Page 108 of Read My Lips

Richard stretched across Luke to the bottle of wine and poured himself a glass as though he hadn’t even noticed him sit down. At least one of us was having a good time.

“I’m watching you and I still can’t figure out how you’re doing it.” Simon tilted his head like a curious owl. “Your mouth doesn’t move. It’s uncanny. You could have a very successful career in ventriloquism.” He folded his napkin next to his plate. “Unfortunately, I didn’t catch a single thing you said.”

“Good job Ben’s here then, isn’t it?”

Automatically, I jumped to it, signing away, paraphrasing to catch Simon up, but he laughed, waving a hand at me to stop.

“No, sorry. Ben’s part of your interview. He’s here having lunch with me, as my boyfriend. And you’re planning on asking him questions, which he won’t be able to answer effectively if he’s playing translator.” His smile had teeth, even though his voice stayed saccharine. “Oh dear. Did you fail to organise an appropriately qualified interpreter for this little chat? It’s quite a basic thing. Legally required in fact.”

Luke’s face flamed so vibrantly I almost felt sorry for him. Being out of your depth with Simon in charge made everything feel like drowning. “I didn’t realise you weren’t going to⁠—”

“Shall I use live captions on my phone?” Simon asked. Ever so helpful. “Not entirely convinced it’ll pick up your accent. But it’ll have to do, seeing as you haven’t made other arrangements. You don’t mind if I record this, do you?”

Simon propped his phone against the fake orchid, angling the screen towards the pair of us. His happiness looked inextinguishable as he stretched his arm along the back of my chair. “Shall we start from the beginning?”

Richard speared an olive with a toothpick, then propped his chin on his fist like he was modelling for some French sculptor, chewing slowly. I sat bolt upright between the pair of them, nothing of my own to say.

“It’s terribly embarrassing.” Simon had total control. “Richard’s been amazing about the whole thing.”

“Not at all.” Richard scoffed, brushing the compliment away with a flip of his hand, already spearing another olive. He looked right into the camera of Simon’s phone, well versed in media-training. “Simon’s very dear to me. We’ve worked together for such a long time.”

Oh hell. One of them was going to post this.

Simon made a show of protesting. They must have rehearsed. The timing of his glance towards me was too perfect. Painted-on adoration didn’t feel like him at all. He didn’t get moon-eyed over anyone. Definitely not me. I wasn’t falling for it. Not even if he had come over yesterday to make sure I was ok. And stayed, even though I hadn’t thought he would.

This was different. This was putting it on for work.

“We were utterly terrible guests. He should have disowned the pair of us. It’s testament to the kind of person Richard is that he didn’t immediately name us. The video could have done his upcoming marriage so much harm.”

A cramping ache started up in my cheeks from forcing my grin. All of this was bullshit. But if Simon noticed my shoulders getting stiff, it didn’t stop him.

Richard jumped in with sickening ease. “I have to credit Temp – she’s been amazing through all this. We’re so ready to move on, and share our upcoming nuptials with everyone.”

There wasn’t a thing I could add. They had it all stitched up between them like the perfect double-act.

Luke visibly gritted his teeth. “Very touching and everything, but it doesn’t make sense, does it?”

Simon barely blinked. “Doesn’t it?”

“No. Why didn’t you name them, Richard?”

Richard cleared his throat. “Wasn’t my call to make.”

Luke scoffed. Simon’s eyes narrowed enough for me to notice. “Ben and I are unmistakably in that film.”

“Yeah. The second one. Didn’t come forward until that hit the internet though, did you?”

Simon’s frown flickered in. Irritation looming. “I don’t know what you think you’re getting at⁠—”

“Yes you do.”

“Listen, Luke. I’ve been identifiable in both of those films right from the moment they aired. Ben wasn’t. He is not in the public eye. He has every right to privacy.”

“And you were happy sitting back letting Richard’s relationship get trashed were you Ben?”

Oh fuck. “Erm..?”

Luke ploughed on. “There have been serious doubts about the validity of that film⁠—”