Lindsey Kelk 5-Book 'I Heart...' Collection (95 page)

‘Yes, but she’s not my roommate any more.’ I felt a huge pang in my stomach at the mention of her name. Worse than I had talking about Alex. Wow. ‘She lives in LA.’

‘She’s awesome,’ Tania chimed in, stuffing her face with sweets. ‘When we get to New York, I’m totally going to be Jenny and Sasha’s going to be you.’

For the first time since I’d left the hotel, a genuine smile crept on to my face. ‘You’re going to work as a hotel concierge while Sasha gets routinely shafted by shit men?’

‘Well, you know, we’re not going to be exactly like you.’ Tania shrugged.

I laughed. It sounded weird. And reassuring.

‘She used to want to be Carrie,’ Sasha rolled her eyes, ‘and Rachel. And Serena. I always had to be like, Charlotte and Monica and Blair.’

‘Blair is the best one,’ I reassured Sasha. This was getting more surreal by the moment. ‘I’d be Blair.’

‘Told you!’ Sasha turned triumphantly to her sister.

‘Yeah, whatever.’ Tania looked a tiny bit pissed off. She was definitely a Jenny. ‘Anyway, what did your roommate say?’

‘We haven’t really spoken much this week.’ This was a discussion I really couldn’t have without bursting into tears so I skirted around the issue as much as possible. ‘My phone wasn’t working and she’s in LA, there’s about nine hours’ time difference or something.’

‘Well, it’s only eight now, that’s what, eleven in LA?’ Tania held out her iPhone. ‘Call her now.’

I took the phone and looked at it. ‘Oh no, it’ll cost a fortune, don’t be silly.’

The girls both burst out laughing. ‘It’s fine,’ Tania spluttered. ‘Just call her. And can we talk to her?’

I breathed in. Of course I knew her number off by heart. Of course she would be up at eleven on a Saturday night. Of course she wouldn’t want to talk to me. But I really, really wanted to hear her voice.

Taking the phone, I tapped in Jenny’s number, messing up the international dialling code twice before I heard a distant ringing. The girls sat across from me, staring intently.

‘Would it be OK if I talked to her on my own for a minute?’ I asked, standing up and not waiting for a reply.

‘But you’ll come back so we can talk to her?’ Tania shouted down the carriage, ignoring all the muttering, tutting and sighing around her. ‘I need to ask her opinion on boots. It’s almost boot season.’

Not knowing exactly where else to go, I slid open the door to the toilet and waited for her to answer. Or not answer. Or answer.

‘Jenny Lopez,’

I almost didn’t recognize her professional voice. It was really far away from the ‘Yo, bee-yatch’ or ‘Angie, what the fuck?’ that I was used to.

‘Jenny, it’s Angela,’ I paused giving her the chance to hang up or at least bitch me out again. But there was nothing.

‘Jenny? Can you hear me?’

‘Yes,’ she replied flatly.

‘OK, look, I’m so sorry,’ I was quick, trying to get everything in at once, ‘I know I messed up with the clothes, but I’m sure they’ll be insured through Belle or I’ll find a way to replace them, I’m just so, so sorry and I hate that we’re not talking. It’s been horrible these last few days, really, I’m just so sorry—’

‘Wait, you’re apologizing to me?’ Jenny interrupted.

According to the Angela that stared back at me in the mirror, I was confused. ‘Yes?’

‘Shit, Angie,’ Jenny sighed. ‘I’m the one that owes you an apology. A big one. A pretty fucking huge apology. I’ve been trying to call you all weekend, but I couldn’t get through to your cell or your BlackBerry and that bitch at your office wouldn’t tell me where you were staying.’

‘Seriously?’ Mirror Angela was confused and surprised. And really did need some make-up. ‘But the clothes I ruined …’

‘Oh shut up. I’m so sorry, Angie,’ Jenny talked over me. ‘I’m not pissed about the clothes. It was like, annoying, but it wasn’t your fault. Besides, no one cares, no one ever asks for stuff back. Most of what I sent you was at least a couple of seasons old anyway. I was totally out of line, but then I was pissed that I couldn’t get a hold of you and I wanted to talk to you about some stuff and I couldn’t and, well, yeah, I overreacted.’

‘My phone hasn’t been working, it’s, well, there’s been this whole big thing.’ I waved my hand in the air, remembering that she couldn’t actually see me. Which was a good thing given the state of me. ‘What did you want to talk to me about?’

‘You first, seriously, wasn’t there something with Alex?’ Jenny asked, her voice warm and reassuring. It felt so good to be speaking to her like this again. It felt just like when Louisa and I had hugged under the Eiffel Tower.

