Page 64 of The Interview
“But why take shots of us?”
“They probably took them of everyone coming in and out, then did some research after to see who and what they had,” Kenzie explains.
“These ended up in a couple of gossip mags that were out at the time,” Dan says.
The next image is from a magazine spread. The photos of me and Cam are accompanied by the headline: ‘Rock Star’s Ex Moves on with London Bad Boy!’
“What the fuck?” Cam says from beside me. “Did you see this? Know about it?”
“I had absolutely no idea,” I almost whisper as more magazine images appear on the screen, each running with a similar theme. One of them even says: ‘Finally Old Enough to Date’ with the subheading: ‘Rock Star’s Underage Ex Finally Moves on with Her Life.’
A lot of the press I got after my breakup with Sean was about my age, the American press and public not mentioning the fact that the age of consent is sixteen in the UK, and we’d been doing nothing wrong—not officially, anyway.
Magazine spreads from the UK and various European countries appear on the screen, using images from the same night. Some are of us arriving, some leaving.
“These are the only images we could find from back then,” Daniel tells us. “How long were you together?”
I’m hyperaware of Cam’s body pressed against mine, of our kids and family standing behind us listening. I don’t want to drag up the bad, and I don’t want anyone feeling hurt or judging me and my choices, but I can’t get to the good stuff without explaining the bad. I just hope my kids don’t hate me when they find out in detail what I did to their dad.
“We split up about seven months after we met, but only officially dated for about three months,” I explain.
“Looking at the pair of you now and watching the dynamics, it’s very apparent to anyone that you’re a couple very much in love. But it’s more than that,” Daniel says. “I’ve watched you, watched the footage back, and seen some of the stills Kenzie has caught. The pair of you are incredibly in sync. It’s almost likeyou’re tuned into each other’s emotions. Was it not like that back then?”
“No,” I reply instantly. “I still had my walls up. I was heart hurt and an emotional mess.”
I feel Cam shift beside me, but he doesn’t speak.
“I was letting him in slowly, but Cam was back then and still would be to this day if I allowed it, a workaholic. So, although we spent a lot of timetogether, there were long periods when I was alone. Weekends, I’d stay in at either his or mine, and he’d crawl into bed at three or four in the morning, then sleep till after lunch. Sometimes I’d have to cover at one of the shops on a Saturday. I’d get home around five, and Cam would leave at eight, but that suited me. I was letting him in slowly, and he gave me that. He gave me a lot.”
“For me, it was the opposite,” Cam finally speaks. “She came into my life like a hurricane, a whirlwind, a force of nature. She was so very obviously broken yet still fearless.”
I look up at him to find him looking down at me. Neither of us smiles, the eye contact is all we need. I know he’s okay, and I’m giving him the same reassurance.
“I ran my business back then in a way which suited the type of people I was dealing with,” Cam explains tactfully.
“You had a reputation for being the ruthless head of one of East London’s most notorious crime families,” Daniel says.
“I was never the head. That was my older brother Robbie,” Cam replies, not denying the rest of Daniel’s statement. “And I wasn’t a criminal; I’ve never been in trouble with the police. I’d never be allowed to run a licensed building if I had, and I certainly wouldn’t consider myself ruthless. If you ask anyone I’ve ever done business with at any stage, I think they’d say I’ve always been firm but fair.”
“Would it be fair to say men feared you?” Dan asks.
Cam rubs at the stubble covering his jaw, and I wonder for a moment if he’s about to tell him to fuck off. Instead, he turns his mouth down like it’s frowning, but I know it’s an attempt at hiding a smile when he nods.
“I can tell you whowasn’tin fear of me: this long-legged, blue-eyed brunette who walked into my bar one night.” He thumbs in my direction.
“Go, Mum!” Lu calls out.
“Like Georgia, I’d steered away from relationships and any kind of commitment since the death of my wife and son. I wasn’t looking for love, just focused on building my business. Then Georgia Layton arrives on the scene and has me tied up in knots. I fell hard,” he admits. “But the timing wasn’t right. I thought I could fix her; she wasn’t ready to be fixed. We were on different pages. I tried to run our relationship the way I was running my business, and she wasn’t having it.” He exhales heavily. “We were having dinner one night—I had a lot going on, my head not in the game—and I spoke to her in a way I shouldn’t have. So, Georgia being Georgia, wasn’t having that, and she got up and left the restaurant.” He sighs again and leans forward, his legs spread and hands clasped together as he rests his elbows on his knees.
“It was a stupid argument over nothing, but it changed everything. George got up and left before we’d even eaten. I stayed and asked for our food to be put in containers to take away, so she’d at least get something to eat?—”
“I didn’t know that,” I interrupt him. We’ve spoken about events of that night over the years. He knows that’s when I reconnected with Sean, but he’s never told me that’s why he didn’t follow me out. “You’ve never told me that,” I say, wondering why he’s never told me.
He tilts his head my way and nods slowly. “Wouldn’t’ve changed anything. The night went the way it went,” he sayscalmly. “I thought she’d be out in the car with my driver, but she wasn’t. He said she’d stormed off down an alley, and he couldn’t follow her in the car. I cut through the same way and onto the high street, but there was no sign of her. I went to her place, back to mine, called her number, then eventually, I went back to hers and waited, but she didn’t come home.”
He shakes his head. “I was worried sick until she called in the morning. I was back home by then, going out of my fucking mind because I didn’t know where she was. I offered to go get her so we could talk, but I only had an hour before I had to fly to Amsterdam. I was going to be away all weekend and thought the time apart might be good. Give her a chance to cool off. It definitely did that.” He looks at me again, his top teeth raking over his bottom lip.
I lean in and kiss him.
