‘So you knew all along Holly was my stepmother,’ I say quietly, wiping the condensation off my juice glass.
‘Yes,’ Seth answers, equally quietly.
I keep wiping, as other things start to add up. Our getting bumped out of the penthouse to the two apartments below. The plastic cup ‘accidentally’ falling onto our balcony.
Seth’s interest in me.
Ouch.
And it’s this thought, of course, that hurts the most. I mean, I know that people will do anything and everything to get their screenplays read by Holly, but this was different. I thought Seth really liked me. I truly did. Funny how Nat was right in the end. This is just like How to Marry a Millionaire. But with all the funny bits taken out and all the parts about using people being left in. All the hurtful bits. And there’s no happy ending for anyone. I guess I was wrong. You can get hurt in ten days. You can get hurt in six without even trying.
‘I’m so sorry, Nessa. I really am.’
I keep wiping my glass, even though there’s no condensation left to wipe.
‘I got caught up in Jason and Connor’s stupid plan accidentally. Believe me. I should have put a stop to it from the start. I just didn’t know …’
I look up now, angry. ‘Really? What didn’t you know? Or, more like, what did you assume? Did you think I’d be some movie star’s unbearable princess stepdaughter? That it’d be easy to fool me and for you to get what you want without feeling the least bit guilty?’
Seth shakes his head sadly.
‘You did, didn’t you?’ I snort.
‘It wasn’t like that. I don’t know what to say, other than I should have told you what was going on sooner. I’m really sorry, Nessa.’
‘You’re only sorry because you were wrong. Because you got found out.’
‘No. That’s not true. I wasn’t part of their stupid scheming.’ Seth’s voice gets a little louder now. ‘And then, when I saw the three of you, I knew I really didn’t want any part of it at all. You were all real people, not just things to be manipulated. And that’s why I tried to stay away. Why I said I was working all the time.’
I shake my head and look back at Seth again now. Straight into his eyes. ‘I can’t believe I felt sorry for you. That I thought you’d been staying in because you were sick. Because of your heart condition.’
Oh.
My.
God.
I’m not a fainter. I’ve never fainted in my life before, but right now, in this moment, looking into Seth’s eyes and uttering those words – ‘heart condition’ – I actually think I’m going to. When I see his reaction that is. I just know. And as soon as I know, the edges of my vision go kind of swirly and dark and fuzzy and I have to reach out and hold on to the bench for a second before I can speak.
‘You don’t have a heart condition,’ I finally say, not looking up at Seth again. I can’t look back into his eyes. I just can’t.
‘No.’
‘You never had a heart transplant.’
‘No.’
‘This was your little “in”. Your special little way of getting to me. Because of my mum.’
I hear Seth get up off his seat, but I don’t look up.
‘No. I didn’t know anything about that, Nessa. I promise you.’
I look up now, just as Seth is approaching my side of the bench. ‘No. Don’t come near me,’ I tell him. ‘And don’t touch me.’
He stops in his tracks, a couple of steps away from me.
‘Nice researching,’ I tell him, my face frozen.
‘Honestly, I didn’t know. I didn’t do any “research” on you, or your mother. I wouldn’t do something like that, Nessa. I had no idea before Jason and Connor blurted it out that day at Pearl Harbor. They were angry because I wasn’t playing along, so I guess they thought they’d up the stakes a little. I couldn’t work out what they were talking about until you started saying the stuff about your mum. Remember I said it wasn’t true? It’s just that everyone assumed it was true and I was just too embarrassed to talk about it. And then, when you came and found me – I didn’t know how to tell you it wasn’t true. There was never a right time and …’
I take a deep breath as Seth drones on and then I cut in. ‘I want you to leave now.’
‘Nessa, I …’
‘I mean it, Seth. Just go. I’d like you to go.’
And he must see the look in my eyes, because he gives me one last, pleading look and then, silently, heads for the door.
I follow him over there, wanting to see him leave. Wanting to see the back of him for the very last time.
When we get to the door, Seth holds it open, his eyes begging me to forgive him.
