by Mel Sparke
The lads reached Cat in seconds and got ready to haul her on to her feet.
“Wait!” yelled Vikki. “It might be better not to move her. Cat! Where does it hurt?”
Little cries were heard from the ground as Cat gingerly moved her upper body to the left then stopped.
“What is it, Cat?” Matt demanded. “What have you done?”
“I think it’s my chest!” sobbed Cat. Tentatively, she felt under her stomach and grasped at something between her and the ground.
“Oh, no, I don’t believe it!” she wailed again. “I thought I felt something snap… I’ve only gone and broken the heel off my sandal!”
“It’s a shame Anna couldn’t come today,” Ollie observed to Matt as they sat on the grass by the river, munching sandwiches and watching Gabrielle and her friend Sasha throwing chunks of bread at the disinterested ducks.
“Yeah, but to be honest she’s acting so weird at the moment I think she’s better off staying in Winstead,” came the glum reply.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, she’s done nothing but snap at me since she got back from her mum’s,” Matt complained. “I only have to say hello and she’s biting my head off. She’s driving me nuts.”
“Oh.” Ollie wasn’t in the least bit surprised to hear this version of events from Matt. He’d already had a blow by blow account of Anna’s side of the story via Kerry after she’d caught up with Anna in the loos on Thursday night. He wondered how to point out to Matt how insensitive he was being without being too heavy-handed. As far as Ollie knew, Matt was only being friendly to Gabrielle, after all.
“So, uh… have you got any idea why she might be acting like this?” he asked, treading carefully.
“Nope. Not the foggiest. I keep putting it down to girl stuff - you know how they can get all irrational and unreasonable at certain times of the month? Well, I keep thinking maybe it’s that…”
Ollie shook his head and wondered in amazement at Matt’s inability to see something that was staring him in the face. “So, you don’t think it might have anything to do with Gabrielle being back on the scene then?” he asked.
Matt turned to his friend, genuinely puzzled. “Huh? What do you mean? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Come on, Matt, be reasonable. You can’t blame Anna if she feels a bit insecure having your ex-girlfriend around so much at the moment. It’d be enough to make anyone jittery.”
“Is that what this is about then?” Matt demanded.
“I dunno, mate, I’m just guessing,” lied Ollie. “I mean, you and Gabrielle have kind of hit it off again, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but I’m only being friendly. Just because I talk to her doesn’t mean I want to go out with her again.”
“You know that, but does Anna?”
“‘Course she does. She knows how solid we are.”
“Does she, Matt? Have you told her recently - like since Gabrielle started work at the café?”
Matt flopped back on to the grass, stared up into the bright blue sky and began thinking…
“Wow, you sure can eat!” Vikki watched approvingly as Natasha tucked into yet another packet of Hula Hoops. “I thought all you models lived on fresh air.”
“Not really,” Natasha giggled. “I have to eat a balanced diet or I wouldn’t have the energy to work the long hours I put in when I’m on a shoot. Let’s just say that today my diet is less well-balanced than usual.” A bit like me, she couldn’t help adding silently to herself. She stole a glance at Ollie, but he seemed to be deep in conversation with Joe, Meg and Andy.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to put on a bit of weight,” clucked Vikki. Turning to Sonja she carried on, “Didn’t Cat tell me you tried your hand at modelling once, Son?”
“Yeah, sort of,” Sonja replied, wincing at the memory of the experience. “I think it’s fair to say I got disillusioned very quickly.”
“Just as well. Much better to get disillusioned early, than get sucked in,” spat Natasha suddenly. “There are some real slime balls…”
“What, like coming on to you all the time?” asked Cat.
“Much worse than that!” snarled Natasha. Then, realising she was saying more than she’d intended, she changed tack. “To be honest, I don’t want to talk about it. But you were wise to get out when you did, Sonja. Sometimes, modelling’s just not what it’s cracked up to be.”
Glancing over to Ollie again, she saw that he was staring straight at her and, from the frown on his face, it was obvious he’d heard every word she’d just said.
CHAPTER 19
THE TRUTH AT LAST
“Which idiot said this was a short cut back to the train station?” Sonja wailed, stopping to scratch her bare legs as she picked her way over yet another long-grassed and unbearably itchy hillock.
From a little way ahead, Matt called back, “It is, I’m sure. I used to come on trips around here when I was a kid.”
“Whose stupid idea was it to go on a three-hour hike through the middle of the wretched countryside after our picnic anyway?” said Vikki menacingly.
“Isn’t there somewhere we can get a cab?” a muddy and grass-stained Cat piped up helpfully. “I don’t think I can walk much further in a shoe with only one heel.”
“Cat,” Joe explained patiently, “look around you. We’re surrounded by fields. Cabs don’t tend to come through fields looking for fares.”
“What I meant was that if someone knew a cab company I’d call them on my mobile. That’s all,” Cat barked huffily.
“God, I could murder a pint,” said Andy. “We never did go in that pub, did we, Billy?”
When he got no reply, Andy turned around to see Billy sauntering confidently next to Gabrielle and her friend Sasha, an engaging smile on his face. He looks like he’s hanging on to every word Gabrielle’s saying, Andy thought to himself.
