Sapphire (15 page)

‘Hey, don’t worry. It’ll be okay. This has just been a blip, in a week, it will be forgotten. You’re a great businesswoman, Sapphire. Soon you’ll probably look back at this weekend and laugh.’

Ryan sounded so sympathetic and warm, Sapphire could feel some of the anxiety leaving her. Then he continued and she immediately tensed up again, ‘I’m seeing Simone for lunch today; I’ll make sure I sing your praises.’

‘You’re seeing Simone?’ Sapphire couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice.

Ryan laughed. ‘I’d much rather be seeing you, believe me, but I thought it would probably be useful to all of us if I took her out for lunch, made her feel good about the weekend. She does know an awful lot of people with connections and we don’t want her badmouthing your business or mine. Georgia’s fine, by the way. Tyler came to pick her up first thing and he’s taken her straight to the Priory. I think she’s going to fess up about what happened and say it was a cry for help and that she’s going to get herself cleaned up.’

‘Hasn’t she been saying that for the last three years?’ Sapphire replied sarcastically.

She couldn’t help feeling jealous that Ryan was seeing Simone. Was lunch all he had on his agenda? Just how far would he go to keep her sweet? And more to the point, why was she concerning herself? She ended the call feeling in an even worse mood. God, Cal had been right, Simone was a complete bitch.

She spent the rest of the day spring cleaning the boutique, sorting out all the stock. They were in the run-up to Christmas now and she had a large order of La Perla and Calvin Klein lingerie coming in on Monday. She wanted everything to be in place. By five, when she had still heard nothing from Jay, she plucked up courage to phone his mum. She just prayed that Jay hadn’t told his family what had happened – she had a feeling that Vicky would be like a tigress as far as her children were concerned and wouldn’t take at all kindly to Sapphire if she knew what she had asked Jay to do. Vicky answered the phone. She hadn’t heard from Jay but that wasn’t unusual. She thought he had gone up to London for the day with Luke, and she promised to get him to call Sapphire as soon as he got back.

‘Jay’s not the type to stay angry for long,’ she said kindly, probably thinking they’d just had a lovers’ tiff. She added, ‘And he really likes you Sapphire. I mean
really
likes you.’ The guilt was almost unbearable.

The next week was hideous. Jay continued to ignore her calls. Georgia’s exploits were all over the tabloids, sparking debates on their pages and on TV and radio that women were getting out of control and whether hen parties now had as bad a reputation as stag nights. Sapphire staunchly resisted all requests for interviews, fearing that she would be misquoted, but then
Morning
Edition
, one of the TV breakfast shows, was having a discussion and she was invited in as a guest speaker.

It seemed like her chance to set the record straight and both Jazz and Sam urged her to do it. ‘Just go on, look fabulous and say your piece. Not all hen weekends end up like Georgia’s, we know that. Why shouldn’t girls have fun?’ Jazz told her.

‘Can’t you do it?’ Sapphire moaned.

She was not feeling especially fabulous right now. To
her surprise she really missed Jay and felt very down. To distract herself she flicked through
heat
magazine and ended up on the ‘Spotted’ page. A sudden irrational flash of jealousy went through her when she caught sight of a picture of Simone looking loved-up with Ryan out and about in Brighton. Clearly something more than lunch had been on the agenda, judging by the expression on herface . . . She shut the magazine in disgust, furious with herself for being jealous and furious with Ryan and Simone.

‘Come on, Sapphire, you’ve got to do it,’ Sam said. ‘Repeat after me, “I’m a kick-ass businesswoman.” ’

Sapphire shook her head, ‘I really don’t feel very kick-ass right now.’

‘Pathetic! Jazz and me are going to make you do that programme because you’ll so regret it if you don’t.’

Sapphire moaned some more and then gave in – she knew her friends were right.

But that didn’t stop her being incredibly nervous on the morning of the programme. Luckily Jazz had come with her to do her make-up and give her moral support and she did her best to keep her calm by chatting away to her as they sat in the dressing room with some of the other guests. The young female researcher had told Sapphire on the phone that it would just be a light-hearted discussion about hen weekends, nothing too heavy.

‘God, Jazz, I need to go to the loo again!’ Sapphire exclaimed as it got closer to her slot. ‘I’ve already been three times in the last hour! I’m going to be crap!’