But I won’t. ‘I can’t believe anyone would use my mother like this. Use me like this.’ I shake my head. And then I remember something. ‘Not to mention their own mother.’ I snort again now, thinking of all the lines he used on me. ‘I guess your mother’s fine. That she couldn’t be healthier. She’s probably out jogging in Central Park as we speak.’
Seth’s eyes don’t budge from mine. ‘I never lied about that, Nessa. My mother did die in a car crash. When I was seven. Just like I told you.’
Oh. So, somewhere in there, deep down, there was a grain of truth in our relationship after all. ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I say. ‘Bye, Seth.’
And then I close the door.
Huh. So much for taking chances on people. I guess I should have stuck with using my head all along.
No doubt about it, from now on, it’s the only piece of my anatomy I’ll be listening to.
‘Should I ask?’ Alexa pulls a ‘tell me it wasn’t that bad’ face, after I’ve hung around the front door until I can bear going into the living room to face her.
I pull a face back. A ‘yes, it was that bad and more’ face.
‘Oh, Ness. You poor thing.’ She comes over to give me a hug. ‘That sucks.’
I don’t go into details and Alexa doesn’t ask for any. Not now. Maybe later, when it’s all a little less raw. And Alexa’s far enough away that she won’t be able to run upstairs and kill the guy.
‘Do you want to go out or something? Take your mind off it all?’
I shake my head. ‘I think I might go next door and see if I can borrow Holly’s iPod.’ All I want to do now is zone out. I don’t want to think. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Listening to something loud sounds just about right. And, sadly, Holly’s much better at updating her iPod than I am, so hers always has better music on it.
‘Okay,’ Alexa says. ‘I’ll be around when you want to talk about it.’
‘Thanks.’ I give her another quick hug and then make my way over to Dad and Holly’s adjoining door. ‘Hello?’ I call out, giving a quick knock as I open the door. ‘Dad? Holly?’
‘Nessa?’ I hear my dad’s voice call out from down the hall.
‘Yep, it’s me.’ I push the door open and wander on in. ‘I just wanted to …’
‘Nessa, quick. In here.’
There’s something about my dad’s voice that makes my blood stop circulating. I immediately forget about Seth (Seth who?) and freeze for just one second before I start to run down that hall like I’ve never run before.
‘We’re in here.’
It feels like forever before I make it to the bathroom. Dad’s kneeling on the floor, the bathroom phone lying on the floor beside him and Holly’s sitting, leaning on the wall, a towel wrapped around her and her hair wet.
‘What is it? What’s the matter?’ My voice, echoing around the tiled bathroom sounds way, way too loud.
‘Holly fainted in the shower. I think her blood pressure might be up again. We’ve called Dr Reid and he’s coming over now. From what he just said we’ve probably got two options. If things look dicey, we’ll have to have the babies here, now. Or if it looks like we’ve got some time up our sleeves and Holly will be all right, we’ll fly straight home and hopefully try to carry the twins a bit longer.’
Holly shakes he
r head wearily. ‘We’re going home.’
Dad looks up at me and, this time, he doesn’t argue with Holly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite so in charge of a situation.
‘Get the girls together and pack your things, sweetheart. The plane will be ready by the time we get to the airport.’
It all happens even faster than I thought it would. I run back into our apartment, grab Alexa and get her to start packing, hurl Nat out of the spa and throw some clothes at her, pack my own stuff, do a once-over of the apartment to check we haven’t forgotten anything and then the three of us run over next door to help Dad pack up his and Holly’s stuff.
When we get there, Dad has called the front desk to let them know we’re leaving four days early and Dr Reid is just finishing up taking Holly’s blood pressure. Apparently it’s gone back down again to something close to normal and he agrees that it’s probably time to go home before this happens again. He calls Dr Meyers to let him know what’s going on and tells him that he’s discussed it with Holly and my dad and that he and a nurse will travel with us.
‘Creamy!’ Nat pipes up on hearing this (she thinks Dr Reid is pretty scrummy, which he is, of course, but really, this isn’t the time for movie quotes, is it?).
