Lindsey Kelk 5-Book 'I Heart...' Collection (130 page)

‘You’re putting it in wrong,’ I whined at James some hours later.

‘There’s only one way to put it in,’ he replied, frustrated. ‘It’s not my fault, it’s your fault.’

‘How is it my fault?’ I dropped to the floor and leaned back against the door to my suite. ‘It’s a key. How hard can it be?’

‘Hard enough.’ He shoved the key card into the slot as hard as possible and yanked it out quickly.

‘That’s what she said,’ I cackled. ‘Honestly, ramming it in and out like that isn’t going to help.’

‘That’s not what your mother said last night.’ He kicked me in the hip. ‘I don’t usually have this much trouble.’

‘I’ve heard that before.’ I closed my eyes and tipped my head back. James was ever so tall. ‘Actually, I haven’t.’

‘Then you’re a very lucky girl.’ With grim determination, he slid the key card in one last time and whipped it out quickly. Unfortunately, the buzz and the click were not enough notice for me to pull myself together, and as the door opened, I fell backwards, my arms tangling themselves in James’s long legs and bringing him right down on top of me.

‘Angela, you only had to ask,’ he said, face-first in my boobs.

Laughing so hard I was worried I might do a little wee, I looked up to see someone I didn’t recognize, drink in hand, standing over us.

‘You guys OK?’ asked the stranger.

‘Why are you in my room?’ I asked, shoving James away while he mumbled something about never having this trouble with Blake.

‘It’s a party?’ The stranger looked back into the lounge, where I saw dozens of people standing on the sofas, drinking, dancing and generally misbehaving. Of course, they had already seen me. I had made an impressive entrance.

‘Angela!’ It was a familiar shriek and not one I was hoping to hear. Sadie danced over to me. It spoke volumes that every pair of eyes switched to her. And if I couldn’t hold a room with my legs akimbo, wrapped around a homosexual movie star, when could I?

The thing with Sadie wasn’t so much that she was famous as that she was just painfully pretty. And it wasn’t as though I wasn’t used to hanging out with a good-looking girl. Jenny was that friend who makes every man on the street turn their head and every woman wish she’d spent five minutes more on her hair (not least me), but Sadie was something else. One look at her and you knew there was no point in trying. I couldn’t begin to imagine what men went through, seeing her in the flesh. And for a split second, I wondered how it must feel for her to think that drooling and letching was an automatic reaction from everything with a penis. I collected compliments and squirrelled them away for fat days, classifying my wardrobe by colour, season and ‘this is the dress that stranger on the train said was pretty’. I was still flattered by catcalling from a building site. I looked at her, still in her graffitied bridesmaid dress, and sighed. Imagine never, ever having a fat day.

‘We’re having a party – it’s a wedding reception.’ She held a hand out to help me up but let go as soon as she spotted James. ‘James!’

‘Have we met?’ he asked, a raised eyebrow for Sadie, a wink for me.

‘Uh, only about a thousand times.’ She curled her arm around his neck and sat down on his knee, despite the fact he clearly didn’t want to be sitting on the floor in the doorway.

‘Sadie, where’s Jenny?’ I shuffled myself into a kneeling position. ‘I need to talk to her.’

‘I haven’t seen her since the wedding.’ Sadie fluffed her massive honey-blonde hair in James’s face. He did not look impressed. ‘They didn’t come back here.’

‘I thought you said this was a wedding reception?’ I scanned the lounge for Jenny’s giant hair but found nothing.

‘It is. She’s just not here.’ She looked at me as though I was stupid. There were plenty of things I’d said in the last twenty-four hours or so that would have warranted that expression, but that question wasn’t one of them. ‘They’re probably screwing somewhere.’

‘You do realize Jeff isn’t Jenny’s boyfriend?’ I tried to be as clear as it was possible to be. ‘And that Jenny isn’t Jeff’s fiancée?’

‘You have no sense of adventure,’ she replied. ‘Where are your shoes?’

‘Fuck knows.’ I clambered up off the floor and pushed past her, heading towards my room. ‘And they were yours anyway.’

Thankfully, the fifty or so strangers that had invaded our hotel suite hadn’t made it as far as my room, and I heard myself sigh out loud as I closed the door on the madness outside.

‘Sanctuary,’ I breathed, checking the room phone for messages. Nothing. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. Ignoring James’s advice, even though I knew full well he was right, I tapped in Alex’s number and waited for it to ring. But it didn’t. Straight to voicemail.

