Strangers (24 page)

Kate picked up a plate and reached for the smoked salmon.
By the time she’d worked her way along the length of the table, her plate was piled high and her stomach growled in anticipation.

“I do like a woman with a healthy appetite,” said a voice near her ear.
“Can I get you a drink to go with that?”

Kate turned to see a small man in tiny wire glasses, holding a plate with four neatly placed items.
His eyes were level with her chest.
Kate had a sudden horror that guests were rationed.
She wondered if she should try and put a few things back.

“No, thanks.”

Kate wanted to be left to eat in peace, but sensed that wouldn’t happen.
She found a free corner and leaned on the wall.
Moments later, the small guy stood next to her, his gaze still fixed on her chest.

“Quite a novelty,” he said.

Kate hoped he was referring to the food.

“You’re not going to throw it all up again?”

“No.” Only if he tried to kiss her.

“You only eat once a week, is that it?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m Matt Reisen.
You are?”

“Kate Snow.”

“What might I have seen you in?” he asked.

“Crispies?”

He licked his lips and winked.
“Sounds saucy.
I might well have.
Take my card.
Give me a ring.
I’m sure I can find you something.”

Kate balanced her plate on one hand and pushed the card into her pocket with the others she was collecting.
She selected a flaky cheese pinwheel from her plate and bit into it.
She knew he was watching.
His eyes had moved from her chest to her mouth.
He edged a little closer.

“Actually, I’ve got an interesting project on at the moment.
The big studios are going to be fighting over it.
A sort of
Lock Stock
,
Full Monty
with a twist.
It’s about a guy who works at a dog grooming parlor in Swansea and he’s convinced one of the dogs he’s looking after is the reincarnation of his dead wife, Bitsy.
He killed her while they honeymooned in Chihuahua.”

Kate laughed and then realized not only was he not joking, but this film was not a comedy.

“Sounds fascinating,” she said, and ate a little faster.
She breathed a sigh of relief when someone came to take the guy away, surprised they weren’t carrying a white jacket with very long sleeves.

“Hello, sweet thing.”

Kate twisted her mouth in annoyance as a strange hand helped itself to one of her coconut king prawns.
When the fingers reached out again, Kate stabbed them with her fork.
They belonged to a tall, blond American.

“
Oww
.”

“Get your own,” she said.

“There aren’t any left.
I think you took them all.”

Kate’s face went hot.

“Won’t you share?” he asked.

“No, you should have been quicker.”

“Words no woman has ever said to me before.” He smiled.
A mouth full of perfect even teeth.
“I’m Jake Hartness.
What’s your name?
What might I have seen you in?”

Kate sighed again.
These people were dull.

“Crispies?” she said.

“Yeah, I remember now.
You were great.”

She burst out laughing.

Charlie tensed when he saw Kate laughing, and when he realized who she was with he set off in her direction.
Jake Hartness was as slick as spit.
Ethan caught Charlie’s arm as he passed.

“I want a word with you.”

“What?” Charlie didn’t take his eyes off Jake, who stood far too close to Kate.

“Kate told me you saved her life.”

“What?” Charlie spun around to stare at Ethan.

“We could use that, Charlie, and undo your recent negative publicity in one fell swoop.
Transform you overnight from dirty devil to appealing angel.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?
This is a great opportunity.
You’re a real-life hero.
You didn’t manage to rescue your brother, but you did save Kate.
Plucked her from the jaws of death.” Ethan laughed at his own joke.
“Jaws?
Get it?”

Charlie’s hands balled into fists at his sides.
Sometimes Ethan was a prick.
“She saved me.”

Ethan faltered.
“But she said—”

“I’m sure she did,” Charlie said in a cold voice.
“But she saved me.
So forget it.”

Charlie’s gaze slid back to Kate and he groaned.
Bloody Hartness had her backed up against a table.
Kate looked as though she’d been confronted by a king cobra.
If she leaned any further back, she’d topple over.

“Ethan, rescue Kate,” Charlie pleaded.

“Why?
She looks like she’s having a good time.”

Charlie knew from Ethan’s tone that he’d pissed him off.

“Maybe that’s why I want you to rescue her,” Charlie said.

“You’re the one she thinks is Spiderman.
You rescue her.”

