Shafted (6 page)

‘No one who saw the telethon will ever believe you’d only had a couple, so you’re onto a loser with that argument,’Georgie told him firmly.‘Even without the subsequent drug stuff, and the girl’s age, Frank is well within his rights to fire you, because you made yourself incapable of performing the work you’re contracted to do.’

‘It was a one-off,’ Larry said, pulling the jeans on without bothering with underwear. ‘I’m not letting this go without a fight. Where’s Frank now? At the studio?’

‘I believe so. But he really doesn’t want to see you.’

‘Only because he’s believing the shit in the papers. Soon as he realises it’s a set-up he’ll—’

‘He’s already signed up your replacement,’ Georgie cut in, sounding genuinely sorry for him now. Larry was a pain, but she knew how much he’d loved the show. Unfortunately, just not enough to make him pull himself together before it got to this.

Slumping down onto the edge of the bed, Larry said, ‘You’ve got to be joking. He can’t do this to me.’

Assuring him that it was true, Georgie closed her eyes when Larry demanded to know who had been signed in his place, and murmured, ‘Matty Kline. Sorry, Larry, but it’s a done deal.’

‘I’ll kill him!’ Larry snarled, the blood boiling in his veins. ‘I will fucking
kill
him!’

Sensing that he’d taken as much of a kicking as he could stand right now, Georgie said, ‘Look, go and clear your head with a cold shower before you do anything stupid. I’ll get onto the doctor to arrange that blood test. And when you’re feeling better, we’ll sit down and talk about finding a new show for you. But, whatever happens, you’ve got to knock the drinking on the head, Larry. You might think you’ve got it under control, but the fact that you can’t even remember what you were doing last night should tell you that you haven’t.’

It was good advice, but Larry didn’t hear a word of it; he was too busy staring at Tania, who had just come back into the room. Disgusted that she was parading around naked with a stupid smile on her face while his whole world collapsed around him, he felt the rage welling up inside him.

‘Larry . . . ?’ Georgie’s distant voice drifted out of the phone. ‘Are you still there?’

Switching the phone off without responding, Larry followed Tania with his stare as she slinked over to the other side of the bed and placed the coffee cups on the table.

Pretending not to notice his intense gaze, Tania strolled to the dressing-table and leaned provocatively forward to smooth her hair in the mirror. If there was one thing she knew about boys, it was that they were natural voyeurs who got turned on by watching girls who didn’t know they were being watched. Laughable, really, when you considered that girls
always
knew when they were being watched.

‘Get dressed,’ Larry spat, sickened by the sight of her preening herself.

Turning, Tania gave him a questioning smile. ‘Sorry?’

Barking ‘You heard!’ Larry got up and marched out of the room.

Staring after him in disbelief, Tania winced when the front door slammed a couple of seconds later. Chilled by his angry tone, she rubbed at her arms, wondering what had happened to make him bite her head off like that. She’d heard him raise his voice a couple of times when he was on the phone, and wondered if it had been a woman – one of his girlfriends, maybe – who’d found out about him taking Tania to the club and had rung to have a go at him about it. If so, it hadn’t sounded like he’d been begging for forgiveness, which had to be a sign that he wanted Tania more than he wanted the girlfriend. And it would certainly explain his sudden mood swing, because he was too nice to dump a girl without feeling even a little bit guilty about it, so she wouldn’t hold it against him for taking it out on her.

Just as she’d managed to convince herself that everything would be okay, Larry marched back into the room, with the
Sunday Herald
he’d just borrowed off a neighbour clutched tightly in his hand.

Flapping the paper in Tania’s face, he said, ‘Just tell me one thing . . . were you in on this from the start, or did they persuade you to do it after we got to the club?’

‘In on what?’

‘Don’t play the innocent with me! This what you wanted, was it? To make me lose my fucking job?’

‘I haven’t seen the papers,’ she reminded him, stepping nervously back because he looked like he was going to hit her. ‘I’ve only just got up. What’s wrong?’

‘Like you don’t know!’ Marching away from her to put distance between them – because he
did
feel like throttling her – Larry threw the paper down onto the bed and snatched up yet another cigarette with shaking hands.