‘Hey, it’s me. I just wanted to call and say …’ Losing my mobile in the Bellagio fountains might have been a blessing. I couldn’t think of a single occasion when my picking up a phone without a completely written-out script had gone well. This was no exception. ‘I wanted to say goodnight. So, goodnight. Speak to you tomorrow.’

I hung up and lay back on my bed, trying to put the entire day out of my mind. The soft mattress rose up to meet me, wrapping me in and whispering that it was all going to be OK. Our original plan was to go back to the room for me to change, find shoes and then go to a party at Caesar’s Palace where James was supposed to be showing his face. But now I was horizontal, I just couldn’t see it happening. I heard a knock at the door and assumed he had come to get me. Maybe I could convince him to get into bed. Since I clearly wasn’t trying to seduce the big gay, it might not be impossible. And it was a lovely bed.

‘I’m just lying down for a second,’ I shouted. ‘Come in.’

‘Angela, why do you hate me?’

Brilliant. It wasn’t James. It was Sadie. And from the sound of it, a drunk, tired and emotional Sadie. Since I could more or less tick all three of those boxes myself, I really didn’t want to have to deal with her.

‘I don’t hate you.’ I rolled over until I was face down in the soft, soft cottony clouds of pillows that littered my bed. ‘Go back to the party, Sadie.’

‘You do hate me.’ Her voice came closer and closer until I felt the mattress give very, very slightly. ‘Jen’s always telling everyone how awesome you are, but you’re just such a bitch to me. It’s totally obvious.’

Ahh. Lovely Jenny. I mean, Jen.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a bitch.’ I realized my monotone response probably wasn’t my most convincing, but I was very tired. And I did hate her. It was probably all she wanted to hear anyway.

‘You don’t mean that.’ She jabbed me in the arm until I sat up. ‘Seriously, why don’t you like me?’

‘Because you won’t let me go to sleep?’

‘I’m not leaving until you talk to me,’ she said. ‘So you might as well get up.’

With a huge sigh and an almost irrepressible desire to smother her with a pillow, I sat up and looked at Sadie. Sitting on the end of my bed, a hoodie covering her unbearably tight dress and her hair all pulled back in a ponytail, she didn’t look nearly as annoying as usual. In fact, she looked like a little girl. If you took away the eyelash extensions and the fake tan, she could pass for a common or garden obscenely hot college student. Which didn’t really make me like her any more when I thought about it.

‘You’re jealous, right?’ She shook the sleeves of the hoodie down over her hands. ‘That’s what it is?’

‘Bloody hell,’ I blustered. You couldn’t say she was afraid to get to the point. ‘How many times have you asked that?’

‘Never.’ She looked completely nonplussed. ‘I’ve never had a roommate before.’

I wrinkled my forehead. ‘What are you talking about?’

We stared at each other for a moment, both trying to work out what the other was on about.

‘Ohhhh.’ Sadie broke first, laughing loudly. ‘You thought I meant jealous of me in general. No, I meant you’re jealous of me and Jenny. You’re pissed that you’re not her roommate any more.’

‘Ohhhh,’ I echoed. Clearly I hadn’t given her enough credit. ‘Right. Yeah. I probably am a bit.’ Or a lot. Or loads. Or so much, I could taste bile when I thought about it.

‘I know you guys are super-close,’ she said. ‘Jen misses you. You’re like, her best friend, you know, not just her old roommate.’

Obviously living with my bestie was rubbing off on Sadie. Here she was, hanging out in my bedroom after midnight giving me a very Jenny pep talk. Her mentor would be proud.

‘And don’t feel bad about the whole jealousy thing – I’m totally used to it.’ She held her hand just above my ankle, as though I might snap her wrist off if she actually touched me. And for a second I thought about it. Just when I was starting to think she might not be entirely evil.

‘I am sorry if I’ve been a bit difficult,’ I offered. ‘Really. It’s just, I sort of felt like you didn’t like me that much, to be honest.’

‘Oh, no.’ Sadie popped upright then bounced down beside me on the bed. So she was officially comfortable now? ‘I think you’re kind of awesome. I mean, Jen told me your story and everything. I’m just a huge bitch. You just have to kick my ass. Or ignore me. Everyone else does.’

I couldn’t not laugh. She was so much more self-aware than I had realized.

‘Who ignores you? Seriously?’ I attempted to join in the gal pal extravaganza by awkwardly patting her shoulder.

