24. CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 24
W hen Clara arrived home, she launched straight back into her normal work routine. Despite using her time away to sleep as much as she could, the emotional roller coaster she had been on, seeing Taylor every day with Devon hanging off his arm, had left her more exhausted than ever.
Standing on her doorstep, tiredness dragged down on her, and it took her a moment to notice the huge bouquet sitting there. Her heart skipped a beat, and she leaned over, grabbing the card. Her pulse slowed when she saw they were from Damien and Louisa, thanking her again.
Picking them up, she took them into the house and stood there wondering what to do with them. She didn’t have a vase, so she put them in the sink and added a vase to her shopping list.
Quickly snapping a picture, she sent it to Damien, thanking them both. She was surprised when she got an immediate response.
‘Louisa wants to know if they’re in the sink because you don’t have a vase.’
Grinning, she replied, ‘Yes. I’m getting one tomorrow. Until then, they’ll have to live in the sink.’
‘Louisa says… Hang on. I’m sending Louisa your number, and she can contact you directly.’
Another message popped up on her phone. ‘Louisa here. What’s your style? I’ll send you a vase tomorrow.’
Clara gaped in surprise. They wanted to send her a vase, too. ‘That’s kind of you, but I’ll get one tomorrow.’
‘No. I won’t hear of it. I’m an interior designer. I love picking out things for people. Just send me a photo of your living area, and I’ll choose the perfect vase.’
Clara looked dubiously around her small living room, with its shabby furniture and distinct lack of anything she could describe as ‘homey’ touches. She wondered if she should decline, knowing Louisa would be more used to grander homes. But in the end, she took a photo, sent it, and waited for the reply.
‘Perfect. I have three choices in mind. I’ll send you through pictures now.’
Clara had already decided to ask for the cheapest one, but when the three pictures arrived, each one had been cropped to exclude the price. She looked at them carefully and finally selected the least ostentatious one, replying to Louisa and thanking her profusely.
It was then that a message from Taylor arrived.
‘Hi. How was work? We only have two more weeks of shooting this movie!’
‘Work was the usual. How long before you start the press tour for Below Zero?’ Clara asked.
His reply was instant. ‘They’re delaying it for a couple of weeks to give me a few days off. ‘
‘They delayed a whole press tour so you can advertise it? ’ Clara’s eyebrows rose; she still found it difficult to equate the incredibly famous, important man with the person she knew.
‘Yeah. It’s a pretty small-budget movie, so they want to give it the best chance they can, and if the lead actor can’t do the press tour, everyone immediately assumes it’s crap and that the actors are trying to distance themselves from the movie.’
‘That makes sense. Are you going on holiday anywhere?’
‘No, I’m away too much. I’ll spend some time at home.’
Clara fought her disappointment. She knew he couldn’t come to see her, with the whole Devon thing, but wished he could. She didn’t mention her own feelings, instead replying, ‘With your mum?’
‘Yeah. And Devon. We’ve got a heap of dates arranged to sell this showmance.’
A lead weight settled in Clara’s stomach. She hadn’t been able to help herself; she kept googling his name, and seeing photos of him and Devon ‘in love’ made her heart sink. And despite Taylor calling her daily and telling her that he still wanted to take her out, she was struggling.
She took a few deep breaths, trying to settle her jealousy.
Before she could, Taylor sent another message. ‘I found something interesting out today.’
‘Oh yeah, what?’
She saw the bubbles on the screen appear and disappear a few times before he finally called her on FaceTime. Clara gazed at her phone when it rang, Taylor’s blue eye staring at her—she had changed his profile photo from the one of him with the penguin to the guy-liner photo, as it made her laugh.
Clara lifted the phone, trying to find the best angle to hide the bags under her eyes; when she realised she couldn’t hide them, she just answered.
Taylor’s slightly grainy, grinning face stared back at her, and he said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” she replied.
“Are those flowers? Are you dating someone?” His voice was sharp, and a frown drew down at the corner of his eyes.
“What?” She peered over her shoulder at the flowers. “Yes, they’re flowers. And no, I’m not dating anyone.”
“Oh.” Realisation crossed his face. “Damien and Louisa?”
“Yeah.” She was sure she saw relief as well, which made her heart leap.
“Nice. I found out something interesting today.” Taylor leaned closer to the camera.
“Oh yeah?” Clara quirked an eyebrow in question.
“Yeah, it explains a lot.” Taylor nodded.
“Is this something interesting that you’re going to share with me? Or are you just taunting me?” Clara asked, grabbing herself a drink and inspecting the contents of the fridge to see what she was going to have for dinner. She wanted to talk to Taylor but was also starving as she had missed lunch.
“Are you looking through the fridge?”
“Yeah,” Clara confirmed as she pushed a couple of jars of sauces around to see if there was anything behind them.
“Do you have any food this time?” He chuckled.
Clara turned the phone so he could see the bare shelves. “Nope.”
“What are you going to eat?” His voice was full of concern.
“Toast,” she declared, leaning in and grabbing the bread.
“Is that all you’re going to eat?” His brows drew down in a frown.
