Santa Baby (26 page)

‘Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?’

‘Funny I like you.’ He was staring at her.

Yeah, whoever you are
.

They talked some more – the footballer told her
about
how he had recently moved to London to play for Chelsea, and that he was really missing his friends and family. And girlfriend? Tiffany wondered. He was bound to have a WAG attached to him. Was there any such thing as a single premiership footballer? Tiffany told him about working on the TV show and a little bit about what it was like when she’d found out Angel was her sister. He became sweetly flirtatious, and Tiffany wondered if she should tell him about Raul. Then again, tell him what?
I’m sort of seeing this guy who has just abandoned me in a hot tub?
She bet that kind of thing never happened to Angel.

By now it was after two and Tiffany realised that she was starving – the few mouthfuls of tapas had not hit the spot – and so when the footballer suggested they all go to Balans in Soho, the restaurant and bar on Old Compton Street, Tiffany was well up for it, as were Jez and Kara. Tiffany had been having such a good time that she had completely forgotten who hung round outside London nightclubs frequented by celebrities, but as she and the footballer stepped outside, the paps leaped into action, dazzling her with their flashes. No wonder celebs wore shades at night! No one ever had a bad photograph of themselves taken with sunglasses on, whereas God only knows what she was going to look like. The footballer put a protective arm around her as the paps crowded round, while Gerry muscled ahead to the black Range Rover.

‘God, I don’t know how you bear it!’ Tiffany exclaimed, as Gerry shut the door on the photographers and she sank back in the leather seat.

The footballer shrugged, ‘Occupational hazard. You must know that by now. I’m used to it.’

‘Hmm, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.’

A full English breakfast later, Tiffany was starting to
sober
up and wonder if she had done the right thing in hanging out with the footballer. She hadn’t wanted to give him the impression that she was interested – other than being friendly. Whereas the footballer seemed more than friendly now. He had sat next to her at Balans, rested his arm on the back of her chair, addressed all his comments to her. She had also checked her phone and seen that she had five missed calls and a text from Raul and now she was itching to see what he had to say for himself.

‘So, can I get your number?’ the footballer asked. ‘Just in case I need to check that offside rule with you some time … or to ask you out for dinner?’

Was this the moment she revealed that she may or may not be seeing Raul? Tiffany bottled it. ‘Sure.’ She reeled off her number. ‘Send me a text and then I’ll have your number too. And now I’m going to have to go. I’m filming at midday and really need to get some sleep. Or Darcy, my make-up artist, will have to pile on the make-up with a Black and Decker.’

‘OK, funny girl, I’ll text you’, the footballer replied. And he reached out for her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it.

‘What a gentleman!’ Jez declared in the cab on the way back to Hyde Park. ‘He’s like the acceptable face of a young footballer. I mean, he didn’t ask you and Kara for a threesome, or film you performing a lewd sex act on him which he then posted on his Twitter account.’

‘He was very sweet,’ Tiffany admitted. ‘Whoever the hell he was.’

Kara stared at her, eyes wide in astonishment. ‘You mean, you still didn’t find out his name? I’ll Google him.’ She reached for her phone.

‘I sort of like not knowing his name, it adds to his air of mystery,’ Tiffany mused, reaching for her own
phone
. Now she accessed the text from Raul.
Tiffany, please call me when you get this, it doesn’t matter how late, I want to explain and apologise. Believe me when I say that events were entirely out of my hands. Yours Raul xx

It seemed sincere enough. Next she replayed her voice-mail message from him, another plea for her to call him, no matter how late. And at that moment her phone vibrated with a message.
Hey Tiffany, good 2 meet u tonite. How about dinner Saturday nite? Xxx

‘And I
still
don’t know what his name is!’ Tiffany exclaimed, after she’d read out the text. Then her phone rang. It was Raul.

‘Someone’s in demand,’ Jez commented wryly. Tiffany didn’t answer the call and switched her phone to silent.

‘Got him! His name is Andy Lloyd.’ Kara triumphantly held up her phone.

‘I think I prefer to think of him as the footballer,’ Tiffany replied.

‘Whatever he’s called, he’s well lush,’ Kara said. ‘Then again, so is Raul.’

‘Oh, poor Tiff! Torn between a premiership footballer and Formula One racing driver!’ Jez replied, ‘I feel a song coming on.’ And he launched into: ‘Torn between two sportsmen, both of them are hot, one drives for Ferrari, the other one’s got a yacht.’

