Angel Uncovered (10 page)

'Angel, he was unfaithful with
you
when he was with
Simone, and he married
you.
Don't let that cow get to
you. She's just bitter and twisted because you're with
him.' Gemma stifled a yawn. 'Sorry, I'm knackered.'

'You go to bed,' Angel told her, suddenly feeling very
lonely and longing to be back at her own house with Cal
and Honey.

'Sure you'll be okay?'

'I'll be fine,' Angel lied, thinking that she was getting
very good at saying what she didn't mean.

Eventually she went to bed around three and not for
the first time she woke up crying. She'd been dreaming
of Cal and in her dream she'd been in a crowded club,
desperately trying to get his attention while he was
surrounded by beautiful women and ignoring her.
It was
just a dream,
she tried to tell herself, wiping the tears from
her eyes. She got up hoping to see Gemma but she'd
already left for her shoot – when she wasn't with Angel
she worked with several other models and freelanced for
magazines.

Angel felt exhausted and hungover but wanted to get
back home and see Honey as soon as she could. She tried
to ignore her headache and quickly showered and got
dressed. Tel arrived to pick her up at seven.

When she got into the car he said quietly, 'Have you
seen the papers yet?'

Angel shook her head. Tel sighed and handed her a
pile of tabloids. She was on the front cover of one of them
and on the showbiz pages of all the others. It was the shot
of her sitting back in the car, a star placed strategically to
cover her modesty, but revealing enough to show that
she was knickerless. The headline read: '
Forgotten something,
Angel?
' She stared at the picture of herself – she
looked the worse for wear even though she'd repaired
her make up.

Angel threw the papers on the seat next to her in
disgust.

'Don't worry,' Tel told her. 'It'll be forgotten by
tomorrow.'

'No, it won't,' Angel replied. 'Then it'll be in all the
celeb mags. They'll get their chance to print the shot of
me and of all the other celebs who've been caught out.'

Tel had bought her a croissant and latte for the
journey back but she couldn't eat anything. She sipped
her coffee and stared aimlessly out of the window. She
just hoped Cal didn't see the papers, though she knew he
was bound to find out and didn't like to imagine his
reaction.

Ten minutes later her mobile rang. It was Cal, and he was
furious. 'I can't believe you went out like that! What the
fuck were you thinking?' Angel tried to speak but he cut
across her. 'You're a mother now, Angel, do you really
want our daughter seeing pictures of you like that?'

'She's six months old! I don't think she'll be that
interested.' Angel tried to lighten the tone but Cal was
having none of it.

'Well, I'll have the piss ripped out of me by the lads.
And those pictures will turn up on the internet. Did you
think of that when you forget to put your knickers on? Of
course not, because as usual you were only thinking of
yourself. Did you think it would get you some good
publicity, remind people who you were?'

'No! Please, Cal, stop being like this. The photographer
pushed his way into the car and stuck his camera
up my skirt, it's not my fault!'

'And where was Honey last night?' Cal continued
shouting. 'It's bad enough I hardly get to see my
daughter. Now you're abandoning her, getting caned
and flashing your cunt.'

Angel winced. 'My mum had her. It was one night. I've
hardly been out.'

'Well, you'd better stay in from now on! Jesus Christ,
like I need this publicity before the World Cup!'

'Cal, I've said I'm sorry,' Angel pleaded. 'Please can't
you forget this?'

He sighed heavily. 'Yeah, well, it wouldn't have
happened if you were in Italy with me where you should
be. I've got to go now. I've got training.'

''Bye then,' Angel said sadly. 'Love you.' But there was
no point. Cal had already hung up.

'Not too happy, was he?' Tel said sympathetically as
Angel sniffed and brushed away the tears. 'Don't worry,
he'll get over it.'

'I hope so,' she replied. 'I don't know, Tel, we seem to
be getting on so badly at the moment.'

'All marriages have their ups and downs,' he said.
'Trust me, it's just a bad patch.'

Angel shrugged, too emotionally drained to say
anything.

