‘Do you have any diet soda?’ he asked.
‘Nope, no soda,’ Alicia said.
‘Right. I called you yesterday.’ Chad moved on and into the lounge, evidently not thirsty enough to ask for something else.
‘I know.’
‘Did you see my interview?’
‘I heard about it.’
‘Thoughts?’
‘None. Was I supposed to think something?’
‘Well, yes. I’ve put a shitload of work into rehab over the past month, done a fuck ton of soul searching and I’m prepared to stand up and admit that my behaviour hasn’t always been the best. I said that I wanted to make amends with the people I’ve upset.’
‘I don’t believe you named me or admitted what you did. As for upset? My career is in a dumpster, Chad. Not to mention the psychological damage.’
‘Oh, come on, don’t be a drama queen.’
‘A drama queen?’ Alicia wished she did have some soda. She’d throw it at him and distress his jeans some more. ‘I’ve lost the Éclisse contract and there are no new movies, not that I want movies, but that isn’t the point. And you don’t live inside my head, so you have no idea about the rest.’
‘I’m sure we can work on rebuilding things.’ Chad shrugged with as much sincerity as an emoji. I’ve the number of a good therapist.’
Alicia shook her head vigorously as if to unlock water or shake away Chad’s words. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Look, AJ…’
This diminutive. AJ. She’d always found it so impersonal: like she was one of Chad’s buddies. Leesh was so much warmer. How she missed Jamie. Not thinking about him required a barrel load of willpower.
Chad was babbling now about them being a great couple, ‘possibly the greatest since Jen and Brad.’ She fought to stem her laughter, but struggled.
‘Come on, Alicia. Don’t laugh at me. All I’m saying is people liked us together and would want us to reunite, so we should give the people what they want. A bit of Chalicia!’
‘Chalicia? Ugh. I’m not in the habit of basing my relationships around what other people want, Chad, and certainly not people I’ve never even met. We should concentrate on our separate careers.’
‘Why can’t we please people, concentrate on our careersandbe together?’ Chad protested. ‘We were a great team, we had lots of fun.’
‘Oh, sure, having a video of me off my face leaked onto the internet, you drunk driving, us arguing about you drunk driving. I laughed until I cried.’
‘Thanks for bringing that up.’ Chad adopted his best wounded face. ‘I’ve peeled back layers of hurt to let that go.’
‘Well, sometimes you gotta keep on peeling that old trauma onion.’ Alicia lifted her mouth into a sarcastic smile.
‘That’s harsh.’
Although she was pleased with her come back, Alicia wouldn’t prick Chad’s ego too much because who knew what effluent might burst out. But what she would do was give him a reminder of what brought them to this point.
‘Look, Chad, I will bring stuff up because I didn’t do drugs with you. I didn’t do anything of my own volition that would lead me to nearly fall in the pool, I didn’t use the C-word in a cheese shop or encourage you to punch someone, yet all these untruths still prevail, and I haven’t seen you do anything to convince anyone otherwise, yet you expect we will get back together because you’re ready now. I mean, well done for getting through rehab and all, but you and me, we are over for good. That much is unequivocal.’
‘Really, AJ?’ Chad’s wounded face plummeted to new depths. ‘Think of your career. If we stuck together, you could get it back on track. I hear Marty Scorsese is casting a female Scandi assassin in his new movie?—’
‘Great. I’ll ring him. Why would it take us being together for my career to resurrect itself? I was your puppet before but I operate without strings. I am a walking, talking creative human being. I don’t need you to get me back up on the pedestal I should never have fallen from in the first place.’
‘So, that’s no to the perks of being a power couple?’ Chad’s features creased with impatience that his charm offensive wasn’t paying off as quickly as he might have hoped.
‘The perks? Acting runs in my family’s blood, Chad. Iwas in diaper commercials when you were in diapers. And to be honest, I don’t want an acting career anymore. I’m going to focus on painting and not having my every move dissected all the time.’
