‘Me too. Look, can we meet up? I know that’s going to sound incredibly random, but I just think we need to talk about this in person. I’m sorry I came on to the call so fired up, but I just thought you must have known and went out with him anyway. I’d really like us to have a conversation.’
Yvie was shaking her head furiously, mouthing, ‘No. No. No way.’
‘Y-yes.’ Keli stammered. ‘Okay.’
Yvie was now mimicking stabbing herself through the heart.
‘Thing is, I know it’s short notice, but are you around today? I’m free this afternoon. No. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. I can’t expect you to drop everything…’
Yvie was gesturing wildly again. No. Don’t do it.
‘I can do that,’ Keli agreed, much to Yvie’s very obvious disgust.
Yvie grabbed a pen from the table and scrawled PUBLIC PLACE!!!!!! on her biscuit wrapper.
Keli was already going down that train of thought. ‘How about the lobby of the St Kentigern hotel in an hour? Would that be okay?’
It was about a half-hour drive from the hospital, but it was on the way to the motorway that would take her to her mum’s house in Weirbridge and she was headed there anyway, so it made sense. It was also somewhere very public, somewhere she felt safe, and somewhere there was a bar if she needed to ditch the car and drink an emergency glass of wine.
‘That would work.’
‘How will I recognise you?’ Keli had waited her whole life to ask the classic movie line, but never imagined it would be in a situation like this.
‘I’ll recognise you. I’m looking at a picture of you right now. You’re wearing a red dress.’
Keli knew exactly what picture it was. It had been at her mum’s birthday dinner. The theme was scarlet. Ryan had said he couldn’t make it – which had been disappointing as she’d really wanted him to meet her family. Up until then, they’d been in this little bubble of solitude, just the two of them, locked away from the world when they were together. He’d asked her to send a photo since he couldn’t be there, so she’d had Noah snap a pic of her. She had been laughing at something her brother had said, happy, excited that she would be seeing Ryan later that night. This woman having that photo was even more proof that this definitely wasn’t a prank. This was serious. It was a high risk situation. One that was almost certainly going to hurt. One that she should definitely avoid. And yet…
‘Yes, that was me. I’ll see you in an hour.’
2 P.M. – 4 P.M.
13
ODETTE
Odette had been trying to navigate the device for the last half-hour, with no success. Just when she was at the point of hurling it across the room, Calvin came back into her dressing room, arms wide. He stopped. Shocked.
‘Are you using an iPad? Is it a blue moon? The dawning of the apocalypse? Are pigs flying?’
His surprise was understandable. The iPad had been provided by the studio and had sat in a holder on her desk for years. Odette knew most women her age were perfectly competent with technology, but it had never interested her in the slightest to learn. She barely even used her mobile phone. Why waste time figuring these things out when there was always someone else around to do it all for her?
As for the iPad, she had a basic knowledge of how to work it, thanks to Calvin’s patient instruction, but the only time she ever used it was to put on a bit of Tony Bennett or Michael Bublé. Until twenty minutes ago, that was. That’s when she’d given Elliot, the documentary director, the same old made-up story about how she’d got her first break, then watched him and thecameraman leave. As soon as the door closed behind them, she’d opened it and went on to the page that searched for stuff.
‘No, I’m just trying to track someone down. Will you help me?’
‘I will indeed, but not right now, because at this very second you’re being summoned to feast on sausage rolls and tuna vol-au-vents,’ he drawled, with a mock bow.
Odette sighed, checked her lippy and dragged her aching bones off the sofa. One more official function. This was it. A buffet lunch with the cast and crew. Then, tonight, she was having dinner with Calvin. As soon as it was over, her diary was empty. She was free. And that thought absolutely devastated her.
‘Calvin, can I ask you something. Why are you always so damn happy with life?’
He thought about that for a second. ‘Because I love my job, my Botox is on point, and I go home to my husband every night, who, for his sins, is stuck with me until death do us part.’
Odette nodded ruefully. ‘I thought that about my last husband too. Number four. And number three before him. Admittedly, I realised on my honeymoon that my second marriage was a spontaneous mistake and the first one was a folly of youth.’
‘Ever wonder what happened to them all?’ Calvin asked, and he seemed genuinely intrigued. Odette had ensured that it had been written into the documentary contract that it would focus on her career, and not on the trials and tribulations of her personal life. It was there in black and white that they couldn’t contact any of her ex-husbands. The last thing she needed were those skeletons coming out of that closet.
‘First one, Jake, passed away when we were in our thirties. Motorbike accident. Second one has been living in Marbella for the last thirty years, thanks to a very generous divorcesettlement. The third one, same story, but lives on a golf course in Florida and the last one… Still haunting me, like the arse that he is. Last I heard from Mitchum Royce was a letter to my lawyer, saying he was suing me for fraud, because it turned out the Elvis impersonator we used for our wedding in Las Vegas wasn’t ordained. He’s saying that I had prior knowledge of this and claims that he’s emotionally traumatised and unable to form emotional connections due to my duplicity. Although that didn’t seem to be an issue when he was buggering off with Tootsie from Tallahassee, the waitress he picked up on his next trip to Sin City. The truth is, he’s pissed off because if the marriage wasn’t legal, it means he can’t take anything from me in a divorce.’ She stopped before she revealed that there was nothing left to take, because he’d already spent it all, and left her with a mountain of debt. She still couldn’t bear to admit, even to Calvin, that Mitchum had ruined her.
