Read Sapphire Online

Authors: Katie Price

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary, #Contemporary Fiction, #Literary

Sapphire (5 page)

BOOK: Sapphire
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Sapphire’s stomach lurched and a panicky feeling of wanting to escape came over her. Alfie was the last person she wanted to see. But there he was, strolling through the door. She hadn’t seen him for nearly two years and even
though she hated him for how he’d treated her, she grudgingly had to admit that he was looking good. He had dark-blond hair and stunning, summer-sky eyes, which against his rich Mediterranean tan looked even more lethally blue. At five foot eight he was only slightly taller than Sapphire but he made up for this with an impressively buffed body. By the look of his pecs, which were showcased by his unbuttoned white shirt, he’d been quite the gym bunny in Ibiza.

Alfie always radiated confidence and wide-boy charm and he looked as arrogant as ever as he caught sight of Sapphire and treated her to his cheekiest grin.
Bastard
! He walked straight over as if he had nothing to be ashamed of. He always was a cocky bastard.

‘Cal, long time no see, mate.’ Alfie spoke with a strong Brighton accent and stuck out his hand, expecting it to be shaken. Cal took it, but didn’t seem quite so pleased to see Alfie.

‘And Sapphire, looking more beautiful than ever. If that was possible.’ Alfie looked her up and down, his eyes sliding over her body as if he was undressing her. Then he leant forward and kissed her deliberately on each cheek, taking his time being close to her.

Sapphire got a blast of his aftershave – he was still wearing Dolce and Gabbana Homme, which she had bought him. She used to adore the scent, now it made her feel slightly sick. ‘Alfie, even more full of shit, if that was possible,’ Sapphire took a step backwards, almost crashing into the trestle table in her desire to put some distance between herself and her ex.

‘Well, I’ve got some other people to see, I’ll catch up with you later, Sapphire.’ Cal moved away from them, clearly not wanting to be caught up in a domestic.

‘Finally got it together with Cal have you? Funny I never saw you as a WAG.’

Alfie always knew exactly how to wind her up. Their
marriage had been passionate and intense with lots of arguments and lots of making up. Against her will, Sapphire was remembering the making up. Alfie had always been very good at that. He looked at her knowingly.

‘I’m not
with
Cal, we’re just friends.’ Sapphire snapped back. She paused, then asked, ‘How’s Brooke?’

‘She’s still in Ibiza, winding up the club. She’ll be coming over in a month.’

‘What do you mean coming over?’ Sapphire could just about handle the thought of Alfie in another country; having him back in Brighton was way too unsettling.

‘Didn’t you know? I’m taking over PURE. You do business with them, don’t you? We’ll have to come to some arrangement. I’d like to think that you and I could do business too. We always worked well together in the past didn’t we?’

Alfie had helped her get her company off the ground but then he hadn’t liked it when Sapphire had become so absorbed in running it.

Alfie continued, ‘I’ve got a new partner – I think you’ll like him. Here’s my card, we should meet next week, Sapphire.’

Sapphire took the card, not trusting herself to speak. Why hadn’t Simon, the manager of PURE, told her about the buy-out? She’d spent the last five years building a good working relationship with the club. And now that was all threatened by Alfie.

Where was Sam? She needed the hip flask right now!

Sam and Jazz had thrown caution to the wind and had hit the dance floor – boogieing on down to Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’. They gestured to Sapphire to come and join them, but she was definitely not in the mood. Most of all she wanted to go home. She couldn’t risk leaving, though Georgia was supposed to turn up and she would expect to see Sapphire.

As she moved round the hall, chatting to people she vaguely remembered from school, mentioning her business and handing out her card, she was aware of Alfie watching her. It put her on edge. Why had he come back to Brighton? Weren’t there any other cities he could go to? And yes, Brighton was a city but it was a small one, and if she kept her business at his club she would be seeing him pretty much on a weekly basis. She didn’t know if she could stand it.

To stop herself obsessing she checked her mobile. There was a message from Jay. ‘Call me if your reunion doesn’t finish too late, I can come over. Are you wearing school uniform? Jx.’ In spite of the nightmare evening she was having, she found herself smiling, yes she would call Jay when this was over. She had learnt from her bitter break-up with Alfie not to become a victim and she had no intention of starting now. She made her way over to the bar and grabbed a beaker of cheap wine; she would somehow get through this evening.

