‘Like I said, to have a drink with Kayley. She’s my new pal. I need her advice.’
‘I’ll leave you to it then,’ said Jenna, stalking back into the drawing room. ‘But you’re leaving in ten minutes max.’
Jason, after giving Deano a stare that contained daggers, clubs and shotguns for good measure, followed her.
‘Well, thank you very much,’ said Kayley dully. ‘There goes my job.’
‘Don’t be like that. Where can we go to talk in private?’
‘I don’t want to talk to you.’ She sat down on a chair set into an alcove and buried her face in her hands.
Deano stood, almost awkwardly despite his rock star poise, fidgeting with the ends of his fringed scarf.
>
‘Do you know what?’ he said, quite softly. ‘I can’t remember the last time a girl spoke to me like that. Well, apart from Jenna. I wouldn’t take it from just anyone. I mean, hanging up on me, for Christ’s sake! Nobody ever does that to me.’
‘I guess that’s why you’re such a berk,’ said Kayley, raising her face to give him an uncompromising glare. ‘I get why Jenna left you now. Never understood it before.’
‘Didn’t you?’ said Deano, apparently deaf to the insult she’d just shot at him.
‘No. Well, you know. Little people like me never understand, do we? How could anyone cheat on Cheryl Cole? How could anyone dump Johnny Depp? You don’t understand it, when you’re outside it. But now I’ve got to know Jenna, and I’ve seen what a selfish, inconsiderate prick you can be, it’s much easier to get my head round it.’
She watched Deano take a deep breath and look away from her, towards the drawing room door. For a moment, she’d wondered if he might hit her, or at least deal a vituperative tongue-lashing. But he didn’t. He steadied himself, then looked back at her.
‘Ouch,’ he said, with such wounded dignity she almost laughed. ‘You know, if I didn’t like you so much …’
‘Oh, get off. You don’t like me. I’m a means to an end. And Jenna’s the end.’
‘Yeah, she pretty much is, isn’t she?’ He gave her a weak smile. ‘At least, as far as it goes between me and her. I get that she hates me right now, but you know her, Kayl. She’s worth fighting for, isn’t she?’
Kayley nodded, slowly, feeling a leaden weight right under her ribcage.
Yes, she was being used. And yes, she would let Deano use her again. He was a jerk and a twat and a bastard, but something in his silvery, soulful eyes had her right against the wall.
But it was Jenna he wanted, pinned there, crushed against him, not her.
‘Give up, though,’ she said. ‘She loves Jason. They’re happy.’
Deano waved his hand. ‘A nine-day wonder,’ he said. ‘An infatuation. Me and her, we’ve got so much history. Years and years. We grew up together. We’re part of each other. That has to count for something, right?’
‘Look,’ said Kayley. ‘I was really close, back then, to getting her to agree to do your film. She was going to think about it. I think she’d have done it. But she won’t now. You’ve really pissed her off. Again.’
‘Were you really? Do you think she’d have done it?’
‘Even Jason thought she should.’
‘Shit. Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you say?’
‘You didn’t give me the chance!’
Deano got up to pace, his hand over his mouth.
‘So you think I’ve blown it with Jenna?’ he said after a while.
‘Yeah. For both of us.’
‘What am I going to do, Kayley?’