‘There is, but we’ll get to me,’ I said firmly. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’ve got to move out of Daphne’s place,’ Jenny said in a quieter voice. ‘She’s totally hooking again.’

‘Are you serious?’ I asked, my voice as high as Jenny’s was low. ‘In your home?’

‘In her home,’ Jenny rationalized. ‘She’s been losing styling clients, everyone is scaling back you know, and I guess if you’ve done it before, it’s easy money.’

‘But, oh God, Jenny, you have to get out,’ I groaned. ‘Come home.’

‘I can’t, things are going so well for me. I think that’s another reason she’s doing it. I’m getting so much work and no one is hiring her. It sucks. I feel shitty.’

‘It’s not an excuse and you can’t feel guilty,’ I said. I was desperate to get Jenny out of that house, I’d never been a fan of her current roommate. ‘Can you go and stay at The Hollywood for a while?’

‘I hadn’t thought of that actually,’ Jenny replied. ‘I suppose I could still pull some strings, maybe for a week or so.’

‘Just get out of Daphne’s house, please. You don’t know what kind of people she’s bringing back.’ And I never ever wanted to know.

‘You’re right, I’ll pack up in the morning.’ Jenny yawned loudly and I heard bed springs creaking. ‘She’s “working away” tonight so I’m having an early night. I haven’t slept in days since I busted her last week.’

‘I’m sorry, Jenny.’ I returned her yawn. ‘I haven’t been sleeping that well either.’

‘So what’s going on? Hit me with it.’

I pulled a face in the mirror and took a deep breath.

‘Right, here’s the short version. Alex’s ex-girlfriend is here in Paris and she’s decided she wants him back. He’s been a bit weird and when we went out for his birthday, he announced that he doesn’t think he’ll ever get married and have kids and he doesn’t want to live with me any more.’

‘What the fuck?’

‘So, yeah, that’s half of it.’

‘Shit. OK, go.’

‘Cici shafted me on the job I’m doing for Belle. She set me up with this assistant who took me to all the wrong places, she stopped my phone, and because I didn’t have my power cable I couldn’t use my laptop, and all my notes were in the suitcase so the article has been a nightmare and basically, she’s trying to get me to mess up so I get fired and I suppose she gets my job.’

Jenny exhaled down the phone. ‘So, I’m gonna start with Cici.’

‘OK.’ I bit my thumbnail.

‘She’s a bitch and she’s dead. Do you have evidence?’

‘Not really.’ I thought back over the last couple of days. ‘Unless Virginie, she’s the assistant who was supposed to be helping me out, would tell them what happened.’

‘Will she?’

‘I doubt it.’

‘Want me to make her?’

‘You’re going to fly out to Paris and kick her ass?’

‘If I have to.’

I smiled and shook my head. ‘It’s fine. I think the article will be fine. I hope.’

‘I’ll call some people, see if anyone knows any places in Paris you can use, but that bitch needs to be fired,’ Jenny insisted. ‘You have to tell Mary at least.’

‘I sent an email already, she hasn’t replied.’ I’d been trying not to think about my next conversation with Mary. It would not be fun. ‘I just hope I don’t lose my job.’

‘Could you?’

‘It’s not beyond the realms of possibility.’

‘So you’ll find a new job.’

‘But I’d lose my visa.’

‘We’ll get married, I’ll get you another visa.’

‘I’d say that might not sit well with Alex, but I don’t know that for sure.’ I paused for a moment to listen to and then ignore a knock at the door. ‘He might be pleased to have me out of his hair.’

‘So, exactly what has happened?’ Jenny asked. ‘Tell me that asshole hasn’t actually put his dick somewhere he shouldn’t.’

‘You have such a beautiful way with words,’ I said, a little more quietly now I knew I had an audience outside. ‘And I don’t know. He didn’t come back to the hotel last night.’

‘He still isn’t there?’ Jenny asked. ‘Did you call him?’

‘No,’ I admitted. ‘And I’m sort of not at the hotel.’

‘Oh Angie,’ Jenny sighed. ‘You’re gonna have to start from the beginning, honey.’

So I started from the beginning. I told her every single thing that had happened in the last week, from the moment I met Solène in the café, right up to our confrontation at Alex’s gig, via his disastrous birthday dinner, Solène’s party and their secret date that I’d witnessed in the bar. And I did not feel any better for getting it all off my chest.

‘Angie, this girl is a psycho,’ Jenny decided. ‘Trust me, takes one to know one. But it doesn’t mean anything is happening. You know I’m totally on your side over this, but there is no way Alex would cheat on you with this bitch. With anyone actually, but especially this bitch.’

