Unlucky Break (17 page)

‘Sitting in the car. What are you doing?’ asked Andie, not looking around. She was pretty sure Rene smiled. ‘Rene’s been driving you around for how many years now, and you still sit in the back like a kid? Weird,’ teased Andie, feeling Cece blush from behind her.

Rene drove them to a cerise-painted store and pulled up outside.

‘Come on, let’s get shopping,’ said Cece, and Andie followed her inside.

A mannequin wearing a crocheted 1970s dress greeted her at the door.

‘See? Groovy,’ said Cece, grinning. Andie laughed.

Andie walked around the shop, touching fabrics and picking up a few pieces. There was some amazing stuff here, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for. Cece, however, had armfuls of clothing when she met Andie at the fitting rooms.

‘Are you serious?’ asked Andie. ‘That’s too many clothes to try on. We’ll be here all day!’

‘Who are you, and what have you done with the eighteen-year-old girl who lives with me?’ Cece teased, leading Andie into a fitting room.

‘Why didn’t you call me after I moved into James’s house?’ Andie blurted. She’d been dying to ask her aunt all the way over in the car. ‘It’s been almost a week and I haven’t heard from you.’ She looked at Cece accusingly.

Cece held her gaze. ‘I was upset. I needed to calm down.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me you went to Palm Springs? I had to find out from Jess,’ Andie said, trying to hold back the tears. She was biting the inside of her mouth so hard she broke the skin, but the tears came anyway. They slid silently down her cheeks and into her mouth, the taste of salt and blood making her feel sick.

‘Because I wasn’t in Palm Springs,’ said Cece quietly, not moving her eyes from Andie’s.

There was a seriousness in Cece’s face that struck at Andie’s heart. She reminded Andie of her mum, telling her the cancer had spread.
It’s in the bone now. There’s nothing they can do, Andie. But I’ll be fine, I know it.

Andie looked at the aunt she barely knew and finally grasped that Cece was all she had left in the world. No-one else had stepped up and claimed her. No-one wanted her but Cece.

There was her silly crush on James, and a promising but still tentative friendship with Jess, but Cece was the only relative who’d shown she cared about Andie.

‘Are you sick?’ Andie asked, remembering her conversation with Jess. She felt a little panicky. She didn’t know if she could go through it all again.

Cece shook her head. ‘No, not sick so much. Well, sort of, I suppose some might say.’

Andie held her breath as Cece leant in close to whisper in her ear.

‘I went to rehab.’

There was a long, shocked silence. Cece looked worried as she waited for Andie’s response.

‘What are you addicted to?’ Andie asked, a little too loudly.

‘Shhhhh,’ said Cece, gently putting her hand over Andie’s mouth.

Andie raised her eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

‘Alcohol,’ said Cece, and a red blush rose up her neck.

‘Old-school, huh?’ said Andie. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She cringed.

Cece, to her credit, smiled a little. ‘I have always preferred the classics.’ She laughed and then so did Andie, the awkwardness in the fitting room lifting instantly.

Andie sank onto the floor of the fitting room. She just didn’t understand. ‘Why do you, the woman so many people want to be, need to drink?’ she asked, genuinely bemused. ‘And Jess, the most gorgeous, talented chick I know, has those ridiculous boobs and is addicted to shopping. And Nikki Morgan, who is so beautiful, is addicted to
everything
, but mostly to James, even though he doesn’t want her anymore. Why are you all so messed up?’

‘You think just because we have supposed looks and talent we aren’t tormented by insecurities?’ Cece sighed.

Andie realised that Cece was paying the price of fame, just like James. The inability to ever have a private fuck-up. She was starting to understand just how horrible that would be.

‘But why did you go back to rehab?’ whispered Andie. ‘Did you get drunk?’

‘No,’ said Cece. ‘But I thought I might.’

‘Why? Was it because of what I did to James?’ Now, to top it all off she had sent her aunt to rehab. Andie couldn’t feel worse if she tried.

