Wishful Thinking (15 page)

Jess was busy at her desk when Christian and Tom arrived later that morning. Melissa hovered in the outer office and gushed at them as a simpering receptionist showed the pair in. The personal touch was only ever extended to VIPs. Julian from the legal department already sat in Melissa’s office and minutes later, Sir Trevor also bumbled in.

“Who are they? What’s going on?” Kamia asked, before scuttling off to make the coffee.

“Some shining luminaries, no doubt - it’s a big book deal, for sure,” Sam said knowingly. “The sort that could save all our skins. You’d better open that new box of biscuits, Kam.”

Tom had called Melissa ‘a tight-assed bitch’ – a throwback to his American roots - and warned Christian to leave all the negotiations to him. There’d been at least one point in the discussion when he’d just wanted to walk out, grab Jess and insist she left with him there and then. Melissa seemed to think she owned Jess and wanted to keep her on a leash. But Tom was the business. Phlegmatic, was the word some journalist had once used to describe him. After looking the word up, Christian had to agree, it suited him perfectly. Tom’s ultra-quiet and calm business persona eventually had Melissa eating out of his hand and they managed to strike a deal that suited everyone in the room. It included an advance for Jess and her immediate release to begin her research; for Melissa, and her geriatric knight, it was a win-win proposition, while for Christian it was perfection. The only person whose reputation might suffer was Tom – but that was only if Jess was unable to deliver or meet the agreed deadlines, and Christian had no concerns on that score.

He had wanted to take Jess with them when they left, but she had a long debrief with Melissa to undergo first, so Tom suggested going home to wait. When Jess called, she was already on a train heading towards him. Once he had established the train’s destination, he set out for the station to meet her there.

“I have two weeks off with full pay!” She told him as she flew into his arms. “That’s so I can do all the research, interviews and such and put together a chapter-by-chapter outline.”

“Amazing!” he said. He had stipulated a month and made a mental note for Tom to get back on the mean-minded Melissa’s case. He opened the car door for her. “That means you can come to L.A. with me!”

He knew at once that something was wrong. Jess’s exuberance deflated immediately. She’d smiled and tried to shrug it off, explaining that Ben needed to be back at school the following week. He argued that they would engage a tutor and that travel would enrich his education, but Jess remained adamant.

Later that night he persuaded her to confide in him.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy but I can’t take Ben to America. His father, Jason, is American and I’d be too afraid to apply for a visa in case…”

His mind whirled through possibilities but drew a blank. “In case what?”

“Something…some legality that would let us go there but then prevent me from bringing him back,” Jess told him with tears in her eyes. It was plainly difficult for her to articulate her monstrous fears.

“But that’s impossible, my love. I would never let that happen. And anyway, it’s just not logical. He’d be in no legal position to do anything after deserting you. You don’t need a visa for a short visit these days either. But I’ll get Tom to look into this to put your mind at rest. I’ll put him onto it immediately.” But nothing he could say would reassure her to the contrary. All his plotting and scheming had amounted to nothing.

Except, of course, that he still had Jess and she would be here waiting for him on his return. The thought of her living in his house in his absence would just have to sustain him. In the meantime they had three more days together before he had to leave and he was determined to make them the best three days any of them had ever experienced before.

13

Jess felt bereft after waving a final goodbye to Christian from Heathrow Airport’s first class international lounge. She sniffed back her tears and saw Ben doing the same. Hand in hand they left the airport building and went to meet George in the VIP car park.

“It’s only for a week,” he told them in a valiant effort to cheer them up. “Well, okay, ten days. And when we’re driving out here again, you’ll be asking yourselves how the time could have passed so quickly.”

It was Saturday morning and Jess decided they would spend the rest of that day at the lovely Surrey house and return on Sunday to their own flat. Ben would re-start school on Monday and Jess wanted to ensure everything was normal and calm for him. Because she was working through a cabinet full of photographs, notebooks, clippings and reviews - which she was trying to catalogue and place into some semblance of order - she needed to spend time in Surrey and planned to occupy her days working there while Ben was at school and return to the flat in the evenings at the time she would normally get home from work.

She realised she was working against the clock to produce a detailed outline of Christian’s book for Melissa’s approval with so much memorabilia to sort through, but was determined to succeed and prove herself worthy – both to Melissa and Christian. As she sorted and sifted, she made notes of the gaps that needed filling, the questions to ask Christian and the people she wanted to interview - the details of many of whom Christian had provided before he left. Adam, the co-founder of Wishful and Amber Rayne were both high on that list, but Jess was reluctant to contact either of them without Christian being present. She felt that Amber at least could pose problems.

With Jacqui’s help, Jess managed to fill Saturday with both work and play to ensure that Ben enjoyed himself every minute of the day. When Sunday came, Jacqui begged her to remain behind. “I can get Ben to and from school – and you know that’s what Christian wanted – otherwise he wouldn’t have booked my services for the next fortnight.”

Jess was grateful but firm, insisting that the hour’s drive each way would be too much for Ben and unfair on Jacqui. “You deserve a break yourself, anyway. We’ll come back some evenings and at the weekend and I’ll be here working most days, so if you’re ever at a loose end, you can be my assistant.”

