For a second, the doe eyes flickered and Kate was treated to a glimpse of the harridan that lurked below the sweet façade.
‘You could eat the chicken,’ Tessa told Fawn consolingly.
Fawn regarded it suspiciously, but took a piece and put it on her plate, scraping off the tomato sauce fastidiously.
‘I bet it isn’t even organic,’ she complained.
‘So, you’re a chef?’ Simon said, turning to Kate. A paunchy, perma-tanned medallion man, Simon had the sleazy good looks of a playboy gone to seed. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you on TV, have I?’
‘Oh no. I’ve never been on TV.’
‘Really? Not evenReady Steady Cook?’
‘No.’ Kate smiled apologetically, and Simon seemed to lose interest in her.
She noticed that Phoenix was very quiet, talking to Summer and Georgie in hushed tones, occasionally scribbling on his napkin and scraps of paper pulled from his pockets.
Tessa and Fawn, by contrast, were a nightmare, vying for everyone’s attention. Kate found it exhausting just to watch them. Tessa kept bringing the conversation back to her new reality show.
‘It’s not one of those awful things where you have to go to the jungle and eat worms, is it?’ Fawn asked.
‘Oh no. I don’t think I could do that, even for charity. I mean, who knows how many calories are in one of those grubs? I’d have to abandon my healthy-eating plan, and it means too much to me. Not that I expect to last too long – I’m sure I’ll be the first to get voted off.’ She smiled self-deprecatingly, but no one jumped in to contradict her.
‘Oh well, I’m sure no oneweknow will be watching it anyway,’ Fawn said sympathetically.
Gamely, Tessa didn’t let the smile slip. ‘Actually they’re expecting it to be the big hit of the summer. They’ve got a great line-up of celebs – not that I considermyselfa celebrity, but that’s what they will insist on calling us.’
‘So, who else is there?’ Fawn asked.
‘Well, I’m not supposed to talk about it. It’s top secret until thefirst show.’ Tessa was obviously champing at the bit to divulge all and only needed a nudge to do so.
‘Oh, I won’t tell anyone,’ Fawn said airily. ‘No one I know watches reality TV.’
‘Well, just between ourselves, there’s Rosie Grant—’ Tessa began.
‘Who?’ Fawn interrupted cuttingly, screwing up her face.
‘Rosie Grant. She was the star of that TV seriesDouble Decker. She was the bus driver.’
‘Was it a soap?’
‘No, a reality show about a double-decker bus. It followed the bus around for the day and filmed the driver, the passengers, all the funny little incidents that happened on the bus.’
‘So, basically, sheisa bus driver.’ Fawn drawled derisively.
‘Yes, but a famous one.’
‘Who else?’
‘James Lewis.’
There was a chorus of ‘Who?’ from the entire table this time.
‘He used to be in that eighties group, The Dog Ate My Homework.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Rory said. ‘They had a number one, didn’t they? What was that song they used to sing?’
‘“The Dog Ate My Homework”,’ Tessa said. ‘It was the title of the song too.’
