As I wrapped up the phone call with Derek, I saw someone approach me from the corner of my eye. I hopedthat if I kept my head down they would get the message. But a moment later, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
‘Hey, Patrick! It’s Patrick, right?’
I grimaced and replied without looking up. ‘Yeah, that’s me.’
I slipped my phone into my pocket and turned to smile at the guy – only to freeze when I got a proper look at him.
It was Dillon. The actor Jessy had been photographed with.
Why must I suffer like this?
‘Look, Patrick, I just wanted to say, no hard feelings,’ Dillon said with a grin.
I didn’t move. I didn’t even think I was breathing. I was completely frozen. The sound of the chaos outside, in the media pen, broke me from my trance. ‘No hard feelings?’ Who the hell did this guy think he was?
‘Yeah. I mean, I know it’s made the internet go wild,’ Dillon said with a shrug, that million-dollar smile far too relaxed. ‘But they’ll jump on anything that even looks like a story, right?’
The balls on the man.‘Right.’ What was I even doing still talking to him? It must’ve been morbid curiosity.
‘I mean, she’s fantastic, Jessy, isn’t she?’
I couldn’t believe it. Did this guy have no tact? No care in the world? Or had he just seen what I’d so spectacularly missed – that Jessy and I had been fake, from beginning to end?
Clearly Dillon didn’t care, because he barely paused for breath. ‘She was honestly brilliant. I hadn’t known what to expect when I agreed to meet with her about GSR, but she really convinced me to –’
‘Wait, what?’ Were my ears ringing? I couldn’t have heard that properly. ‘GSR. As in, GSR Financials?’ What did Jessy’s company have to do with him?
Dillon nodded, completely unfazed. ‘Yeah. I mean, that’s how we met. They’re my accountants, part of their “high net-worth” department or whatever, and we were talking about future investments, and she told me about Butterflies and her sister’s vision. She had some fascinating ideas about long-term portfolios –’
‘You met her … for work?’ I repeated slowly.
Dillon looked at me like I was slow, which, in fairness, even I was starting to question. Nothing the guy had said since he’d approached me was making sense. ‘Yeah, of course. And I think I’m going to invest in Butterflies. It’s really taken off. Obviously, most of that is since you two started dating. But still, I think there could be some real longevity with it. But, hey, I just came over to say sorry about the shit with the press. You know how they can be.’
I did. I knew better than anyone.
And I’d believed them over Jessy.
‘I’m sure Jessy must have explained, but I thought, man to man, you deserved an apology from me too. I should’ve thought about it.’
‘Jessy must have explained.’My whole body stiffened. Except I hadn’t let her.
I had asked her about it, sure – but I hadn’t actually stuck around to hear her answer. I’d been so busy expecting the worst that I hadn’t bothered to listen to her speak.
It didn’t justify the absolute betrayal of her chatting with Cassie … but it at least explained why she was so damned confused about the dating thing.
Oh, fuck. I’ve really messed up.
‘Right, everyone, we are going to start making our way in.’ An usher smiled brightly, the double doors opening andmurmurs of excitement rippling through the crowd. ‘If you would all make your way to the –’
Completely unmoored by Dillon’s revelations, I allowed myself to be swept along with the current, hardly thinking, and definitely not noticing when I’d taken a seat and the film had started. The next three hours went by without me taking much notice of my surroundings. I couldn’t have told anyone what the film was about, occupied as I was with my own tumultuous thoughts.
I had been wrong. I had been wrong about the men Jessy had supposedly been dating.
And if I was wrong about that, I could have been wrong about … about Cassie.
I knew how much my mother loved attention. That she couldn’t stop herself trying to make a story out of nothing.
But the photo. The photo of Cassie and Jessy was real. There was no faking that. That wasn’t a long-lens pap situation, that was a personal photo that Jessy had happily taken.
