Paradise (35 page)

‘Hey, shall I get you a drink?’

‘God, yes,’ Angel replied, sitting down at the small table. ‘I’ll have a double vodka and Coke. I reckon I need it.’

While Gemma nipped to the bar, Angel checked her mobile. There was another voice mail message from Cal, which she didn’t feel strong enough to listen to. She felt she had made a mess of everything, and couldn’t face hearing him explain again why he hadn’t told Madeleine. She pressed Delete and shoved the phone back in her bag.

‘So, how are you?’ Gemma asked, sitting back down.

Angel took a large sip of her drink before replying, ‘I don’t know, Gem, I feel all over the place. I hate that I hurt Ethan like that.’

‘You had to do it. I mean, maybe not at the actual wedding, but better then than two months down the line. Ethan will see that one day.’

‘Yeah, right, I’m sure he’ll ask me to his wedding, and to be godmother to his next child.’ Angel hid behind sarcasm.

Gemma shrugged. ‘And what about Cal? Have you spoken to him?’

Angel shook her head, ‘I can’t even bring myself to listen to his messages! I don’t know what to tell him. I can’t bear to know that he’s still with Madeleine. I need some space. I just want to be a good mum to Honey, and to get back into my work. Maybe I shouldn’t be with anyone for a while.’

‘Some space would be good for you, but I think you and Cal are meant to be together.’ Gemma smiled. ‘I think everything will be okay, Angel.’

Oh, God, Angel could not bear to talk about it any more! ‘I don’t know, Gem. But, please, can we change the subject? It’s doing my head in!’

Thankfully Gemma obliged by updating Angel on the latest gossip from the salon, and where she and Tony were planning to go on holiday – all a welcome change for Angel who was absolutely sick of thinking about herself. Towards the end of the night she remembered what Simone had said about her in the newspaper and filled Gemma in.

‘God! I wish I’d never been nice to her!’ Gemma exclaimed. ‘I really believed the act she put on about being a changed woman. I can’t believe I fell for it.’

‘Yeah, well, Simone’s obviously a better actress than
any of us gave her credit for. I just wish she would keep away from Ethan, the last thing he needs is to have Simone bitch-face Fraser in his life.’

‘Simone two-faced-bitch Fraser,’ Gemma replied. ‘Well, at least now she’s shown her true colours, none of us will ever have to pretend to be nice to her again.’ She fiddled with her charm bracelet, and looked regretfully at the platinum diamond horse shoe. ‘Now I really will have to sell it on eBay!’

‘I’ll buy you another one, babe, or something else to make up for it.’

The landlady called last orders from behind the bar. ‘I guess I’d better get home,’ Angel said. ‘Dad’s going to be pissed off with me when he finds out I’ve left the car in town. I’m going to have to take a taxi back.’

Angel woke up with a slight hangover the following morning, but on the whole felt in much better spirits. She still felt a searing sense of shame every time she thought about Ethan and telling him the wedding was off, but that was counter-balanced by the knowledge that she had done the right thing, and by her optimism about being back in England surrounded by her friends and family. And today she could move back into her own house. It would be a fresh start.

She spent most of the day sorting out dates for shoots with Susie, who seemed to have recovered from her heartbreak over Benny. She had recently begun a passionate affair with her Cuban decorator, twenty-three-year-old Eduardo. ‘He tells me he loves older women,’ she announced.

Especially ones with money, Angel thought, but didn’t voice it.

‘And I’m thinking if a younger man is good enough for Madonna, it’s good enough for me. I realise now
that young men are so much more open to new experiences. And that’s what I want as well.’

Great. Just please don’t give me any details, Angel thought.

‘So how do you feel about doing an interview about what happened? I know it may all seem raw, but it would be a good way of putting your side across. I saw what Ethan said about you and several of the tabloids here have picked it up. They’ve made you look a bit of a heartless bitch.’

Usually Susie would have been on the phone to Angel the minute she sensed a story, but hadn’t hassled her straight after she’d left Ethan, which Angel had appreciated. Perhaps Susie had changed for the better.

‘Yeah, I think I should do it. At least it will get the paps off my back.’

Angel peeked out of her bedroom window, down at the street below which was still heaving with photographers. The call ended with Susie promising to fix up the interview for the next couple of days. Angel was just about to say goodbye when Susie said, ‘Have you heard from Cal?’

