Chapter 54
AUDREY
‘So, nobody panic, but I’ve just received a message from a supermodel,’ I say to the Bookies on FaceTime.
‘If you mean Harlow, she’s not technically a supermodel in the strictest definition …’ April clarifies.
‘But for the purposes of dramatic effect, let’s go with it,’ says Clair.
‘Well, it turns out she’s at least a triple threat.
She’s a model, she’s playing the leading role in Beau’s movie, and he’s teaching her screenwriting.
She said she’s been workshopping the new character with him all week and they’re having an emergency table read of the new direction in Sydney. And she wants me to come.’
There’s silence from my friends. A reverent silence, befitting the gravity of this development.
‘A supermodel-slash-leading-actress-slash-writer has invited you to the table read of a movie script written by an Oscar-nominated screenwriter,’ Jess summarises.
I nod.
‘I would say stranger things have happened, but they never have,’ Rach adds, leaning into view on her couch beside me, Jasper asleep on her shoulder. When the email came in a few minutes ago, we both squealed and woke him up, and she’s only just got the poor child settled again.
‘Beau and I haven’t spoken since a very charged conversation in the rehearsal room. I have been giving him space to write, like I’m a proper muse.’
‘Wait,’ Clair says. ‘What conversation?’
I’ve been avoiding it all week. Rach knows, but I need no encouragement from the other three, so I do my best to play it down. ‘He basically admitted he wants his new character to be sort of, well … There are some similarities.’
Their eyes widen, each drawing their phone closer, amazed faces enlarged on my screen. Rach gets up and lowers Jasper into the pram in the corner so she can be properly present in this conversation.
She takes my phone and speaks to the others directly. ‘The executive summary is that he’s given her space to think about being with him in the spotlight and he’s gone off, all inspired by his crush, and has written her into a blockbuster.’ She places her hand on her heart with pride. ‘Our Audrey.’
‘Shut up!’ I laugh and lean into the view again. ‘He didn’t say for sure she was based on me.’
‘Just that she was some deeply suffering, flawed, creative woman who’s sexy in Wellingtons and in love with someone else,’ Rach explains. ‘You’re right. That could be anyone!’
‘Flawed and sexy!’ Clair chimes.
‘The Wellingtons!’ Jess repeats.
‘My bet is that Harlow wants to pull together some grand Hollywood moment with you in the room, everyone watching—’ April says, describing the exact circumstances of my worst nightmare!
‘Then he confesses he’s madly in love with you!’ Jess goes on.
‘Except he doesn’t have to, of course, because it shines off the page!’ Clair claps her hands in delight.
‘Just try not to get your heart broken, Auds. Jasper’s teething. I don’t think I’ve got it in me to add my best friend’s Alist breakup to the sleepless nights …’
‘I’ve been widowed, Rach. I’m hardly at risk of heartbreak after a week!’
‘What, nobody in the world has ever fallen in love in a week?’ Clair argues.
My own grandparents fell in love in a weekend. It’s the stuff of family legend.
‘What do I do? Just sit there like an unqualified impostor at this meeting he hasn’t even invited me to?’
‘Maybe she wants to surprise him, too? She’s his wing-woman!’ April says, strategising.
‘Hello! magazine said she was his secret on-again, off-again girlfriend,’ I remind them.
‘And what did he tell you about the tabloids?’ Rach asks.
April props her sunglasses on her head and looks serious. ‘Just don’t run this by Sara, okay? I respect your sister, but we’re at a critical moment in the arc of this love story and we don’t want you spooked—’
She’s talking about it like I’m a jittery animal, ready to bolt from headlights and plunge into a forest. ‘Oh, I’ve already spoken to Sara. She is unexpectedly obsessed with him! You all are!’
‘Sara’s onside? This must be worth chasing!
’ April says, beaming. ‘And we’re not obsessed with him …
I mean, we are, but we’re more obsessed with you.
This is your first real chance since Fraser died to be with someone incredible.
You thought this person didn’t exist. You were convinced nobody could ever measure up to him, and here you are, potentially with someone remarkable … ’
Someone remarkable whom I haven’t spoken to in days.
Now that he’s not in my vicinity, and with him working in that caravan with gorgeous Harlow, I can’t help wondering if I made the whole thing up.
Poor Audrey. So starved for romance she’s invented a famous boyfriend, like when she was ten and convinced herself Luke Perry would take her seriously.
‘The table read is in Sydney, at one o’clock. It should be over in time for me to fly back and get to Parker’s concert. Either way, if I’m going, I need to leave now and book the only available flight on the way to the airport!’
‘Oh God, does Maggie know you’re coming?’ Rach asks. I’d conveniently left this part out, because it would have led to a conversation about Parker that I don’t want to rush, plus an admission that I’d had sushi with Josh, and she’d have killed me.
‘Can we just focus on one of my crises at a time? What if I turn up and Beau isn’t thrilled?
What if he’s right—I am madly in love with Fraser and we can never find our way through that, and I’ll flip out and run at the first paparazzi shot in the Daily Mail?
What if I end up dealing with an even more shattered heart, and I can’t ever recover from multiple emotional traumas—’
‘What if you don’t go, and you never see him again?’ April asks, shutting me up, well and truly.
Never see him again?
It’s swift, insightful wisdom, and utterly spot on. Because the very idea takes the wind out of me.
‘Remember, it’s Fraser’s life that ended,’ Rach prompts me, a gentle mic-drop message from a best friend in the midst of a bubbling exchange. ‘Not yours.’