Page 10 of Happiness Under a Summer Skye

This was accompanied by a photo of Josh and Angelia hugging by the tour bus and a caption that read:

Angel and the Fallen’s lead vocalist Angel MacAuley and drummer Josh Baron get cosy while on tour, sparking new rumours as to the reasons for Dane Bakker split.

The photo had been snapped from a distance and had been taken completely out of context. Meghan went on to read the article aloud.

A source close to the band told The Headliner that the pair have always had a ‘strong connection’ and that it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. They also confirmed that MacAuley and Baron have been spending time alone together at her Hampstead apartment. Meanwhile Miss MacAuley’s jilted lover Dane Bakker, who has recently been spotted out with actress Lucille Delgado, has declined to comment, stating he wishes ‘to keep his private life private’. Another close contact who wished to remain anonymous claimed that Josh’s long-time girlfriend Nancy Carey is in the process of moving out of the home she shared with the drummer in West London.

Angelia pulled her lips into a line and shook her head. ‘Why do these people insist on lying like this when they know full well it could cause irreparable damage?’

There had been speculation, not too long after Angelia had joined the band, that she was having an affair with Heath. It had, of course, been completely unfounded, and Den and the management team had done everything they could to stop the rumour mill from turning. Then a new batch of gossip had spread that Angelia was secretly having an affair with Dom, this was the most ridiculous rumour as Dom was very much gay and out publicly, but the rumours claimed that his relationship with a professional male tour dancer for Taylor Swift, Rio Morales, was a cover-up for the affair with Angelia. The band had laughed these things off and everything had gone quiet for a few years, until a year earlier when Josh and Angelia had been under the microscope. Every photo of them together had been accompanied by speculation and regardless of the fact that the whole band had denied these false claims, they had got to the point where the tabloids were using versions of the Queen Gertrude line from Hamlet: ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’ The band had, therefore, given up reacting.

Angelia had found it exhausting. She had confessed to Fiona and Ed that she was worried Nancy, Agda and Rio must think of her as a serial man chaser.

‘I mean you know what they say about smoke and fire,’ she had said on one of their regular video calls.

‘Angelia, we know you better than anyone and we know you’re not that kind of person, honey. It’s just rumours,’ Fiona had assured her.

‘Yeah, and if they weren’t blabbering about you it’d be someone else. They must be having a slow news day. Load of bollocks and they know it,’ Ed had added.

Thankfully, when she approached each of the partners in question, backstage at one of the shows, they had all shrugged off the rumours as crazy and had reassured her they were used to such nonsense and simply ignored anything printed in the tabloids.

‘I hope Nancy hasn’t seen all these,’ Meghan stated, pointing at the papers with a scrunched nose as if they were emitting some foul odour.

Josh sighed deeply, rubbed his hands over his hair and then picked up his phone. ‘I’ll message her. Although I know what she’ll say.’

‘What will she say this time?’ Meghan asked, a hint of exasperation to her voice. ‘The more it happens, the more suspicious she must get.’

Josh smiled and shook his head. ‘Nah, she knows me and Angel are good friends. She knows we’ve never even come remotely close to crossing any lines.’

Angelia felt her face warming. She knew it was only a matter of years ago that her crush on Josh was still raging beneath her skin. It had been a sort of distraction from the devastatingly unrequited feelings she’d had for Ed. ‘I’ve always seen Josh as the big brother I never had,’ Angelia said, hoping she sounded convincing, even though she knew there was a time she would’ve done anything to just kiss him.

Meghan huffed. ‘Well, I still think we need to get Den onto The Headliner and get them to retract this article. They need to publish an apology. And what does Dane think he’s doing, “declining to comment”?’ She made inverted commas in the air. ‘He could’ve put this rumour to bed with one sentence. He bloody dumped you for Lucille Delgado, for goodness’ sake.’

Angelia gasped. ‘He did? I thought he had got together with her after.’

Meghan’s face coloured cerise and her eyes widened. ‘Shit. I mean—’ She closed her eyes briefly. ‘Oh God, you were going to find out at some point, but I didn’t mean for this to be the way.’ She chewed her lip as Angelia stared at her, waiting for an explanation. ‘I was chatting with his PR assistant last week and she told me he started seeing the actress behind your back while you were on the Canadian leg of the tour. I’m so sorry, Angel. I really didn’t mean to blurt it out like that.’ She flopped onto the couch and Scrappy jumped into her lap. ‘Don’t cuddle me, Scrappy, I’m a traitor.’ She huffed and lowered her head.

The truth stung but Angelia knew it wasn’t the messenger’s fault. ‘It’s fine, Meghan, honestly. I’m actually surprised I hadn’t heard sooner. And yes, in that case he could’ve helped stop the rumour, but why would he do that? This way he not only gets sympathy but a mention in The Headliner. All publicity is good publicity as far as he’s concerned.’

She turned to face Josh. ‘Put yourself in Nancy’s shoes though, Josh. She sees all these articles questioning our relationship. How must that make her feel? She must be sick of it by now.’

He lifted his hands and let them drop heavily back to his sides. ‘What can I say to convince you that you really don’t need to worry, Angel? Nancy knows how close we are, and she understands. And we’ve done nothing wrong. You and I have never even had a drunken kiss, let alone slept together. It’s not like we’re actually having the affair the media is constantly accusing us of having.’

Angelia closed her eyes briefly. ‘No, but… maybe we should keep our distance for a while. Just until they’ve moved onto someone else.’

Anger crumpled Josh’s brow and he stood. ‘Why should we do that? It just makes us look guilty, don’t you think so, Meghan?’

Meghan sighed. ‘Honestly, I have no clue what to even suggest at the moment. I’ll speak to Den this afternoon.’

Josh turned to Angelia again. ‘Like I said, you’re my best friend.’ Pain was evident in his strained tone and downturned expression. ‘I need you in my life, not just as my bandmate. I don’t see why we should let people stomp all over our relationship and dictate what we do.’

She walked back across the room to where he sat. ‘But you love Nancy. You’re in love with her and regardless of what she says it must be a strain on her to keep listening to people speculate about how faithful you are. In her shoes, I know I’d certainly wonder.’

‘So, you’re saying we shouldn’t be friends now? Just because of some dickhead reporter who’s got nothing better to do with his time?’ Josh asked with a scoff of disbelief.

‘I’m not saying that at all. But I’d hate to be part of the reason she gave up on you. And maybe this whole situation isn’t helping me either. I’ve been dumped more times than I’d like to admit, and I do wonder, after this latest revelation, if perhaps I need to have some time away. If the men I’ve had in my life can’t get past the bond you and I have then I’m never going to find someone, am I? And I would so love to find someone for myself, Josh. Someone who’d actually stick around for the right reasons.’ Ed’s face sprang to mind and she shook her head to dislodge the unhelpful image.

Josh remained silent and Meghan looked like she might cry. ‘I’m so sorry, guys, I can’t help feeling I’ve opened a ginormous can of worms.’