As if sensing he was being watched, Billy looked up, saw his friend grinning at him and gave him the thumbs up.
Ollie kept Natasha deliberately to the back of the group, determined to tackle her about what she’d been saying to Sonja and Vikki earlier.
“So, what was behind that outburst?” he asked, when no one else was listening.
“What, the mini rant during the picnic?” Natasha wrinkled her nose, slightly shamefaced.
“Uh-huh.”
“Hmm, I guess that was me loosening up a bit and saying what I really feel.”
She turned to her brother and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You know, I’ve had a great time with you guys this weekend. It’s been a blast. I was beginning to forget what normality was, I was getting so bound up in the weirdness going on over there.”
“By over there I take it you mean Milan?”
“Yeah.”
“So is there more you haven’t been telling me?” he pushed gently.
“Er, yeah…”
“Go on…”
Natasha cleared her throat and stuck her hands deep into the pockets of her shorts. “Well, you remember that night when I rang you the first time and I was really miserable…?
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, I’d just had a row with that girl - the one I was telling you about. I’d found out she’d been sleeping with clients and I was so mad at her. I said she was stupid, that she was a prostitute…”
“Which didn’t go down too well, I guess,” Ollie observed.
“Yeah, well then she admitted she was being paid by guys to sleep with them and that was the only way she could earn any money. Then she went on to tell me that it wouldn’t be long before I’d be doing the same thing, that the agency out there expected it of their models, and that I’d have no choice if I wanted to keep on working…”
“Are you kidding?” Ollie was amazed.
Natasha shook her head. “At first I thought she was being a bitch, but then I got to thinking about it and remembered that I had heard a few rumours flying around since I’d been out there. And I realised that t
here might be something in what she said and I got scared. That’s when I rang you.”
“Oh, I see,” Ollie nodded. “But then the next time I spoke to you, you were having a great time. What changed?”
“Nothing,” Natasha snorted. “I was just being stupid and naive, trying to pretend everything was fine.”
“Huh?”
“Well, you rang just as I was about to go to a party, right? And I was going on about a dead important client wanting to meet me. Well, off I went to this party with my boss, and when I got there I found out it wasn’t a launch party at all, but a cosy dinner in a posh hotel my booker had arranged for him, his biggest client, me and another model.”
“Go on…”
“So, after the dinner, it emerged that they’d booked a couple of rooms and I was expected to spend the night with this client…”
“Oh, God, Natasha! Seriously?” Ollie looked horrified.
Natasha nodded.
“So what did you do?”
“Told my boss to get lost, of course.”
“And what happened then?”
“He offered me money. And I mean lots of money. And when I still refused, he came down all heavy on me. Said it was expected, that the contract depended on it, that all his girls did it, and what made me think I was so special…”
“Oh, Tash, that’s awful.”
“But then it got worse…”
Ollie could see that talking like this was beginning to upset his sister. As she walked ever more slowly, cutting them off from the others, he could see the tears gathering behind her sunglasses. Sniffing, she wiped her nose with her hand, cleared her throat and continued.
“I left the hotel and took a cab home. I didn’t sleep at all that night. Then the following morning my booker rang me at the flat and gave me an ultimatum. He pointed out that he controlled me and my future. And I could do one of two things - comply and continue to make a good living as a model, with this kind of thing on the side. Or refuse and lose everything…”
“I can’t believe it. How does he think he can get away with it?”
“I don’t know, Ol, but he must be pretty sure or he wouldn’t try, would he. So anyway, I put the phone down and that’s when I rang you again. I was in such a state and so confused, I didn’t know what to do.”
“That was the day you were supposed to be going to a shoot and then to another party…”
“Yeah, well, I went to the shoot and got a rollocking for looking dreadful. And while I was being made up, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth it, that I was completely miserable, and that I wanted out. So I cleared my stuff out of the flat straight after the shoot and hopped on the first flight home.”
“It’s all so seedy,” fumed Ollie. “Will you go to the police?”
“I don’t know, Ol. If it’s just this guy, then maybe there’d be a chance. But if it’s the agency - what’s the point? It’s too big. Unless I could get the backing of all the other girls it’s happening to - which is unlikely, especially if they’ve got used to the extra money - who’re the police going to believe? Me or this powerful booker surrounded by expensive lawyers and henchmen? I wouldn’t have a hope.”
Ollie scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It just seems so unfair…”
“It is. So I figure I have to do what’s right for me. And being back at home for a few days has made everything seem a whole lot clearer.”
“Well, so long as it’s given you some time to decide what you’re going to do next…”
“I already have, Ol. I’m not going back to Milan. I’m not even sure that I want to be a model any more…”
CHAPTER 20
MATT SAYS IT WITH FLOWERS
“Matt! What on earth are you doing here?”
Anna was taken off guard by the sight of her boyfriend sitting on the bottom step of her stairs at 7.30 in the morning.
“I just wanted to catch you before you went to work…” Matt said, standing up and presenting her with a bunch of dew-covered roses. “I picked them from our garden first thing this morning - Cat’s mum’ll kill me if she finds out. She’s only just had them planted.”