“What?
Ethan, please.
If they think we’re together, they won’t leave her alone.”

“Is that why you’re avoiding her?”

“You know what will happen if they find out she’s with me.”

A woman pulled at Charlie’s arm.
“Hi, Ethan.
Charlie, you must come and meet Cyn.” Charlie shot a pleading look in Ethan’s direction and let himself be led away.

Kate was exhausted by having to pretend interest in boring, repetitive conversations.
She had no idea what anyone was talking about, who they were talking about or why they were talking to her, but that didn’t stop them.
Everyone who spoke to her was a very important director, producer, promoter, actor.
If they weren’t already the big thing, they intended to be the next big thing.
As far as Kate could tell, the whole industry was made up of pretentious idiots.
Yet she could sense desperation in all of them, the knowledge that they couldn’t afford not to be seen because if they didn’t speak to the right person—and who the fuck knew who that was—they’d miss some opportunity that would never come again.

In a way, she understood.
They had a dream and pursued it.
If they didn’t make it, it wouldn’t be for want of trying and those who’d already made it clung to what they had in case someone snatched it away.
Like a soap bubble blown from a wand, their beautiful life could disappear in an instant.
Charlie had nearly lost his but he’d had a second chance.
So had Kate, but this wasn’t the life for her.

Kate’s gaze returned to Charlie, blazing round the room like a comet, leaving a trail of light behind him, illuminating others for a moment because they stood near him.
He felt as alien to her as something from deep space—untouchable, inexplicable and unattainable.
This had been a terrible mistake.
The only thing they had in common was the sea.
Now they lived in different worlds.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief when Ethan caught her elbow and politely drew her away from yet another producer.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked.

“I can’t think when I had so much fun.
Oh yes, it would be when I walked out of the loo at school with my skirt tucked into my knickers and no one told me until it was time to go home.”

“You’re arousing a lot of interest.”

“No, I don’t think so.
They want to talk, not listen.
Do I have a sign on me that says, ‘I listen to idiots’?
And why are the only people who want to talk to me male?”

“Apart from the obvious reason?”

“What obvious reason?”

Ethan looked at her chest.
Kate sighed.

“Ethan, the guys I’ve spoken to would talk to a door if they thought it would listen and make appropriate noises.
I’ve been offered a part in a very classy art film that has a few scenes of essential nudity—a tasteful threesome.
I’ve listened to synopses of films that make
Silence of the Lambs
look like a fairy tale, the worst of which involved vampire chickens and a woman who had a child with an alligator.
What do I think about the name
Gatorbaby
?”

Ethan laughed.
“The women here are only interested in people who can further their career.
All other women are deadly rivals to be avoided or put down because they might be after the same role, modeling contract or man.
Every woman in this room wants to be thinner, taller, prettier and brighter.
There’s already been one major upset because two budding starlets turned up in the same pair of shoes that could hardly be seen under their dresses.”

“Is someone else wearing my flip-flops?” Kate tried to sound alarmed.

Ethan chuckled.
“You’ve also not helped things by mentioning Crispies, because no one knows it’s a restaurant in Greenwich.
They all think it’s some hardcore porno movie.”

“I know.” Kate sighed.
“I’m beginning to believe it myself.
I’ve even been offered a part in Crispies Two.”

She scanned the room until she found Charlie.
He stood still now, not a comet, but a bonfire night sparkler, spreading light and life in a circle around him.
Just like a bloody sparkler, she thought, because you want it to stay lit forever but eventually it goes out.
It always does.
Then it burns your fingers.
She watched as he happily chattered to everyone, his hand on the arm of the woman next to him, kissing another who came up to him.
He was so beautiful he made her heart ache.

But this wasn’t Kate’s life.
She was a fool ever to think it could be.

“Why doesn’t Charlie talk to me?
He asked me to come, but he wouldn’t bring me.
Now, he doesn’t even want to stand near me or dance with me.”

“He knows a lot of these people.
They’re good friends.”

“I can’t further his career.
I don’t know the right people.
I’m just a novelty, aren’t I?
And we know what happens when the novelty wears off.”

