Page 34 of Star Struck

A quick smile and his saturnine looks lifted as his eyes gleamed. ‘I’ve already had offers. Ruth, girl who was sitting next you to at the quiz, she cornered me in the bar and asked me to go with her.’

‘The cow!’

‘She said she wanted to dance with me at the ball, and if I played my cards right she’d show me a few tricks later on in her room.’ Jack went back to concentrating hard on segmenting the orange.

‘You’re making it up.’

Another smile. ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’

‘You bastard.’

‘Now, eat something. There’s some bread. Or there’s some chocolate, if you’re going to come over all female on me.’

Listlessly I picked up the apple I’d dropped. Jack licked his fingers clean of orange juice and wiped them down his jeans, then poked his laptop into life and tapped away at a few keys, sucking orange segments in a way that made the juice spurt into his hair and down over his chin in an unwarrantedly lascivious way; I suspected on purpose. I refused to comment, kept my eyes down and bit the apple down to the core. A sudden flashback to earlier that evening caught me in the throat, Gethryn, fingers eager. Would he have stopped if I’d asked?

A loud bang at the door made me gasp in shock. An apple pip shot into my windpipe and I began to cough and choke. Jack opened the door and then came over and started slapping me between the shoulder blades. Lissa stomped into the room, took one look at me and rolled her eyes.

‘Is she doing it again?’

‘Choking.’ Jack banged me hard again on my spine, and with one loud cough the pip flew from my mouth and curled away across the room.

‘You really are quite accident-prone, aren’t you?’ Lissa sat beside me on the bed. ‘Perhaps you should stick to soft foods.’

‘Perhaps you should stop drink-driving.’ Jack stopped thumping me and looked at her.

‘Hey, cut me a little slack, Jackie-boy.’ Lissa glanced at my face and wrinkled her nose. ‘Sheesh. You Brits.’ Unexpectedly she reached into her bag and handed me a large tissue. ‘Here. Mop. And scrape, you might wanna scrape a little.’

‘Thanks.’ I mopped and, furtively, scraped.

My streaming eyes showed me a misty image of Jack looking sideways at Lissa. ‘What is it you want, Liss?’

She perched herself on the edge of the small table under the window, tiny buttocks barely causing it to tip forward. ‘Wanted to talk to you about this crazy idea you’ve got in your head about cutting out. Running for the border.’ She opened her bag and fussed with lipstick and a mirror. ‘You mentioned it, but are you serious about it? It’s not one of your, like, abstract concepts?’

He slumped, leaning his whole body against the wall. ‘Sorry, yeah, you’re right. We should have talked it through, Liss. Will you get onto the network guys? They should be fine with Scotty taking over, let’s face it, he was doing all the practical stuff during the first series anyway, and you can tell them I’ll turn in the scripts I’m contracted for . . .’

I could only stare.

‘Mmmmm.’ She carefully outlined her mouth in scarlet and began filling in her lips. ‘I’ll do it, but — why?’

Jack shrugged and gave me a quick look that I didn’t think I was supposed to see. ‘I need a new life. This was fun when we started out; yeah, it all got a bit lairy when we thought we were being cancelled, but I liked all that, the uncertainty and everything, it kept me wired. The big bosses who hired me were loving the stories, the other writers were great and let me muck about with their scripts — it was all new, all exciting.’ He folded his arms and let his body slide a little lower down the wall. ‘Now it’s . . .’ He shrugged again. ‘It’s personalities. It’s the needs of the few outweighing the needs of the many; it’s people using their power and position and their name to get access to things they shouldn’t have. It’s all crapped up, basically, Liss, and I want out. I want home.’ His voice lowered, became so quiet I wasn’t sure either of us were supposed to hear. ‘I want peace.’

She snapped shut the mirror and twisted the lipstick away. ‘Gethryn,’ was all she said.

‘Partly.’

‘Even though you’ve done what you could? Won’t be a problem next series.’

‘No, but he can still do damage.’ He gave me a tiny, sideways glance. ‘Look, I’ve got an editor in Britain hassling me to pick up the novels again. It’s a whole different ballgame, writing the books, doing the signings, and it’s something I love. I mean, that’s how I made my name, after all. Don’t get me wrong, I was flattered when the network guys hauled me over here. It was a chance to do something new, and it’s been brilliant, the whole thing. Fantastic. But it was only ever going to be temporary, which is why I didn’t sell Beck Farm when I came over; this was just another move in the Fame Game, getting my face, my name out there. When it comes down to it, I’m a novelist, Liss, and Yorkshire is my home.’

Lissa turned abruptly to me. ‘What’s the story with Felix? He brings you over here but you’re not a couple. You share a room, a bed, but you’re not—’ she made little hooks in the air with her fingers — ‘sleeping together. He’s heading for destruction-city and you seem to want to drive him there in your own little suicide-wagon . . . what is it with you two?’

I finished mopping my face. ‘He’s my best friend. That’s all.’

‘Uh huh.’ Lissa shot a quick glance at Jack. ‘Wow. Don’t envy you this one.’

He and Lissa exchanged a look that went on rather longer than I was comfortable with.

‘I think I’ll go to bed,’ I said, not sure that they’d hear me. ‘What’s happening tomorrow?’

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