‘Sapphire!’ She spun round to see Georgia, looking every inch the soap star in a cream silk jumpsuit. Georgia did not do understated and whenever she went out it was her mission to show off as much cleavage as possible – her boobs had cost her enough, she was always saying, she may as well get her money’s worth. They were certainly on show tonight and it was quite hard not to stare at them as they were practically up to Georgia’s neck. Georgia was twenty-seven, the same age as Sapphire, but looked way older because of her habit of plastering her face with make-up like a mask. She was pretty but in serious need of a makeunder.

Sapphire did her best to avert her eyes from the cleavage and look instead into Georgia’s violet eyes (fake contact lenses, Sapphire was sure) and spent the next ten minutes chatting with Georgia. It was hardly a two-way conversation, just lots of Sapphire telling Georgia how
wonderful she was looking, how slim she was, how well she thought she was doing in the soap blah blah blah. However outrageous the compliments Georgia took them all in her stride, as if they were entirely reasonable. The arse-licking was exhausting, but Georgia didn’t seem to tire of hearing how wonderful she was.

‘Hey, is that Cal Bailey I can see over there?’ Georgia asked, flicking back her long blonde hair extensions and nearly taking out Sapphire’s eye. ‘It is. God! I haven’t seen him since he was going out with Simone Fraser, I have got to say hi. Still hot to trot isn’t he?’ Georgia winked. ‘Come over with me, I’d love it if he could come to my wedding. So would the magazine, they’d probably increase the fee in fact,’ she added gleefully.

Sapphire trailed after her. She couldn’t imagine that Cal would welcome a conversation with Georgia. By nature he was an intensely private person and although he and Angel had been photographed wherever they went and were a constant feature in the celeb mags, Sapphire knew he didn’t enjoy the attention. And she was right about his reaction to seeing Georgia. She watched him endure her flirtatious comments but he looked as if he would rather be somewhere else, very far from Georgia and her fake-tanned cleavage, which seemed to have become even more revealing. Sapphire could have sworn that there wasn’t so much on show before Georgia saw Cal – she must have adjusted her zip.

‘And Cal,’ Georgia reached out and stroked his arm. ‘I would so love it if you could come to my wedding. It would mean a great deal to me and Tyler.’

Sapphire couldn’t believe how brazen Georgia was being, she hardly knew Cal and Tyler had never even met him.

Cal gave the briefest of smiles which didn’t reach his eyes, ‘It’s very good of you to ask me, Georgia, but it’s more than likely I’ll be in the States seeing my daughter.’

‘Oh yes, Honey, she must be so adorable! How old is the little poppet now?’

Cal’s jaw clenched. Any person with an ounce of sensitivity would have seen that he really didn’t want to talk about his daughter. Georgia was not one of them.

‘Two and a half,’ he said abruptly, turning away.

Time to rescue poor Cal. Sapphire turned to Georgia and said brightly, ‘So Georgia, where are you going on honeymoon?’

‘Tyler’s surprising me – all I can say is it better be somewhere bloody amazing like the Maldives or I’ll divorce him!’ Georgia laughed raucously. She was drunk.

Cal took the opportunity to say his goodbyes. As he gave Georgia the obligatory air kiss, she put her arms round him. ‘Lovely to see you, Cal, and I’ll send you an invitation to the wedding just in case you can make it.’

She was persistent, Sapphire gave her that; or maybe just desperate for the lucrative deal and all the attention that came with it. Cal just smiled thinly.

‘Sapphire, be a darling and get me another drink,’ Georgia exclaimed as soon as Cal had gone.

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Georgia that she wasn’t her bloody servant but she couldn’t risk jeopardising the hen-party booking. By the time she returned with a beaker of wine, Georgia was deep in conversation with Alfie.

‘I can’t believe you split up with this gorgeous man!’ Georgia exclaimed, taking the wine with one hand and running the other down Alfie’s arm.

‘Really? So you wouldn’t mind if you came home to discover your husband shagging another woman?’ Sapphire snapped back. She knew she was supposed to be playing arse-licker of the century but she couldn’t stop herself. The woman was unbearable!

Georgia burst out laughing, ‘Alfie! I’d forgotten about that! You dirty dog.’

‘If I could go back in time and change what I’d done, I would,’ Alfie replied, looking at Sapphire intently. She used to think his blue eyes were so beautiful and sexy, now she thought they were calculating and lacked depth. She shrugged.

