Chapter 28
28
The string quartet hadn’t resumed; conversations were just barely starting up after the speech. When my champagne glass shattered, everyone turned toward the sound, looking for the excitement. My friends stepped back, avoiding the splintered glass. Making a little arena for me and Faye.
“Is that my dress?”
My hands went to the dress unconsciously, to the soft folds of silk blooming down from the bodice. “Faye,” I said, as if I was about to begin some explanation. But I had no explanation. My mouth was too dry to form words.
“I guess all your gowns were at the dry cleaner?” she said, puzzled, almost playful. Playful like we were friends, so she’d let it slide? Or playful like a cat, tossing her mouse around?
Tess laughed, a little nervously, turning to Faye. “Doesn’t she look amazing?” she said. “You know, Anna always puts together a good outfit, but I said earlier, that color was made for her.”
“Except that it wasn’t,” Faye laughed, turning back to me. “So where are you cadging all these good outfits from? New Bond Street? And you’ve got Theo just paying for all of it?” She scanned the crowd for him, eyes narrowed. “Is he that whipped?”
Tess looked at me, brows pinched with confusion. “Theo buys all your clothes?”
“No, he doesn’t,” I managed. “That’s not—”
“Are those my shoes?” Faye said, her eyes narrowing in recognition. The playfulness was gone. “So what, you just helped yourself to my whole wardrobe?”
She turned first to Tess, and then looked at Zara, Hamza, Seb. Their blank faces seemed to provoke her. “Are you playing dress-up with her or something?”
“Faye, just cool it for a minute,” Hamza said, keeping his voice low as more people began to notice the disturbance. “None of us have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Faye did not keep her voice low. “I’m talking about her. That dress is mine, those shoes are mine.” She turned to me, and said snippily, “Couldn’t one of your new friends lend you something?”
Tess stepped closer, stepping in to defend me. “What are you on about? Anna doesn’t need our clothes.”
Faye’s eyes widened, and she looked back and forth between us in disbelief. An awful, strangled laugh left her mouth. “You must be taking the piss,” she said. “She always dresses like this? Always?” She turned to me. “Do they know ?”
“Faye—” I began. I could see Tess’s face, the absolute incomprehension there. The hope that there might be some mistake. The last generous thought she might ever have for me, and I was watching it pass, here, now, and there was nothing I could do to keep it. I didn’t even deserve it.
I made myself speak. “Faye, let’s go outside,” I said. “I can explain.”
I couldn’t look away from her: her perfect face, its perfect rage. The freight train bearing down on me. But in the periphery around us, I could see more and more people turning toward us, craning necks, looking over their shoulders. The music still hadn’t started up. We were rapidly becoming the entertainment. My whole face was burning, and I could feel the hot flush creeping up my chest. Where was Theo? Faye was his friend. His oldest friend, he always said.
She shook her head, smirking gleefully. “Yes, I’m sure you’d love to take this conversation elsewhere. Keep up whatever little charade you’ve got going.” She clasped her hands in front of her, then tucked them under her chin. “Sweet little American ingenue. That shit might work on Theo, but I promise you, it won’t work on me.”
Tess shook her head. “Seriously, Faye, is this how you treat your friends?”
My eyes were hot now, tears moments away. “Please, Tess—”
“Anna and I aren’t friends ,” Faye said juicily, chewing on each word like it was delicious, making sure that everyone around her could hear. “She works for my family. She’s staff .”
She turned back to me. “The only reason she’s even here, in Highgate, is because she’s looking after my house. Rent-free, because we felt sorry for her. And now, apparently, she’s been raiding my clothes.”
“You don’t really live in Highgate?” Tess said, her face falling, real hurt starting to rise to the surface.
The tears were warm on my cheeks now, crawling slowly downward. Sweat prickled on my scalp and on the back of my neck. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe, I could only feel my legs trembling, my whole body beginning to shake. I looked up at Tess, waiting for my answer. Slowly, each millimeter agony, I shook my head no.