It was another week before she got to see Cal, a week of
worrying about what he was doing or who he might be
seeing. Simone's comments had really got under her
skin. 'Look! There's Daddy!' she told her daughter as
they waited at the Arrivals gate at Gatwick airport for
Cal. He didn't see them straight away and Angel got to
observe her husband from a distance. Her heart flipped
when she saw him. She'd missed him so much these past
weeks. He looked gorgeous, tanned, fit – in both senses
of the word. She could see other people staring at him.
Then he spotted Angel, walked swiftly over and took
Honey from her arms. Angel watched as he kissed his
daughter and held her up in the air, making her giggle.
She was delighted to see father and daughter reunited
but couldn't help wondering where her hello was. Then
Cal finally seemed to register her. 'Hi, thanks for
meeting me,' he said formally, and kissed her lightly on
the cheek.
What kind of welcome was that?
Angel thought,
feeling rejected. Where was the passionate kiss she'd
been anticipating?

'That's okay, we really wanted to see you. Shall I take
Honey?'

'Actually, can you push the trolley then I can hold my
daughter and remind her that I still exist.'

Whoah, that was harsh!
Cal was obviously still furious
with her. Angel trailed after him as he strode purposefully
through the airport, not bothering to see if she
could keep up as she struggled to negotiate the trolley
through the crowds. When they got to the car, he insisted
on sitting next to Honey in the back while Angel drove
and talked to the baby non-stop about what they could
see from the window, totally ignoring his wife.

Twenty minutes into the journey Honey fell asleep and
Angel finally felt able to talk to Cal. 'Mum said she would
babysit tomorrow night so we can go out. I've booked a
table at Hôtel du Vin. I was thinking it could be my
birthday celebration . . .' Her voice trailed off. It hardly
seemed as if Cal was in the mood to celebrate anything.

'I'll see how I feel,' he answered abruptly. 'I might just
want an early night; training has been so intense lately.'

'Oh,' Angel answered, seeing her plans for a romantic
meal were already in ruins.

'Anyway you've got your party coming up. You can
celebrate your birthday with your friends, can't you?'

'Actually I've cancelled it,' she answered.

'You didn't have to,' Cal replied, sounding surprised,
'I thought you were really looking forward to it?'

'I'm not bothered,' Angel answered, too sad to make
the usual
Am I bovvered?
joke. 'Last year's was so
wonderful, and I'd rather celebrate with you after the
World Cup. Maybe we could go away for the weekend?'

'Maybe, I'll need to check my schedule.'

God, he sounded so distant, like he didn't care about her at all.
How was she going to win him back?

As soon as they arrived at the house Cal focused all his
attention on Honey and hardly said anything to Angel.
She'd really made an effort for his visit, buying all his
favourite food and drink. And she'd made an effort with
her appearance too – she'd gone for the natural look that
she knew Cal loved, but it was a natural look that
required effort so she'd had a spray tan and her nails
done.

For the first time in a while she'd bought some new
clothes, too. She was wearing a pair of white jeans and
tight white top that made the most of her figure. Round
her neck she wore the stunning necklace Cal had bought
her for her last birthday that spelt 'Angel' in pink
diamonds. Jez had recently done her hair and she'd had
more blonde highlights put in to give her a sun-kissed
look. But Cal said nothing about the way she looked; in
fact, he barely seemed to notice her.

Angel let it go for a couple of hours but by earlyevening
she was desperate to get a response from him. As
she watched him bathing Honey she found herself
blurting out, 'Don't you love me anymore?'

'Don't be mad!' Cal answered, finally looking at her. 'Of
course I love you, I just haven't seen you lately, and I'm
still fucking fuming about the fact you've abandoned me.'

'I have not!' Angel said hotly.

'Look, I'm not going to argue in front of our daughter,'
he answered tersely.

'I'm not arguing,' Angel protested, but Cal shook his
head, and realising she would get nowhere, she left the
bathroom. He spent the next hour putting Honey to bed.
Wondering what was taking so long Angel tiptoed into
the nursery and discovered him sitting by Honey's cot,
watching her sleep. Seeing Angel, he got up quietly and
followed her out of the room.

'I've missed her so much,' he said.

'I know,' Angel replied, longing to hold him. They
stood on the landing, gazing at each other, and for a
minute Angel thought he might finally kiss her. But he
said abruptly, 'Shall we order a pizza? I'm too knackered
to cook.'