‘Ah see, the old spark is still there!’ Georgia carried on, noting the gaze, ‘And there’s nothing more intoxicating than sex with an ex is there? I’ve had the best, dirtiest sex with nearly all my exes – it’s always fantastic because you don’t care what the other person thinks of you any more, you’re both out for your own pleasure.’ She looked significantly at Sapphire, who ignored her. If this was what Georgia was like at a school reunion, what the hell was she going to be like on the hen weekend?

Georgia laughed. ‘I had no idea you were this coy, Sapphire. Or it there someone else in your life now?’

Sapphire didn’t want to give anything away about her private life in front of Alfie, but felt she had to say something, ‘Yeah, I’m seeing someone.’

‘Ooh Alfie, competition for you, but I bet you love that don’t you, it gets the old testosterone flowing.’

Now Georgia had gone too far. ‘Georgia there is absolutely
nothing
between me and Alfie. We’re divorced. End of.’

‘Oh sweetie, I was just teasing you, sorry. I’m going to the bathroom now.’ And she tottered away, swaying slightly as she went.

‘Jesus Christ! I can’t believe I’m organising her hen weekend!’ Sapphire exclaimed when Georgia was out of earshot.

‘It’ll be a wild one that’s for sure,’ Alfie agreed, taking the opportunity to move closer to her. ‘But she was right about us wasn’t she? There is still something between us? Unfinished business? The spark is still there, isn’t it?’ His voice was low and husky – his seducer voice. Did he really
think he had any chance with her? She almost laughed. Why couldn’t he just get over it and get over himself while he was at it.

‘There is nothing between us, Alfie. Really, I feel nothing for you. Nothing,’ she said coldly. ‘You destroyed anything I felt for you when you cheated on me. Anyway how’s your son?’

Alfie shrugged, ‘Don’t try and avoid the subject, you always were a terrible liar, Sapphire.’

From across the hall Sapphire saw Jazz and Sam doing the sign of the cross and grimacing. ‘I’ll call about setting up a meeting – a business meeting, that is,’ she replied briskly and headed over to her friends.

By now Georgia had returned from the bathroom. She had taken to the dance floor and was giving Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ her all, flashing ridiculous amounts of cleavage. Sapphire watched one of the lads she remembered from her year, now an estate agent, making his move on her. He began dancing with her, suggestively moving his hips close to her, putting his arms round her and spinning her round. Georgia seemed to relish the attention and in turn wiggled her hips and pressed her body into his.

‘Look at the state of her!’ Jazz exclaimed. And they all watched in appalled fascination as Georgia put her arms round the lad’s neck and began shimmying her body up and down his.

‘Looks like she hasn’t got on top of her drink problem then,’ Sam said.

‘She’s about to get on top of him though,’ Jazz added. ‘And wasn’t keeping off the booze one of the conditions of her staying on the soap?’

Sapphire put her head in her hands. Georgia was very bad news.

‘Do you want me to do something?’ Alfie had joined the group. Sam and Jazz visibly winced but managed not to
make the sign of the cross in his face. ‘Hi,’ he said casually to the girls who had once been his friends and the bridesmaids at his wedding. He got a nod back in return.

‘What can you do?’ Sapphire asked. ‘Take her back home and shag her? Because that seems to be her mission tonight. Though I guess it would at least distract her from the free bar.’

‘I was thinking of getting her a taxi and making sure no press saw her in this state. Otherwise you can kiss goodbye to that hen weekend.’

‘Okay, do it,’ Sapphire replied, well aware that Alfie was only doing this for himself, whatever he might say. He wouldn’t want to lose out on the publicity for his club if the weekend didn’t go ahead.

‘Don’t ever go to a school reunion,’ she told Jay sometime later when they were lying in bed together. Sex with Jay had been the only good part of her evening. ‘You never know who’s going to turn up.’

‘You saw your ex-husband right?’

‘He’s such a creep, I can’t believe he’s moved back to Brighton.’

She turned over on to her stomach and Jay began massaging her shoulders. ‘You feel tense, babe.’

‘So would you, if you’d had my night!’

‘Just let it go, your ex-husband is the past. Don’t give him headspace.’

She knew that Jay was right but that night she couldn’t sleep. She endlessly replayed scenes from her marriage. She had been so in love with Alfie, had believed her marriage would last for ever, that he was the one – whatever that meant. Apparently nothing. And now he was back in her city and it was going to take all her strength to keep her barriers up and stay strong.

BOOK: Sapphire
11.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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