‘No, as far as I know he’s with Madeleine.’

‘You did the right thing, Angel. He was lovely but Ethan wasn’t the one for you, even I could see it, besotted as I was with that jerk Benny. You’re a one-man woman. It’s always been Cal for you, and I think it always will be. Why don’t you call him?’

Blimey. Relationship advice from Susie? Angel must be in a bad situation! ‘I think I need space right now, but thanks, Susie.’

It was a glorious evening in June when Michelle and Frank drove Angel and Honey to her house in a small village ten miles outside Brighton. The police had been called earlier to clear the paps from outside the
Brighton house as neighbours had complained that they were blocking the road and pavement. Angel and her parents were able to get into their car without being pursued.

Angel’s home was along a narrow private lane lined with trees. She felt a pang of longing for Cal when she finally saw the Edwardian mansion through a gap in the trees. It was strange going back there without him. Inside the house, the managing agents had been busy putting all the pictures back on the walls and getting the furniture out of storage. Her parents stayed a while to have something to eat. Angel didn’t want Frank overdoing it, and even though her mum and dad said they would stay longer, she promised them she would be fine. In fact, she was looking forward to having some time on her own, the first in what seemed like a very long time.

She gave Honey her bath and read her a story, then wandered round the house. As it was still light, she went outside and for a while sat on the terrace, sipping a glass of chilled white wine and looking out at the grounds, and the green fields beyond where she could see her two horses. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the entry phone rang.

It must be the press, she thought grimly, marching over to the screen inside to check, intending to give whoever it was a piece of her mind. But she was stunned when she saw it was Cal who was standing by the gate. Angel’s stomach felt as if she had just dropped ten floors in an elevator.

‘I’ve come straight from the airport to see you, can I come in?’ he said.

She couldn’t even answer but pressed the button to open the gate. Then she went and waited in the living room, needing time to collect her thoughts. A few minutes later she was gazing at Cal as he stood in
the doorway. Looking back, Angel was never exactly sure what happened next. Whether she had run to Cal or him to her, but without saying anything they rushed into an embrace, kissing each other with urgent, passionate kisses. Angel forgot all about her resolve to be on her own. All her talk of wanting her own space crumbled away as she felt Cal’s lips upon hers. ‘Oh, God, Angel, I thought I’d lost you,’ he murmured.

‘No, never.’ And then they were pulling at each other’s clothes, with a desperate need to possess each other. They fell on to the sofa. Angel gave up trying to unbutton Cal’s shirt and ripped it open. She reached down and unbuttoned his jeans, wanting to feel his hardness, wanting to feel him inside her and to know that he belonged to her and that she belonged to him. Cal pulled her lace knickers to one side and thrust inside her. And with every thrust it was as if they were moving away from the past, starting again with this intense fuck.

Afterwards they lay entwined in each other’s arms. ‘Did you listen to any of my messages or read any of my texts?’ he said finally.

‘I didn’t.’ Now Angel raised her head. What Cal said next would decide everything.

He shook his head. ‘If you had then you would know that I ended things with Madeleine the day you were supposed to get married. I knew that even if you married Ethan and were lost to me, I couldn’t be with her. Not for her sake, and not for the sake of the baby.’

‘We’ve made such a mess, haven’t we?’ Angel replied.

‘We have, but it’s behind us now. We can be together, if that’s what you want? You’re all I want; all I’ve ever wanted.’

Cal gazed at her and Angel gently laid her hand on
his chest, over his heart, and said softly, ‘“I carry your heart with me.”’

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ he replied, and kissed her once more.

‘Hair up or down?’ Jez asked Angel as he and Gemma got her ready for her shoot. They were installed in Angel’s bedroom, in front of her large dressing-table mirror, and it felt just like old times between the three of them as they drank coffee, gossiped and listened to music. Jez had been very nearly driving Angel and Gemma mad with his impression of Lady GaGa singing ‘Paparazzi’.

‘Don’t mention the fucking paps to me!’ Angel had told him, but Jez was carried away and it was only when she pointed out that the shoot was in twenty minutes and her hair looked shit that he snapped out of it.