'But I was going to make something!' Angel protested.
'I bought sea bass.'

Cal laughed and it wasn't a particularly nice laugh.
'That'll be the day! Leave the sea bass, you'll only burn it.
I'll phone for pizza.'

They spent the evening in front of the TV, Cal drinking
beer, Angel white wine. They sat on the sofa but whereas
usually they'd be sitting close, arms round each other, Cal
sat at one end and Angel at the other. She longed to talk
to him but didn't know how to begin to bridge the
distance between them. He was being so cold. When he
wasn't watching TV he was texting, making her feel even
more excluded. After he'd sent off five messages Angel
asked who he was texting.

'Just Rico. I don't think you met him, he's one of my
team mates. He wants some advice about a girl he's just
met. D'you want some more wine?' he asked, getting up
from the sofa. 'I'm having another beer.'

Angel shook her head. This was far from the evening
she had planned. She'd imagined that after Honey was
asleep, she'd take Cal to bed. But he didn't seem
remotely interested. She looked at the coffee table where
his mobile was lying and had to know for sure who he'd
been texting. Quickly she picked it up and tried to access
his messages, but it was password protected. That was
odd; Cal had never had a password on his phone before.
She felt a prickle of unease. Had he really just been
texting a friend? An image of Flavia flashed up in her
mind as she recalled Simone's words that if Cal had been
unfaithful once, he was capable of being unfaithful again.
She heard him walking back towards the living room and
quickly put the phone down.

'Have you thought about what you're going to wear to
the Carters' World Cup party? It's white tie and
diamonds,' Cal said, flopping back down on the sofa.

As England's Captain, Connor Carter epitomised what
it was to be a Premiership footballer. Young, goodlooking
and absolutely loaded, he was married to
Gabrielle who had been a model once but had given it up
when she married Connor and now dabbled in fashion
design – she had her own jeans and sportswear label.
Gabrielle was also something of a style icon and many
WAGs and Wannabe WAGs aspired to be like her. They
just didn't want to be married to a man like Connor who
had been unfaithful to Gabrielle at least twice – or so the
kiss and tells said. And on top of that there had been
some very unsavoury rumours about what he'd got up to
recently at a party, which wives and girlfriends had been
banned from attending. Whatever the truth, Gabrielle
had maintained a dignified silence, but was known to be
extremely jealous of any woman who went near her
husband.

Angel shook her head. 'No, I guess I'll ask Gemma to
help me find something.
'
That was the least of her
worries at the moment.

'Well, you'd better get on with it. I bet all the other
wives have got their outfits sorted. And I really think you
need to wear a top designer. The ball is going to be on
TV and the pictures will be everywhere. And please wear
knickers.'

Angel hated being told what to do, always had done.

She was strongly tempted to tell him so, but couldn't face
the thought of another row so instead said flatly, 'What
designers do you suggest?'

'I would have thought Roberto Cavalli or Valentino.
Of course, if you were in Milan it would be so much
easier. I could come with you and help you choose.'

'I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own dress,' she
snapped, unable to stop herself. 'You don't need to treat
me like a child. And don't worry, I'm not going to show
you up.'

Cal yawned and stretched his arms over his head.
'Whatever.' He carried on watching TV.

Angel sat seething on the sofa for a few minutes before
she was struck with a horrible thought. 'Do you think
Simone will be there?'

'I expect so, but why are you so bothered? I dumped her
for
you
, remember? And she knows not to come near us.'

'I'm bothered because she's a right bitch. I bumped
into her the other night and she was vile to me.' Angel
was about to tell him what Simone had said but Cal
shrugged. 'Just ignore her, she's not important. Anyway
I'm knackered, I'm going to bed.' And with that he got
up, picked up his phone and left the room.

Angel felt totally powerless. She didn't know how to
reach her husband. Should she tell him how depressed
she'd been feeling? About how she was on medication
now? She hadn't wanted to so close to the tournament,
but the way things were between them, she worried she
was losing him. But when she went upstairs Cal was
sitting on the end of the bed, his head in his hands.