Hardly daring to move in case he shouted at her again, Tania tilted her head and peered at the paper. She couldn’t see the headline, but there were two pictures: one of her and Larry kissing; the other of her smiling and Larry looking confused, while the guys from Unreal looked shocked and angry as their minders scrambled to their feet. She couldn’t see details, but she genuinely didn’t see anything wrong with what she
could
see – nothing to make Larry so angry, anyway. In fact, she thought she looked particularly pretty.

‘I don’t know why you’re looking so proud of yourself,’ Larry spat, noticing the way she was studying the photos. ‘You’ve destroyed my life with that little stunt of yours.’

Looking up at him, Tania frowned. He was being absolutely horrible about this, and she really didn’t understand why. He’d been photographed with thousands of women, so why get so mad about two little shots with her? He certainly couldn’t be ashamed of her, because she was
way
better looking than half the women he’d been seen with. And none of
them
had been celebrities, either, so it couldn’t be that Tania didn’t match up in
that
department.

‘Was that the point of coming onto my show?’ Larry demanded now, his tone cold and accusing. ‘To get me drunk and manipulate me into taking you out, so that your friend could take pictures of us?’

Stunned that he was trying to blame her for whatever was eating him, Tania gasped and said, ‘
I
didn’t get you drunk. You were already plastered. That’s why they sent you off.’

‘Convenient,’ Larry muttered, knowing full well that she was right – about that bit, anyway. But she’d definitely had a hand in setting him up, he was sure about that. Scowling at her now, he said, ‘For Christ’s sake, get dressed. I feel sick enough without having to look at
that
!’

Humiliated by the contempt in his eyes, Tania scooped her dress up off the floor and pulled it over her head. It was badly creased, but that hardly seemed to matter in light of how disastrous this date was turning out to be. Slipping her panties on when Larry turned his back on her and marched across to the window, a surge of anger reared up through the emotional pain. All she’d ever wanted was to be with him, but he was being so nasty that she wasn’t sure she wanted to see him again – not until he apologised, anyway. He might get away with treating his other women like this, but not her. There was no way
she
was going to roll over and let him walk all over her just because he was a star.

Hands on hips when she was dressed, Tania faced Larry’s rigid back and said, ‘Look, I’m sorry you’re so upset about having your picture taken with me, but
I
don’t see the problem. And I certainly don’t deserve to be shouted at for it.’

‘I thought you’d have been used to being shouted at,’ Larry retorted coldly. ‘You must get it all the time off your parents and teachers.’ Turning to face her now, he folded his arms. ‘Isn’t that what adults do to naughty children?’

Cheeks flaming, Tania raised her chin. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Come off it!’ Larry snorted. ‘Did you really think you’d get away with it? I know
every
thing, you stupid little girl. Everybody knows.’

‘Everybody knows what?’ she demanded, trying to front it out, sure that whatever he
thought
he knew, she could still talk her way out of it.

‘That you’re
sixteen
,’ Larry told her slowly, making sure that she heard it loud and clear. ‘That your real name is Tania, and that you lied your way onto my show by pretending to be your sister Cindy – who is in Majorca as we speak. That enough for you?’

The tears came now; a slow trickle which quickly became a torrent.‘I’m sorry,’Tania wailed, looking at him with pleading eyes.‘But does it really matter? I’m old enough to sleep with anyone I want to, so nobody can stop us if we want to be together.’

‘Are you
mad
?’ Larry gasped incredulously. ‘Do you really think I’d want anything to do with you after this?’ Laughing without humour now, he shook his head. ‘Christ, I didn’t even know who you were when I woke up – that’s how forgettable you are.’

‘Larry, please . . .’ Tania begged, the burst of righteous indignation gone now as she took a step towards him. ‘I know I could make you happy. Just let me show you.’

‘Stay right there,’ he ordered, amazed that she seemed to think she could make everything all right by getting him back into bed. The very thought that they had already done
any
thing sickened him to his stomach, and he was just thankful that he couldn’t remember a single thing about it. But whatever
had
happened, it most definitely would not be happening again.

