Page 10 of Best Mistake Ever
As an unconscious response, I let myself get sucked into the partying lifestyle around it and ended up turning to booze and drugs to prop me up and turn off the fear and self-loathing I felt.
Which led to me completely losing the plot, my career and any kind of status I’d worked to achieve.
So that’s how I ended up here, keeping a low profile and trying to make a fresh start in a new profession.
I’m determined to make my own mark on the world now, independent of my dad’s fame.
I’ve persuaded him to let me run the place as a boutique hotel for a year, partly so we could keep the house that means more to me than any other in the family, but also because I was struggling with what to do with myself at that point after my music career hit a brick wall. For once, he didn’t give me any shit about the sorry state of my existence and gracefully agreed to let me ‘do my best’ with it.
I have six months left to prove I can make a success of it as a business so I can apply for a loan to buy the place off him.
To prove to everyone that I can stand on my own two feet.
That I’m not the waste of space some people have me pegged as.
I’ve devised some grand plans for moving the business forward, now I’m in the right mindset to take them on, some of which have had to go on the backburner for now. I’m hoping Dee will be able to help me bring them to fruition, now that Tessa’s fucked off.
It was meant to be the two of us doing this together, but that’s never going to happen now.
Despite her initial reluctance to leave London and move here, I’d thought Tessa had seemed to come round to the idea of running the hotel with me.
When we first opened to the public, we offered bed and breakfast accommodation in five of the twenty rooms, which we’d updated to luxury standard, thanks to the money I raised from selling my flat in London. The rest of them still need a lot of money spending on them to bring them up to scratch though, which I was hoping to fund through profits, so they’re an ongoing project.
The whole enterprise was much more of a slog than either of us had anticipated.
A marriage wrecker – if we’d actually got married, like we’d planned to.
Trouble was, I didn’t want to use my fame to bring in business, so I kept a low profile, leaving Tessa to be the face of the hotel. But it turned out that people coming to stay were there to try and catch sight of me – and the fucked-up mess I was after becoming such a social pariah – which frustrated both them and Tessa.
I wasn’t in any kind of state to face the judgemental stares of strangers though and once word got out that I was nowhere to be seen, visitor numbers and bookings started to dwindle.
This didn’t sit well with Tessa at all.
I run a hand over my face, trying to dispel the tension that always pops up whenever I think about how our relationship imploded.
Those first weeks after she left are a total blur now. I spent most of the time drunk. But after Harry’s take-no-prisoners intervention, I managed to get my shit together. Not that I haven’t thought about reaching for the bottle pretty much every morning since. But I promised him I’d not rely on the demon booze to get through my days any more.
And I, at least, am a person of my word.
Trouble is, it’s now become clear that running things here single-handedly isn’t going to be as straightforward as I’d imagined.
I’d thought word of mouth would be enough to get new business in, but it seems I can’t rely on that to bring in enough regular revenue in low season. So I now need to consider whether it’s worth the stress and hassle to keep the place going and I’m feeling the pressure of only having six months left to prove that either way.
The sound of a car coming up the long, tree-lined driveway towards the house distracts me from my thoughts and I turn around to see that Harry’s associates are starting to arrive.
Okay then, here we go. Show time.
5
BEATRICE
My, oh my, oh my, oh my.
What a stressful day this is turning out to be.
I had no idea Dee’s role here was so intense. I can see now why she didn’t think she’d be able to do it with an injured ankle.
I’m exhausted and very much looking forward to getting home for a rest, but I still have another hour to go.
