stopped at the newsstand and bought a copy of every tabloid on the rack.

An unfamiliar voice called out, “
Jennie, Jennie!” and she swung around.  Flashbulbs went off.  There were five or six reporters and photographers gathered around.

“
Jennie, are you living with Mick?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?”

“You just got out of his limousine, Jennie. You are living with him, aren’t you?”

“
Jennie, what’s he like in bed, really?”  This from a woman.

Jennie
smiled, “What do you think?”

“Did he give you that diamond necklace you were wearing last night?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to Mexico with him next week?”

“I have a career, remember?”

“Is it true you’
re secretly married?”

“No.”

Jennie dived into a lift and held the close button as she pressed her floor.  She got into her office and locked the door behind her, leaned against it.

She called
Mick, “Darling the paparazzi were waiting for me in the lobby of the office building…”

“I told you I should get you a bodyguard sweetheart…I’
ll have the studio arrange one this morning. I won’t have you hounded.”

“I’
ll have my resignation ready at nine to give Geoffrey, Mick.”

“Good, good.  Did you answer any of their questions?”

“All of them, but well, they asked if I was living with you and I asked what gave them that idea, and then a woman asked what you’re really like in bed, and I smiled and asked her what did she think, and I think I licked my lips, and then they asked if you gave me the diamonds and I said yes and then they asked if I was going to Mexico with you and I said I have a career and then they asked me if we are secretly married and I said no and then I made it inside the lift, and escaped…”

“
Jennie?”

“Yes,
Mick.”

“Just say ‘no comment’, Jennie to anything they ask you. Always, darling, ‘no comment’.”

“Yes, Mick.”

“I told you this morning I adore you.  Do you adore me,
Jennie?”  Mick sounded insecure.

Jennie
smiled to herself.  “That’s a very silly question, darling.   How can you not know how much I adore you?  Aren’t I your very good little bad girl? Your wanton piece of ass?”

“Oh, yes,
Jennie, you are.”

“
Willing to do anything you ask me to?”

“Always,
Jennie, always.”

“Well, then,
Mick. I always think actions speak louder than words, don’t you, and I hope my actions shout how very much I adore you…”

“Say it, Jane
, and say our special words…”

Jane lowered her voice and whispered huskily, “Cock, prick, cunt, slit.  I adore you
Mick, I adore you…”

“Good girl,
Jennie, just the way I adore you...” Jennie had bitten her tongue to stop herself saying ‘love’.  Love had not been the word Mick had used.  Tears flooded into Jennie’s eyes.  Adore was not love….

Jennie
typed up her resignation and the request for her three week’s holiday.  Then she turned her attention to Rachel’s article, and edited out the comment about Mick’s nine inches of glory. She replaced it with ‘
impressive manhood’
.  Jennie didn’t need every woman on the planet envying her, and besides, he was only eight and a half inches.  His ex-wife had measured him, Mick said. But Jennie thought maybe Denise had measured wrong, maybe her lover was over nine inches, maybe nine and a half…but that was their own business, not for publication in a leading woman’s magazine.

Then
Jennie wrote an article herself, about last night’s gala, and Dan’s talent.  About the Fair Housing Foundation and the money raised at the gala, and how it was to be used, and she told the readers’ how they could donate both their money and their talents. She also wrote about the design competition, to get the very best livable space that they could, and how to apply for the units.  How the first project would be in London, but the others would be throughout Britain.   Jennie knew it was a very good article.

By then it
was shortly before nine o’clock.  Jennie paused to drink her now cold coffee and look for her picture in the tabloids.

She and
Mick were in four of them. Arriving at the Gallery, leaving the restaurant, getting into the limousine. Some commented on her necklace. One said it had to be worth hundreds of thousands… All called her the mystery woman in Mick’s life.  But by this morning they knew who she was and where to find her…

There was a picture of her sitting with Lucy at the Donations desk at the Gala.  That one didn
’t mention Mick at all. But it did give her name and mentioned the magazine….

She unlocked her office door and opened it, to take the articles down
to the Layout department.  She put her resignation on Geoffrey’s desk.  He wasn’t in his office yet.

She went back to her office, and called her next door neighbour at the flat.  D
onna looked out the window and told her there were paparazzi on the street, waiting.

Susie came in and sat down.  “Aren
’t you the sly one? How long has this been going on?”

“What?”

“You and Michael Gerrard.”

“Oh, that
, that’s old news.”

“N
o it isn’t, Jennie. It’s this morning’s news all over the papers…”

Jennie
gestured to the pile of tabloids on her desk.  “They’re all there, if you want to read them, Susie.”

“He’
s the man in the limousine, isn’t he?”

Jennie
just smiled.

“Is he that sexy in real life,
Jennie?  Like he is in the films?”

Jennie
smiled.  “Better, Susie, much, much better.”

Susie
’s questioning was interrupted by the receptionist.  “There’s a gentleman here to see you, Jennie.  He says Michael Gerrard sent him.  He says he’s from the studio security department.”

“Send him in, Grace.”

A tall, burly man filled the door frame.  “I’m Gregoire, ma’am.  I’m your bodyguard.  I’ll be on duty until your limousine picks you up.  I’ll be with you each day, until your holiday starts.”

“Thank you, Grego
ire. I don’t quite know where to put you.”

“I’
m just going to walk around the offices for a few minutes, ma’am, and have a look at the layout, then we can talk about the best place to be…” He bowed slightly and left.

Susie
’s mouth dropped open.  “A bodyguard?”

Jennie
nodded.  “The press can be very intimidating. Mick doesn’t want me to have to face it by myself, like I did this morning, Susie.  They were waiting for me in the lobby when I arrived, and my neighbour says they’re camped out in front of my flat now…”

“The downside of being a celebrity, eh,
Jennie?” smiled Susie.

“I’
m not a celebrity, Susie.”

“You are now,
Jennie, you are now.”

Geoffrey came in next and told Susie to leave.  He shut the door behind him.
Locked it.

“I don’
t want you to resign, Jennie.  Let’s just make this a leave of absence, eh?”  He looked at Jennie kindly.  “These movie stars go through a lot of women, Jennie.  Just in case this isn’t the real thing, let’s make this a leave of absence, starting next Friday.  An indefinite leave of absence.  That way, you’ll come back to us instead of to one of the competitors…”

Jennie
looked at him.  “Let me call Mick on that, Geoffrey. It’s not a decision I want to make on my own.”

She picked up her mobile and called
Mick.  No answer.

“He must be shooting a scene, Geoffrey.  When he calls me back, I’
ll come and tell you….” she was interrupted by the ringing of her mobile.

She looked at it, and smiled at Geoffrey.  “
Mick.”  She put the phone onto ‘speaker’.

“Hello, Darling.  Thank you for Grego
ire.  He’s checking out the office now, for security purposes.”

“Good,
Jennie.  I don’t want you bothered by anyone…”

“I’
ve got you on the speaker phone, darling, and Geoffrey, my Editor-in-Chief is sitting across from me.  He wants me to take an indefinite leave of absence instead of resigning, Mick.  That way, if I decide to come back to work, I’m committed to this magazine, and not available to the competition.”