‘How long will it take?’ Owen asked, rubbing his hands eagerly.
‘About forty-five minutes.’
‘Can’t wait.’
* * *
That evening, Phoenix, Georgie, Owen and Rory rallied around Kate. They insisted on going ahead with Will’s party in hisabsence. Owen and Georgie blew up the balloons and decorated the table, and they all went out of their way to entertain her. Phoenix was more talkative than she’d ever known him, making her laugh with wildly indiscreet stories about famous fellow musicians and backstage shenanigans.
Everyone was so kind and solicitous that Kate suspected Owen had told them how cut up she had been about Will not turning up for dinner. By now they probably knew about her crush on their manager, but suddenly she found she didn’t mind. They were so lovely and sympathetic, making it clear they were on her side and enthusing extravagantly about the food. Even Georgie had second helpings.
‘Poor Will,’ Rory said. ‘He doesn’t know what he’s missing.’ The way he smiled at her made her think he didn’t just mean the food.
‘Yeah,’ Owen said. ‘Right now he’s probably watching Tina tucking into a salad leaf that cost twenty euro.’
‘I bet he wishes he was with us,’ Georgie said. ‘Tina’s such a pain in the arse.’
‘She used to be all right,’ Phoenix said, ‘but she’s changed.’
‘Too much blow, that’s her problem,’ Owen said. ‘And we all know how Will feels about that.’
Everyone enjoyed Will’s birthday dinner, but the hash cake was the hit of the evening. Kate pushed all the candles into it and lit them, almost setting fire to her hair twice. The top of the cake was covered with them and more stuck out at jaunty angles from the sides.
‘Jaysus!’ Owen exclaimed, when Kate produced it. ‘How the fuck oldisWill?’
‘I just thought I might as well use all the candles.’
‘We could just sit back and inhale the cake.’ Phoenix laughed. They sang a drunken chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’to the absent Will, and all joined in blowing out the candles.
‘Dynamite cake, Kate,’ Phoenix said, taking a huge bite.
‘Well, I can’t take all the credit – Owen helped.’
‘Wow! It tastes pretty strong,’ Rory said, through a mouthful.
Owen fed cake to Kate, breaking pieces off and pushing them into her mouth, his fingers lingering on her lips, gathering crumbs from around her mouth and licking them off.
God, he’s sexy,Kate thought.
‘Put her down, Owen,’ Rory said wearily.
After about an hour, the cake kicked in, which coincided with the evening’s episode ofCelebrity Cell Block. Never had it seemed so hilarious. They booed and hissed when Vanessa King appeared, throwing things at the screen, and screamed with laughter when Tessa turned up in the video-diary room, washed out and haggard after another night on lesbian alert, hissing that she was ready to go home and begging to be voted off the show.
At recreation, Vanessa entertained her fellow inmates by performing fellatio on a bottle of water, deliberately making a show of drinking the water at the end.
‘You swallow!’ a man exclaimed admiringly.
‘Always.’ She smiled seductively.
‘Does Tessa swallow?’ Owen asked Rory.
‘No. She doesn’t know how many calories there are in it.’
Owen laughed.
‘Or whether it counts as protein or carbs,’ Rory added.
It was eviction night. As usual, Tessa was up for ‘release’ and, as usual, she won a reprieve, to the obvious dismay of the presenter. In fact, she didn’t stand a chance. Owen’s ‘texting for Tessa’ campaign had continued apace all week. He had got everyone in on the act, and it sounded like a Clangers convention around the pool sometimes, everyone beeping away on their mobiles to keepTessa incarcerated. When the result was announced, she made a half-hearted effort at jumping for joy.
