‘They were brilliant,’ squealed Ellie. She gave him a quick hug, pressing her soft body against his, and tilting her bright and beautiful face to look up at him, eclipsing the crowd’s applause with her radiant cherry-red smile. ‘Well done!’
More than anything he wanted to kiss her again, but the ceremony was already moving on, and they had to retake their seats. Dame Mary caught his eye as he sat down, and flicked her wrist in a whimsical gesture. ‘Ahh, to be young and in love.’
He only wished they were.
Chapter Fourteen
Ellie glanced at the clock on her phone for the hundredth time.
Any minute now, she reassured herself.
Soon, Alex and Martin would arrive and whisk her away to the airport. She couldn’t wait. Her suitcase was already waiting in the yard downstairs. Her hand luggage, a large straw tote that would double as a beach bag, sat on the empty chair beside her, filled to the brim with travel essentials including her passport.
She wished she’d stayed in her room until Alex arrived, but Nanna had wanted her to eat well before the journey. Needless to say, her pile of toast was barely touched; she was too excited to eat.
‘This is ridiculous!’ snapped her mum, thumping down the gossip magazine in her hand. It had only been two days since the awards, but the press had been quick to run with the announcement of Alex’s relationship with her. ‘I can’t believe you’re putting yourself through this. Again!’
‘I’m not.’ There was no point explaining how this situation would be different from the mistakes of her past.
‘Have you seen what they’re saying?’
Ellie glanced across at what her mum had spread out on the kitchen table, rolled her eyes, and went back to playing Scrabble on her phone – she was losing badly, too distracted to concentrate.
‘Then don’t read it. I’m not.’
Her mum karate-chopped the morning paper like it was a stack of wood. ‘Alex King’s mystery womanflauntedher curves in a scarlet dress of her own design at the Olivier Awards.’ More dramatic gestures followed, Ellie leaning back to avoid a finger in the eye. ‘Alex couldn’t keep his hands off thevivaciousbrunette, withsomesources describing themkissing passionatelythroughout the night.’ Her mum collapsed back in her chair, as if she were a lawyer putting in her final closing argument. ‘Ellie, I mean,seriously?’ She shook her head in disbelief, and followed it with a deeply disappointed sigh – the ultimate closing argument of any mother.
Unwilling to be beaten, Ellie held her mother’s stare. ‘I did nothing to be ashamed of.’
‘Good girl,’ said Nanna with a chuckle followed by a wink, which received a scathing look from her mother.
‘I’m off,’ said Mark, tightening the lid on his Thermos of tea ready to make a quick getaway. ‘Have a nice time, Sis.’
‘Thanks.’
Her mum was not to be put off by the lack of support from the rest of her family. She was a dog with a tabloid bone. ‘Flaunting!’ she shrieked. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ Ellie answered dryly. But she could guess.
‘It’s provocative. Gets the people going,’ said Nanna sagely, and Ellie snorted at her obscure Will Ferrell reference.
‘It’s just the usual nonsense.’ Honestly, shewasused to it – albeit on a much smaller scale, and not in the public eye. If you had a large bust and large hips you were immediately sexualised in a provocative way.
You were neverpretty– you were afemme fatale.
You were neverhealthy andstrong.You werecurvy and vivaciousat best, and simplyfat and lazyat worst. Despite the fact that she could work twelve hours straight on her feet and lift patients twice her size.
‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’ Her mum’s brow was furrowed, a mix of frustration, confusion and worry, as if Ellie wasn’t a thirty-year-old woman entitled to do whatever the hell she pleased, and quite frankly it wasn’t anyone else’s business, including her mother’s.
Still, she didn’t see why she should lie to her family. ‘It’s for the press mainly, and,’ – she’d have to explain it at some point – ‘he’s bought me a flat.’
Her mother’s eyes bulged out of her head. ‘WHAT? You’re prostituting yourself?’
‘No.’ However, Ellie’s next words only made her look worse. ‘It’s a business deal between friends. This just helps take the heat off him. His brother’s marrying his ex-girlfriend, and, well, he wants to show them that he’s happy with someone else.’
There, done.
Nanna and her mum exchanged a concerned look, but of course it was her mum who spoke first. ‘The article says you were kissing each other. Couldn’t take your hands off each other.’ She tapped the paper for dramatic effect. ‘That’s what it says. Right here, in black and white.’
