Angel Uncovered (17 page)

'Shall I order some more wine?' Angel asked, anxious
to deflect attention away from herself.

Thankfully she got through the rest of the meal
without Cal's name being mentioned again, but some of
the pleasure had gone out of the night for her and now
all she wanted to do was get back to the hotel. She had no
desire to go clubbing. But she had reckoned without the
persuasive skills of Candy, who would not take no for an
answer. 'We have got to go to Hyde,' she insisted. 'It's one
of
the
celeb places in LA.'

Angel smiled. 'You've said that about everywhere
we've been so far.'

'I know, but I really want to go there,' Candy replied.
'I read that Robbie Williams goes there sometimes, and
I've loved him forever!'

Angel gave up, secretly thinking that they probably
wouldn't even get into the place if they weren't on the
guest list. Sure enough, when their limo pulled up
outside the club on Sunset Boulevard there was a huge
crowd waiting outside to get in. Completely unfazed,
Candy got out of the limo and marched to the front of the
queue to negotiate their entrance with a six-foot blonde
with the looks and superiority of a super model who
decided which of the crowd was cool enough to get in.
Angel, Madison and Suki trailed behind her, like
reluctant children. Angel missed the first part of the
conversation and came in on Candy exclaiming, 'No
fucking way! Don't you know who we are?'

Oh, no, Candy,
Angel thought.
That was so not the way to
do it!

The blonde amazon rolled her eyes and blew bubble
gum in Candy's face – clearly she was not from the 'Have
a nice day' school.

'I don't care who you are, you're not coming in.' Her
eyes flicked past Candy and settled on Angel. 'Oh, but she
could.'

Angel shook her head and took Candy's arm to stop
her from saying anything else. 'Let's go.' She was turning
away from the club when her path was blocked by a tall,
extremely good-looking blond man who bore a striking
resemblance to Josh Holloway, the actor who played
Sawyer in
Lost
. Angel had always secretly fancied him like
mad and for a moment thought it was him. Then he
spoke to her and she realised it wasn't.

'Hey, you're not leaving already, are you?' He spoke
in that sexy LA drawl, staring at her with a pair of
intensely blue eyes.

Angel smiled at him. 'Yes, I'm afraid we are.'

The mystery man was about to reply when they were
surrounded by paparazzi snapping away at them.
How
did they know she and the girls were going to be here?
Angel
wondered, then realised the attention was all on Mystery
Man, who raised his eyebrows at her and said, 'See you
again, I hope,' before pushing his way through the paps
and straight into the club.

'Whoah! He was fit!' Candy exclaimed. 'He looked just
like Sawyer from
Lost
.'

'Come on, Cinderella, let's go. Don't you need your
beauty sleep for seeing Liam tomorrow night?' Madison
put in.

'You're right,' Candy replied. 'And of course I've got to
decide what to wear . . . Though I'm well pissed off about
not getting into that club. Do you think I should try
again?'

'No way,' said Madison firmly, taking her arm and
practically frogmarching her to the limo.

*

The following morning Candy and Angel were having
breakfast by the pool. During their stay they'd got into
the habit of ordering the most mouth-watering dishes
they could and then exclaiming loudly about how
delicious the food was within earshot of Gabrielle and
Simone. Today they'd gone for scrambled eggs and
smoked salmon.

'I still haven't seen them eat anything,' Candy
whispered. 'They must be starving all the time. No
wonder Gabrielle's got that miserable cow expression on
her face – her body must be gagging for some carbs.'

Gabrielle and Simone lay on sun loungers opposite,
flicking through magazines, but in spite of their best
efforts they kept looking at the food.

'And check out the look of longing on Simone's face!'
Angel whispered back. 'I bet she doesn't look like that
when Jamie gets his kit off!'

Candy and Angel giggled even though they knew that
they would have to pay for eating so much by doing an
extra-hard session in the gym later, but it was worth it to
make those two suffer.

'I love hot buttered toast so much, don't you, Angel?'
Candy said loudly, shovelling a piece slathered in butter
into her mouth. The sight was clearly too much for
Gabrielle and Simone who leaped up from their loungers
and practically ran back into the hotel.

