Surreal wasn’t the word. Here was Lucy, explaining to her mum and sister why she hadn’t slept with one of the world’s most famous men.
‘I’d had so much to drink – I was on a bit of a mission – and somehow, when I was kissing Kirk and my eyes were closed, I… well, I got a fright when I opened them and didn’t see Hartley’s face. It freaked me out a bit.’ Lucy paused and laughed. ‘God, now I say it out loud I feel a bit stupid. Kirk Kelner.’
‘Completely understandable, Lucy. It’s not that long since you split up with Hartley. But Kirk – he is such a dish.’
‘Dish? That’s so 1980s, Mum.’ Max laughed.
‘Hey, Mum, you’re being pretty cool about all this,’ Lucy said.
‘What’s there not to be cool about?’ Marj asked, matter-of-factly. ‘For starters, you don’t suddenly lose your sense of humour when you turn fifty. Secondly, Hartley is bound to see what he’s missing when he reads how you attracted the attentions of Kirk Kelner.’
‘Or, given Kirk’s reputation with the ladies, he’ll think I’m just another notch on his bedpost,’ Lucy offered. Thoughts of Hartley had been the main reason she hadn’t slept with Kirk. But thoughts of all those stories – the nanny and the kiss-and-tell girl among them – hadn’t been far from her mind either. He had made her feel special, but maybe he excelled at making all the girls feel like that.
‘True, darling,’ Marj replied. ‘I bet he’s used to girls being rather, shall we say, accommodating?’
‘Or,’ Lucy added, ‘Hartley could just think I’m a millionaire-chaser. That’s how I’m portrayed in the paper.’
Lucy hadn’t mentioned her encounter with Philippa Bonner a few days ago. She had been standing behind her in the queue at Starbucks. Lucy had tapped her shoulder and said hello.
Philippa had looked back slightly blank, smiled weakly and said: ‘Oh hello.’
Odd, thought Lucy. She had been so friendly at Clarissa’s supper, drinking in her fashion expertise.
‘It’s me, Lucy Summers. We met at Clarissa’s.’
Lucy could tell by the coldness in Philippa’s eyes that she had needed no reminder. She didn’t want to talk to Lucy.
‘Oh yes,’ she replied with a fake half smile. ‘Oh… my turn to be served.’
And with that, Philippa turned to the counter, paid for her coffee and left without saying goodbye.
Lucy was shocked. Philippa had seemed to genuinely like her when they first met. Clearly the thing she really liked was her status while dating Hartley. Oh God, Philippa’s family had known Hartley’s for years. Was this a sign he hated her and was so distraught that his friends couldn’t even bring themselves to acknowledge Lucy?
While Philippa’s reaction had come as a surprise, Lucy had only met her once. Far more upsetting was that she hadn’t heard from Clarissa for weeks. Lucy had always known Clarissa was eager to get to know her because of Hartley, but still, she thought she had glimpsed the makings of a real friendship. She had been sure Clarissa enjoyed her company; Lucy had certainly warmed to Clarissa. Was it possible she had been discarded so casually because of rumours that had spread?
Cutting through Lucy’s thoughts, Marj said in a chirpy tone, like she was talking about the weather, ‘Granted, it makes last night sound premeditated on your part – like you sought him out – but from what Max says that’s down to a bitter writer.’ Marj fluffed up the cushions on the sofa then turned to face her daughters. ‘We ladies have to rise above this nonsense. I did not bring my girls up to worry about what people think. If they change their opinion of you because of something they read, it says more about them than it does about you.’
Bloody bitter, scheming Jade, Max thought. She could almost forgive her for not running the story by Max. After all, she would only have tried to persuade Jade not to tell their boss about it. As Jade was one ambitious woman, she had clearly put her career above any respect she had for Max. That was to be expected from someone like Jade, but she couldn’t forgive the vicious way in which she had written about her sister, portraying her as a fame-seeker when nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, if confronted, Jade would put the blame on the sub editors. It was their job to polish the copy to make it sparkle, as though you were trying to get the attention of a guy in the pub who’d already had a couple of pints, and had to lure him with your first two sentences; then they had to cut the copy to make it fit into the allocated space. But Max had long suspected Jade was simply a nasty piece of work. The fact that Max had landed a string of big exclusives recently had eaten away at her and she would do anything to get one over on Max.
‘I know, Mum, but –’
‘No buts about it. It’s better to be talked about than not at all. The people who matter know the truth. Anyway, for goodness sake, there are worse things people could write than describing how Kirk Kelner is smitten by you. In life’s big pond today’s front page is but a drop, darling.’
Lucy laughed. ‘I guess.’
The power of Marj’s positivity was infectious. Somehow she had a way of making everything better.