Callum appeared then, stepping around the broken glass. “Listen, Faye, you’re out of order,” he said. “You lent her clothes all the time in France. Shoes, everything.”
In my panic, I could see and hear every detail of the wider scene. Everyone huddled around us, watching me, watching Faye. Every friend and acquaintance, a few dozen strangers. A few people with cameras. I was so embarrassed, and Callum was just making it all worse. Making it sound like I’d shown up in Saint-Tropez naked and desperate, looking for a rich family to latch onto. It hadn’t been like that. It had been a thousand small moments, small decisions. Small shifts toward something that felt like it would fix me, when nothing else could.
Faye gave Callum a bitter little smile that showed off the sharp points of her teeth. “That was different. She wasn’t lying about everything then. Everyone knew where she stood.”
He exhaled in frustration. “You mean, everyone knew you liked dressing her up, talking down to her? So, it’s fine as long as you get the credit for your charity case?”
“Oh, fuck off, you’re defending her?” She turned to the others. “You’re all just mad about sweet little Anna? Appeared out of nowhere, looking the part, saying we’re friends? She’s a con artist.”
“That’s not what happened,” I said, my voice thick and shaking through the tears. “I wasn’t trying to steal or anything. I just wanted—”
“You just wanted my things, my house, my friends? You’re a sneaky fucking liar.”
Callum stepped in front of me. “That’s enough, Faye.”
Faye laughed. “Oh, I see it now—she’s been working both of you. You and Theo. Honestly, that’s amazing. That’s some next-level gold-digging.” She leaned around Callum, and stage-whispered to me, “I’d stick with Theo, if I were you. Much deeper pockets. Sprawling country home, if you cling on long enough for him to inherit. Got your claws in that deep?”
The idea was so disgusting, I stepped back, away from Callum. Did she really think that? Would Callum? Tess’s eyes moved between us, disbelieving.
“I’m not a gold digger,” I said through tears.
I shut my eyes because I could hardly see anyway. Someone put their hand on my arm and moved me sideways, through the crowd that had formed around us. “Let’s go,” Callum said to me, stern and urgent. “Move your feet.”
In the background I could hear Faye calling after us, “Don’t let her take my fucking jacket from the coat check.”
My teeth were chattering, inexplicably. I was hot, not cold. Sweat stuck my hair to my back, the long perfect curls that Tess had unwound, one by one, making me beautiful, making me like her. Probably this was the last time I would see her. I put my free hand over my mouth so that my crying wouldn’t make a sound. My other arm shook in Callum’s hand as he moved me forward, silent, unrelenting.
My high heels slipped on the polished floor. He caught me against him, but didn’t stop. I wanted to stop. I wanted to disintegrate. I wanted him to hold me so I could cry without falling. But I couldn’t stop thinking of how it would look: like I was working Callum, the gold digger Faye had said I was.
“Let me go,” I said.
He didn’t, just kept marching me to the door. “You have to get out of here,” he said. I tried to pull my arm away.
“Let go of me.” My voice sounded terrible—shaky with panic, wet with tears.
Callum didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t even look at me. Just like in the cab in Lisbon, at the airport. He’d shut me out. I guess this was what he always thought would happen, what he’d warned me about. I guess he thought I was finally getting what I deserved.
“Go on, say it,” I said. I wanted him to say something, anything. “Say I told you so .”
“Shush, Anna,” he said, exasperated.
“Say it.”
“You’ve got to get out of here before it gets worse.”
I planted my feet and twisted away, out of Callum’s grip, bumping into some partygoers as I moved to get away from him. “I’m leaving,” I said fiercely. “You don’t have to fucking bounce me. I’m going.”
I thought he would argue with me. I thought he would say something. But he just looked at me. In my head I heard his voice, saying to Faye, charity case .
I turned and walked the last twenty feet of the foyer myself. I didn’t look back at him. I didn’t stop at the coat check in the hall, just continued down the front stairs and the paved path and fell into the first black cab waiting there.
“Where to, darling?” the driver said.