by Andrews, Amy
Faith nodded. “Yes.”
“Is it… bad?”
She shrugged. “I’ve seen worse. You want to look?”
Faith’s assurances that she’d seen worse allayed some of Edwina’s fears. Faith had been news anchor for three years – the unedited footage they saw was mind blowing. She took a deep breath and held out her hand. Faith fiddled with her phone for a second then passed it over.
Edwina took a breath and looked at it. It was a shot of her and Justin on the blanket, him on top of her, still in their underwear. But definitely them. It had to have been taken when they’d first come out of the waterhole ’cause there was a whole heap of worse – naked – action after that.
“Is this the only one?”
“Don’t know.” Faith shook her head. “It was uploaded on the rally Facebook page. It was taken down really quickly but by that time it had been shared thousands of times. It’s pretty much gone viral.”
Edwina shut her eyes. She could just imagine how it had played out. “Does Justin know?”
“I haven’t said anything. I thought I’d start with you.”
Then, as if by some sixth sense he stalked out of his room four down from hers and stormed towards them, his phone in hand. “I think he does now,” Faith said.
“Yep.” His jaw was locked so tight Edwina was afraid it might shatter.
“Let’s go inside,” he said to the two of them as he drew level. Neither of them argued.
Once the door was shut he rounded on Faith, holding his phone up, their picture filling the screen. “How the fuck did this happen?”
Faith, not easily intimidated by even the most argumentative world leader, wasn’t about to let Justin cower her. “Well, I’m guessing neither of you couldn’t keep it in your pants and someone caught you both in flagrante.”
Edwina sunk onto the bed her legs suddenly weak from the implications. “Do you know which network it came from?” he demanded. “Who the photographer was? I’m going to take him to court and sue him into the bloody poor house.”
“It was put up on Facebook by some local teenager, Justin, who took it with his brand new iPhone six and will make himself a tidy little sum for it.”
“Someone local? Jesus.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Now I gotta worry about teenagers with iPhones?”
“If you’re going to be going for nudie swims and making out in public, then yes,” Faith said. “You do.”
Edwina looked at him the same time he looked down at her and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing. Were there any other pictures?
“I didn’t see anyone, did you?”
She shook her head. “No.” But then she’d been pretty blissed out.
“I suspect the car probably gave away who you were more than anything,” Faith said. “It’s been on the news all week.”
“Christ.” He paced the room back and forth. “What are we going to do?”
“It’s not all bad, Justin. Yes, the picture is… intimate and it’ll play for a news cycle or two but you’re both unattached, and it’s not like the entire country hasn’t known you’ve had the hots for each other for years. I suggest you either make a simple statement and leave it at that or respond with dignified silence.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”
Faith looked from one to the other both their faces a picture of misery. “Think I’ll leave you two alone now to discuss your options.”
She left and for long moments neither of them said anything until Justin threw himself down beside her on the bed and said, “Well… fuck.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“I’ll talk to my publicist, see what she thinks. Faith’s right. We weren’t doing anything wrong and it’s nobody’s goddamn business, but we do need to find out if there are any more pictures. I’ll get her on to that, too.”
“Thanks.”
He put his arm around her. “It’ll be okay.”
Edwina shook her head as her gaze fell on the picture still open on his phone. It had been such an amazing couple of hours, so intimate and real.
And now it was a… circus.
Her throat thickened and a sharp pain niggled in her chest. “But it’s not okay,” she said, standing suddenly, his arm sliding from her shoulders. Her legs trembled as a sense of violation hit her. So much for wanting to keep their personal moments private. Sacred.
Now the whole freaking country knew.
Edwina’s eyes stung with unshed tears as she looked down at him. “That’s… private, Jus. It’s special. The waterhole… what we did there…” Her voice cracked a little and she cleared her throat. “I hate knowing that everyone is privy to it. They have so much of us anyway. I don’t want them to have that, too.”
He stood, leaving the phone on the bed and took her in his arms, her cheek to his chest, his hand stroking her hair.
“I know,” he said and she heard it as it rumbled through his chest. “Neither do I. But it’s done now.”
Edwina pulled back slightly. “You’ve calmed down.”
“A kid with an iPhone.” He shrugged. “What are you going to do? It was just dumb luck.”
“Yeah.” She leaned her forehead into his chest and shut her eyes as his hand slid under her hair and caressed her nape. It felt so good and safe and right here in the circle of his arms, knowing they were in this together. That she could lean on him.
“I don’t regret it,” he said quietly after long moments, his long fingers stroking. “I wish the photo hadn’t been taken, but I’m not sorry we stopped for that swim. It was the best two hours of my life.”
Edwina glanced up at him, her heart tripping at his declaration. “Mine, too.”
And it had been. A magical moment in time. But this was better. Standing here in the middle of this disaster with him, staring down god knew what ramifications, telling her he didn’t regret it. And he wasn’t frothing at the mouth or freaking out and talking about spin and damage control, which was the norm in these kinds of situations.
He was just looking down at her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him and nothing else mattered.