Kate’s confidence sputtered like a damp squib.
She felt cheap.
Maybe she’d not judged this right.
Maybe Ethan wanted her to see she didn’t fit in.

“He’s interested in you because you’re different, but Charlie possesses the attention span of a goldfish,” Ethan said.

Kate shivered.
She was fun to fuck, but it wouldn’t last.
The truth ran through her veins like fast-acting poison.

“Do you want to go home?
I’ll get my driver to take you.”

“No.” Kate inhaled a fortifying breath and forced a smile.

She’d changed her mind.
She’d never get the chance to come here again.
She turned her back on Ethan and made straight for the deserted dance floor.
Despite the fact that it was a club, no one was dancing.
Probably because the women worried they’d fall out of their dresses.
It took only moments before Jake joined her.
Then a few others danced around them.

As the American’s hands moved toward her, Charlie was suddenly there, pulling her away.

“I was dancing with someone,” she snapped.

“You’re dancing with me,” Charlie said.

Kate knew he’d be a good dancer, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d moved like a string puppet because her organs reacted as though they were magnetically attracted to his.
Her hips longed to kiss his, but each time he reached out for her, she never allowed herself to slide into his grasp.
When the song ended and he leaned forward to speak to her, Kate thanked him and walked away.

She made straight for the bathroom.
She didn’t want to speak to him.
He’d asked her to the club and spent most of the evening ignoring her, pretending they weren’t together, but he didn’t even want her to dance with anyone else.
He’d hurt her.
She understood he didn’t want the press to know they were together, but most of the people she’d met were actors like him or people in the film industry.
He was ashamed of her.

Kate was also reconsidering Ethan’s motivation, wondering again if he had a hidden agenda.
Maybe he wanted her to look stupid, wanted Charlie to see a cheap waitress in old jeans and be embarrassed into dumping her.
Would she have looked so bad in the cotton dress?
No one else would have been wearing it.
Kate needed a few moments to pull herself together.
Then she’d go home.

She thought the toilets were empty, but the unmistakable grunts of a couple engaged in a session of mutual satisfaction emanated from the end cubicle.

“Yeah, like that, yeah, oh…”

The woman was vaguely articulate, the guy a groaner.

Kate had never been able to see the attraction of shagging in a toilet.
Lucy had done it on more than one occasion and had been full of Nick’s athletic ability, but Kate didn’t fancy it at all.
The less you touched in there the better.

She lingered by the wash basin, not because she was keen to listen to the duet, but because she didn’t want to go anywhere near Charlie until she had her emotions under control.
But she should have hurried because when the cubicle door swung open and she saw the flushed faces of the pair through the mirror, Kate let out a gasp of her own and fled.

“Kate, stop.”

She hadn’t got far down the corridor.
No point running, they’d recognized each other.
She turned and Nick hurried to her side.

“Don’t tell Lucy.”

Kate put her hands on her hips.
“Why not?”

Nick hesitated.

“Why shouldn’t I tell her?” Kate asked.
“I take it that wasn’t your wife?”

The set of his jaw told her it wasn’t.

“I don’t want to hurt her.” Nick’s wheedling tone grated on Kate.

“I think you’ve already done that.”

“Look, Sylvie was just—available.
We fancied a fuck.
It didn’t mean anything.”

The woman emerged and walked up the corridor behind Nick.
Kate wondered if Sylvie thought it didn’t mean anything.

“We’re both married.
We know the score,” Nick said.
“Please don’t say anything.”

Sylvie slid her arm through Nick’s.
Kate stalked off.

“What’s wrong, Nick?” Sylvie asked.

“She threatened to tell my wife.”

“The bitch.
She won’t, will she?”

“I hope not.”

Kate overheard them and was tempted to tell Sylvie the truth.

Kate found another loo and lingered for a while before going back to the main room.
She wondered if Ethan’s driver would give her a lift back.
As she peered into the crowd, looking for a way to slip out without bumping into Charlie, a glass of wine hit her face.
Kate cried out in shock.
The glass didn’t break but it had hurt her cheek.
Kate screwed up her eyes as red wine dripped down her face and neck.
A young girl, wearing a black slash-necked dress, stood smirking.
She had long blonde hair and a baby face.
Kate had never seen her before.
She looked too young to be in a nightclub.