by Mandy Baggot
She blushed. Not many people commented on how she looked in a positive way. She was mainly just Lara. One of the drivers. Or, when delivering elsewhere, the token eye candy who couldn’t possibly have a brain. She swigged her beer. ‘Are you saying cute girls can’t drive lorries?’
‘God! I think I almost did! I will definitely be going to hell! Come on, put me out of my misery. What’s your name and where do I know you from?’ Kossy opened the bottle of tequila and poured herself a small measure.
‘I’m Lara,’ Lara informed.
‘And she starred with me on the news channels today. Up a tree at the zoo.’
Seth had appeared alongside Lara without her even knowing and was looking casually hot in dark jeans, a shirt and jumper, coat hanging from one arm, a plate full of sausages in the other. Before he could even put the food down on the worktop, guests were helping themselves.
‘Hello again,’ Lara said, feeling like she should not be here at this party. This was obviously his parents’ home and she was invading an important event …
‘You know they’re naming it Saving Primate Ryan, right?’ Kossy said. ‘Bernadette called me earlier and said it’s bending on Twitter. Is that right? It doesn’t sound quite right.’
‘Trending, Mom,’ Seth told her. ‘And the lemur’s name was Jax. Hi, Lara. Want a sausage?’
She watched his face colour up the second the suggestion hit the air.
‘So forward, Seth,’ Kossy said with a laugh. ‘That sounded very much like something Dr Mike might say. Take a sausage. Take anything else there is. I’ll go and get some more buns.’
‘Really, it’s fine,’ Lara said, helping herself from the platter Seth was holding. ‘This is fine.’
‘Believe me, there’s absolutely no chance of not doing what my mom says in this house.’
‘She’s so nice,’ Lara said, biting into the sausage. God, it was good.
‘Has she managed to get your life story from you yet?’
‘She said I can have a second beer if I give her that.’
‘You are officially screwed.’
‘No,’ Lara said, taking another bite of the sausage, grease oozing out and drizzling down her chin. ‘I’m officially at a great party in New York eating the finest sausage and realising just how lucky I am.’
‘I’ll get you that second beer,’ Seth answered with a smile.
Seventeen
Having looked at his Twitter mentions in between barbecuing and handing out drinks, Seth was surprised he could look Lara in the eye. Her initial tweet had been a little out there, but he sensed the sincerity of the quest. She obviously loved her boyfriend and felt she needed to do everything humanly possible to save the relationship. Trent’s responses posing as him had made his insides coil like fancy Christmas gift ribbon. He would never have repeated a corny line from Manhattan Med! He wouldn’t even had replied in the first place. He didn’t really want to use Twitter, it was more a business necessity. And he never read direct messages, that was where the real crazy people ended up. So, after he had finished this dance with Mad Maggie – it wasn’t an insult, everyone called her Mad Maggie, including Maggie herself – he was going to take Lara Beer Number Three and confess that Trent had been the one managing his social media, his friend thinking he was doing the right thing – perhaps ‘the right thing’ was a bit kind – and that although Seth felt for her, he wasn’t really the ideal person to work through this with her. He knew all too well he was no one’s Alex Pettyfer. And he was in a weird place at the moment, hanging onto his career by a thread, cosseting the news of his parentage. He was distracted. He felt like he was on an emotional see-saw. He looked across the garden to where Lara was talking with Earl. Earl usually had little to say unless it was about how much food everyone was depriving him of …
‘When you gonna be on the big screen again? The last film you were in your mama got a projector and we all sat on the floor and ate popcorn,’ Mad Maggie said, staring up at him, all big bloodshot eyes and missing teeth.
‘Actually, I’m going to a premiere real soon, Maggie.’
Until he’d looked at his calendar, after checking Twitter mentions, he had barely remembered. How did you forget you had a film premiere to go to? Except he had made the film over a year ago and it had been held back from its original release because its themes coincided a little too closely with real world events. He had done a couple of interviews for smaller magazines about the upcoming launch, but he wasn’t one of the shining stars. In fact, compared to Mark Wahlberg he was basically just a fading flashlight, with rather weak batteries. But he still got to go to the premiere and the cash injection had helped cover the rent this month.