And for the first time since she’d laid eyes on him four years ago, she let herself feel all the things she’d never let herself feel before.
She let the love she’d denied for so damn long flood in, and grow and swell, and stretch her chest until her ribs hurt and her lungs ached and every molecule in her body overflowed with it.
But it was such lousy timing. The picture complicated things tenfold, media interest was about to hit heretofore unknown levels of crazy, the rally wasn’t over and he lived on the other side of the world, but right in this moment she couldn’t have cared less. Right in this moment, she loved Justin Wilde with her whole heart and nothing was going to take the magic out of that.
She hugged him hard and fierce, never wanting it to end, and when he pulled her tight and close, Edwina thought maybe it was going to be okay after all. Maybe the picture wouldn’t be such a big deal and the rally would end and maybe Justin would stick around for a while.
But then her phone rang and it was Dale’s ring tone, and a prickle at the base of her spine told Edwina it wasn’t going to be okay.
She contemplated not answering, but Edwina knew he’d just keep ringing until she answered and she might as well get it over and done with. He didn’t even give her a chance to say hello before he launched in.
“Just saw the pic of you and lover boy. You were screwing him all along, weren’t you?” he spat. “I knew you were. How dare you accuse me of being unfaithful, when you were banging your co-star behind my back?”
A sudden well of rage boiled inside her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Despite considerable temptation. She’d tried and tried to make her marriage work and she was damned if she was going to let him rewrite history.
“Don’t,” she snapped. “Don’t you even dare.”
“Dare? How dare you humiliate me like that?”
&n
bsp; “We’re divorced, Dale. Remember?”
He snorted into the phone. “You’re going to regret this,” he said and Edwina felt the prickle burrow in a little further. “You can find yourself another damn sap of an agent. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”
Edwina relaxed slightly. He wanted to split? Fine with her. More than fine. It saved the inevitable break up down the track, and good riddance to bad rubbish. “The feeling is entirely mutual,” she snapped and hit the end button on the call.
Considering how shitty her day had turned out, it felt really freaking good.
Day Five
‡
Edwina was appreciative of the sleep-in the rally organisers had granted them the next morning – normally they were all on the road by eight but it was the last leg and they weren’t scheduled to be at the Lullabar, a trendy beachside Byron hotel/bar until five in the afternoon.
The journey from Tenterfield to Byron was only three hours and they had to get a picture at Ballina in front of the Big Prawn, but even with stops for well-wishers, they didn’t need to leave until ten. And the morning briefing wasn’t scheduled until nine-thirty.
Justin hadn’t left her room since he’d entered it yesterday afternoon. Given the picture there’d been absolutely no point pretending anymore. So they’d locked the door and stayed put, attacking the mini-bar when they’d gotten hungry and ordered a full English breakfast from room service.
The knock on the door at eight woke them both. Unsurprising, given that they’d burned up the sheets into the wee small hours.
“That’ll be breakfast,” Justin said, unfurling himself from around her.
“Mmm,” Edwina muttered, already regretting the loss of his long lean belly against her back.
“I’ll get it,” he said then called, “Coming,” as another knock sounded against the door.
Edwina was vaguely aware of him pulling on some clothes and then cursing as he stumbled over something on the floor. They’d pulled the blinds and shut the curtains last night as well, wanting complete privacy so the room was reasonably dark.
So much so that she had to squint when the door opened and a strong shaft of sunlight flooded into the room and hit her directly in the face, penetrating her eyeballs.
It looked like another hot and sunny day in store for them.
Edwina pulled Justin’s pillow over her head as she heard him conversing with whoever had brought their food. Then, blissfully, the door was closing and Justin was saying, “Come on, sleepyhead, breakfast is served and it smells delicious.”
She lifted the pillow off her head with a groan but the aroma of coffee and bacon filled her nostrils, and her stomach growled. She sat up as he placed the tray on the bed and flipped on the low lights recessed into the bedhead.
“Mmm,” she said. “I’m starving.” She swung her feet to the floor.
“Hey,” he said, grabbing her waist and pulling her back into him. “Where are you going?”
“To use the bathroom,” she smiled. “And put some clothes on.”
“Really?” he said, his hands sliding up to cup her breasts. Muscles deep and low inside her contracted as he brushed his thumbs over her nipples. “I don’t think you should do that.”
Edwina arched her back and let him stroke her for a few moments.
So. Damn. Good.
She could get used to this.
But eventually she wiggled free. “I’m not going to sit here naked with you fully clothed,” she said, standing at the edge of the bed, looking down at him. “Besides, I’m so hungry I’m going to inhale this lot down cookie monster style and I really don’t want to spill baked beans all down me.”
“Lucky for you, baked beans are my favourite. I volunteer the services of my tongue to investigate every nook and cranny of your body to relieve you of every last errant bean.”
Edwina’s belly tightened again. It made her want to upend the whole damn plate over herself right now. But she really did need to go and empty her bladder.
“I’ll be one minute,” she said.
When she returned to the bed she’d pulled on some underwear and a t-shirt and Justin had poured them both coffees and buttered their toast. She settled in beside him as he passed her a plate laden with bacon, eggs, sausages, cooked tomato, mushroom, a hash brown, and baked beans.
