Private Lives (40 page)

The photographer took her face in his dainty hands. ‘Darling, I make all the men in the world want to fuck you,’ he said sincerely.

‘Oh Jose, you say the most wonderful things.’

Jessica breathed a sigh of relief; finally she was on her own, having slipped away to an empty bedroom in a far wing of the villa for lunch. She loved the attention, of course, being fussed over by hair and make-up girls, having everyone tell her how amazing she looked, but as the day wore on, it was beginning to make her feel anxious. I mean, what if they’re wrong? she thought. What if I look hideous? After those lies that fag Joe had been spreading, she simply
had
to look like a goddess; nothing else would do.

The room was cool and serene after the blaring music and heat of the shoot, with a wrap-around balcony that overlooked the ocean, lying like a shimmering pool of mercury in front of her. She sat on a rattan sunlounger, legs placed on either side, and laid out her lunch: a slice of melon and a can of Diet Mountain Dew.

She wanted something to read. Sylvia had declared a ban on media while they were in Hawaii – ‘we’re here to relax, remember?’ – and while Jessica could see the logic, it was making her jumpy to be so out of the loop. In her business, what people were saying was everything.

A young girl in shorts and a tank top popped her head into the bedroom; Jessica recognised her as one of the make-up girls.

‘Jose wants to start shooting in ten,’ she said nervously. ‘Can I get you anything in the meantime?’

‘Got any magazines?’

The girl looked awkward.

‘We were told no media at the location house.’

‘Really?’ Jessica frowned. ‘Why?’

The girl was chewing her lip.

‘I think it said so in the contract.’ As Jessica glared at her, the girl opened the satchel she was wearing. ‘But I’ve got an iPad if you’d like.’

‘Sure,’ said Jessica, wondering why they’d been told no media. ‘But let’s keep it between the two of us, all right? Now leave me.’

She immediately logged on to the
New York Post
. Some scandal had broken about an East Coast politican. Yeah, like that’s news.

She typed
National Enquirer
into Google, then rolled her eyes. Not Charlie Sheen again; didn’t he ever take a week off? Tutting to herself, she logged on to
Celeb
magazine, and gasped as the page popped up.

‘Tragic Jess Heading For A Breakdown?’ it said.

‘Tragic?’ she gasped, staring at the screen in disbelief. ‘
Breakdown?
’

She quickly clicked on the article and began reading:

Friends fear heartbreak has driven
All Woman
star Jessica Carr to the edge, writes Lindy Snape in Los Angeles. Her split from hunky Brit actor Sam Charles was only the first in a series of career disasters, quickly followed by the news that Uniglobe Pictures have ordered a reshoot on her movie
Slayer
in which she stars alongside Joe Kennington. ‘Jess just wasn’t convincing as a romantic lead,’ said an insider. ‘There was zero chemistry between her and Joe, so Judd the director took the decision to kill her character off.’ Friends fear this may have unhinged the highly strung actress, who was then revealed to have thrown herself at co-star Joe. ‘She was drinking pretty heavily,’ said a witness. The ageing starlet, 32, is said to be worried that she’s losing her looks. ‘When a woman begins to feel that she can’t hold on to a man, that’s got to make you desperate,’ commented TV doctor Gillian Toomey, presenter of Channel Nine’s
What’s Your Problem?

Rumours have also circulated that Jessica was spotted smoking what appeared to be a marijuana joint on the balcony of her Malibu beach house last Tuesday. LAPD declined to comment over whether they would investigate.

Jessica felt faint as she clicked on the four-page photomontage and timeline – stunning photographs of herself dated a year ago, that became increasingly unflattering as the story went on. ‘Unhinged’, ‘ageing’, ‘can’t hold on to a man’? Even worse, the article was illustrated with a huge long-lens pap shot of Jessica leaving the Primrose Gym on Mulholland, her face puffy and pink.
How the hell did they get that?

Why hadn’t she known about this? Why hadn’t
Sylvia
known about this? Mentally she calculated how long she’d been on the island. They had arrived Tuesday – the day
Celeb
magazine hit the news stands.

‘Holiday my ass!’ she sneered. ‘That bitch Sylvia knew all about this.’

She jumped to her feet and stormed through the villa and back to the pool, where she found Sylvia was on the phone. Jessica grabbed the cell from her hand.