Tiffany made a cutting signal under her neck. Anything but Jez’s warbles! ‘Do you want me to tell Rufus that you ate an entire English breakfast, all of Andy’s fries and a banoffee pie tonight?’ Jez was supposed to be on a low-carbs diet. In the short time that Tiffany had known him, Jez had been on at least three diets. He always blew them.

‘You wouldn’t!’ he protested. ‘You know what that means for me – he’ll make me go running with him and I.CAN’T.RUN. It’s not in my genetic make-up. I would
never
have been a hunter gatherer, I would have been back at the cave making it look nice and doing my hair.’

Tiffany folded her arms. ‘Well then, don’t sing.’

‘Spoilsport,’ Jez muttered.

‘So what
are
you going to do about Raul and Andy?’ Kara asked.

Tiffany stifled a yawn. ‘Nothing right now. I’ll see how I feel in the morning.’

‘Perhaps you’d better toss a coin for them,’ Jez said cheekily.

Tiffany shot him a warning look. ‘I will tell.’

Jez blew her a kiss.

Tiffany’s phone rang at ten the following morning, rousing her from a very deep sleep. Blearily she took the call from Susie. ‘Andy Lloyd and Raul Garcia! In one night? Isn’t that a teeny bit greedy, Tiffany?’

‘What?’ Tiffany sat up clutching her head. Her mouth felt horribly dry. She was dehydrated and hungover.

‘I’ve had a call from one of my press contacts wanting the low-down on you and Andy Lloyd. Apparently you couldn’t keep your hands off each other last night.’

‘Yeah, right, and other tabloid clichés,’ Tiffany said sarcastically. ‘Yes, I met Andy Lloyd at Movida, but it was all completely innocent. Not that I should have to justify myself anyway!’

‘Shame, and there was I thinking you were following in big sis’s footsteps and falling for a footballer. What do you want me to say then?’

Tiffany sighed and ran her hands through her hair. ‘Do we have to say anything?’ She couldn’t help feeling that anything she came out with would only be used against her.

‘No problem, I can just say we decline to comment.’ A pause. ‘So what is happening with Raul?’

Tiffany liked Susie, and admired her professionally, but she wasn’t at all sure that she wanted to confide in her. ‘I don’t know. Let’s just say the night didn’t go quite to plan.’

‘Oh, well. I’ve got some news that might cheer you up – I’ve had a bite from a celeb mag about you having your own weekly style column. The money’s not great – we’re only talking about a grand.’

‘A month?’

‘A week. And if they got you for that it would be a complete bargain, so I’m pushing for one and a half K.’

It was another of those surreal moments for Tiffany. This new life, so far away from her old one …

After the call she dragged herself off to the shower. Jez and Kara had already left for work. As she had breakfast (muesli and yoghurt to make up for the alcohol and English breakfast blow-out) she toyed with the idea of calling Raul. But every time she picked up her phone, she found herself putting it back down as she remembered how embarrassing it had been to wind up in the hot tub on her own. Beyond cringey! How could he have done that to her? She got dressed, careful to avoid wearing anything she had been filmed in before as she and Angel were interviewing one of their guests today in the Covent Garden studio flat the TV show rented.

Outside the flat the paps were out in force. They had clearly already heard about her meeting with Andy Lloyd, unless they were still there because of Raul. She shook back her hair, sunglasses firmly in place, a neutral, I-don’t-even-see you expression on her face, and walked through them. And in a lucky break a taxi went past with its light on and Tiffany hailed it.

*

As she walked up the stairs to the top-floor flat she came face to face with Sean who was running down them. He had his super-serious expression on. Don’t say that he already knew about Andy!

‘Absolutely nothing happened,’ she declared bolshily. ‘Before you start giving me one of your legendary hard times.’

‘What?’

‘Between me and Andy Lloyd.’ But even as she came out with it, Tiffany realised that Sean looked distracted and clearly didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.

‘I’ve got to go,’ he told her.

‘Is everything OK?’ she called after him, as he raced down the stairs, immediately thinking of the kidnap threat.

‘My daughter’s in hospital.’ And with that he opened the front door and stepped outside, slamming the door shut before Tiffany had a chance to ask him what had happened.

Shit! How shallow and stupid of her to think that everything was about her. It was this mad celebrity world. Poor, poor Sean. She quickly ran upstairs to the flat, anxious to see if Angel knew any more about Maya.