‘You’re going to be great,’ Jazz told her. ‘Come on, it’s a brilliant chance to mention the business. Stop being a wimp!’

Finally after two more trips to the loo it was time for Sapphire to be shown onto the set. It felt very strange sitting on the familiar red sofa which she had seen on TV and staring out at the cameras and production team
milling around. She felt extremely hot and self-conscious under the lights. Tina, the bubbly presenter, was as down to earth in real life as she was on TV, but Sapphire was shocked when Olivia Smithson, a right-wing columnist who had extremely strong views on women and drink was shown on set and took her place next to Sapphire. Olivia Smithson did not do light-hearted discussions, what she did do was to stick the knife in and take no prisoners. Sapphire was about to ask Tina what was going on when the ad-break finished and they were on air. From the moment the discussion kicked off, Olivia was like a Rottweiler, attacking Sapphire for everything she said. Tina, was powerless to stop her.

‘It’s people like you who are responsible for the binge-drinking culture in this country, which is wrecking lives and costing the NHS millions of pounds as yet again it has to pick up the pieces after one of your depraved hen parties.’

‘Of course I’m not responsible for binge drinking! I provide a service that women want. It is extremely rare that someone attending one of my parties becomes ill through drinking excessively.’

Suddenly Sapphire’s nerves had deserted her and she felt confident about her own argument. How dare this stuck-up journalist criticise her, and not just her – all women who wanted to have a good time.

‘You provide a service so that women can get drunk and behave disgracefully! You should be paying an extra tax to cover the cost of sorting out those drunken women.’

‘You’re being so extreme – I’ve just explained that it has never happened before that a woman has ended up in hospital following a hen party with my business and that’s all I can say in order to respect my clients’ privacy. In general the women who come on my weekends want to relax, have fun, and yes, maybe have a few drinks, but there’s no law against women being able to have a good
time is there? Would you like us to go back to the days when women couldn’t drink in public? Or is it that you don’t like to see women of a certain
class
out there enjoying themselves?’

Yeah, that was it, stuck-up snob.

The studio audience burst into spontaneous applause as Olivia tried to bluster on in her plummy voice that of course class wasn’t an issue. But clearly it was.

‘Sapphire, you were great!’ Jazz exclaimed when Sapphire returned to the dressing room, ‘I was well impressed!’

And Jazz wasn’t the only one. Emily, the show’s producer sought her out and told her she was exactly the kind of contributor they wanted to have on the programme – a strong, articulate, opinionated young woman – and asked if she would be interested in coming on again. Sapphire considered for a few moments and then agreed that she would.

All the way back to Brighton she was bombarded with texts from her friends telling her how good she’d been, even her mum told her she’d been brilliant, and it was rare that she praised Sapphire. Vicky texted her too to say well done. But there was still nothing from Jay. She should have been glad that she had done something to salvage her reputation after Georgia-gate; instead he was all she could think about.

Usually Sapphire was completely cool about her affairs ending, and usually she was the one doing the ending. But now she felt differently about Jay. It didn’t seem as if whatever she had with him had run its course yet. She hated to think that it would end over the stripogram incident nor did she like the feeling of guilt that had hung over her all week. She had to do something. If he didn’t want to see her any more she had to know – she couldn’t carry on in this limbo.

IT WAS HALF
six by the time she arrived back in Brighton and she was desperate to know either way whether Jay still wanted to see her. It was a Friday night and they’d fallen into the habit of chilling out at Sapphire’s place – Jay would cook or they’d get a takeaway and watch a DVD. Sapphire had come to enjoy those nights. Jay was such easy company and she felt she could completely relax with him; there weren’t many people who could make her feel like that. The truth was she had missed him this week.

‘Just go round to his flat!’ Jazz had urged her throughout the journey.

‘I’m sure he doesn’t want to see me – if he did, he’d have called. He obviously thinks it’s over.’

‘He was most likely really pissed off and angry and needed a bit of space. He’s had that now.’

Sapphire wasn’t so sure but she couldn’t wait any longer, she had to go and find out for herself.