‘But they have so much history and he loved her and they were going to get married and—’

‘Angie, stop,’ Jenny interrupted. ‘I’m gonna have to play a hard card OK? But it’s only because I love you. Weren’t you engaged before you met Alex?’

I stopped breathing, just for a second. ‘Yes.’

‘And didn’t that guy cheat on you?’

‘Yes.’

‘But if he went around behind your back announcing to Alex that he was going to win you back, would that mean for sure that you were getting back with him?’

‘But she’s really amazingly gorgeous and just super sexy and—’

‘Shut up before I come over to Paris to kick your ass,’ Jenny threatened. ‘Angie, you’re freaking out. I mean, obviously it’s all my fault because I wasn’t there to talk some sense into you, but this bee-yatch is obviously just trying to get you out of the way so she can make her move. Alex values his dick and his kneecaps way too much to hurt you and piss me off. I made my position on his looking after you super clear before I left.’

‘But what about all the “I don’t think I need to get married to be happy” stuff?’ I twisted a strand of tangled hair between my fingers. Really this conversation ought to be reassuring, but as the train chugged along, I was starting to feel more and more sick.

‘Angie, he just turned thirty, he’s feeling his age,’ Jenny reasoned. ‘And nothing makes guys feel older than the idea of marriage and babies. He’s acting out. Also you’re the one that’s been refusing to move in with him for just about for ever. He’s probably confused about stuff and trying to protect himself. Like, he’s thinking, well if she doesn’t want to move in with me I’m gonna tell her I don’t want to marry her, then she’ll see I don’t care.’

‘That sort of makes sense,’ I conceded, the sick feeling growing. ‘I suppose.’

‘Damn, I need to stop spending so much time being the new Rachel Zoe and get back into being the new Oprah,’ Jenny said, a dream filling her voice. ‘Or maybe the first ever Rachel Zoe/Oprah hybrid … sorry, back to you.’

‘Thanks,’ I muttered, attacking the other thumbnail. ‘So what do you think I should do?’

‘You go back to the hotel, if he’s not there, you call him and you tell him to meet you, the pair of you talk all this shit out and then call me to tell me I was right.’ Jenny made it sound so simple. ‘And if you want to kick the shit out of this Solène bitch then go for it, although karma will totally have her ass. She’s not worth it. Just remember she isn’t part of the problem, not really. Any decisions Alex makes, he makes for himself.’

‘I know you’re right,’ I conceded.

‘Well, duh,’ Jenny snorted down the phone. It was amazing how she could be incredibly helpful and completely obnoxious at the exact same time.

‘There might be a bit of a problem,’ I said, finally deciding it was time to abandon the train toilet. It really was quite disgusting. Which I didn’t think would bother the line of five really, really angry-looking people outside. Bless them for not kicking the door in. Must be English. ‘Just with the whole getting back to the hotel thing.’

‘Where are you?’ Jenny asked over a now crackly line. ‘You keep dropping out. Connection in Paris sucks.’

‘I’m on a train,’ I said, staggering back up the aisle towards Sasha and Tania who were bouncing up and down in their seats like Tigger. If Tigger had been drinking Vitamin Water and eating Haribo for the last hour. ‘I think we’re about to go into a tunnel.’

‘Tell me you’re on your way to the festival, Angela,’ Jenny had a warning in her voice. ‘Say it.’

‘Well, no. I’m not. I sort of freaked out a bit and erm, I’m on my way to London,’ I admitted, resting my forehead on the metal luggage rack in the middle of the carriage. The scream that echoed down the line was not helping my headache at all.

‘You’re what?’ Jenny yelled. ‘Angela Clark, get your ass off that train right now. I do not believe you sometimes.’

‘But I didn’t know what else to do,’ I tried to keep my voice down, but it wasn’t easy. ‘I thought Alex was cheating on me, I thought you weren’t talking to me, I might lose my job – it was just easier to take myself home rather than go back to New York to get dumped, evicted and deported. What would you have done?’

‘You freaking asshat,’ Jenny moaned. ‘Are we actually going to have to schedule a daily call from now on so I can check that you’re not doing anything supremely dumb?’

‘Yes?’ I shrugged. It certainly would make my life easier.

‘Angie, why do you always assume the worst?’ I could almost see her shaking her head at me. ‘Why are you going there?’

I bit my lip. ‘Because I didn’t know where else to go, so I just thought, you know, home. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’

‘Yeah, but London isn’t your home any more, Angie,’ Jenny said. ‘Is it?’

‘I didn’t know what else to do,’ I repeated, quietly this time and with tears starting to trickle down my cheeks. I turned my back to the twins, ignoring their audible impatience.