‘No, it started before that. I guess I was nervous about you coming. And you know, I was feeling grief. Guilt.’ Her voice trailed off. ‘I should have tried harder with Marlo. She was my sister, after all.’

Andie looked at her short nails and picked at a cuticle. ‘She wouldn’t have listened,’ she said. ‘She was too stubborn.’

‘Another Powers trait,’ said Cece, and Andie saw a tear fall down her cheek.

There was a knock at the fitting-room door. ‘You okay in there?’ called the sales assistant.

‘Fine, thanks,’ called Andie and Cece together, and then they giggled at each other.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Andie quietly.

‘For what?’ asked Cece, confused.

‘For causing so much crazy in your life since I got here. I can go back if you want. I get it.’

Cece shook her head sternly. ‘Stop it. Don’t feel sorry for yourself and don’t feel sorry for me. Now let’s get some new old clothes for you. Let me spoil my niece for once.’

14

When she got back to James’s house, Andie went and checked on him. He was asleep, breathing softly. As Andie gazed down at his peaceful face, she wondered how he felt about her now that he knew her a little better. She guiltily thought of her promise to Cece to try to stop worrying what people thought of her, but she couldn’t help herself.

Andie wasn’t like anyone else in LA – at least, anyone she had met so far. So many women in this city seemed to be like Nikki – so beautiful, but so damaged. Andie was beginning to think that the men here loved that. Well, she was damaged too, but was she beautiful enough? No, she wasn’t anything enough.

She stood over James and watched him sleep until she realised how creepy she was being. She quietly walked back out into the hallway and picked up the bags of clothes she’d left there.

Cece’s revelation about rehab made her seem more human to Andie. Even with her fame, beauty and perfect house, Cece had problems like everyone else.

Their afternoon together had actually been fun. In addition to the bags of vintage clothes she’d bought for Andie, Cece had also insisted on paying for Andie to get her hair trimmed at an expensive salon while they were out. ‘Just a trim’ apparently translated to a full haircut, including a new fringe, but Andie admitted that it suited her. Her hair was still long, but the hairdresser had given her layers that framed her blue eyes and made her cheekbones seem impossibly high. It looked healthier, more luxurious.

Andie went to her room and pulled on a black racerback tank top and a new pair of jeans – flattering, but not threatening to her circulation. She looked in the mirror. She looked good, except for the bra straps. She slipped off the bra and took another look. Better. But the girl in the mirror with the fringe over her eyes and no bra wasn’t familiar to her. She looked like someone, she thought, as she stared at her reflection. Then it came to her. She looked like Cece.

Andie’s heart squeezed at the thought, but she ignored the twinge as she applied her favourite red lipstick. She couldn’t wait to see what James thought of her new look.

Andie was amazed at how much she was enjoying life as James’s assistant. She was kept so busy that she didn’t have time to think and remember.

The intercom buzzed in her room.

‘Hey,’ she said into it.

‘Can you help me with something?’ she heard James say. He sounded a little odd.

‘Sure. What do you need?’ she asked.

‘I kinda fell over and I’ve hurt my back. I can’t get … ’

Andie didn’t wait to hear the rest of the sentence. She ran as fast as she could along the hallway to his room.

‘James?’ she called to the empty room.

‘In here,’ she heard from the bathroom.

She rushed in and saw him lying on the floor in only a pair of boxer shorts. One of his crutches was lying on the floor next to him – he must have used it to press the button on the intercom.

‘Jesus, what happened to you?’ She bent over him.

‘I could ask the same thing,’ he said, raising his eyes at her new hairstyle.

She knelt back and put her hands on her hips. ‘Are you being rude again?’

‘No, the opposite! Your hair looks great – like, really great.’

Andie felt the flush travelling up her neck. ‘How did you fall?’

It was James’s turn to turn red. ‘I was trying to wash my hair in the sink, ’cause you know – I can’t take showers, and washing my hair in the bath doesn’t work. I slipped. I feel really stupid.’

