The Girl at the Bus-Stop (23 page)

‘No, sorry,’ he said, ‘I have no idea.’

‘At least have a guess,’ replied Becky, cutting into her sausage.

‘Okay, how about
I’m a Celebrity, Get Me a New Agent
or maybe,
Celebrity Flog It
, or even
All Star Familiar Fetishes.’

‘No, silly,’ snapped Becky, ‘it’s so simple. It’s called
Starstruck
of course.’

Rudge sat poised with a fork full of black pudding and egg yolk raised to his mouth, which he bit into before lowering it back to his plate.

‘That is absolutely brilliant, Becky,’ he said proudly, ‘my goodness, I’m so pleased I fell in love with you.’

‘Are you serious?’ she replied looking shocked, ‘You’re in love with me?’

‘Never more so,’ he replied quietly, ‘but I don’t expect you to be overjoyed at the prospect. After all there is a small matter of a twenty three year age gap, so when I’m eighty you’ll only be fifty seven.’

‘Twenty two years,’ she corrected him, ‘I’m twenty five in a couple of weeks.’

‘So you won’t mind looking after a dribbling old sod like me in a few years’ time then,’ he said.

‘What do you mean in a few years’ time’,
 
she said, ‘look at the state of you now, you’ve got egg yolk running down your chin.’

Rudge wiped his face with his napkin and grinned.

‘Have you told Newman or Jarrold about the sequel yet?’ he said.

‘No, I thought we’d print it off the draft and go through it first.’ Becky replied, ‘It is my first attempt so I’ll need your expertise and editing skills.’

‘Expertise, me?’ he said with a hollow laugh, ‘I’ve been trying to get a book published for the best part of thirty years. If I hadn’t got pissed on homemade raspberry wine, I’d probably still be churning out science-fiction failures in my shed.’

‘After this one gets put to bed perhaps we can take a look at some of your previous attempts,’ she replied, ‘you never know, being published already could open a few doors for your back catalogue.’

‘It’s a nice thought, Becky,’ he replied, ‘but talking of putting things to bed, shall we pay the bill and go home?’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ she said smiling, ‘but what about your daily workout?’

‘I’m looking at her.’

It was after twelve by the time Becky booted Rudge out of bed. He struggled to put on his sports clothes for the gym, and settled for swimming shorts and a towel instead.

‘I’ll just do my lane swimming and then collapse in the sauna,’ he said, ‘I don’t think I can manage anything else today.’

‘Okay, I’ll read through the draft and mark any mistakes or changes with a highlighter pen,’ she replied, sounding very efficient, ‘but don’t rush back, I haven’t read it all the way through yet.
 
Whilst you’re swimming back and forth
 
see if you can think up any good fictional names for our star characters, chapter names as well. ’

Rudge nodded and left the apartment, closing the door gently behind him. Becky had a long shower and flopped on to the sofa in her bathrobe. She started reading the printed manuscript, and after an hour she’d made quite a few marks with the highlighter, scribbling notes in the margins. She’d only covered the first five chapters when the buzzer sounded, and she walked over to the security screen to see who the visitor was.

She saw the Gale Buckingham smiling into the camera.

‘Hi, Gale,’ said Becky, ‘I thought you were in France.’

‘I was, Ms Caine, but I had to pick up a few things from my place. Can we talk?’

Within minutes Gale was inside the apartment, and kissed Becky warmly on both cheeks. She was looking formidable in a black leather overcoat and knee length boots.

‘So good of you to see me, Ms Caine,’ she gushed, ‘I was driving over the bridge in a taxi and stopped on impulse. I just had to see you.’

‘Can I take your coat, Gale?’

‘Oh, would you?’ she said, unbuttoning it slowly.

As Becky helped her off with it saw that Gale was naked underneath.

‘I hope you don’t mind, but my new mistresses have me following their instructions to the letter. I’m naked most of the time now, which I adore of course.’

‘That’s okay,’ said Becky, draping the coat over a dining chair, ‘I don’t suppose anyone will see you all the way up here. Would you like some coffee?’

‘Yes that would be rather nice,’ replied Gale, ‘I could do with warming up. It’s quite chilly walking around Oxford Street in just a coat at this time of year.’

As Becky prepared the coffee, Gale walked around the huge room and looked out at the view of the river. After a few moments she sat down on the sofa, idly thumbing through Becky’s manuscript. Becky walked over with a tray and placed it on the coffee table.

‘I didn’t know how you like it,’ said Becky, ‘so help yourself to milk and sugar.’

Gale was silent, still reading the manuscript intently and didn’t acknowledge her.

