Paradise (16 page)

It was wonderful seeing Loretta’s reaction to the news. She was thrilled and couldn’t stop smiling, briefly back to looking the way she did before she was ravaged by cancer. She insisted on them drinking yet more champagne and they stayed for a couple of hours, chatting to her. As they came to leave, she slipped off her beautiful sapphire and diamond engagement ring and handed it to Ethan, saying, ‘I want you to give this to Angel.’

‘No way, Loretta!’ Ethan exclaimed. ‘I couldn’t possibly take it from you.’

He held it out in the palm of his hand, but she gently closed his fingers around it. ‘Nothing would make me happier than knowing you had given that ring to Angel. Besides, I’ve lost so much weight the ring keeps falling off and I’m afraid I’ll lose it.’ Ethan still looked unsure, so Loretta added, ‘Please, Ethan.’

And so he took Angel’s hand and gently slipped the ring on to her finger, where the jewels sparkled brilliantly. It even fitted. Angel held up her hand to show Loretta who smiled her appreciation. ‘You don’t mind that it’s not a new ring?’ she asked. ‘It was my mother’s, and before that my grandmother’s, and is a bit of a family tradition.’

‘I’m honoured,’ Angel replied truthfully. She felt buoyed up with happiness.

It was only when she and Ethan were driving home that she switched on her phone and saw she had several missed calls from Cal. She realised she had better face up to some explaining. Ethan saw her frown. ‘I take it Cal has phoned you?’ She nodded.

‘So what are you going to tell him?’

‘The truth. That I need a divorce because I love you and want to marry you.’

‘He’s not going to take it well,’ Ethan replied. ‘You’d better be prepared for that.’

But when, back at the house and filled with apprehension, Angel phoned him, Cal was completely cool and offhand. She had no idea what he was thinking, other than the slight edge to his voice, they could have been discussing the weather.

‘Congratulations,’ he said as soon as he answered her call. ‘Of course, it might have been nice to know you were planning to do that, but I’m guessing it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.’ He wasn’t giving anything away. But she could hardly blame him, could she?

‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I hadn’t planned it but it wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing. I know I really want to marry Ethan.’

‘You don’t have to convince me, Angel. Fine, why don’t you arrange for your solicitor to contact mine and we’ll get this over and done with quickly, if it’s what you really want. And your mum and dad and friends might appreciate a call as well. I’ve just had your dad on the phone . . . and Gemma. They both sounded pretty shocked.’

Angel hated the way he was trying to make her feel guilty and was instantly on the defensive,

‘Yes, it’s what I really want. I don’t know why you’re sounding so offhand,’ she replied. ‘You’re seeing Simone, so what difference does it make if we get divorced and I marry Ethan?’

‘What the fuck are you on about?’ Cal sounded extremely pissed off. ‘I’ve told you, Simone is just a friend . . . that’s all there is to it.’

‘Oh, please, spare me the denials, it’s so fake! I’ve seen the pictures, Cal!’

‘Seriously, Angel, I don’t know what you’re on about.’

She couldn’t believe that he didn’t ’fess up. ‘Well, whatever, Cal. I know what I saw.’

‘I
really
don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He sounded exasperated. ‘But I’ve got to go. Give Honey a kiss from me.’

Angel thought fleetingly of the day she had spent with them in Santa Monica. She was turning her back on any chance of a reconciliation with Cal if she went ahead with marrying Ethan – not that he had even suggested there should be one. Indeed, she had no idea what he thought about her any more apart from that one kiss. Maybe that was all it was, a kiss that meant nothing. And she realised something else. Actually it didn’t matter if Cal was or wasn’t seeing Simone, in a way that was irrelevant, the fact was she couldn’t trust him any more. There was no going back.

ANGEL SPENT A
difficult few days fielding concerned calls from her family and friends. No one she knew seemed that thrilled by the news. Both her parents thought she was rushing into things and her dad even came out with the old chestnut of ‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure’, which went down very badly with Angel, who felt he was being really unfair. He was so blinkered where Cal was concerned. Had always thought he was perfect; and when he wasn’t, it seemed to Angel that Frank was very good at burying bad news. As for her friends, while Jez was cautious in giving his congratulations, Gemma didn’t make any attempt to hide how shocked she was.

‘But it’s so soon after you breaking up with Cal. Are you sure this is what you want?’ she demanded.

