‘I can see where he’d be confused,’ Dennis had said, folding his arms across his chest and standing with his feet shoulder-width apart, as Dennis usually does.
‘I’m sure you have a beautiful voice, sir,’ Luc had replied, and a laugh rumbled in the back of my throat to hide the way my skin had flushed under my make-up. Did he thinkIhad a beautiful voice?
The receptionist is typing into her computer, getting more and more flustered the longer Sienna Martin stands in the lobby. My phone is burning against my hip in my bag. I’m desperate to take it out, to see whether Benji has made a statement yet that I’m decidedly not a homewrecker. A statement to save me, which a statement from my own team couldn’t do. Everyone has made their minds up about me now.
‘Good to see you in the flesh again, Sienna. To know you’re still alive and it’s not some AI thing I’ve been seeing on the internet for the past ten years.’
‘It’s me,’ I croak out.
‘I better take it in now before you disappear again.’
He frowns at me, and I don’t blame him. I don’t know why I thought we’d immediately fall back into what we once were.
It doesn’t occur to me until I hear a grumble from the receptionist that I might have been dropped fromEric Lancaster’s Laughsfor supposedly being ‘a slut’. Was there a moral conduct clause in this contract? I don’t think there was. And I’ve technically done nothing wrong. Benji isn’t enjoying this same level of… I was going to say criticism, but I think that suggests a level of fault.
I look back at the door, at the queue to get into the studio which is now so long I would have to fight to get out of the building, bodies of all shapes, sizes and ages standing in an ordered line hoping for their chance to get into the studio. I saw it last time I was here, but that time was for Alex Pauls,Oscar award-winning Hollywood star. Dubbed the new Hugh Grant at the time.
This time, it’s for me.
‘The runner is off sick, so we’re just seeing if we can get…’
‘Oh, don’t worry, Fiona. I can take her.’ Luc straightens and turns to me. ‘Looks like you’ve got me again.’
CHAPTER 2
NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT
TRACK 6 | SIENNA MARTIN
One of my favourite tracks from my first album. The second single. A song to geteveryone up and dancing in 2010. It was one of the first songs I ever wrote, so it was already a couple of years old when it went on the album. It feels like a lifetime ago. I was a teenager getting very angry with how the world treated me like a teenager. Of everyone telling me what I should be doing and it feeling like the most obvious thing in the world. I was already sick of people condescending me at 14.
Mimi,my manager, and Jess are already in the dressing room by the time Dennis, Luc and I arrive. Mimi is on the sofa while Jess is on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall. Each has a cup of tea clutched in their hands. There are notebooks strewn across the table in the middle, pieces of paper charting our game plan for tonight and going forward.
Crisis talks.
Great.
‘You’re late.’
I thought Mimi would be angry, but from her face she simply looks shocked, if slightly bemused.
‘Oh, it’s fine. Only by about ten minutes,’ Luc says.
‘She’s never late. She’s usually here before I am!’ Mimi shakes her head, but she’s still smiling. ‘Hello again, Luc. It’s lovely to see you. Where did you come from?’
‘Hello, Mimi. Runner’s off sick. I was already in the lobby so I offered to bring her up.’ He givesMimia smile, but he still doesn’t look at me. Not properly.
Luc shakes Dennis’s hand one more time before he disappears and I hear the main corridor door shut behind him.
‘Why are you standing on one leg?’ I frown at Jess, who has her right foot pressed against her left inner thigh.
Mauve walks in the room and drops herself down on the sofa with a dramatic flourish.
Jess drops her leg and flushes. ‘You know me.’
Mauve tuts, shaking her head. ‘I knew it was a bad idea hiring your best friend.’
Actually, it was the best idea I’ve ever had.