Darcy was already working on Angel’s make-up when Tiffany rushed in. She didn’t waste time on hellos. ‘Angel, do you know what’s wrong with Sean’s daughter? I’ve just seen him and he told me she was in hospital.’

‘She had an asthma attack, a bad one, poor darling.’

Tiffany sat down next to her. ‘I didn’t even know she had asthma.’

‘She was out at a picnic trip for a friend’s birthday when it happened so I think it was all pretty scary. And it’s horrible for Sean, being so far away. But he should be there within two hours. She’s in a hospital in
Cambridge.’
Angel smiled at her. ‘I’m sure she’ll be fine, it’s not the first time it’s happened.’

‘But she might not be. People die from bad asthma attacks don’t they?’ And suddenly Tiffany burst into tears. She didn’t know what had come over her but she couldn’t stop.

Instantly Angel put her arms round her. ‘Hey, Tiff, I’m sure she’ll be OK.’

‘I’m sorry, I just feel so bad for her and I guess I’m thinking how I would feel if it was Lily-Rose. And, God, I haven’t seen my family for ages. And when Sean looked all serious, I thought it was because he was judging me for being out with that footballer when all the time he was distraught about his daughter. And I don’t even know why I chatted to the footballer … he probably thinks I’m interested in him and I’m not … and I don’t want people to think I’m some kind of fame-hungry slag.’ Her words were tumbling over each other in a rush. ‘I’m sorry.’

Angel looked at her with concern. ‘I’m sorry too, Tiff, I thought you were handling all the fame stuff and Raul so well.’ She paused. ‘Sorry … what footballer? I thought you were seeing Raul last night.’

Tiffany sighed. ‘I was.’ And then gave a quick rundown of what had happened in the last twenty-four hours, ending with, ‘So you could say I’ve had an eventful time.’

‘Yes, but you haven’t done anything wrong, nothing to be ashamed of. Talking to someone isn’t leading them on, and it sounds like you just had fun. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Tiff.’ Angel hugged her again. ‘So much has changed for you and you need time to take it all in. I should have realised that myself. Why don’t you take the day off and go and see your parents? It sounds like you could do with a break.’

Tiffany shook her head, and attempted to wipe away
her
tears. ‘No, I’ll be fine, honestly. I’ll go and see them after we’ve finished filming. And if Sean gets in touch with you, you will let me know how his daughter is, won’t you?’

Angel promised and Tiffany managed to put on a brave face as she was filmed interviewing Nadine, a single mum from Margate who had lost a staggering five stone and had no idea how to dress for her new figure. No one watching Tiffany, as she smiled and chatted away, would have realised that she felt so emotional and anxious for Sean. They were halfway through filming when Angel received a text from him saying that he was with Maya and she was much better and should be discharged from hospital by the end of the day.

‘That’s so typical of him,’ Angel commented, scrolling through the text. ‘He’s offering to come back to work tomorrow night. But I’m giving him the rest of the week off, whether he likes it or not.’

Tiffany felt weak with relief. She sent her own message to him,
So glad that Maya is OK. Take care x
.

And then she had another message to send – this time to Andy.
Thanx for the dinner invitation, my life’s a bit complicated right now, so I’m afraid I can’t make it. You’re a lovely guy. Hope u soon feel settled in London, Tiffany x
. It felt like the right thing to do. As for Raul? She still didn’t feel like speaking to him and he hadn’t called back again. Perhaps that flirtation was over. Right now she felt like she needed time out. Her parents’ cosy home offered the perfect escape.

‘WOW, YOU LOOK
about ready to pop!’ Tiffany exclaimed as a very heavily pregnant Marie opened the door to her later that day. ‘Are you sure you’re not having twins?’

‘I would roll my eyes but I haven’t got the energy,’ Marie retorted. ‘I’ve still got over six weeks to go. And FYI that’s what everyone’s been saying.’

‘Sorry.’ Tiffany gave her step-mum a kiss. ‘It’s my day for being insensitive.’

‘You never are, Tiff. Come into the kitchen, you look done in.’

Tiffany followed Marie into the kitchen where her dad and Lily-Rose were chopping up vegetables for a stir-fry. It was all so normal. Just what she needed. Chris put the knife down and hugged his daughter. ‘We’re honoured to see you, Tiffany. Don’t you have a Formula One racing driver to flirt with?’