“What are they for?” Anna asked, resisting the temptation to take them from him.
“They’re to say sorry. For being an insensitive, unfeeling berk of a boyfriend.” He thrust the flowers under her nose. “Smell them, they’re gorgeous.”
The fragrant scent of the roses wafted up Anna’s nostrils. They were lovely - but they weren’t enough.
“Did Gabrielle turn you down then?” she said bitterly.
“Pardon?”
“Your little plan to get cosy with Gabrielle yesterday - didn’t it go as well as you thought?”
“Anna, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m not interested in Gabrielle…”
Anna cut him off by laughing with derision. “You could have fooled me,” she shot back. “For all the time you’ve spent with her this week, I’d say you were more than interested.”
“I was just being friendly,” Matt wailed, not for the first time in the last twenty-four hours.
“It didn’t look like that from where I was standing,” snapped Anna. “Every time you came into the End - which was a lot - you latched on to her for a chat and a giggle. And she was all over you, too. It was pathetic to watch, it really was.”
Matt sighed. “I realise now how it must have looked,” he explained, “but do you honestly think I’d rub your nose in it by chatting someone up right in front of you? I was friendly because I didn’t want her to think I was bearing any grudges and because you’d insisted you were cool about having her work there. I thought you didn’t mind…”
“Well, I did,” said Anna softly. “And I thought you wanted her back.”
“Well, the thing is this,” Matt continued, “I feel so sure about us, and thought you did too, that I never saw it from your point of view. Which is why I’m an insensitive berk and anything else you’d care to call me. Please take the flowers…”
Anna was thawing. Everything Matt said was making sense, she supposed… he could be hugely insensitive at times, and it was perfectly feasible he was only being nice to Gabrielle. But there was something else bugging her.
“So why did you invite her to go with you to the picnic, especially when you knew I couldn’t come?” she asked.
“Because I knew Billy wanted her to go - though I couldn’t tell her that. And anyway, she brought a friend with her. He spent most of the afternoon and evening chatting them up - though it’s Gabrielle he’s after. He made that very clear.”
Anna’s face broke into an involuntary smile. “Did he?”
“Yeah, and I think she quite enjoyed it - dunno what her friend thought,” Matt said, offering the flowers once more.
This time Anna took them, burying her nose in them and breathing deeply. “They are lovely,” she said.
“So are you,” Matt added, drawing her a little closer to him so he could nuzzle his head into her neck. “Are we OK again?”
“Of course,” she said, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of having him near. “I’d better go. I’ll be late opening up at this rate…”
“OK, but I’ll see you later, won’t I?”
“Yeah, pop in. I promise I won’t throw a wobbly if Gabrielle gets to you first.”
Kissing her on the lips, Matt turned round and headed off back home, while Anna got out her keys for the café and began opening up.
Gabrielle turned up before Anna had even got inside the building.
“Oh, Anna, the roses, they’re lovely,” she said, putting her face closer and breathing in the heady scent. “From Matt? - I just bumped into him in the passageway.”
Anna nodded and smiled.
“That’s lovely of him. You know—” she broke off and began twirling one of the beads she had in her hair for a moment. ”—I think I’ve been a bit of a prat.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well,” Gabrielle began, “I was
worrying so much about how Matt would react to having me working here that I never thought about him moving on… You two are going out together, aren’t you? I’ve been so blind. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I just… I didn’t want to make a big thing about it. Y’know, like staking my claim for him…” Anna shrugged, flushing slightly.
Gabrielle giggled. “I suppose not. But… well, I think it’s really cool.”
“Thanks, that’s really nice. So… how was yesterday?”
“The picnic? It was a great laugh - it’s a shame you missed it.”
“I know. I hear Billy took a fancy to you…”
Gabrielle looked away shyly. “Er, yeah, he’s nice,” she said.
“That’s great.”
Gabrielle giggled. “Yeah, I really like him.”
I think we might be seeing you around a lot more in the future, Gabrielle, Anna thought. And d’you know what? That’s fine by me.
CHAPTER 21
MOVING ON
Like a contented cat, Maya stretched out on her bed and gave a big yawn. It was nice to be back home, she thought. Holidays were great too - and this one hadn’t been nearly as bad as it could have been - but there was something about the familiarity of home that made her miss it the whole time she was away.
Even better when she was alone in the house. Her parents had gone to stock up at Sainsbury’s, taking Ravi and Sunny with them, and Maya had promised to finish unpacking the last suitcase and have a bit of a tidy up. Having done that, she was now chilling out in her room until they returned.
The sound of the telephone ringing brought her thoughts up to speed and she made a dash down the stairs for it, even though she knew it would probably be for one of her parents and likely to be work related.
She was taken aback when she heard Alex McKay’s deep, Scottish tones on the line.
“Uh… hi,” she said, a little uncertainly.
“How was your holiday?”
“Oh, well actually, I really enjoyed it. Apart from having to put up with sharing a room with Sunny for ten days, the rest of it was great. Lots of sun, lots of tours, you know…”
