‘Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that she asked you? She has all those rich, stuck-upMade in Chelseafriends she could be hanging out with and instead she asks me and a neighbour she barely knows to join her. No offence, but this is hardly your scene, is it? You’d have been just as happy with an inflatable garden hot tub and a clay face mask?’
‘She knows you about as well as she knows me, but you still got an invitation,’ I point out, a little heatedly.
‘I think she’s trying to impress me. She knows you’ll be easy to reel in, but she forgets places like this were ten a penny when I was in the band. They were an absolute must after a gruelling tour. You’ve no idea how stressful it can be.’
‘Try telling that to a single parent working for minimum wage.’
‘Well I’m hardly likely to know any of them, am I?’ she asks. ‘My point is, Liv wants us to think she’s better than us.’
‘Why do you always have to try and find a negative to focus on?’ I ask. ‘I understand there’s been a lot of awful, awful things thrown at you over the years, and I get why it might make you suspicious of people when they try and offer you something nice. But not everyone has a hidden agenda.’
Margot rises from her bed and drops her flask back into her bag.
‘You don’t have the first clue what it’s like to be me,’ she snaps, then leaves the room.
Chapter 15
Liv
I was supposed to relax this weekend before the madness of the final phase of work begins on the wellness studio. But instead of starting my Sunday morning with a run around the acres of beautiful grounds surrounding this spa, I’m in my room, firefighting. Jamal, the studio’s project manager, has called to report a problem with the underfloor heating. He’s struggling to find a workaround. And if he can’t, it’s going to cost me a small fortune to replace.
It’s not even 10 a.m. and I’ve already rubbed topical menthol into my temples and swallowed two herbal belladonna tablets to thwart this creeping headache.
I find Anna in the spa area, lying on a sunbed next to the pool. Her knees are pointed upwards and the bookBig Little Liesis perched upon them. I’ve yet to see her make use of the pool, sauna or steam rooms.
‘Where’s Margot?’ I ask as I scan our immediate vicinity.
‘Having a treatment,’ she says.
‘Another one?’
‘Yes, to add to her pedicure, manicure, eyebrow tint, deep-tissue back massage, Indian head massage and full-body seaweed wrap.’
‘Is there any part of her that hasn’t been touched?’
‘Aside from her heart?’ Anna replies, quite quickly. ‘I’m joking.’ We both know she isn’t.
‘I wondered if she might have left early to take care of her family.’
‘Our Margot isn’t quite the Florence Nightingale type, is she?’
‘More like Nurse Ratched,’ I quip and Anna laughs.
As we are on our own, I take the opportunity to ask her a question. ‘I’m curious as to how you two became such good friends,’ I begin. ‘You have very different personalities.’
‘Margot rubs a lot of people up the wrong way,’ she replies. ‘It’s a defence mechanism. Attack before you’re attacked.’
‘But you’re no threat to her and I’ve heard some of the things she says to you.’
‘Me?’ she asks, as if this is news to her.
I tread carefully. ‘She can be ... quite blunt. With you. Sometimes. Don’t you think?’
‘That’s just her way.’
‘But it can feel ... unwarranted.’
She shrugs. ‘I haven’t noticed.’