‘Down, I think, and give it that beachy, sun-kissed look,’ Angel replied. She had already done the interview about her break-up with Ethan, saying how sorry she was that she had treated him so badly, and that she wished him well. When the journalist pressed her about Cal, Angel just said that was something she wasn’t prepared to talk about. She and Cal had decided they would say nothing about their relationship, though of course the press knew as he had moved back into the house and they had been photographed together when they were out in Brighton.

Madeleine was staying on in New York and so far hadn’t said anything about breaking up with Cal. Maybe she was hoping that he would change his mind. Cal assured Angel that he wouldn’t, though obviously there were going to have to be some complicated custody arrangements when the baby was born as he wanted to be able to see his child.

As Jez got to work on her hair, Angel flipped through
the
Mirror
and came across a photograph of Ethan, his arm round a stunningly beautiful woman, tall and slim with long honey-coloured hair and dark brown eyes. She looked a little like the gorgeous model Bar Rafaeli, who had dated Leonardo Di Caprio. ‘
Ethan
Gets
Over
Heartbreak
With
Model
’ was the headline, and Angel went on to read how he had gone on several dates with Kayla White, winner of
America’s
Next
Top
Model
. Jez looked over her shoulder. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’ he asked.

‘Of course not! I can honestly say that one hundred per cent. He’s a lovely guy. I want him to be happy.’

‘There’s someone here who’s not so happy,’ Gemma commented. She had been sitting cross-legged on the carpet, drinking a latte and flicking through various celeb mags. She held up
heat
and Angel saw a picture of Simone hurrying through Heathrow airport, huge shades clamped on her face along with a sulky pout, wearing black skinny jeans and a black blazer, a hot pink Hermès Birkin bag dangling from one arm, a large silver cuff on her other wrist, obscuring the tattoo with Matthew’s name. The headline above it read: ‘
The
Wedding’s
Off
’.

‘Wow! How come?’ Angel couldn’t help wanting to know, in spite of loathing Simone. Or maybe it was because of loathing her.

Gemma scanned the article. ‘It just says that Matthew realises he’s too young to settle down yet and that he wants to concentrate on his baseball career.’ She paused. ‘He must have discovered what an über-bitch she is. Mind you, she’ll be okay financially for a while as that bag she’s got over her arm is worth loads. It must have been a present from Matthew before he dumped her.’

‘It’s gonna hurt getting that tattoo lasered off her
wrist, though, isn’t it?’ Jez put in. ‘Or she’ll have to hope that big cuffs stay in fashion.’

‘I wish she was staying in the States, I don’t ever want to see her again.’ Angel said.

‘Me neither,’ replied Jez, while Gemma made the sign of the cross as if warding off a vampire and said, ‘That reminds me, I must unfriend the witch from Facebook.’

Then Stewart, the photographer, arrived and it was time to get on with the shoot. Luckily he was someone Angel had worked with a lot in the past and it was fun taking the pictures in her living room and outside in the grounds. Everything suddenly seemed to be going so well for her, even the sun was shining. Cal had taken Honey out for the day and the plan was that he would drop her off at Angel’s parents and then meet Angel and the gang at Havana, a restaurant in Brighton, for cocktails then dinner.

Angel, Jez and Gemma arrived at the restaurant first and quickly got into chill out mode by ordering frozen Margaritas. When Cal walked in, followed by Rufus and Tony, Angel actually had butterflies at seeing him, as if they were new lovers again. He kissed her and sat down next to her. ‘Hi, I missed you today,’ he whispered, while the others were caught up in ordering more drinks.

‘I missed you too,’ Angel told him, and kissed him again. Until Gemma called out jokingly, ‘Oi! Get a room, you two!’

As they chatted and joked easily over dinner, it was as if Angel and Cal had never been apart. Everything felt right, just as it should be. A table at the far side of the restaurant burst into a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’, causing Angel to look over. A group of women were holding up glasses of champagne.

‘I don’t believe it!’ Gemma exclaimed. ‘That’s Simone’s sister over there.’

‘You can’t see bitch-face, can you?’ Angel asked. That would seriously take the shine off her perfect day.

‘No,’ Gemma replied, but then the brunette with her back to them turned round. It was Simone, back to her natural hair colour. She looked right over at them, and if looks could kill Angel and her entire tableful of friends would have been wiped out.