She didn’t seem to be listening when Angel replied that, yes, this was exactly what she wanted.

‘Has Ethan been putting pressure on you to do this?’ Gemma carried on. ‘It just seems so sudden, especially after you’ve only just found out about his daughter. How do you know there aren’t any other secrets he’s been keeping from you?’

Angel hated hearing her friend talking to her like this; hated everyone judging her, expecting her to do what they thought she should do. It was like a red rag to a bull. ‘Why did I even think that you would be
happy for me?’ she shot back. ‘Fucking hell, Gemma, you’re my best friend and all you can do is criticise me! All
everyone
ever does is criticise me! Sometimes I think you all believe it’s my fault that Cal was unfaithful.’

‘Of course I don’t think that,’ Gemma said quickly. ‘What Cal did was wrong and I can understand why you feel you could never trust him again, but is marrying Ethan the way to get over Cal? Because that’s what it looks like from here.’

‘I’m not marrying Ethan to get over Cal!’ Angel exclaimed. ‘I’m marrying him because I love him! And anyway, I don’t have to justify myself to you or to anyone.’ Then it was Angel’s turn to put the phone down on someone. She felt as if her friends and family were doing all they could to take the shine off her big news.

Ethan came and found her, curled up on the sofa in her dressing room, looking at her engagement ring. This room had become her sanctuary from the outside world and from her past, it seemed.

‘Tell me you’re not having second thoughts,’ he said, sitting down next to her.

She shook her head and leant against him, breathing in his fresh clean smell, cut with his musky aftershave. ‘No way.’

‘Folks giving you a hard time?’

She sighed, ‘You don’t mind if we have a small wedding, do you? I don’t want people coming if they’re going to be negative.’

‘Angel, I don’t mind what kind of wedding we have, I just want to marry you.’

At this he kissed her and Angel kissed him back, and it wasn’t long before they were pulling off each other’s clothes, culminating in a brief, intense fuck, putting Angel’s worries right out of her head. And nothing that
felt this good could be wrong, she thought, lying back in Ethan’s arms.

While Angel received such a lukewarm reception to her big news from the UK, the reaction from the States couldn’t have been more of a contrast. All Ethan’s friends were delighted for him, the media couldn’t get enough of the golden couple and it made a refreshing change to have the attention on a positive event in her life. Angel tried to block out the negative comments and enjoy the congratulations.

Benny insisted on throwing the couple a huge star-studded engagement party. It was the first time Angel had ever been to his house and she’d had no idea it was so grand. It was in the heart of Beverly Hills, a huge Italian-style villa, complete with two impressive marble pillars at the front entrance, bronze statues of naked Greek youths dotted around the garden, and inside it was all marble floors, huge glittering chandeliers, and everywhere you looked photographs of Ethan: Ethan playing baseball, Ethan at various celebrity parties and premieres, Ethan posing for his after-shave and car commercials, Ethan relaxing on the beach. Angel realised that there didn’t seem to be any other pictures of anyone else. That seemed weird. Although Ethan was Benny’s most successful client, he did look after other players.

She was about to say as much to Ethan when Susie caught sight of her. ‘Angel!’ she screeched. ‘Why haven’t you returned my calls? We’ve got so much we need to talk about!’

Angel had indeed been ignoring Susie’s messages, knowing that her agent would go off on one. She could do with some head space at the moment. In contrast, she had received a lovely bouquet of flowers from Carrie and Dave congratulating her, with no
mention of work. Angel rather wished that Carrie was out here with her instead of Susie who had clearly decided that she was a kick-ass agent who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Susie was certainly dressed to impress in a clinging gold dress which resembled fish scales and seemed to be staying on her 32Ds by sheer will power alone, or more likely a roll of tit tape, along with staggeringly high gold sandals. ‘This is just the best news ever for your career! I couldn’t have wished for anything better. You could have told me before though, I didn’t like to say anything in front of Benny and Ethan but I am your agent. I mean I know I’m junior to Carrie, but she has left me in charge.’ There was a slight petulant edge to Susie’s voice here. Angel looked over her shoulder, hoping that Ethan was nearby and could rescue her.

‘Susie, I know we’ve got a lot to talk about, but this is a party and I’ve got people I need to say hello to,’ she replied, knowing that her agent was always nagging her to talk more to other people or rather ‘network’.