‘Red carpet and champagne?’ Mad Maggie sucked freezing air in through her teeth. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had champagne … or even saw carpet.’ She sniffed. ‘It’s bare boards in the rich houses as well as the squats. Everyone wants to live like they got nothing. It’s kinda funny!’ She laughed loud and hard, squeezing his arms with strong hands.
‘Girls like you shouldn’t drink beer,’ Earl stated, Christmas cake crumbs leaking from his lips and falling into his beard.
‘Girls like me?’ Lara queried. ‘That’s very judgemental of you, Mr Earl. You don’t know a thing about me.’
‘I know you’re pretty … and you’re not homeless and you’ve had four sausages too many.’
Lara put a hand to her chest in mock horror. ‘Earl, do you make a mental note of what everyone eats?’
He got a little closer to her then, his beard tickling the side of her face, a little body odour mixing with the grilled meats, cold air and scent of winter. It was still snowing but the flakes floated down like gentle feathers, caressing the guests and outdoor furniture rather than making them too cold or damp.
‘Some people are known to take advantage,’ Earl whispered. ‘See that guy over there?’ He tilted his head a little to the right, indicating a middle-aged man wearing a red woollen hat standing near the barbecue. ‘He doesn’t even come to Kossy’s shelter. He’s from the other side of the city.’ Earl shovelled from cake into his mouth. ‘He’s a professional shelter-crasher.’
Lara wanted to laugh at the absurdness of the suggestion. ‘Like a wedding-crasher?’ she asked. ‘You’re telling me he goes around to the best shelters taking what they have to offer?’
‘You got it, kid.’
‘But if you know that, why don’t you say anything?’ Lara asked. She couldn’t really believe anyone would go around pretending to be homeless to take from the people who needed it most.
‘Kossy welcomes everyone here,’ Earl told her. ‘Good, bad, ugly, uglier still … this whole place is a den of liars, thieves and people who would kill for the last burger on that grill.’
Lara swallowed, looking the old man in the eye and trying to tell if he was serious or not. Then, just like that, he laughed hard, his expression going from felon in an interrogation room to children’s TV presenter – albeit a slightly scruffy one.
‘This is New York, kid! Get used to it!’
‘Hey, Earl.’ Seth joined their group. ‘Mom says if you want more cake she’s about to cut up another one.’
‘Gotta go,’ Earl said to Lara. ‘And go easy on that beer.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Lara answered, taking another swig from her bottle. She hadn’t seen much of Seth since he’d got her the second beer earlier. He had been called to put out a small fire on his dad’s barbecue, then had to get up a ladder to refix the garden light show, followed by dancing with everyone who asked, including a woman who looked at least ten months pregnant and he’d had to hold at arm’s length to accommodate her bump between them.
‘I hope Earl was playing nice,’ Seth said.
‘He was telling me I eat too much and apparently can’t drink beer because I’m a girl.’
‘Whoa,’ Seth replied. ‘Did you tell him you rescued an endangered species today?’
‘I think that would have impressed him less than th
e beer-drinking.’
He laughed. ‘You know him real well already.’
She smiled. This felt easy. This whole night had felt nice. Low key. Familiar, almost. If you washed the guests a little – but not much – got out some straw bales, changed the city backdrop for trees and put her dad and Aldo in the middle of it, it could almost be an Appleshaw party. Her apprehension about being here without Susie and David had lessened somewhat since the Christmas music had been turned up louder and she was two Coors Lights down.
‘Do you wanna sit?’ Seth put both beer bottles he was holding into one hand. ‘We … haven’t really had a chance to talk.’
No, they hadn’t and in a lot of ways she was glad. Somehow, it had been easier to find her newly single feet as a stranger in the middle of an event where there was no expectation from anyone about anything, rather than someone knowing she was here because she had sent a stupid tweet to one of her favourite actors when she was drunk …
‘Come on,’ Seth said, leading the way. ‘There’s two of the sturdier chairs under the heater over there.’ He looked back to her as he moved. ‘When I say sturdier, I mean they’ve been fixed up by my dad, so you should be fine, but I might have to sit on one side a little.’
