‘Would you ever consider going back to TV?’ Ellery asks. ‘Honestly, you’re so impressive. Sunrise must rue the day they let you walk.’
I shake my head. ‘Definitelynot. In fact, I have some big changes I want to make in my life, and I thank Mum for that. Starting with the fame thing. I want to reduce my level of exposure to the press. Evelyn, you’ve done an amazing job of that. Your profile as a businesswoman is higher than ever, but you seem to live below the radar in your private life, and I want to know your secret.’
Evelyn grins. ‘You may want to consider swapping your famous husband out for a handsome but totally unknown farmer, in that case. It’s worked very well for me.’
I smile my secret smile. She has no idea how close she is to the truth, but now’s not the time to share that confidence. Not quite yet.
‘Ellery, she won’t be asking you for any advice on avoiding the tabloids.’ Astrid elbows her good-naturedly. ‘You are all over the bloody papers at the moment, my dear.’
Ellery groans and dips her head dramatically. ‘Tell me about it. And forallthe wrong reasons.’
‘Seriously?’ I ask. ‘What’s up?’
‘Have you been living under a rock?’ Astrid asks.
‘Astrid! She’s been burying her freaking mother! Give her a break!’ Stacey mock-glares at Astrid, who turns bright red.
‘I’m so sorry. Of course you have. I’ll let you off.’
‘Give me the gossip, Elle,’ I urge Ellery. ‘Please.’
‘It’s bad.’ Ellery shakes her head. She’s absolutely gorgeous, with skin no amount of retinol will ever procure for me at this age. Blonde and petite and a huge blunt fringe—she’s a knockout.
‘Please.’ I hold my glass out to Stacey for a refill. ‘You have to. My mum just died. I need to be distracted, or at least to enjoy someone else’s misfortune.’
Ellery sighs. ‘Champagne and schadenfreude are your bag right now. I get it.’
‘Champagne and schadenfreude!’ Stacey cries. ‘Please! I have to have that on a t-shirt!’
We all scream with laughter, and my peripheral vision catches a few quizzical looks from Mum’s generation.
‘Whoops. Maybe we’re being a little raucous for a funeral,’ Evelyn stage-whispers.
‘It’s like the funeral scene inTed Lasso, when Rebecca and Keeley and Sassy all get bollocked by the vicar for screeching too loudly.’
‘Bags be Sassy!’ Stacey puts her hand up, and we all look at her.
‘Yep, no one’s going to argue with that,’ Astrid mumbles, and I snigger.
‘Yesss. That means I get Ted.’ She punches the air.
‘They can all sod off,’ I say. ‘This is a hotel, not a church. Anyway, Ellery, you were going to distract me with your torrid tabloid gossip?’
‘Ugh. It’s so bad.’ She sighs. ‘Okay. Remember Josh Lander?’
‘Yikes.’ I draw in my breath. Josh and Ellery’s history is the stuff of celebritynightmare. Literally, it’s any actor’s worst dream. I’ve never stopped being angry at him for what he did to our sweet, beautiful Ellery. I feel sick for her for a moment. ‘How could they possibly have anything to say about you two after all these years?’
Ellery had a brief and very intense whirlwind romance with Josh Lander, douchebag from hell, about five years ago. He swept her off her feet at the Cannes Film Festival when she was an ingenue and he was one of the hottest movie stars on the planet. They dated for a few months, with some very public displays of affection and commitment along the way, and she ended up at his family home for the Fourth of July weekend with several of their (his) friends.
I’ll never forget the photos. They were all over every newsoutlet on the planet. A few guys (his douchebag frat-boy buddies) and Elle all wearingIJLt-shirts. Twitter went mental, and a few days after she got back to the UK he dumped her. Via his agent. And she never heard from him again.
She was a mess. I remember Astrid and I seeing her at an industry event a few months later and she was still distraught. He broke her. Until she won a fucking Oscar the following February, pulled her amazing, Cambridge-educated self back together and got back out there. Meanwhile, her star has soared higher and higher, and last I heard, his first post-rehab movie bombed. Nowthat’swhat I call karma.
‘Well,’ she says now. ‘You may well ask that, and the answer is, we’ve both been cast to doGrosvenor. Together.’
‘You arekiddingme.’Grosvenoris a massive new production from the streaming platform Azure, set to jump on theBridgertonbandwagon and take a slice of Netflix’s share. My mind reels. Oh, dear Lord. ‘As… I can’t even say it. As love interests?’
‘You’ve got it.’ Her gorgeous little face says it all.