‘Please don’t be like this,’ Tania persisted tearfully. ‘I didn’t do anything wrong. I know I lied about my age to get on the show, but I
had
to – to meet
you
. The first time I ever saw you I knew we were meant to be together. And you like me too, so I wasn’t wrong, was I?’

Shaking his head with disbelief, Larry said, ‘Have you any idea how childish you sound? You’re like a twelve-year-old with a crush on a pop star.’

‘I’m old enough for sex,’ Tania reminded him desperately. ‘And I’m not at school any more, so my mum and dad can’t tell me what to do. We could even get married if we wanted to, and nobody could stop us.’

‘Behave yourself!’ Larry snapped, feeling more nauseous by the second. This had to stop – now. It was sick, and he could understand why the public would have a problem with it. If
he
heard about a man of his age sleeping with a sixteen-year-old, he’d call him all the perverts under the sun – even if the girl looked older, like this one did.

Sidestepping her now, he snatched up her handbag and thrust it into her hands, telling her to go home and forget that any of this had ever happened.

‘I can’t forget it,’ Tania wailed, clutching at his hand. ‘You’re everything to me.’

Wrenching himself free, Larry said, ‘Christ, you’ve already lost me my
job
. Don’t you get it? Your silly little crush and stupid lies have
destroyed
me. I don’t want you, and I never will. I just want you to disappear like you never existed!’

‘Stop it!’ Tania cried, throwing her hands over her ears. ‘Stop it, stop it, stop it!’

Afraid that the neighbours would hear her and think that he was beating her up, Larry rushed towards her and gave her a gentle shake, hissing, ‘Pack it in, for God’s sake.’

Sobbing loudly, Tania fell against him and buried her face in his shirt. Everything had been going so well before he’d found out about her age, but she genuinely didn’t think she’d done anything wrong. And she’d have told him the truth eventually – when she was sure that he was as deeply in love with her as she was with him.

Pushing her away gently when the sobs began to subside at last, Larry looked down into her swollen eyes and sighed. She was just a child, and he couldn’t put her out of his apartment in this state. But he couldn’t let her stay, either. Now he’d seen the pictures and knew that Georgie had been telling the truth about the drugs, he was terrified that the police would come crashing in at any minute, and the last thing he needed was for her to still be here. Knowing his luck, he’d get done for drugging and date-raping her, or something ridiculous like that.

Tempering his tone now, because Tania seemed to be calming down and he didn’t want to set her off again, he said, ‘Look, I’m sorry for shouting, but you’ve got to go before anybody realises you’re here and makes something out of it. I’m going to call you a cab, but we’ll have to sneak you out through the underground car park in case any photographers are hanging about. And I need you to promise that you’ll keep your head down. Okay?’

Nodding, glad that he was being nice again, Tania said, ‘I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.’

‘Yeah, well, let’s try and avoid any more scandal, eh?’ Larry took another step back. ‘And can we agree to say that nothing happened if anyone does catch up with you?’

‘Nothing did happen,’ she admitted, with more than a tinge of regret in her voice.

Peering down at her with a confused frown, Larry said, ‘Sorry?’

‘Nothing happened,’ she repeated, taking a tissue out of her bag and wiping her nose. ‘You were too drunk to do anything by the time we left the club, so I got your keys out of your pocket. It was just lucky the taxi driver knew you, so he already had your address, ’cos I don’t think my dad would have been too happy if I’d had to take you back to mine.’

Heart racing as the clouds of gloom began to disperse, Larry said, ‘Is this for real? You’re not lying again?’

‘It’s the truth,’ Tania insisted, adding, ‘I would have if you’d wanted to, but you were practically unconscious. So, I . . .’Trailing off, she dipped her gaze as flames of embarrassment seared her cheeks. ‘I got you undressed. But I didn’t look at –
you
know. I just wanted you to be comfortable.’

Exhaling loudly as the last of the tension floated away, Larry gazed at the ceiling and murmured, ‘Thank you, God!’ Then, moving towards Tania – but not
too
close – he inclined his head and kissed her on the cheek. ‘And thank
you
for telling me the truth. Now, let’s get you out of here before anyone realises you stayed the night.’