‘Yes!’ Susie exclaimed, instantly perking up, ‘Go mingle! There are people here you absolutely
must
invite to your wedding, and I guess it would be nice if you met them first. You’re thinking of a fall wedding, I take it – we need at least six months to plan it, though to be honest a year would have been better. The best venues are most likely all booked up . . . But I’m sure we can pull a few strings.’

Now was not the time to inform her that Angel planned on having the smallest wedding possible – maybe even getting married on the beach with just two witnesses, Honey and Megan as flower girls and strictly no photographers. She could just imagine how well
that
would go down with her agent.

Angel was just about to move over to where Ethan was chatting to Alisha and Logan when Susie took her
arm again and whispered, ‘I might even be planning my own wedding soon.’

Angel looked at her, trying not to show how surprised she was.

Susie nodded, ‘Yes, it’s true, I’m sure Benny is close to popping the question.’

Angel had had no idea that the Benny/Susie love fest was so far advanced.

‘We’re a perfect match in so many ways, we both love our jobs, our independence, we make each other laugh and –’

Angel winced, praying that Susie wasn’t going to share what Benny was like in bed.

‘And we’ve got the most fantastic sexual chemistry.’

Oh no, please, let her stop now! ‘But isn’t Benny a little old for you?’ It wasn’t the most polite of questions but Angel couldn’t bear to hear about the couple’s sex life.

But Susie didn’t seem to take offence, ‘I’ve always loved older men and so Benny’s just perfect for me and he’s got so many contacts!’

At that Susie caught sight of Benny, and headed over to him, leaving Angel free to find Ethan, relieved to have escaped hearing any more revelations.

As she walked across the room, other guests caught her eye and smiled at her, raising their glasses in congratulation. Benny had certainly pulled out all the stops. There were beautiful arrangements of flowers everywhere, a jazz band was playing in the corner of the palatial room, waiters whisked by with trays of vintage champagne and delicious canapés. Angel smiled to herself, noticing that the champagne was going down far more quickly than the canapés – everyone here was simply too image-conscious to be caught scoffing any food. She recognised Ethan’s team mates, various movie stars, rap stars, socialites, a couple of gossip
columnists – she gave the latter a wide berth. Bitter experience had taught her never to trust journalists.

Ethan looked so handsome as he chatted to his friends – usually he was to be found in baggy tee-shirts and jeans, but tonight he had scrubbed up well in an exquisitely cut dark grey Dior suit. Angel had gone all out for glamour as well, wearing a white floor-length Grecian-style dress with diamante straps that emphasised her gorgeous curves.

‘Hey! Congratulations!’ Alisha and Logan exclaimed, taking it in turns to kiss her.

‘I never thought I’d live to see the day that Ethan Turner got married!’ Logan joked. ‘And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see him married to than you.’ It was lovely basking in their warm wishes after the cautious way her old friends had received the news. If only they knew Ethan like Angel did, they would understand that she was most definitely doing the right thing. A succession of other guests then came up to wish them well, and the next half-hour was a blur of introductions. Angel didn’t find it easy mixing with people she didn’t know, but Ethan was so easygoing he made her feel relaxed. Every time she felt unsure of herself, he would catch her eye and smile. At one point one of the gossip columnists came over, eager for some juicy titbits about the engaged couple, and Angel made her excuses and wandered off to find a bathroom, having no desire to talk to them.

She made her way up the vast wood-panelled staircase and on the landing above paused to look down over the guests, who had spilled out from one of the spacious living rooms and into the hall. This was a really great party, she thought to herself happily, then had a sudden pang that none of her family and friends were here to celebrate with her. Neither was Loretta, who was simply too frail for a big event like this.

She tried to shake off the feeling of sadness and opened a door off the long landing which she thought was the bathroom. Instead she found herself in Benny’s office, which like the rest of the house was furnished in an over-the-top extravagant style: gold taffeta curtains, a zebra-print sofa with red heart-shaped velvet cushions scattered over it, the ceiling painted sky blue with white fluffy clouds and cherubs darting round the edges. But what really stopped Angel in her tracks was the huge black-and-white photograph of Ethan which took up an entire wall. While it wasn’t a surprise to find yet another photograph of him, this one was a shock as in this photograph Ethan was lying on his side, naked save for a Dodgers’ cap covering his manhood and flashing one of his trademark sexy smiles. It seemed a very full on choice for a study. For a moment she stood transfixed in front of the photograph.