By this stage, Holly is dressed, her wet hair slicked back in a pony-tail and she actually looks something close to okay rather than all foal-legged like before. We make our way down to the lobby and, within five minutes, two town cars have picked us up and we’re whisked away to the airport.
‘Bye.’ Nat waves out the back window to our apartment block. ‘Bye Waikiki, bye apartment, bye spa, bye pool, bye Seth and Jason and Connor.’
‘Good riddance, more like it,’ I mumble under my breath, not looking back. ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish.’ Beside me, Alexa shoots me a look and I wave my hand – later. No way am I going into all my Seth business in front of Nat. Or Dad and Holly. It’ll all have to wait until we get back to NYC.
Home.
After this so-called ‘relaxing Hawaiian break’ I can hardly wait.
We make it to the airport in good time and the plane’s waiting for us on the tarmac, as is the nurse, Monica, who Dr Reid has arranged to meet us there and travel back home with us. After we board, Dr Reid has one last check of Holly’s blood pressure (still okay) and we’re off. Bang. Just like that. I don’t think I’ve ever travelled so fast in my life. It’s been just on an hour and a half from finding out Holly’s blood pressure had gone back up again to the plane taking off. But now … well, now we have the long, ten-hour flight home.
Ten hours of waiting. Something tells me it’s going to feel like an eternity.
And it seems like it already does, at least to Holly.
‘Will everyone stop staring at me!’ she says about an hour into the flight. ‘I’m fine!’
‘Sorry,’ Nat, Alexa, me, Dr Reid, Monica and even the stewardess say sheepishly.
‘I’m going to keep staring,’ my dad says, sitting next to her.
‘Well … all right then,’ Holly sighs. ‘But I’m going to watch a DVD.’ And she settles herself back into her beige leather seat.
‘Me too,’ says Nat, a couple of seats behind Holly. ‘Watch a DVD, I mean, not keep staring. You know, from now on, I think the Gulfstream III is the only way to travel.’ She holds up the jet’s information card. ‘I’m particularly taken with the enclosed lavatory.’
Everybody turns around to look at her. And even Holly, despite her ‘stop staring at me, I’m okay!’ funk, laughs.
Alexa, across the aisle from me, leans over. ‘You know, I mean to keep reminding her of that line of Loco’s in How to Marry a Millionaire.’
‘Really?’ I look at her, surprised. ‘Which one?’
‘The one where Loco says she “likes not to talk”.’
‘I know she liked Loco the best, but, um, good luck with the not talking thing.’
Alexa sighs. ‘I think I’ll need it. So, what about you? You DVDing as well?’
I think about it for a second before I shake my head. I need something even more distracting if I’m not going to think about Seth. Like reading.
‘I wish I’d brought a book. Or something to read. Anything, really.’
‘I’ve got something!’ Nat fishes around in her backpack and passes me over a pile of paper from behind. ‘Here you go.’
‘What is it?’ I take it from her. It could be anything, knowing Nat. It could be the entire specs of the Gulfstream III for all I know, enclosed lavatory and all.
‘It’s the boys’ screenplay. You know, the one they kept going on about.’
‘Nat!’ Alexa stands up and goes to take it off her.
‘What?! What’s wrong with that? Jason gave it to me. He said he thought I, or someone else, might want to read it.’
I snort. Yeah. ‘Someone else’ like Holly, he meant. That scumbag. Now I eye the screenplay on my lap dubiously. I’m curious, of course, but should I read it or not? I guess there’s no good answer to that question. Standing in front of me, Alexa gives me a ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ look and I shrug. May as well, I suppose. I wanted something to read, after all, and this is … well, something to read, right?
Sure, just like picking up the NY Times.
Anyway, okay, here goes nothing.
An hour later, I turn the last page of the screenplay and replace the pile of paper in my lap. Well. That was awful. Awfully, awfully …
Brilliant.
And funny. Really, really funny. A part Holly would kill to play and people would love to see her in.
Damn. Why couldn’t Seth’s stupid screenplay have just been plain old awful? That would’ve made my life so much easier. Because now what do I do? Of course I don’t want to give Seth, Jason and Connor the satisfaction of showing Holly the screenplay, but what if Holly would want to play this role (and I know she would)? Damn.