“Yeah. I’ve got tomorrow off and am planning on going shopping. Until then, it’s toast. Why, what are you having?” She threw a couple of slices of bread into the toaster and grabbed the butter.
Taylor tilted his phone down so she could see a plate in front of him.
“Is that fillet steak? And veggies?” Her mouth instantly watered when she saw his dinner.
“Yeah. No carbs though. I’m kind of jealous of the toast. I’ve not had any carbs since we had that pizza.”
“None at all? That was weeks ago.” Horror filled her voice. She lived on carbs.
“Yeah, my trainer told me I was getting chubby and had to reign it in,” he replied seriously.
Clara sputtered with laughter. “Chubby? You?”
“The camera adds ten pounds, and if I don’t have a six-pack for the shirtless scenes, I’ll be called fat all over the internet.”
“You lead a very strange life.” Clara shook her head.
“I do.”
“Now we’ve established that you have the best dinner, even though it’s lacking carbs. What’s your news?” Clara sat at the table and propped her phone against her water bottle.
“I went over to collect Devon from her hotel room so we could go out to one of the restaurants that Brian insisted we needed to be seen at.”
“Lovely.” Clara tried to stop the sarcasm that seeped into her voice, but she couldn’t help it.
“And I arrived at Devon’s a bit early. And then she opened the door—“ Taylor continued.
“Oh my god, get to the punchline!” Clara exclaimed.
“Okay, okay. She has a girlfriend.” Taylor’s words dropped like a bomb.
“What?!” Clara couldn’t say anything else.
“Yeah.” Taylor nodded eagerly. “We had a long chat. It turns out she was so willing to go along with Brian’s plan so she wouldn’t be pigeonholed for being gay.”
“Oh shit!” Clara swore, leaning back in her seat in astonishment.
“Oh shit, indeed.” He agreed.
“That’s awful.” Clara suddenly felt guilty for all the horrible and jealous things she had thought about Devon. When in reality, the actress was just trying to protect herself. “What are you guys going to do?”
“We spoke. I can’t jeopardise her career. We’ve agreed that we’ll keep dating until just before the premiere, and then we’ll break up amicably.”
“Why not wait until after the premiere?” Clara asked curiously.
“This is going to sound bad,” Taylor said, cringing.
Clara guessed. “More publicity for the movie?”
“Yeah.” Taylor looked down, his face betraying his shame at manipulating people like that.
“My life is so much more straightforward than yours,” Clara said dryly. It was crazy the lengths people seemed to go to for publicity. “Anyway, what else did you do today?”
They chatted for the next hour as they both wandered around, eating their dinner and winding down from their workdays.
It became their routine. Every night they weren’t working, they FaceTimed and spent their evenings together. Taylor occasionally called when she was still at work, and a few people had spotted his bright blue eye on her phone screen and been very interested to see who was calling. But she would just decline the call and phone him later. They spent many nights falling asleep on the phone to each other.
Clara’s phone rang, and she glanced at the screen, expecting to see Taylor calling. She cringed, it was her mum. Her mum only called when she saw an article about Jack.
With a loud groan, she answered the phone. “Hi, mum.”
“Hi, darling. How are you?” Her mum always asked her, but usually didn’t pay much attention to the answer before she would tell Clara why she was phoning.
“I’m fine, Mum. What about you?” Clara began to count down in her head, and there would be Jack news in three, two, one and—
“I saw an article about Jack today. It was in Hello magazine. He’s such a success. I still don’t understand why things didn’t work out between you.” Her mum repeated a lament that she had used many, many times before.
“Mum, I’ve told you. We grew apart.” Clara had told her mum that Jack had split up with her. Her mum had told her to make up with him and apologise for whatever she had done to cause the breakup.
Sometimes, she wished she had shown her mum the bruises and cuts that Jack had inflicted on her and could get it through to her that she didn’t want to hear about him and she didn’t want to ever see him again. But like clockwork, she got a call about another simpering article containing her ex.
“He’s just been so successful since he moved his work out of the hospital. Maybe you concentrated on the wrong thing. If you hadn’t been so driven, you might be married to Jack by now, maybe with your own child,” her mum continued as if Clara hadn’t spoken.
“Mum. It wasn’t working out,” Clara said forcefully.
“Yes, I know, but he’s done so well.”
Clara finally snapped, “Mum, he married a billionaire’s daughter. Of course, he’s doing well. All that crap in the magazine isn’t a true reflection of his success.”
“Jealousy is such an unattractive trait,” her mum chided.
“Mum,” Clara said sadly.
She wished she had a parent she could confide in, but her dad didn’t talk to her apart from checking if she needed any DIY done in her house, which she would admit was very useful but didn’t help with her fragile emotional state.
She sighed deeply in resignation; it was easier to agree than keep on arguing. “I’ll have a look at the article.”
“I’ll have to ring his mother. She must be so proud of him. Such a good boy. Such a shame about you two.”
Clara barely listened after that as her mum prattled on and on until she finally finished talking, and they hung up. She slumped into her seat and stared at the wall.