Page 40 of Read My Lips

Looming in the doorway, Richard snapped the lightswitch again, fully fixated on Simon. Who’d barely moved.

“Oh do stop pratting about with the lights.” Simon levered up onto his elbows with a short sigh, peacock bell tent not exactly de-pitched. Heat prickled up the back of my neck. Wasn’t he even a little bit embarrassed?

“I’ll give you pratting about. Go get a cup of tea Sev. We’ll have a break, Sev.” Rolling her eyes Sev stomped back over to her camera. “You better not have dragged me all the way out here because you’ve got a secret filming fetish Simon.”

“He doesn’t.” The ex-rugby-player folded his bulging arms across his chest.

Certainty. That’s what that sounded like. Richard would know.

Standing up, Simon reached for his discarded shirt. “You really don’t need to be in here.”

“I can bloody well see that.” Richard scoffed. “Absolutely had to do a full-blown reenactment with him, did you?”

Simon raised a cool eyebrow. “Do you have a problem with how I’m handling this?”

From behind her camera, Sev’s eyes ping-ponged between them, then settled on me. Everything in her expression tinged with told-you-so. My gut dropped like a lift with a cut cable. Goosepimples rose on my forearms.

“This is ridiculous,” Richard continued. “No one’s going to buy it.”

“Why not?” Simon had his arms crossed too.

“Oh come on.” Richard glanced at me, stalling himself halfway to a full on laugh. “You’re deaf, not blind!”

Silence rang with the clang of that.

Round my ankles the hair had rubbed off my legs where the cuffs of my sports socks were too tight. Richard’s carpet had a stain on it. Sinking my eyes shut, I got a flash of grabbing the goggle-eyed horse off the wall and smashing it down over the pair of them.

Richard was right. We all bloody knew it. No way Simon hadn’t been playing. Nothing about him being attracted to me made sense.

“I’m only your PR advisor.” Simon’s voice cut coolly through the quiet, words clipped tight with precision, tone dangerous enough to make the air crackle. “But you might want to evaluate the statement you’ve just made and try again. A little more PC this time would be far better for your image.”

Richard stared at him, stunned. The entire room warped at the edges of my vision. Tension thrummed thick as a thundercloud.

“Right! That’s it. I’ve had enough of this wank-fest. Count me out.” Sev cut across the disaster. Clips snapped, legs de-telescoped, shutters clicked, zips zipped. “You can have your little domestic without an audience, alright?”

“Sev!” Simon started towards her. “What about the footage?”

“Oh it’s absolutely flawless, babes. Can’t tell one arsehole from the other.” Blinding us with her painted-on smile – all full of fuck-yous – Sev shouldered her camera bag. “Camera was still rolling. I’ll find something I can use.”

The slam of the front door echoed through the house. I almost bundled up my clothes and legged it after her. Through the ancient single-glazing, her footsteps scrunched across the gravel. And then Sev’s Polo thrashed itself to life like a jet plane warming up on the runway.

Our lift – the only way home – popped and banged, throwing out flames from the exhaust. Imagined G-force crushed my naked chest.

Five things worse than being sandwiched between Simon and his blueblood ex in the middle of a pissing contest? My brain blanked. There weren’t any.

Stones sprayed up against the window from her wheel spin.

The car lurched, zooming up the drive.

Oh shit. Sev was tail lights blinking in the distance, wouldn’t wanna be ya, I’m alright Jack, full-on stranding us.

Slow motion, Richard curled his lips in on themselves.

“Sorry, Si.”

Simon shook his head. “Try again. You’re apologising to the wrong person.”

CHAPTER