She smiled, suddenly nervous. There were going to be questions. About why she was a needy, crazy stalker whose neediness and craziness had probably lost her the attentions of Dan in the first place. But she was ready to tell him it was all really Susie’s mad plan and there had been rather a lot of mince-pie whisky involved. Just looking at the Christmas cake on Earl’s lips had caused an ugly flashback.
She sat carefully on one of the blue-painted wooden chairs and it wobbled significantly. So much so she had to make a grab for the wrought-iron bistro table on top of which was a glowing Santa face tea-light holder, the empty shells of about a hundred monkey nuts – or so it seemed – and a branch of spruce in a glass, a silver ribbon tied around it.
‘You OK?’ Seth reached out and steadied her arm with his free hand.
‘Yes, sorry. I wasn’t expecting it to move quite that much.’
‘I think he used glue instead of screws,’ Seth said. ‘My mom had kinda asked him to fix them for about six months straight and he grabbed the nearest thing to make the harassment stop.’
Lara laughed. ‘A quick fix.’
‘Yeah.’ He handed her one of the two beers. ‘So, is that what you’re hoping for with your boyfriend?’ He slowly lowered himself onto the chair next to her.
‘Ouch. I walked straight into that one, didn’t I?’
‘Listen, Lara, I—’ Seth started.
‘I know what you’re going to say and I agree.’
‘You do?’
‘A hundred per cent. I would say a hundred and ten per cent like everyone seems to say these days, but I’ve always thought that’s complete bullshit because it isn’t a real number.’
‘OK,’ Seth replied.
‘You think, particularly after I got up a tree in Central Park when I’d only been in your country for a few hours, that I am a total pillock. A total, crazy, stalker pillock who you felt you had to invite to this party to be nice, because you are nice and really you wish you hadn’t wasted your time replying to my insane tweet in the first place. I’m betting that you completely wish you were Ed Sheeran.’ Lara took a swig of her beer. ‘Did you know he’s not on Twitter right now? Not because I tweeted him … well, I did, but only because Susie suggested it. She suggested Tom Hardy too, but she cocked up his handle.’ Another swig of beer was consumed. ‘God, that sounds totally filthy.’
Seth watched her, body nervously moving on the chair, fingers in the spray of spruce, flicking over the ribbon, then going to the Santa Claus candle, her thumb grazing his shiny red nose. He was also wondering what the word ‘pillock’ meant.
‘Not that I want you to think you were the bottom of the list. Because you weren’t. You were very much the first person I thought of … but not because I’m an obsessed fan or a member of the Manhattan Med fan club … I only know there is a fan club because I signed up for a new season alert and well, once you’ve done that, and Cambridge Analytica have your information, they can basically send you anything they like, and they do – frequently.’
Was it best to interrupt her now? It was apparent she was struggling with this scenario, like he was. Under false pretences was never a comfortable place to rest. He opened his mouth to speak—
‘So, I’m happy to forget the whole thing. Forget I ever contacted you. Forget the unhinged scenario of us hanging out creating fodder for my Insta. I mean, you’re so famous and I’m just—’
‘I believe the press are calling you “Lemur Girl”,’ Seth interjected. ‘If Marvel get a hold of you there could be your own film deal coming and a whole heap of merchandise.’
‘See,’ Lara said, smiling. ‘You’re too nice. You’re being reasonable and understanding and bringing me beer – Earl is going to tell you off for that later, because believe me he will know how many I’ve consumed – and it was so lovely of you to invite me here tonight and I’m having the best time, even though I wasn’t sure I would have the best time because I came on my own and it’s New York and not Appleshaw and it’s scary as well as exciting … and you probably have a hundred better things to do than make photos with me.’
‘A hundred and ten,’ Seth replied, smiling back at her.
‘Now, you said like that it’s a real number,’ Lara stated, pointing at him with her beer bottle.
‘Lara,’ Seth said, daring to relax back in his chair a little. ‘I need to tell you something.’