‘Jess!’ squealed Sylvia. ‘What the hell?’

‘We need to talk. Now,’ said Jessica, grabbing her arm and virtually dragging her back inside.

‘What the hell’s wrong with you?’

‘I’ve just read the
Celeb
magazine story, that’s what’s wrong with me.’

Sylvia looked out towards the pool, where the whole crew were watching, then closed the patio doors.

‘You knew, didn’t you?’ spat Jessica.

The PR glanced at her, then down at the floor.

‘I heard they were running it, yes,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think it would help to tell you about it – looks like I was right.’

‘You think you can hide things from me? How dare you?’

‘It’s just a gossip story; there’s no substance to it. All we need to do is keep our heads down . . .’

‘Bullshit!’ cried Jessica. ‘
Celeb
has like five million readers. The media are like sheep. One prints “Tragic Jess, she’s losing her looks”, the others are all going to do it.’

‘This will blow over.’

‘You said that three weeks ago, and it’s only getting worse. Why don’t you do something?’

‘We have to stick to our strategy, Jess,’ said Sylvia firmly.

‘Oh yeah? Well it looks to me as if your strategy is to do nothing.’

‘I’m doing the best I can, Jessica,’ said Sylvia. ‘And I’m not sure how much I can help you when you go off-piste, arranging your own long-lens photography. Do you think I am stupid? I know that was you.’

‘So now this is my fault?’ said Jessica, her eyes wide.

Sylvia sighed. ‘Okay, we should both calm down here.’

‘There’s no “we” any more, Sylvia,’ said Jessica, hands on hips. ‘You’re fired.’

The older woman looked at her in disbelief.

‘Jessica, please . . .’

‘I said you’re fired!’ she screamed.

Sylvia looked at her for a moment, then nodded, turned and walked out of the villa. As soon as she had left, Barbara opened the patio doors and stepped through.

‘Honey, what’s going on?’ she asked, her face full of concern. ‘Jose told me you were having some almighty screaming match with Sylvia. What’s happened?’

‘
Celeb
magazine, that’s what happened. A four-page photomontage of my misery.’ Jessica began to cry through narrowed eyes. ‘This is your doing, isn’t it?’

‘What the hell are you talking about? I never speak to the media, you know that. Not unless you ask me to.’

‘Someone’s been talking. How else would they know Joe Kennington turned me down, except from you?’

‘I didn’t know, honey.’

‘You saw him at the house. You know he didn’t stay over . . . Admit it, you’ve been selling stories to the press, haven’t you?’

‘No!’

‘Well explain why all this has only been happening since you moved in, Mother?’

‘It’s a coincidence,’ said Barbara, flustered. ‘I swear to you . . .’

Jessica pointed her manicured finger towards the door. ‘Take the next flight back to LAX and get out of my house,’ she said, her voice trembling in anger.

‘Honey, no,’ said Barbara, tears beginning to run down her face. ‘I’m your mom. You can trust me.’

‘From now on, I trust no one. From now on, I’m going to be in charge of my life. Me.’

Jose put his head around the door. His eyes were sparkling and his cheeks were flushed. It was obvious he was loving every moment of the drama.

‘Is everything okay in here?’ he asked. ‘Is just we’re ready to shoot again.’

Jess inhaled sharply and looked at her mother.

‘Barbara’s just going,’ she said, ignoring the other woman’s sobs and stepping out into the sunshine. ‘But I’m ready when you are. And why don’t we try a few shots with that blue shirt?’

Jose clapped his hands with delight.

‘Oh darling, that’s a marvellous idea.’

Jessica went into the pool house they were using as a changing room and slipped out of her clothes. Naked except for her lace thong, she stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. Long tanned legs, flat stomach, toned arms and the best goddamn tits in the business. Ha! Tragic Jess? Such crap. She had never looked more beautiful in her life.

She pulled on the shirt the stylist had left for her and rolled up the sleeves. The tails just skimmed the top of her thighs and, at the back, gave just a hint of her ass. She had to admit, that dorky guy Daniel was right: she did look pretty hot.

‘Oh honey!’ purred Jose as she stepped out. ‘You look soooo beautiful.’

He came over and positioned her next to the pool, before stepping back to fire off some shots. ‘Give me more tiger, baby.’ He bent to check the shots on his laptop. ‘Wow, you’re sensational, Jessie.’