A twenty-something man with a gym-fit body, short blond hair and a little too much fake tan opened the door to her. She reckoned it must be Luke, Jay’s flatmate. Sapphire gave him her most dazzling smile, but the look Luke gave her in return was decidedly unfriendly. ‘Hi, I’m Sapphire, is Jay in?’

‘I know who you are.’ Luke replied tersely. ‘Wait there, please,’ and he shut the door in her face.

Sapphire tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter if Jay didn’t want to see her any more – they’d had fun and it was probably time to move on, but deep down she knew that wasn’t true.

Luke took his time coming back to her, so long that Sapphire was about to give up and leave. ‘He’s in the living room. He’ll see you.’

Jay was sitting in the armchair by the fire drinking a beer. He made no move to get up when Sapphire walked in and barely acknowledged her. She wanted to go over to him and put her arms round him, tell him how sorry she was but she didn’t think he’d respond to that very well. She stood in the middle of the room, clutching her bag to her chest, as if it was a security blanket.

‘Hi,’ she said, ‘I’ve left messages all week. I wanted to say sorry, Jay. I’m really really sorry about what happened.’

‘Yeah, I expect you are. It probably wasn’t good for business.’ There was an edge to his voice she hadn’t heard before.

‘It’s nothing to do with my business!’ she protested, ‘I’m sorry I put you through that. I had no idea those women would behave so badly.’ She took a step towards him. ‘Please, Jay, I really am sorry. If it’s over between us, tell me and I’ll go, I just wanted you to know how sorry I am.’

‘Oh yeah, I forgot – three months is usually your limit with a guy isn’t it? I guess I should be grateful I lasted five. Is that what you want, for us to be over?’

Sapphire surprised herself by saying, ‘No, Jay, that’s not what I want.’

Usually it was one of her rules never to let her guard down. They stared at each other for a few seconds, not saying anything. Then Jay spoke, and his voice was
warmer, ‘Well you don’t get rid of me that easily. Come here.’

Sapphire walked over to him and he took her hand and pulled her onto his knee. She buried her face in his neck, breathing in the scent that was twenty per cent Dior Homme and eighty per cent Jay, while he stroked her hair.

For a while they said nothing and just held each other; then Jay spoke. ‘When those fuckers held me down and everyone was crowding round me I had a flashback to being bullied at school. It took me to a really dark place. I’ve only just been able to deal with going to work and that’s it.’

Sapphire felt even worse knowing the pain she’d caused Jay. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘I know you are, babe.’ He reached up and lightly touched the bruise on her face, ‘But let’s forget about it now.’

Sapphire felt an unexpected wave of happiness roll through her. She really was glad that Jay wasn’t dumping her. He kissed her softly on the lips. Sapphire waited for the kiss to become more passionate. It didn’t. Maybe Jay hadn’t quite forgiven her. But then he said, ‘Will you stay with me tonight?’

Sapphire nodded. She was breaking a lot of her dating rules tonight. ‘Hungry?’

‘Yeah, but I don’t expect you to cook, why don’t we get a takeaway?’

‘No, I’ve been eating crap all week, I’ll cook. Come on, you can help.’

As Sapphire stood up she said, ‘Will Luke be in the kitchen? He’s not exactly my number-one fan is he? I thought he was going to punch my lights out when he opened the door to me.’

Jay laughed. ‘He’s resistant to your charms anyway, babe, as he’s gay.’

‘I expect last week probably turned you that way.’

‘Never,’ Jay ducked down and kissed her neck. And Sapphire wished they could skip dinner and go straight to bed.

Luke was sitting at the kitchen table flicking through
Grazia
when Jay and Sapphire went in to prepare dinner. He stayed put while Sapphire chopped onions, peppers and mushrooms for the pasta sauce Jay was making. Sapphire wished he would just go. Then he started in on her.

‘So does that kind of thing happen often at your hen weekends?’

She didn’t need to ask what kind of thing he was referring to. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the confrontation. If she could handle Olivia Smithson on live TV, she could certainly handle this.

‘Never – I mean, we often have strippers but none of my clients have ever behaved like that.’

‘If Jay had been a woman how would you have felt about it then?’ Luke fiddled with the silver earring in his ear. Elaborate and brightly coloured tattoos of flowers covered both his arms. If it had been anyone else Sapphire would have commented on the tats.