Celebrity Shopper (38 page)

‘I’ve been a prat.’

Annie wound her chair back just a little and shut her eyes. The four hours they’d spent in the car already had exhausted her. Babies had cried, babies had filled nappies, spilled milk, required the in-car stereo to play the theme tune to
The Teletubbies
so many times than both Lana and the ever-tolerant Owen had threatened to jump out.

The babies were now asleep, Owen and Lana had iPods on, Ed was concentrating on driving, so maybe Annie would manage to catch just a moment or two of shut-eye.

She liked the way Lana and Owen had responded to the wedding news. Owen, although intrigued by the idea of Gretna Green, had decided it would be OK to wait a bit
longer, especially as Ed had taken him to one side and asked him if he’d like to be best man.

Owen had beamed a yes in reply, but he’d not been able to resist the cheeky: ‘Is this because you haven’t got any friends?’

Lana’s happiness for the couple was quickly overshadowed by one important concern: ‘Am I going to be a bridesmaid?’ she’d asked immediately.

‘Only if you want to be,’ had been Annie’s reply.

‘What will you make me wear?’ had come the dark question.

‘That’s my girl,’ Annie had told her proudly.

Just as Annie felt the deeply sleepy sensation of her thoughts merging and melting together, the phone in her handbag began to ring.

‘For goodness’ sake!’ she said grumpily, sitting up in the car seat and coming abruptly round from the doze.

After a quick fumble through all the things in her bag, the phone was retrieved and Annie answered, surprised to see the name on the screen.

‘Hello!’ she said warmly. ‘It’s been ages.’

‘I know,’ Connor told her. ‘I’ve been a prat.’

‘Oh, me too. That’s what happens when you’re on TV, huh?’

‘Yeah,’ Connor agreed. ‘I think I should come on your show, then we can at least be prats together.’

‘Good idea,’ Annie told him. ‘I’ve told Tamsin all about you; she’s trying to work you into the schedule.’

‘Aha, and I know just what that means, babe, I’ve been in the biz long enough.’

‘Huh?’

‘That means: how the hell do we tell this wanker to get lost?’

‘No!’ Annie insisted.

‘It’s OK, I’ve got a good angle for you: from gorgeous to hideous. Cute Connor goes from sexy policeman to the Elephant Man.’

‘No!’ she said, shocked. ‘Have you put on weight? We’ll get rid of it together. Honestly, I need to go to the gym and you can show me the way.’

‘No.’ He was laughing at her. ‘I’m going to play the Elephant Man. It was either that or sell my flat. And I keep telling you, when you’re ready to commit to a personal trainer, I have the man. But you’ve got to commit to exercise, he won’t train the weak.’

‘You’re going to play the Elephant Man?’ Annie asked with astonishment – ignoring all the stuff about personal trainers. The idea appalled her.

‘Oh yeah,’ Connor replied, ‘it’s a great part. BBC Four, great director, plus there’s talk of making it into a West End musical after the TV series ends.’

‘No! You’re going to be loaded!’ Annie enthused. ‘If I can just pay the mortgage and put something away for the next career downturn, I’ll be happy. How about you? Are they signing you for a new series?’

‘I don’t know yet, but I think it looks OK. I’ve got other news, babes. Ermmm … Ed and I are going to get married,’ she announced proudly, but suddenly feeling a slight choke in her throat as she said the words. Here she was telling not just one of her oldest friends, but also Roddy’s best friend, that she’d moved on. Finally, she was ready to leave Annie ‘Valentine’, and all that it meant, behind and start a truly new phase.

‘Really? You and Ed are finally going to tie the knot?’

‘Yes,’ Annie replied. She looked over at Ed, who glanced at her from the driver’s seat and winked.

‘That’s fantastic! Brilliant! Can I walk you down the aisle? Because that way I’ll definitely get into the
Heat
photo shoot with you. “Here is Annie Valentine’s best friend Connor McCabe walking her gracefully through the church and down towards the man of her dreams,” ’ he intoned in best Royal Wedding commentator style.

It made Annie laugh. ‘Register offices don’t have aisles,’ she warned him.

‘For us, darling, they will make an aisle. Leave it to me,’ he insisted.

‘Connor?’ She sounded serious now. ‘Are we friends?’

‘Of course we’re friends.’ He tried to wave the question away. ‘We’ll always be friends, even if you stand me up on lunch dates in the most crowded industry restaurants all over London.’

‘I’m sorry, it was just a diary mistake. There was no need to take it so personally.’

‘But, darling, I am an actor!’ Connor camped it up. ‘I have a very, very heightened sense of sensitivity.’

‘Oh dear,’ she began.

‘What?’

‘Oh dear, because I have another call coming in. Can you cope? You’re not going to go all huffy and rejected on me just because I’m going to dump this conversation for another one?’

‘It is going to take me weeks and weeks to recover,’ he told her. ‘Bye bye, bridie – but I can give you away, can’t I?’ he pleaded.

‘Yes, all right. Well, we’ll see …’ Annie tried to stall him but she heard his little cheer at the other end of the line before he hung up.

Then Svetlana was breathing into her ear.

‘Hi,’ Annie said, ‘so you got home OK and everything?’

‘Ya, and claim for the bag and the shoes. My insurance broker laugh at me. Laugh but pay up.’

Insurance broker. Everyone else bought insurance online
and then made claims via some interminable call-centre line, but Svetlana had a broker, who had time for a laugh and a few jokes.

‘I have to tell you more news—’ Svetlana began.

‘Me too!’ Annie countered. ‘But you first.’

‘Ya! Elena has made magic in New York!’ Svetlana began, her voice high with excitement. ‘She over there, she have meetings, she sell, sell and wonderful result … Annah!’ Svetlana paused before delivering the
coup de grâce
: ‘We open office in New York, Perfect Dress going to be huge there. Maybe bigger in America than in Europe! I stay in London, Elena go to New York, she need partner over there to help her build this business and we both think of you!’