‘Ms Caine,’ she said looking up, ‘why is my name in this fucking manuscript? You’ve got me doing all sorts of naughty things in chapter one.’

‘It’s just a draft, Gale. You see I haven’t got around to changing the name...’

‘This is monstrous,’ Gale interrupted, ‘how dare you put me in your filthy book.’

‘Calm down, Gale,’ replied Becky, ‘it’s nothing to worry about.’

Gale stood up and threw the document at her, and retrieved her handbag from the dining chair.

‘Nothing to worry about, you say?’ she said almost tearfully, ‘Do you know the implications this could have on my career? I’ve got the part as the cook in that new television series, and it’ll be going out at peak time on Sunday evenings. How will it look to the producers if they read about me scissoring a stripper in a nightclub? ’

‘It’s no big deal, Gale, honestly, I can ...’

‘No big deal? You’ve got the names of just about every celebrity who was at the party as your chapter titles.’

‘That was just to help me sort out who did what to whom,’ Becky replied, ‘I was going to change the ....’

‘Alright, how much do you want?’ Gale interrupted, delving into her handbag, ‘Luckily I’ve got my cheque book with me, or do you prefer cash?’

Becky stood up and walked over to her, clutching the manuscript.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gale.’

‘I want my name out of it immediately.’ she shrieked, ‘Is the master copy on that computer?’

‘Yes, why?’

She grabbed Becky’s arm and dragged her over to the table, forcing her to sit down.

‘You can have your pound of flesh, Ms Caine, but my name comes out of it. And I want the paper copy of chapter one.’

Becky opened the file on the laptop and performed a search on ‘Gale Buckingham’ and ‘Gale’ and replaced the name.

‘There you go, it’s been changed to Jane Smith,’ she said, ‘happy now?’

‘How on earth did you find out my fucking real name?’ replied Gale, astounded.

‘I didn’t,’ said Becky, ‘but I’ll change it again.’

She went through the find and replace process, and Gale put her hand on Becky’s to stop her.

‘Put Hayley Rockingham,’ she suggested.

‘That sounds too much like Gale Buckingham,’ said Becky.

‘I don’t mind,’ replied Gale, ‘it’s not actually my name, but people may think it’s me.’

Gale grabbed Becky’s pen and hastily scrawled out a cheque.

‘I don’t understand, Gale.’

‘Do I appear anywhere else in this filth apart from chapter one?’ she asked.

 
‘No, but I was going to change the name...’

‘Pity, here, take this,’ Gale said, handing her the cheque.

Becky’s eyes lit up when she read the amount on the cheque, and immediately handed it back.

‘I don’t want your money, Gale,’ she said, ‘I keep trying to tell you I was going to change the names anyway.’

‘Well it’s done now,’ she replied with a smile, ‘now hand me that manuscript, I want to take chapter one with me.
 
I’d better warn all the others on the chapter list as well.’

‘You’re not having my names, they’re confidential.’

‘I’m an actress, Ms Caine, with a photographic memory,’ Gale replied pompously, ‘I can remember everyone on your list of chapters, and most of them are good friends of mine.’

‘Look, Gale, it’s just a draft manuscript I’m working on. I’ve got no intention of publishing it as it is.’

‘So you say, Ms Caine, but I want it. I can’t very well trust you to shred it, so I’m taking my chapter with me.’ she replied, ‘You know for someone who is new to show business it didn’t take you long to learn to hit below the belt. ’

‘Here, take your cheque, Gale, I don’t want it.’

‘No, you keep it. I want to see that money out of my account as soon as possible,’ she replied, ‘it’s the only way I’m going to sleep at night, knowing that I’ve bought you off.’

‘I won’t pay it in, in fact I’ll rip it up if you like,’ said Becky, holding the cheque between her fingers.

‘You can set fire to it for all I care, Ms Caine. I’ll just transfer the money into your bank account via your accountants. It’s Isaac Allen and Partners isn’t it? My husband uses them.’

Becky tried to force the cheque into Gale’s hand, but she refused to take it. They struggled with each other for a few moments, the cheque becoming screwed up into a ball.

‘I don’t want your money, Gale,’ said Becky, ‘take it back.’

‘No, I want you to have it.’

Gale pushed Becky away, grabbing at the back her bathrobe.
 
The garment came undone, and as Becky fell forwards on to the sofa, it came off completely. The now naked Becky got up again and made a lunge at Gale, still trying to force the cheque into her hand. This time it was Gale who fell on to the sofa, and Becky landed on top of her. After several minutes of struggling, they both stopped to catch their breaths, and looked towards the door to the apartment.