‘Nice. Your husband’s a classy guy.’ She chucks it on the table. The front page boasts a grainy long-lens shot of Jackson and Leila grinning at each other across the table at an intimate little pizza place. All that’s missing is a strand of spaghetti between them.
I glance at it disinterestedly. ‘Mara’s thrilled, but Erika’s shitting bricks over this tour.’ Erika is our manager and orchestrator of the fragrance talks with Burberry.
‘And you? Are you okay?’
‘I’m totally fine, because… I have news. And I’ve been dying to tell you. Shit, Al, I need some serious advice. Or maybe not advice, just a bit of reassurance that I’m not a complete bitch.’
Ally stares at me. ‘What the hell is going on with you? Look at that smile! Spill.’
‘Okay. Let me get some coffees sorted.’ I take a deep breath and approach our huge industrial coffee machine. I locate a bag of coffee beans in the fridge and pull out the appropriate drawer in the machine.
‘I’m amazed you know how to operate anything in this kitchen.’
‘Fuck off. I’m good at coffees. Everything else is outside my zone of genius.’
‘Quit stalling, Duck Face. Spill it.’
‘Right.’ The heat is rising to my face. This shouldn’t be hard. This is my sister; I can count on non-judgement from Ally. I put a mug in place and press a button on the machine. As the whirring and grinding kicks in, I turn to Ally, and it comes out in a rush.
‘I don’t really care what Jackson’s up to in Rome, because I’m sleeping with Noah. Whew.’
I exhale. I would give anything to pick up my phone and capture Ally’s face at this moment. Not much fazes my sister, but right now she’s frozen and wordless. It’s wonderful.
‘Noah.DrNoah? You’re shagging Mum’s doctor?’
‘He’s not Mum’s doctor! That’s Elena—he’s not that unprofessional. But yeah.’
‘How—when? Oh myGod.How? I mean, I know he fancies the pants off you, but’—she gasps. ‘Oh, Jesus. It was in France, wasn’t it? You lucky, lucky bitch.’
‘That’s what Di said.’ I allow herself a moment of smugness. Ally’s been incredibly supportive over the years, but I don’t think she’s ever actually envied me the weird, twisted successes in my life. But this is different.
‘Sit.’ Ally points to the bar stools at the kitchen island. ‘I’ll finish this. I want you to sit right there and tell me everything. Oh, Lord. You are having sex with that god! Has he let you strip his Homer Simpson t-shirt off? How good must his abs look under that t-shirt? And why do I find it so sexy? Does he have a big dick?’ She whips the full mug off the machine and plonks it next to me. ‘Oh, God! This is so much to process!’
I sit calmly and wait for my sister’s little fit to pass.
‘Yes, it happened in France, and I’ve seen him almost every day since. I’ve cancelled so many internal meetings this week, I can’t tell you.’
‘Okay, okay. So what happened? Was it you or him? I can’t get my head around my goody-two-shoes, Little Miss Perfect sister embroiling herself in a torrid affair! You’ve rolled over every time your fucking husband fucks about, andnowyou decide to dabble yourself? It’s too much!’
I raise an eyebrow. ‘Do you want the details or not?’
‘Yes, yes. Sorry.Please, for the love of God, details.’
‘Right. He started it. In France. It was the day that serverfrom Chateau Marmont came out and said Jackson and Leila had been sharing a bed. I didn’t realise it at the time, but Noah saw it on the news, and he was seriously pissed off. He was in a foul mood at dinner, and later, I went down to the pool and there he was. We ended up lying on one of the beds together and he asked me about how my and Jackson’s marriage worked.
‘He told me it wasn’t fair Jackson got to have all the fun, and that I should have an affair. With him. That he’d make it worth my while. So I told him to show me. And he did—he stripped me, basically. And that was that. Until Jackson showed up the next day as a surprise-slash-press opportunity. But I’ve been seeing Noah since we got back. I can’t stay away from him.’
Ally looks as though she may have a heart attack.
‘Oh my God oh my God. Hestrippedyou? I can’t even…’
‘Yeah. And he may have gone down on me, too. By the pool.’ I take a sip of my coffee. ‘Al, it was one of the hottest moments of my life. He was sointense. And pissed off. And sexy. He just totally took charge. I was so turned on it was ridiculous. And then we had sex properly the next morning—we snuck off to his room after having breakfast with everyone.’
Ally carries her mug to the island and plops down on a bar stool. Puts her head in her hands.
‘I never thought I could be this jealous of someone and this happy for them at the same time.’
I pat her on the top of the head. ‘Aw, thank you, sweetie.’
