‘Go back to bed. It’s fine.’
Usually she would have let Maha answer the door, but she was curious to know what was making Josh so agitated. Wrapping herself in her silk robe, she padded downstairs and let him in.
‘This better be good,’ she said, retreating into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and poured herself a glass of Maha’s freshly squeezed orange juice. She didn’t offer Josh any. ‘Well? What’s so bloody important?’
Josh looked terrible. Two grey crescents hung under his eyes. There was a stain on the front of the blue shirt that was brand new the night before. He looked like a tramp. If your sponsors could see you now, thought Sasha, taking a sip of her juice.
‘I’m in deep shit, Sash,’ he said. ‘There was a situation at the party. The police want me to go to the station.’
‘What sort of situation?’
‘I think the News of the World is going to call it a roasting.’
‘Roasting?’ said Sasha. ‘You mean a rape?’
‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘She was up for it.’
Sasha put her glass down on the distressed oak table and walked back to the door. She put her hand on the lock.
‘Out,’ she said.
‘Sasha, please . . .’ he began.
‘Get out of my house!’ she shouted.
Josh came over to her. ‘Hear me out, Sasha, please. It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t involved.’
She saw the desperation in his eyes. He really was scared. It couldn’t hurt to hear what he had to say; she could always call Maha down with her torch.
‘All right, start talking,’ she said, sitting down at the table and crossing her arms.
‘After you’d gone, I stayed in that room,’ he said, his voice trembling. ‘Steve went off, but there were those footballers . . .’
‘And those sluts,’ said Sasha.
Josh looked down and nodded. ‘We had some champagne, a bit of coke. We were all out of it.’
‘Then . . .’
His face looked pale in the dark of the kitchen. ‘Then it all started getting a bit playful. That girl you saw, Louise? She stripped off and Martin started having sex with her on the bed. When he finished, his friend Wayne took over. Then Gary joined in . . .’
‘And was the girl still up for it?’ she said with sarcasm.
He looked away once more and fell silent.
‘And what were you doing at this point?’ she said.
‘I left.’
‘You left,’ she repeated, letting it hang in the air. ‘So why do you look as if you’re stepping up to the executioner’s block if you’re so completely innocent?’
He was looking increasingly uncomfortable under Sasha’s direct gaze.
‘When she took her top off, I felt her tits. I mean, she asked me to! She wanted to prove they were real. I just jiggled them for a second. We were just having a laugh.’
‘Hilarious, yes,’ said Sasha.
‘Listen, I’m in trouble, Sash,’ he said, his eyes pleading.‘It was dark in that room and the girl was out of her head. She didn’t know who fucked her and who didn’t. But I swear to you, I didn’t do anything.’