Andie nodded. ‘You look really stupid, too,’ she teased. And then she smiled at him and he smiled back. Their eyes locked for a moment and Andie felt her breath catch in her throat.

James tried to move and winced in pain.

‘Hang on, I’ll help you.’ Andie put her arm around him and gently pulled him up to a sitting position.

‘God, my back is killing me,’ he said.

‘Do you want to go to the hospital?’ she asked.

‘Nah,’ he said. ‘I’ve had this kind of thing before. It’ll pass.’

‘You know, I could have washed your hair,’ she said, ‘if you’d asked me.’

‘I don’t think it’s in your job description to wash my hair,’ he laughed, rubbing his lower back.

‘I’m supposed to look after you,’ she said. ‘Whatever it takes. Even if that means washing your hair.’

‘I feel so useless,’ he said, looking down at the tiled floor. ‘I didn’t even get to the shampoo.’ He looked so sad and vulnerable. Andie’s heart ached.

‘Stay here,’ she ordered, and left the bathroom. She came back with a dining room chair and a plastic measuring jug.

‘Okay, let’s move you up here,’ she said, helping James onto the chair, which she’d positioned next to the basin. She rolled up a towel.

‘Head forward,’ she said, putting the towel behind his neck.

‘Are you always so bossy?’ he asked.

‘Am I bossy?’ she asked, a little mortified.

‘Sort of, but I like it,’ he said, closing his eyes and smiling.

She turned on the taps and filled the jug with warm water as he eased his head back over the sink. Andie tipped the warm water gently over his head. Leaning over him, she picked up the shampoo bottle on the other side of the basin.

‘Excuse me,’ she said and looked down to see James, eyes open again, staring up at her.

‘No problem,’ he said.

Andie squeezed some orange and vanilla–scented shampoo onto his head and worked it into a lather through his hair. The bathroom was silent as she worked, her hands on his head but her eyes running all over his body.

His strong jawline, with its faint stubble, twitched as she soaped. She studied his nose, which was maybe just a little too long, but made his face interesting rather than just handsome. His chest was mostly hairless but not waxed. His stomach was ridiculously toned. No tattoos, she noticed, remembering Cameron’s stupid peace symbol, intertwined with the recycling logo on his shoulder.
Wanker
, she thought.

‘Oww,’ complained James.

‘Whoops, sorry,’ she said. She concentrated on not thinking about Cameron as she rinsed James’s hair gently with warm water.

The conditioner was sitting on the bench on the opposite side of his head. She leant over him and felt her breasts brush across his chest.

He didn’t move, just kept his eyes closed as Andie grabbed the bottle and poured some onto his head. She worked it through his hair, detangling with her fingers. Then she started to massage his scalp, trying to make up for hurting him before.

Her hands slowly ran over his head, fingers moving in tiny circles, like she used to do for her mother when she complained of headaches. She turned his head to the side and worked on his neck and shoulders. She heard him groan softly.

‘So good,’ he said. ‘You have magic fingers, Andie.’

When he said her name, her stomach flipped. Her hands worked gently, moving behind his ears and then to the top of his scalp and down again.

At what point it stopped being a head massage and turned into something else, Andie didn’t know. She just knew she had become intent on giving James pleasure. His face was blissful, his soft lips uttering small, silent moans. At one point Andie glanced down and noticed the bulge in his shorts. She was at once pleased and a little embarrassed.

Andie felt mesmerised, watching his body as she worked. She started imagining her hands drifting down over his body, down to his shorts, and then slipping inside them …

She loved seeing that he was as turned on as she was. She could feel the tension between them and, for the first time in two years, she felt the irresistible pull of raw sexual energy.

As she walked around to the other side of the basin to work on the opposite side of his head, she imagined him pulling her onto his lap, kissing her. Her mind was feverish with desire.
I’m in a lather while working up a lather
, she thought giddily, and nearly laughed out loud.

She filled up the jug of water again and held it in one hand, the other hand on his head. She knew that by the time the jug was empty, the moment would be gone.