‘I’m – I’m okay,’ she said. ‘It’s okay. It’s all okay.’
I offered her my hand and helped her clamber out of the pool. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said again. ‘Your beautiful dress – your hair—’
‘It wasn’t your fault, Mandie,’ Dylan said, folding her arms and glaring at Lily.
‘That’s right,’ Lily said back sweetly. ‘It’syourfault.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You stole the Romeo from me,’ Lily said. ‘If you hadn’t, then what’s-her-face wouldn’t have ended up in the pool.’
‘Cece,’ I said. ‘Her name is Cece.’
‘Honey, do I look like I care?’
‘Mandie, you take Cece to get dried off,’ Dylan said, her death stare unwavering from Lily. ‘I’ll deal with this.’
‘Oh, will you now?’ Lily said, raising an eyebrow.
Cece shivered, and I put my arm around her. ‘Come on, let’s get you into some new clothes,’ I said, in my mumsiest voice, wondering all the while how Lily could survive going toe to toe with an angry sea witch.
Cece was whisked away by Murray before we could get more than two steps inside the Juliet Villa. ‘Shit, fuck, shit,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Suzette? I need you to monitor the fight between Dylan G and Lily.’
‘They’re your girls, Murray,’ one of the other producers said.
‘I’m well aware of that, but I’m not a fucking octopus,’ he said. ‘Just do it, okay? I’ve got to deal with this.’
Cece looked like she was being hauled to the principal’s office, but before I could open my mouth to say ‘Do you want me to come with you?’ Murray was herding her away. ‘Wardrobe!’ he said into his headset. ‘Get me some new outfits for Cece, stat. Maximum bedraggled.’
That left me standing there, in the middle of the living room, alone for the first time in what seemed like forever.
… unless you counted the two weeks I’d just spent in isolation, I guess. But I’d spent most of that time chatting with Dylan, so it probably didn’treallycount.
Dylan.
What the hell had just happened?
‘Amanda?’
I turned, startled. ‘Oh! Hello!’
‘What are you doing in here by yourself?’ Romeo-Dylan asked.
‘I could ask you the same question,’ I replied. ‘How have you escaped the clutches of everyone stealing you for a second?’
‘Even Romeos occasionally need to take a minute,’ he said. ‘I haven’t been so worried I was going to piss my pants since I was three years old.’
I laughed. ‘Wow. Charming.’
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I probably shouldn’t say shit like that to you. I’m supposed to make you like me.’
‘Dylan!’ someone said from behind me. ‘Swearing!’
He threw his head back. ‘Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Sorry.’
‘I promise you, I can handle it,’ I said, patting him gently on the arm.
‘Network can’t,’ the crew person behind me said. ‘Go again.’