Svetlana stopped it there.

For a moment, Annie thought she could hear ringing in her ears. A sort of radio silence. As if she couldn’t take any more in.

Ed’s proposal … the probable third series … and now this.

She held her breath and gripped the phone tightly in her hand.

Moving to New York. Being a partner in a wonderful new fashion label. Making big, serious money. Being a mogul. Risking it all for the potential success and riches.

Moving to New York.

Running a business.

It was a wonderful, wonderful, fabulous opportunity, and it was being offered to her. On a plate.

Elena would be sensational to work with. Just to meet her was to know that she was really going to be something. Svetlana with knobs on. Svetlana but in charge of her own future, her own business, her own fortune and her own destiny.

Annie would love to see that.

Would love to get involved in that. Maybe even have her own children involved in it.

Build a business.

She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips just with the sheer anticipation of it all.

‘Huh?’ Svetlana was asking. ‘Annah, is fabulous, fabulous offer. We only offer because of all you do for us. You dress me for my weddings, you find me my wonderful divorce lawyer and husband. When I want to throw my daughter out, you make me realize she is amazing girl. Annah … you my best friend in whole world.’

Now Annie’s eyes began to blur. ‘Thank you,’ she managed.

But she looked over at the man who had just told her he wanted to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her. She glanced to the back seats and the two sleeping babies they’d made together. And then to her two older, wonderful children, both so happy at school, so settled in their London lives. They’d lost their dad and several family homes. But they were very happy now. Secure and contented.

Ed was going to go back to work, back to the school and the job he loved.

Hadn’t she told him just last night that she had everything she’d ever, ever imagined wanting and so much more besides?

And hadn’t he promised that she would want something else within twenty-four hours?

She had to smile at this.

He knew her so well. Too well. He knew her so thoroughly inside out but he
still
loved her and wanted to be with her.

‘Annah?’ Svetlana asked. ‘Just say yes. We work everything out. You can rent out your house; we find you
wonderful apartment. Just say yes and we make it all happen. TV is nice salary, but is not a business, not a label, not a career for ever. TV drop you after year or two because someone new come along. This how it works on TV. Always. You know this.’

‘It’s a wonderful offer,’ Annie told her friend.

Her friend. No longer her client, no longer someone she was in awe of and took orders from: Svetlana, her friend.

‘It’s a truly, truly amazing offer and maybe sometime in the future …’

‘Ah no, Annah, if not you now, then we have to choose someone else. This is your chance.’

‘Maybe sometime in the future I can work with you and Elena,’ Annie went on steadily, trying not to be put off by the siren call of Svetlana and her wonderful offer. ‘I would love that. I would absolutely love to work with you. But just now, I have to be in London, with my family, in our home … with my great job.’

‘What was all that about?’ Ed wanted to know when she’d finally put away her phone.

‘Connor’s offered to walk me down the aisle,’ Annie began.

This made Ed laugh.

‘And Svetlana’s offered me a business partnership in her new fashion company. In New York.’

Ed turned to look at Annie.

‘Eyes on the road,’ she instructed him, mainly because his driving made her nervous, but also because she didn’t want him to read any trace of sorrow, or doubt, or regret in her decision.

‘I told her it was a very nice offer, but that of course I couldn’t accept,’ Annie said quickly, ‘because I’m very happy in London. And besides’ – she put her hand out and
squeezed him on the arm – ‘didn’t I just tell you I’ve got everything I ever wanted and more?’

Ed, who immediately understood what a big decision she had made for them all, said gently: ‘Thank you. You won’t regret one moment of staying in London with us. It’s going to be brilliant. Anyway, you’re only filming for twenty-five weeks of the year; plenty of time to go out to New York, help Elena arrange shows, plan advertising campaigns, look at dress fabrics … be a roving consultant for them. Get involved with them. I know you would love that.’

‘Really?’ she said, gasping in surprise at the possibility. ‘You’d let me go off to New York? You’d let me help them out? Spend time over there?’

‘Yeah,’ he agreed. ‘There are some great, great concerts to go to in New York. I could keep myself and the rest of the family very busy. We wouldn’t come out every time,’ he added with a wink, ‘just every now and then, you know, so you didn’t get lonely … or miss us too much. Just in the school holidays, obviously …’

Spotting a service station up ahead, Annie instructed Ed to pull in. Suddenly she felt the need of a break; there was too much going on, too much to think about.

She needed a packet of tissues and some extra-minty chewing gum. She had to have those things. If she had those in her hand, she’d be able to think straight and cope.

‘Anyone else want anything?’ Annie asked her fellow passengers.

Lana shook her head.

‘Can I come in?’ Owen wondered.

‘So you can look at the latest camping-stroke-Dr Who bits and pieces for sale?’ Annie said with fond exasperation.

Owen shrugged and looked at her pleadingly.

‘Oh, all right then,’ she agreed, ‘but quietly, don’t wake the twins or I will personally murder you. I’d drug them and make them sleep all the way to London if I could.’

Owen slid the car’s passenger door open and stepped out.

He strode across the forecourt ahead of his mum. She watched the jaunty little stride he was developing. He’d once been so shy; he’d not even been able to speak to anyone who wasn’t a member of the family. Now look at him, swaggering towards the garage, probably about to wheel and deal his way into her purse, persuading her to part with some obscene amount of money for a bizarre little piece of plastic nonsense.

But no, his hand went into his jeans pocket and he brought out his small black wallet.

He’d come prepared; he’d armed himself with his pocket money.

Her cash was safe.

When she returned from the ladies’, she found Owen browsing the many shelves of strange service-station merchandise with interest.