After dropping Ben off at school on Monday, Jess went into the local newsagents and stopped short as the faces of Christian and Amber smiled out at her from the cover of ‘My!’ magazine with the caption ‘Ring in the New’, depicting interlocking wedding rings. For the terminally stupid, Jess thought. She stared at the cover in anguish before reaching out for the glossy. They looked so sleek and perfect together. Hurriedly flicking through it to find the appropriate page, she was interrupted by the assistant asking her, with very little attempt at civility, to buy it before she tried it as this wasn’t a public library. Jess duly paid for the magazine but stood for a while, leaning on the freezer until her breathing became regular and her legs felt more solid and able to support her out of the shop.

There wasn’t a lot of copy in the article, mostly photos – complete with cheesy captions - of glamorous celebs, all in white for the themed New Year’s party at the luxury Surrey mansion of one of Britain’s most gorgeous eligible bachelors – though not for long (as the talentless journalist explained). The beautiful and talented Amber had finally agreed to tie the knot, it seemed, although a little later there was the merest hint that, in true Amber style and in keeping with leap year tradition, she might have been the one to pop the question to Christian. Either way, their radiant smiles, according to the journalist, ‘said it all’!

Jess felt nauseous after reading the sickly, clichéd nonsense and looking at all the photos of the party. Why hadn’t Christian told her? Even if it wasn’t true, he might have warned her that this story was coming out. Now she felt used and confused. What
was
going on between him and Amber? He had rushed away from his parents’ place to be with her, then brought her to his home and hired nurses to care for her. And Amber had acted like mistress of the manor, very much at home -
too
much at home. Okay, so they had a history – but it seemed they also had something going on very much in the present.

Her first instinct was to abandon the book and preserve her own dignity…not to mention her heart. Whatever strange game Christian might be playing, she wouldn’t allow him to use her and hurt her - and Ben - in the process. Could he be so cruel? She glanced again at the photographs of beautiful, gleaming people, the shining lights of society. They were all objects of admiration and adoration by countless millions and surely that must affect them adversely? It must make them think themselves inviolable and, as a consequence, make them insensitive. With the adoring masses throwing themselves at their feet, what did they need to care about some little individual’s feelings?

Perhaps Christian was using her to deflect attention away from his forthcoming wedding? She was just an acolyte. Maybe he thought that a couple of weeks spent in luxurious surroundings would be recompense enough for trampling on her heart? She blinked back angry tears, but the anger was directed at herself, not Christian. I’m the idiot, and an ungrateful one, too, she thought. He’s given me the opportunity to prove myself as a writer. I’ll get generous payment and hopefully some serious professional recognition if I make a good job of this. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

****

Christian’s car pulled out of the art deco gates of the film studios onto sunset Boulevard for the short journey to the TV studio in Beverly Hills. The morning’s sound work had been much easier than he had expected and he hoped the two television and radio interviews he had lined up would go as smoothly. He couldn’t say he especially looked forward to any of it now; he just wanted to be back home with Jess.

He found himself constantly checking his watch and trying to visualise what she would be doing at that moment. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt so obsessed about a girl. He’d tried numerous times to call her, but only succeeded in speaking to her twice and then there were other people around at either end. For the rest of the time his calls went either directly or eventually to voicemail when she didn’t answer. He’d had to resort to text messages, like a lovesick schoolboy. He knew she habitually forgot to recharge her phone – which wasn’t the best example of mobile phone technology anyway – and cursed himself for not setting up a better line of communication. He should have insisted on buying her a new phone or pre-arranged times for calls. As it was, he had called the house on Sunday afternoon only to hear that she had left for London. That wasn’t part of the plan. Of course she couldn’t answer her mobile whilst driving and the chances were that Ben would be sleeping in the back seat and not even hear it so his call would go unanswered.

He had imagined that they would chat to each other twenty times a day and looked forward to it - whenever he could escape the bustle and glitz and put in a quick call. He’d envisioned them whispering endearments to each other to share the pain of their separation, thereby making it more tolerable. Instead he had had to make do with one call late on Saturday and another shorter call early on Monday morning – UK time. He tried again now and Jess’s phone was off, or dead – how could he tell? He called the house and found she hadn’t arrived and then called her flat but received no answer. It was frustrating beyond description to think that in this age of instant communication, he couldn’t speak to the one person he wanted to reach!

He tapped in a quick text before relinquishing himself into the ministering hands of the studio staff, ready to meet the curiously named host of the chat show, Maya Tamburlaine, and start behaving like some Hollywood Hot-lister.

****

It was late on Monday afternoon and time for Jess to leave to collect Ben from Maeve’s house when she received the call from Amber.

“I’ll be on the road again next week for my tour and I’m pretty tied up later this week, but I gather you’ve got some questions you want to ask me for Christian’s book. There will be certain areas which are off limits. My manager thought we should get together before I leave so that he can vet everything before it gets to the final draft. What do you say we have lunch tomorrow so we can discuss it? It’s probably the only free time I have this week.”

It took Jess a moment to digest the information and consider how to respond. “That would be…good, Amber. Thank you. Where would you like to meet?”

“Oh nowhere in London - it’s probably best if you come here; more discreet.” Amber said with an air of superiority.

“That’s fine. Could you give me the address?”

Amber chuckled only it sounded to Jess’s ears like the sweet tinkling of bells. “You’ll never find it - it’s far too well concealed. I’ll send a car for you at midday. Are you still at Christian’s house?”