“Thank you,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him as she accepted the plate. He had bed hair and a crease mark on his cheek and she’d never seen him looking sexier. Sleeping with him last night, loving him last night, had been just what she’d needed to keep away all the crazy scenarios that lurked in the recesses of her mind, whenever she thought about the photo and its possible consequences.
Personal and professional.
Edwina’s image had always been squeaky clean. Mainly because she was squeaky clean. Having a picture like that out there was not something she was comfortable with, and he’d known exactly how to distract her.
And she loved him for it.
“Shall we brave the morning news programmes?”
Edwina hesitated. A part of her didn’t want to. A part of her wanted to stay in this room with Justin forever, living on two-packs of hotel biscuits, violet crumble bars, and sex. But the part of her that believed in ripping the band aid off in one quick move knew she had to face the music.
“Yep. Let’s do it.”
He channel surfed for a bit, flicking from one breakfast show to the next. He didn’t tune into channel fives, Edwina had been given assurances by Dan Wylie, the CEO, on the phone last night that they wouldn’t report the so-called news or the picture on any of their shows.
But soon enough they found one that was and Edwina’s heart sank as a gorgeous blonde threw to a gorgeous redhead for the latest celebrity gossip.
“Well… it’s not been a good twenty-four hours for popular Aussie actress Edwina Calloway. Yesterday, a rather risqué picture was posted on Face Book of her and her one-time co-star Justin Wilde, doing the wild thing if you get my meaning.”
The redhead honked out a laugh and wiggled her eyebrow at the camera, and Edwina wanted to reach into the box and throttle her.
“Now the rumours have been rife about these two since they starred together in Gift of Life, channel five’s hugely popular, hugely successful, extra sexy medical drama. Their incredible onscreen chemistry had tongues a-wagging right from the get-go, but Calloway was still married to her agent husband, Dale Winslow, at that stage. There was a lot of speculation again about just how close these two were when Justin left the show after two years. Of course, he left for the bright lights of Hollywood and hasn’t looked back, making several movies in a row and has been linked with numerous tinsel town A-listers.”
“But he’s back in Australia at the moment, right, Connie?” the blonde asked.
“That’s right, Meeghan. He’s here to participate in the car rally that channel five is currently running to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. They’ve travelled all the way from Gippsland in Victoria to Byron Bay where they’re due to finish this very afternoon. Of course, our viewers will remember that Edwina was seriously injured in a stunt that went horribly wrong a year ago, on location in the outback, and required the services of the flying doctor, so this is channel five’s way of honouring them. Edwina’s frank interview about what happened and how’s she’s dealt with it to Dear Ruth on Wednesday night was compelling viewing.”
“Yes, she won a lot of hearts in that interview, didn’t she?” Meeghan asked. “But it appears she’s not quite as decent and honourable as she came across?”
Edwina looked at Justin, that feeling of doom from yesterday returning. She sat up higher in the bed her stomach in an absolute knot.
“That’s right. News broke earlier this morning that Edwina Calloway has a sister with an intellectual disability that she put in a home after their parents died, to keep her hidden from the public.”
Edwina gasped as Justin leapt out of bed, spilling coffe
e over the edge of his cup into the saucer as he yelled, “What the fuck?” at the television.
A roaring, like a cyclone, filled up her ears and Edwina’s hands shook as the screen cut to a live feed outside Dundas House.
“They’re outside her place?” Edwina said, also standing and stalking to the television.
He glanced at her, hands shoved on his hips. “Do you think Dale’s behind this?”
Edwina nodded, her blood boiling at the thought. “Oh yeah,” she said. She’d bet her last cent it was him.
The television cut to other footage, apparently from earlier. Of Jenny. Leaving the facility. To go to work, no doubt. She always got the number sixty-two bus from the stop on the corner. Tears filled Edwina’s eyes as a gaggle of reporters rushed towards her and shoved microphones in her face. Justin crossed to her and pulled her close.
“How dare they do that,” she said.
They only had to look at Jenny to know she wasn’t sophisticated enough for this. She was open and friendly and honest to a T.
And they were happy to exploit that.
Jenny looked bemused when they started throwing questions at her, and Edwina wished she could reach in and snatch her away.
“You’re Jenny Calloway? Edwina Calloway’s sister?”
Jenny nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. She’s a famous actress.”
More tears welled in Edwina’s eyes, Jenny was so proud of Edwina’s accomplishments.
“Do you like your sister?”
“How often does she see you?”
“Jen, can you tell us what your relationship is like with Edwina.”
“I don’t like, Jen,” she said, staring crankily at the reporter who dared say it and Edwina laughed despite feeling like the whole world was falling down around her.
And then. “How do you feel about her locking you away here?”
“Oh, no,” Edwina whispered, shaking her head.
Jenny frowned clearly confused by the question. “This is my home. She doesn’t have the key. I do. And I always lock my door.”
Another volley of questions were fired at her as the pack pressed in a little closer and Jenny took a step back, looking frightened suddenly.