'One nil to us, I think,' Angel declared.

Candy gave her the thumbs up then said, 'D'you have
any idea who that gorgeous blond man was last night?'

'What gorgeous blond man?' Angel pretended to look
puzzled when the truth was she'd had a few thoughts of
her own on those lines. He really had been incredibly
good-looking and not the kind of man you would easily
forget.

Candy saw right through her. 'Oh, please don't be all
coy with me. You know exactly who I mean!'

Angel shook her head, but she was smiling. 'Candy,
I've no idea what you're talking about.'

Candy reverted to her all time favourite topic of
conversation. 'So have you decided what you're going to
wear tonight when you see Cal?'

Angel looked blank. 'I've no idea. Probably jeans and a
vest.'

Candy rolled her eyes. 'Angel! Why don't you wear the
pink halterneck dress. You look so sexy in that!'

Angel sighed, 'I guess I could.'

'And what about your hair?' Now Candy had got up
from her seat and started arranging Angel's long hair,
seeing what it looked like piled on top of her head.

'I'll wear it down, I suppose.'

'I've just had a great idea! Why don't you go platinum
blonde again? I thought you looked incredible like that,
and wouldn't it be a great surprise for Cal? You could
have my appointment at Privé – it's owned by Laurent D,
the guy who does Uma Thurman and Gwyneth Paltrow's
hair. I thought I'd need my highlights doing again but
they're fine. What do you reckon?'

'Do you boss Liam around like this?' Angel replied,
smiling, though actually it wasn't a bad thought. She felt
like she could do with a change. Maybe going platinum
would help put a bit of va-va-voom back into her
marriage. God knows, it needed it.

And so, after checking on Honey and Lucy, Angel
found herself on her way to Privé Salon which was where
she spent the next four hours. She felt rather guilty,
knowing that Jez would be upset that she hadn't gone to
him. But what the hell? This was a spur-of-the-moment
decision.

By the time the hairdresser had finished, Angel was
thrilled with her appearance. She always tanned easily
and in the LA sun had gone a beautiful golden-brown.
Combined with that, platinum hair made her look sexy
and exotic. The players weren't due to arrive at the hotel
until seven which still left her plenty of time to get ready
and she decided to go with Candy's suggestion of the
pink dress. She had even booked a table at Comme Ça, a
hip brasserie on Melrose Avenue, as she didn't want to
eat at the hotel surrounded by all the other footballers
and their wives.

As it drew closer to seven, she felt increasingly tense –
she so wanted Cal to like her new look. Candy popped
round to her suite and told her she looked amazing,
which boasted her confidence. But when she left Angel
found herself anxiously scanning her reflection. Did she
really look all right? Would Cal think she looked sexy?

When he turned up, he looked surprised rather than
captivated by her hair. He kissed and hugged her briefly
then said, 'I thought you preferred your hair darker.'

'I thought a change would be good. Don't you like it?'
she replied, her heart sinking. He obviously wasn't
impressed.

'Of course I like it. You look beautiful, you always do.'

But Angel couldn't take any comfort from this comment
because although the words were what she longed
to hear, the way he'd said them sounded lacklustre and
routine. And the evening went downhill from there. He
seemed annoyed when she told him they were going out
to dinner, saying that he was tired and would rather have
had roomservice. When they arrived at the restaurant he
barely said a word. Angel did her best to try and engage
him. She chatted about Honey – how much she loved
going in the swimming pool, how she was starting to
crawl, and what new words she'd come out with. She
asked him how his knee was holding out, how he felt
about the next game, but nothing she said generated
anything more than a monosyllabic response.

Then she brought up the subject of the missed penalty.
'Cal you've got to stop beating yourself up about it. '

'You've got no fucking idea, have you?' he exclaimed
angrily. 'Of
course
I can't stop thinking about it! What if I
do it again and it costs us the next match?'

'I know you're upset but don't you think it would be a
good idea to move on?' Angel tried to say calmly even
though she felt terribly hurt by the way he was speaking
to her. 'I'm sure Phil and the rest of the team would want
you to do that.'