I sit, screenplay in lap, and think about my dilemma for a good ten minutes. And what I keep coming back to is this – I have to forget about whose screenplay it is and do the right thing by Holly. Do what would be best for her career. Because even if there would be other roles (and of course there would be) this could be a big one. And I can’t let something like that slide by her.
So, even though I know it’s going to kill me that Holly’s going to love this screenplay and that Seth, Jason and Connor’s movie will probably get made, I also know I have to show it to her.
Double, triple, quadruple damn.
Blah. I stick my tongue out childishly at the screenplay and then, before I can back out, I get up, tuck it under my arm and make my way back two seats to the four-seater Holly, Dad, Monica and Dr Reid were sitting in. Luckily, Dad’s made his way over to one of the long sofas and has stretched out with a fascinatingly freaky professorly-like sociology sex tome, so there’s room to sit down beside Holly.
‘Hey,’ I say to her, sitting down. ‘You mind pausing the DVD for a second?’
‘Of course not, sweetie.’ Holly pauses her DVD. ‘What’s up? You look worried. I’m fine, you know.’
Oops. I’d actually kind of forgotten about B and G for a bit. Bad sister. Bad stepdaughter. Bad screenplay.
Holly leans in closer to me and whispers, ‘I’ve got a secret for you. As soon as we hit home, I’m having these babies. I just know it. You’ll be a big sister in less than forty-eight hours.’
I frown. ‘How do you know that?’
Holly shrugs. ‘I just know it. And, yes, they’ll be small at just on eight months, but you already know what they’re like. They’re fighters. They’ll be fine. I’m doubting they’ll even need to go to neonatal ICU. And they’ll be home and destroying your room in no time.’
I look into Holly’s eyes as she says this and, it’s strange, but I know everything she’s saying is true. I mean, anyone else would think she’s mad, right? But why shouldn’t she be right? It’s her body. They’re her babies.
‘I guess the sooner they’re out of you, the so
oner they can start sourcing their own supply of Peanut Butter & Co. And Lindt.’
Beside me, Holly laughs. ‘And stop adding it onto my thighs in the process. Which would be nice.’
‘Well, I can’t wait. It’s going to be great.’
Holly’s eyes tear up and she leans over and gives me a kiss on my cheek. ‘Oh, Nessa. That’s such a nice thing to say. I can’t wait either. You’ll be a wonderful big sister. Just you wait and see.’
As Holly leans back again, I remember something. The screenplay. ‘You may not still think that after I give you this.’
She looks down into my hand. ‘What’s that? A screenplay?’ She glances back up at me. ‘Who foisted that upon you? Not the pilot?’
I laugh. ‘No. It doesn’t matter – a nobody. And I wouldn’t have given it to you, but I read it and it’s good. Really good. And it’s funny. You’d like it a lot.’
Holly eyes the screenplay as if she doesn’t quite believe me. ‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘Well, if you say so. That’s all the recommendation I need.’ As I get up, she switches her DVD off.
‘Wait,’ I say. ‘You don’t have to read it now.’
Holly looks up. ‘I may not have a chance later. And the DVD’s terrible. Something funny sounds good right about now. In fact, something funny sounds like just the kind of thing I need.’
‘Nessa! Nessa Joanne Mulholland, you come right back here!’ Holly calls out, about an hour later.
I hear her even over the loud blasting of her own iPod.
Gulp.
I jump up in my seat and race back to Holly’s.
‘Whose is this?’ She holds the screenplay up.
‘Um … I’m sorry. I thought it was good and …’
‘Good! It’s not good! It’s amazing! The best thing I’ve read in ages. Now you sit right down here and tell me who gave this to you. And it’s okay. If it was the pilot, you can tell me. I’ll forgive you. I’m sure he pulled some “we’re not taking off unless you get your stepmother to read this” thing.’
Phew. For a moment there I’d thought … but wait. Oh no. Holly really, really likes this screenplay. Which means Seth and Jason and Connor are going to get everything they wanted, just like I thought. Everything they’d plotted and planned for.
How to Date a Millionaire Page 10