Acid burned at the back of her throat. She didn’t know which part was worse.
‘This whole time you’ve been seeing him, haven’t you? And you didn’t tell me.’ Ruth carried on while Lila felt all the blood draining from her head. ‘Why? Did you think I have such a big mouth that I’d shout the news to everyone? Newsflash, Lila, I’m not really that interested in your love life.’
Lila felt the wound – that pointed remark implying that she’d overinflated her own importance – and it burrowed itself deep down. And yet still, there was a little stab of indignation. One that said Ruth had alwaysactedlike she was interested in her love life,andshe regularly gossiped about other people. But she didn’t say any of that stuff. She didn’t want to argue when Ruth was clearly already so mad at her.
‘We’ve only been dating a couple of weeks.’ Her lips were numb as she said it.
‘You and “Colin” you mean? God, all you seem to do is lie. I’ve never met a shiftier person.’
‘What else have I lied about?’ She didn’t think she had anyway. Nothing important.
‘I don’t know. Just all your excuses for not wanting to do things with us. Staying in, or disappearing off. I’d have preferred it if you just said outright at the start that you thought we were all beneath you – you and your famous movie-star boyfriend.’
‘But I don’t think that.’
‘Could’ve fooled me.’ Ruth shook her head. ‘I’m going to grab some food too.’
Lila sat down, shaky and by herself. She wanted to go find Rowan and tell him what had happened, but she couldn’t bear the idea that everyone would be looking at them and knowing and speculating that she’d been his bit on the side. Or that he’d cheated on Cassandra with her…and what about that thing about them sneaking off back in London? Had someone seen them together? Had he really forced Sibyl’s hand to give her this job? He wasn’t above using his position to get what he wanted, was he?
She stayed sitting, frozen with all the thoughts whirling around her head. When Ruth and Jackie came back and took their seats together, it was so obvious they’d been talking about her. They took the chairs behind her and murmured in quiet voices that had the hairs on her neck prickling. She pressed her hands together between her knees, waiting out the afternoon, as the sun bleached the surroundings of its usual colour. Every set of eyes that skimmed over her made her flinch and when Sibyl asked her to do a job that she’d forgotten about, she knew everyone was thinking the same thing; that she was useless and shouldn’t be there.
Finally, the end of the torturous day arrived – but that meant she had to go do her photos with Rowan.
Rowan
Something was clearly up with Lila. He saw it immediately as she walked over to him. Her fingers were shaking as she took the photos of him, her head and gaze lowered.
‘What’s wrong? Has Sibyl been giving you a hard time?’
‘No.’ She shook her head and darted a glance around. ‘We need to talk though. Not here.’
Alarm bells were going off. Had someone said something about him and Cassandra that had made her doubt him again? ‘Okay. Let’s go to my trailer.’
He’d been expecting her to protest that they should go separately, but she just turned and led the way from the set, moving so quick that he didn’t even have time to speak to Wesley beforehand.
As soon as they were inside, he couldn’t help himself, he took her by the shoulders and bent to look into her face. ‘What’s going on? You’re scaring me.’
She pulled her phone out and started scrolling, looking down at it, rather than at him. ‘People know.’
‘Know about what? About us?’ He cocked his head and frowned.
She shook her head, trying to clarify. ‘No. Yes. But also, about the stockroom? Back in London. How did they know about that? It’s all online. That we hooked up back then and you got me a job on the film, so we could keep our affair going behind Cassandra’s back.’
He blinked. ‘Ninety per cent of what you just said isn’t true. And do they really mention you? By name?’ He took her phone because she was holding it out to him, but he didn’t look at it. Not yet.
‘No. But it’s obvious to everyonehere. Read the article.’
‘I’m confused. This is probably just Cassandra getting her revenge or trying to save face. Or both. If they don’t mention you by name, I don’t understand what you’re worried about.’
‘Just read it and you’ll see. What I don’t understand is how anyone found out about us being stuck in that room together in London.Ididn’t tell anyone…did you?’
His tongue poked at the corner of his mouth, and he saw her freeze, immediately tuned in to his body language. ‘Youdidtell someone?’
‘I didn’t tell anyone that we were stuck in the room together – but I did say you got held up helping me out with something. That cut on my hand to be precise. I’d heard Sibyl saying she didn’t want to take you to Sicily because you’d been gone so long and that wasmyfault, for getting you locked in that room with me. I was just trying to fix the damage I’d done.’
Her eyes widened until he could see the white all around them. ‘So, she’sneverwanted me here. The only reason I got this job, isyou? Because you intervened and threw your weight behind it.’
‘It wasn’t quite like that. I just said you’d helped me – that it wasn’t a reason to let you go, because you’d been helping me. I didn’t force her to.’