Jessica looked across at Daniel and fingered the material of the shirt.

‘But is it sexy enough?’

‘Oh yeah.’ Daniel blushed, unable to take his eyes from her. ‘You look great.’

‘Only great?’ she said. ‘I think we can do a little better than that, don’t you?’ She reached up and, one by one, undid the shirt buttons.

As Jose carried on shooting, Jessica shrugged the shirt off one shoulder, flashing her golden flesh at the camera. She felt sexy, liberated. For once, she was in control, and that was all that mattered.

‘How about a little more?’ she laughed, turning away from the camera and letting the shirt slip from her arms and on to the floor.

‘That’s it!’ said Jose. ‘Give it to me, baby!’

She crossed her arms across her chest and looked back at the camera with a toss of her hair and a mischievous smile that said ‘Come and get me.’

Tragic Jess? she thought, laughing. This would be the hottest, sexiest shoot of the decade. No one would be pitying her now.

41

‘Pow, gotcha! Pow! Argh no, you’re dead, you’re dead. Haha!’

Matt groaned and threw down the video game handset in disgust.

‘You’re too good for me, Jonas,’ he said, genuinely embarrassed at how easily his son had beaten him.

‘Well if you come round more often, you can practise,’ laughed Jonas. ‘So long as you remember that I am still the king!’ he added, leaping in the air and landing on Matt’s back.

‘Oh yeah?’ chuckled Matt, wrestling the boy to the ground. Gosh, he was getting big. Matt remembered the days when rough-and-tumble tussles like this had been a daily occurrence. He would lift Jonas in the air and Jonas would pretend he was Superman, squealing, ‘Higher, Daddy, higher!’ Now it was all Matt could do to wriggle out from beneath him.

‘Come on. Bedtime, young man,’ said Matthew, ushering Jonas out of the playroom and up the stairs towards his room, a shrine to cartoon character Ben 10. Matthew had agreed to babysit in a moment of weakness, but he was glad he had. Initially he had been nervous about it; partly because he’d never been inside what he still thought of as David’s house, having always dropped Jonas off at the doorstep, but mainly because he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea giving Jonas all these mixed messages. For three years, David had been playing Daddy to his son, and as much as he had hated it, Matthew had been forced to accept the status quo, watching Jonas grow from a distance. But just because David had gone, that didn’t mean Matthew would be stepping straight back into his old role. Indeed, Carla was out at some fancy party tonight and could well come home with another substitute daddy for Jonas – and there would be nothing either of them could do about it. Even so, he had loved spending quality time with Jonas in his own home, rather than at some café or playground. It was wonderful to see how he lived.

Matthew bent to tuck Jonas in and kiss him on the forehead, surprised but grateful when he didn’t protest. His little boy’s face was beginning to take shape; he had his mum’s nose and mouth, but he had Matthew’s eyes. Matthew liked that.

‘I’m glad you’ve seen our house, Daddy,’ said Jonas.

‘I’m glad too,’ said Matthew quietly.

Jonas’s eyes widened in the dark. ‘Maybe if David lets Mum keep the house, you could move in, ’cos it’s loads bigger than your flat.’

‘I like my flat,’ he said, trying to laugh off the suggestion. ‘But if your mum agrees, I’ll be round to visit more often. I can’t have you blasting me to death every time, can I? I’ve got to practise.’

‘Good idea.’

His son looked at him more seriously.

‘Are you and Mum friends again?’ His face, that perfect combination of Matt’s and Carla’s features, looked hopeful.

‘We’ve always been friends. How can we not be when we have such a brilliant thing in common as you?’

He hated lying to his son, but he knew there was some truth in his words. He and Carla had been getting on much better lately. More importantly, because of their son, there would always be a deep bond, a connection between them.

Jonas’s eyes were starting to close.

‘I love you, Dad,’ he said drowsily.

‘I love you too,’ Matt replied, enjoying the simple, sweet moment of saying good night to his son in the place that he called home.

He closed his son’s bedroom door softly and stood at the top of the stairs, listening to make sure Jonas was asleep. He peered up the stairwell to the second floor and beyond that, a third. This house is huge, he thought, padding towards the master bedroom and peering inside. I’m not being nosy, just interested. And for Jonas’s safety, I need to know where the fire exits are, don’t I?