‘Oh, everyone.’ She rolled over onto her back and waved a hand at me. She really was tiny, and now I couldn’t see her perfect boobs, I almost felt compelled to give her a hug. ‘That’s the thing with modelling – people only talk to you when they want you to do something.’

It was difficult not to start playing air violin.

‘It’s not an excuse, but when no one’s listening, you get used to just giving orders instead of asking questions.’ The music in the lounge almost drowned out her gentle self-analysis. ‘So, yeah, maybe it looks like I always get what I want, but I don’t.

I didn’t think she was trying to make me feel bad on purpose, but she was doing a fine job.

‘I don’t have that many friends, I can never make it work with a guy. I always pick the wrong one. I don’t know.’

‘You’re not seeing anyone right now?’ I hoped her tales of celebrity shagging would take the edge off the guilt trip I was enjoying so much.

‘Been single since my last boyfriend.’

Bugger.

‘He really messed me up.’

Double bugger.

‘I mean, how screwed in the head do you have to be to only date models then spend all your time telling your girlfriend you hate her because she’s a model? That was pretty confusing.’

Fine, I admitted to myself; maybe having a twenty-three-inch waist wasn’t worth all this drama.

‘You’re so lucky to have someone like Alex. He wouldn’t care what you did for a job. He loves you whatever, right? It’s so obvious.’ Sadie sniffed loudly and kept talking. ‘I don’t know, maybe I need to be on my own. Until I stop being a bitch.’

‘OK, enough is enough.’ I couldn’t cope with any more self-deprecation from the model and it was never a fun time hearing someone tell you how lucky you were immediately after you had fucked up big time. ‘You don’t sound like you’re particularly happy with your lot in life? What’s that all about?’

Two could play at the Jenny Lopez game; I’d learned a trick or two in my time.

‘I am happy,’ she said slowly. ‘I think. I know I’m super-lucky to do what I do. I just don’t love it as much as I used to. Meeting Jenny, seeing her go off to work every morning smiling? That’s crazy. And even seeing how upset you got when you didn’t get those jobs, I was like, huh. When I don’t get a job, I’m pissed off, but I’m not upset. I’m kind of relieved.’

‘So if you weren’t modelling, what would you be doing?’ I templed my fingers and channelled our very own Oprah. ‘If you could do anything?’

‘I’d still want to be involved with fashion somehow,’ she answered, quickly this time. ‘Or maybe more on the beauty side. I’d love to have my own make-up range. Or design a denim line. Or write about fashion?’

‘Can you write?’ I asked.

‘No.’ She admitted. ‘But I’d like to try.’

‘I’d start with the first two options then,’ I replied.

It felt a bit like the time my twelve-year-old cousin told me he wanted to be an astronaut – such a pipe dream; but I tried to remember how well-connected Sadie must be. Without even knowing how well-connected she was, Jenny and Erin worked with dozens of top beauty and fashion companies. She could absolutely make this happen if it was what she really wanted. ‘Life’s too short to be miserable, you know?’

‘I never think about things like that,’ she replied. ‘I guess that’s why I’m such a bitch.’

‘I didn’t think about things like that until I met Jenny.’ I gave her our first official hug. ‘You’re in good hands.’

‘Come and have a drink with me.’ Sadie leapt off the bed with all the energy of someone who hadn’t technically been jilted less than twelve hours earlier.

‘I’m ever so tired.’ I yawned for effect. ‘Maybe I’ll just crash?’

‘No way – it’s our last night.’ Sadie threw the sweater to the ground and shimmied her dress into position. ‘Haven’t you been listening? I always get my own way.’

‘Then this will be a good learning experience for you.’ I turned back onto my front and breathed face down into the pillows. Bliss. ‘I’ve done my good deed for the day.’

With one vaguely horse-like whinny, she left my room without even slamming the door. I smiled. A great big, half-drunk, entirely exhausted smile. It was the expression of someone who knew one of the worst days ever was almost over. When I woke up, it would be tomorrow, and honestly, how could tomorrow possibly be as bad as today?

But then I heard the door open again. I should have known she wouldn’t give up that easily.

‘Get your arse out of bed, Clark.’

She had returned with reinforcements in the shape of James.

‘I’m not having you moping in here.’ He started playing the bongo drums on my backside until I rolled over. ‘Where do you think you are? This is the land of bad decisions. You can’t start punishing yourself for anything that happens here until you get home. You’re going to have a good time whether you like it or not.’