'Oh, yes, I forgot you were an expert in these matters,'
he said nastily. 'Remind me again how many penalties
you've taken?'

Hardly able to believe how cruel he was being, Angel
got up from the table and practically ran to the Ladies'.
She didn't want him to see her cry nor did she want
anyone else in the restaurant to see her tears. Once there
she bolted the cubicle door and sobbed. What had
happened to the man she loved? She didn't think she
could take anymore of this.

Eventually she calmed down and then had to spend
the next few minutes repairing her make up. She looked
in the mirror, hating her hair, hating the sexy dress. It
had made no difference to anything. Clearly Cal didn't
want her anymore. She understood that he was stressed,
but he'd been stressed before and he'd never spoken to
her like this. Feeling numb, she made her way back to the
table.

'I sent your meal back to keep it warm, why were you
so long?' he asked as she sat down.

Still not trusting herself to look at him, Angel stared
down at the table and muttered, 'I couldn't bear the way
you were speaking to me. I know how important the
tournament is to you but please don't treat me like this.'

She waited for Cal to snap back at her. Instead he
reached out and took her hand. 'Angel, I am so sorry. I
know I'm being a complete shit,' he said in a voice that
was husky with emotion. Now she looked at him and for
the first time in ages his brown eyes were warm. 'I love
you, Babe, you must believe that. I'm just in a really
difficult place at the moment and I need you to
understand.'

'I do understand!' Angel said passionately. 'But,
please, share it with me.'

'I'll try,' he promised.

But back at the hotel, where Angel longed to get close
to Cal, the shutters once more came down on her. When
they got into bed together he made a big show of yawning
and saying, 'God, I'm knackered.' He put his arm round
her and she snuggled up to him, but when she started
caressing his chest and running her fingers over his hard
stomach, he said, 'Angel, I'm too tired. Sorry . . . maybe
in the morning.' Then he switched the light off and
seemed to go to sleep, leaving her feeling completely
rejected. In the morning either he had forgotten what
he'd said or he didn't want to because when she woke up
he was already showered and dressed.

'It's okay,' he said when he saw that she was awake,
'you have a lie in and I'll take Honey down to breakfast.
Do you want me to order you some room service?'

Angel shook her head, and burrowed back under the
covers.

'God, Angel, you look well knackered! Cal keep you up
did he?' Candy giggled as she caught up with her by the
pool. The players had left just after breakfast and Angel
was back to putting on a brave face and pretending that
her marriage was peachy. She was glad she was wearing
sun glasses and Candy couldn't see her eyes, which she
knew looked sad. 'Yep, all night,' she said, which wasn't
exactly a lie as she had been awake most of the time, just
not engaged in the same activity as Candy. 'What about
you?'

'Yep!' Candy said with relish. 'I rode him like a beast
all night! I'm feeling very satisfied, if you know what I
mean. It was good to have the real thing for a change. I
was worried that I was getting a bit too addicted to my
Rabbit.'

Angel was relieved when Suki and Madison turned up
and they could change the subject.

'Hey, Angel, you're in
Grazia
,' Madison said, handing
her the magazine.

'Really?' Angel replied, surprised; she didn't usually
make the style mags. 'Oh, God, it's not criticising
something I've worn, is it?'

'No, the opposite. It says that you looked stylish and
understated and that other WAGs should take a leaf out
of your book,' Madison continued.

Angel was pictured at the last England match in an Ed
Hardy black tee-shirt with
Dedicated to the One I Love
written on it, huge black shades and black skinny jeans.
The contrasting picture was of Gabrielle who was Guccied
up to her eyeballs – Gucci shades, dress, shoes and
bag. The accompanying article was not complimentary
and poked fun at her lack of style and the way she was far
too matchy-matchy with her clothes and accessories.
Gemma would be thrilled; Angel would have to call her
later.

'She won't like that, will she?' Candy exclaimed.

'No,' Angel replied. 'And it gives her one more thing to
hate me for.'

'Why do you think she does?' Madison asked, and
Angel quickly backtracked, not wanting to reveal
Gabrielle's request for a threesome.