‘You’ve called your security team. They’re on their way with tasers and if I go quietly they’ll be no charges and I’ll be able to re-enter America again someday, if I can ever afford it a second time. I could barely afford it this first time and I’m not quite sure how I feel about air travel. It’s only been half a day and I’m caught between feeling exhilarated and thinking I should probably google “how aeroplanes stay in the air” because everything looked and felt quite heavy, like gravity-law-defying heavy.’
‘This was the first time you flew?’ Seth exclaimed.
‘This is the first time I’ve been out of England, because the Isle of Wight doesn’t count, apparently.’
‘That’s … wow, I’m not sure I’ve met anyone who’s never travelled before.’
‘Except most of the people here?’ Lara indicated the dancing, laughing, warming-their-hands-by-the-fire guests around them. ‘Maybe that’s why Earl and I get on so well. Maybe we gravitated towards each other because we love sausage and we haven’t toured.’
Seth shook his head. ‘Believe me, Earl mightn’t say that much but there’s times he’ll come out with something no one else in the room knows, with real authority, like he’s lived it, you know.’
‘Or he’s a very good actor,’ Lara suggested.
Seth laughed. ‘Sure. I guess that’s a possibility.’
‘So, tell me, how long do I have?’ Lara asked.
‘Before what?’
‘Before the security team arrive.’
‘You definitely have time to finish your beer.’ He laughed, shaking his head.
‘That wasn’t what you were going to tell me?’ Lara asked him.
‘No.’
‘Then what were you going to tell me?’
Here was his opportunity to tell her Trent was behind his corny tweet. That, up until late this afternoon he hadn’t even known who she was. But what would it achieve? It could destroy her self-confidence at a time when it appeared her boyfriend was already doing just that. And it wouldn’t make him feel good either. In fact, right now, it would make him feel like a real, uncaring ass towards someone who had saved his. Jax had been reported to be happily munching whatever lemurs munch all day – didn’t she say fruit and tree bark? – and had come to no harm following his escapade.
‘I’m …’ he began. ‘Really not that famous.’ He smiled, putting his b
eer bottle to his lips and drinking, watching her reaction. She was looking at him with fresh eyes, probably wishing she had persevered with Tom Hardy … and why was he even remotely concerned about that? He had so much on his plate already, or he hoped to, if he ever got another call from Universal or decided if he wanted to meet his birth mother …
‘Bollocks!’ Lara exclaimed with a laugh. ‘You’re Dr Mike! Everyone knows who you are. And you don’t get invited to be an ambassador of Central Park Zoo if you’re not famous.’ She sniffed. ‘But I get it. And it’s a good get-out. Telling the crazy English girl you’re not famous enough for this making-Dan-jealous scheme for it to have any chance of working. And you’re right. Even if I posted photos of me and Jennifer Lawrence naked together, I doubt that Dan would take any notice.’
Seth tried to stop his eyes from performing a detailed reconnaissance of her body. He knew where the curves were already. He wasn’t blind or immune to the fact she was every kind of gorgeous, and the mention of nakedness was quirking his insides … or maybe it was the charcoal-coated offerings from the barbecue he’d consumed. No, he was pretty sure it was her. And he couldn’t remember the last time a woman had quirked anything of his …
‘Not now he’s defined himself as “single”,’ Lara finished.
‘Oh,’ Seth replied.
‘Definitely a break … almost a break-up … and on its way to being completely broken,’ Lara said with a sigh.
This Dan had to be a complete jerk, but there were two sides to every story. Nothing was ever black and white. But Lara seemed genuine. A good person. A good person who had asked for his help – and got Trent instead. He couldn’t tell her that.
‘Listen,’ Seth said, leaning forward in his chair and receiving a creaking reminder that collapse could be imminent. ‘My life isn’t really that interesting, but I am between jobs, so I have a little time.’ He did and he didn’t, but it was the right thing to do. And it definitely had nothing to do with Trent’s need to get an appearance on Ellen on his résumé. ‘How about I take you to a couple of great places this week, show you and your friend around New York a little? We can take a whole lot of great photos … us at the Empire State … us in Times Square …’ He shrugged. ‘If you think it’s gonna help.’