He and Dee were having a tough patch. She had family shit going on, and things between them had been a bit wobbly. Rather than being a twat, which Rowan was capable of doing, he’d stayed supportive of her. He was also about to sign for a house he’d been looking at, so things in our shared apartment had been a bit tense.
“How’s it going?”
He put his phone down and nodded. “House completes on Friday. I get the keys.”
“Cool. You doing renovations first?”
“Everyone is provisionally booked in. Ava Callaghan-Ward is doing the interiors and your architect friend has already sent the plans over.”
“You’re using Gabe? You must’ve charmed him. He picks and choses his projects.” Gabe had been my friend for a few years. He was a little older than me, but we’d run in the same circles. We were both happy to stand at the side and watch the rest of our mates be the party. His best friend had been killed in a car crash and Gabe had been in the car at the same time. He’d retreated along with his guilt, stopped working and just painting. Then he’d met a girl, Anya, and somehow he’d managed to find peace with what had happened.
Nowadays he lived on Anglesey, took his pick of architectural work and spent the rest of the time painting.
“No one can say no to Rowan Reeves.” Rowan tapped his chest. “No one. The interior designer is the sister-in-law of Amber, just not as brutal.”
“Small world.” I sat down on the sofa opposite him. “Speaking of small worlds…”
“What?” Rowan leaned forwards. “You’ve been sneaking around for fucking months like a naughty teenager. Dee swore she heard you having phone sex or something the other night.”
Dee was probably right.
I pushed my finger through my hair. “You’re going to find out anyway. I’ve been seeing Otter Penhaligon.”
Rowan started laughing.
And he carried on laughing until tears were running down his face. He clutched onto a cushion and held it to his chest like a cuddly toy.
“No. There’s no way. I know you’re a pretty boy and all that, O’Connell, but Otter Penhaligon is way out of your league.”
He wasn’t wrong. She was. I’d thought that a few times.
“You’re serious, aren’t you? Are you sure it’s not someone pretending to be her? Are you being dogfished?” He actually looked worried.
“I think you mean ‘catfished’. Stop listening to Jude, he talks a load of shit.” I unlocked my phone and pulled up a selfie of me and Otter. We were in bed, but the duvet covered everything. I threw it over to him.
“Jude’s a… fuck me, Ry, that really is Otter Penhaligon. How long’s this been going on?”
I gave him the abridged Cliff Notes version.
“A photo of the two of us has been leaked. So there may be press hanging around a bit more. You might want to warn Dee.” I knew Dee wanted to keep the press as far away as possible with what was going on with her sister.
Rowan shook his head. “Club security will keep them away. You know you’re going to get torn to pieces tomorrow?”
Both of our phones pinged at the same time. Rowan chucked me mine back.
We had a team message chat. It was usually filled with a load of shit and inappropriate memes and GIFs that Genny would hang us up by our testicles if she ever saw the content of it, so we made sure she never saw it, which also meant we generally confiscated Jude’s phone whenever he was going to be near her. Boy didn’t have the brains he was born with.
“Ry, I think those photos have been printed.” Rowan looked at me with something like sympathy. “You might want to keep your ear pods in all day tomorrow.”
He was probably right.
I opened the chat, bracing myself.
Nicky PJ: Fuck me. The ROC is getting his end away with Ottie Penhaligon.
[photo from press.]
Jude: Who’s the ROC? That’s a photo of Ryan.
