Yvie rolled her eyes. ‘Forgiven. Could you imagine being stuck with him as a baby daddy? He’d either spend his life dodging responsibility, or there would be anOK!photo shoot with Daddy and baby every fricking week.’
Nope, Keli decided, she wasn’t going to try to imagine that because the fear of how close she had come to that reality still made her shudder. Once burned, now going nowhere near a heat source until the end of time.
‘You’re not wrong,’ Keli chuckled, before going on, ‘You know, we didn’t even get to confront him properly. Odette fell ill and the whole situation got abandoned, but I don’t even think I care. He’s honestly not worth another minute of my time. I’dhave liked to have seen him squirm waaaaaay more, but I’m done. I don’t even want to think about him again. Hopefully Laurie can move on too. She deserves so much better. Ooops, talking of Laurie…’
She held up her buzzing phone to let Yvie see that there was an incoming FaceTime call and Laurie’s name was flashing on the screen. Keli answered it and held it out to the side, so that they could both lean into the frame. Laurie came into view and Keli could see that she was in the bar at the St Kentigern.
‘Hey, how’s Odette?’ was her first question and Keli thought again how lovely this girl was. Rex slash Ryan didn’t deserve her.
‘I’m not sure yet, but she’s in good hands, so hopefully she’ll be okay. How are you? Tell me you didn’t let him sweet-talk you into hearing him out.’
Laurie’s laugh was raucous. ‘Nope, I’m currently having a cocktail on his account though, so there’s that. He’ll go fricking nuts when he gets the statement in this month. Big mistake giving the girlfriend a credit card. I’ve never used it before, but I’m making up for it now.’ She held up what looked like an espresso martini to the camera, making Keli and Yvie laugh. ‘Anyway, I’m calling to see if you’ve looked online in the last half-hour?’
Keli shook her head, with a rueful grin. ‘Nope. Been slightly tied up with lifesaving emergencies.’
‘Okay, well first of all, meet Sy.’ She swerved the phone around, and Yvie whistled under her breath when she saw the aforementioned Sy.
‘I’m binning Carlo if there are specimens like that in the world.’
Long hair, wide smile, Brad Pitt inKalifornia. ‘Sy is a photographer mate. I asked him to do me a favour and come to the restaurant tonight, and he did.’ They watched as Laurie leaned over and stroked the side of Sy’s face.
‘Is it wrong that I fancy them both?’ Yvie whispered, making Keli laugh again.
‘Definitely not. I think I feel the same.’
Laurie’s attention came back to them. ‘Anyway, he recorded everything that happened, and we might have loaded one of the videos up on social media. And it, erm, might be going viral. I think Rex Marino might have finally encountered a publicity stunt he didn’t like. Or leak.’
Keli chuckled. ‘I’m loving the sound of this.’
‘Me too! Okay, need to go. Sy and I have, erm, plans. Can I give you two a call tomorrow? Definitely think we should hang out… you know… not just when we’re hatching devious plans.’
‘I’d like that,’ Keli told her, just as Yvie piped up with, ‘Absolutely! But just as long as you dress ugly. And bring Sy.’
Laurie was still laughing when she ended the call.
‘Shit, I didn’t even ask where I’d find it online,’ Keli said.
Yvie was already tapping on her phone. ‘Ah, I don’t think you’re going to have any trouble with that. Oh my God, look.’
Yvie turned her phone and Keli saw a post with the headline ‘REX MARINO – HAS HE NO SHAME?’ Underneath, the text of the post read:
Meet the latest NHS Hero! Rex Marino tries to exploit Odette Devine’s tragic collapse for publicity but is DENIED in brutal fashion by NHS hero, an off-duty nurse who intervened to help the much-loved actress. Sources close to the actor confirmed that he intensely dislikes Devine, yet tonight he did this…
‘Oh no…’ Keli pressed play on the video.
It was the scene outside the restaurant earlier, crowds in the street, the whole scene illuminated by the street lamps and the flashing blue lights of the ambulance.
Suddenly, the restaurant doors slammed open and there was poor Odette coming towards them on the stretcher. Rex Marino jumped into shot, grabbed her hand, just as the woman beside the stretcher proclaimed in a thoroughly unimpressed fashion, ‘Could someone remove this man, please? Sir, this is not the moment to be hijacking a situation for your own attention-seeking purposes. Save your bad acting for the television.’
The camera caught his mortified expression, then his stagger as he missed his step and went sprawling. People around him in the crowd laughed and that’s where the clip ended.
Yvie had to wipe away tears of amusement. ‘Holy shit, you’re famous! I mean,we’refamous, because I’m there looking deadly too, but you got the speaking part and you’re fricking brilliant. He’ll be mortified.’
Shallow as it was, Keli didn’t have an iota of sympathy for him. He’d manipulated the media for years – it was bound to come back and bite him at some point. He deserved everything that came his way.
However, she didn’t have time to revel in the enjoyment, because right then, Cheska came storming through the door.
‘How is Odette?’ Keli blurted.
