“At least two of us are on the same page.”
“I’d do fourteen weeks in France,” I say. “I don’t care who knows shit about me anymore. I just want to be me, doing what I love, being with people I love.” I shoot my boyfriend a stare. “That might make me crazy, but we all need to be crazy sometimes, don’t we?”
“This is madness,” Josh says, rubbing his forehead. “I’m only trying to protect everyone.”
Heath gets to his feet. “Protect us from what, exactly? People talking about us?” He wiggles his fingers like a ghost. “Ooooh, petrifying.”
Josh scoffs. “Whatever, Heath. You really have gone crazy. You’re the one who wants to hide in the shadows whenever you’re not filming.”
My boyfriend walks over to the minibar and pulls out a beer.
“What if I was wrong?” Heath says. “What if there is a life worth far more than being a reclusive TV star? Everyone has rumours surrounding them. I just choose not to notice mine. Why would it be any different if they were about hookers?”
“BECAUSE IT MIGHT COST YOU YOUR WHOLE CAREER!”
Whoa, I rarely ever see Josh lose it. He turns away from us and curses under his breath again. The silence is deafening. My ears pulsing with the tension.
Things calm down, slowly. Heath’s shoulders ease up, and he shakes his head, and Josh sighs, and turns back from the window.
“Sorry,” Josh says. “I just don’t want you to lose what’s important to you. Your career has been your life blood for years. No pun intended.”
“Maybe that was my mistake all along,” Heath says. “Does loving your career really mean that you can’t be who you want to be? If it does, then maybe I was wrong all along.”
Josh stares at him head on. I feel like a spectator as the two forces battle it out.
“Vinnie Hampton is a bit different to you. People expect it from him. He’s a rockstar, known for being a wild thing.”
“There goes the confidentiality,” Heath says. “Finally got a chink in that armour of yours, at least.” He pauses. “I had no idea about Vinnie Hampton, by the way. He wasn’t one of the someones that someone was talking about. Congrats to you, Ella. Vinnie Hampton is a hot rocket.”
“Thanks,” I say.
It feels like such a dumb word when it comes out of my mouth.
“Let’s start this over. Something has gone massively tits up here,” Josh says, and shakes himself off, brushing down the sleeves of his jacket.
“Sounds good to me,” Heath says, and I nod. Thankful.
“Me, too. Can we please just start this over.”
“And this time, let’s just all say what we really fucking mean,” Josh says. “Let’s get it out there.”
“Fine,” Heath says.
He holds out a hand to me, and helps me up. He wraps me in his arms, holding me tight, breathing deep with his mouth against my ear.
“It’s lovely to see you, Ella,” he says. “Congratulations for being such a superstar, and breathing rampant life into the celebrity community. I want a part of it, please.Normalcan go fuck itself. I’ve missed you too much to settle fornormal.”
I could cry with happy tears, feeling the sentiment from him resonating and merging with mine.
“Thank you. Me, too. I don’t want normal. I don’t want isolation from you. I don’t want to be scared of how things truly are.”
We turn to Josh, both of us. Heath holds out a hand, urging him closer. And Josh, Mr Rational, takes a deep breath as he joins us in a three-way hug.
“Fine, you guys. I’m done with playing safe. You win the vote. For better or worse, we’re all in this together.”
“No PowerPoint needed?” Heath asks, and Josh cracks a smile, his own walls finally crumbling along with ours.
“Nah, we can give the bullet points a miss. I think they’re kinda redundant now.”
