Wags To Riches, page 30
“Hello?”
“Alex – it’s me” I say.
“Gail! Oh thank goodness – I’ve been trying to ring you, but couldn’t get through. Have you seen the papers? There was this girl….”
“My phone has been switched off – would you believe we were trying to have a romantic break and Adam thought we should switch our phones off, so it’s just me and him. Can you believe that?” I say bitterly. “There was me thinking he was being romantic and yet actually, he must have known that this was going to come out. God - I’m such an idiot!”
“You don’t know that Gail” Alex says. “What does Adam have to say about it?”
“I’ve not spoken to him yet – he’s gone for a run and I just went down to the shop and saw the newspapers. I can’t talk long – I don’t have much time. I’m coming back today and I want to go before he gets back” I say, resting the phone under my chin while carrying toiletries out of the ensuite bathroom. “Look Alex – I’m really sorry I’ve not been in touch – I have been meaning to phone and you would be perfectly entitled to tell me to eff off but I’m coming home now – could you come and pick me up from the airport? Tell them at work that it’s an emergency”.
“Don’t be silly Gail – why would I tell you to eff off?” Alex replies. “You’ve been busy - I know what it’s like. Of course I’ll come and pick you up. I’m off this week anyway as me and Dave were planning on getting some decorating done. Don’t you think though that you should stay and hear what Adam has got to say?”
“No” I say as my eyes start filling up. “I just need to get away. I’ll ring you from the airport Alex and let you know what flight I’m on. See you soon” I croak and hang up. I then ring for a taxi to take me to the airport and I’ve just finished the call when suddenly the bedroom door opens and Adam walks in.
“What’s going on?” he asks, his smile fading as he takes in my packed suitcase and tear stained, furious face.
“I could well ask you the same question!” I shout. “You two timing bastard!”
“What are you talking about?” Adam says, shocked.
“This –Adam - this!” I say and shove the newspapers into his face. “How could you?”
Adam looks down at the paper and his face goes pale. “Oh my God” he says quietly.
“Remember now do you?” I yell, shaking with fury. “Bikini jog your memory? You make me sick!”
“Gail – it’s not what you think,” he says, looking at me absolutely horrified.
“Oh isn’t it?” I say sarcastically. “Well - why don’t you tell me what to think then?”
“Gail – I’m telling you - it’s not true all right?” Adam shouts back.
“So why do all the dates add up then?” I say waspishly.
“What are you talking about? What dates?” Adam asks, looking confused.
“The dates in the stupid article!” I say, jabbing my finger at the newspaper. “Bit funny how they are all the dates that you said you were doing your house up! I should have known” I say as I yank the zip closed on my suitcase. “I should have known what you were like. I thought this was too good to be true – you bloody footballers are all the same”.
“Oh thanks very much” Adam says coldly and then tries to grab my case. “Look – just stop a minute will you?” he shouts.
“No I won’t! Who the hell do you think you are?” I shout back, glaring at him. “All those times you said you were working on your house and you weren’t – you were with her!” Then a horrible thought enters my head. “Oh my God” I say slowly, “Those knickers in the garden! I bet they are...” I trail off, putting my hand over my mouth. Oh my God, I can’t believe it. This is just awful I think, shaking my head.
“No Gail, No! They are nothing to do with me and another woman!” Adam says quickly, looking horror struck. “There is no other woman Gail! This...” he shakes the newspaper angrily, “This is a lie!”
“So why do all the dates add up then?” I scream at him.
Adam looks at the article. “Gail…” he begins.
“Oh save it Adam – I don’t want to bloody know!” I yell, grabbing my handbag and my case. “I knew it – I knew this was too good to be true. You are a two-timing, lying piece of shit Adam Finchley! And you know what you can do with this!” and I yank my engagement ring off my finger and fling it through the balcony doors.
“Gail!” Adam gasps, staring at me aghast.
“I’m going to Alex’s!” I shout, putting my handbag over my shoulder and dragging my case across the room. Adam doesn’t say anything; he just stands looking at me.
“Aren’t you even going to try and stop me going?” I say nastily, angry tears sparkling in my eyes. “Don’t you care?”
“You’ve obviously made up your mind Gail about this story – and nothing I say is going to make any difference is it?” Adam says coldly.
“You don’t care do you? You don’t give a shit!” I say, staring at him. “Fine. I’ll go then” I say opening the bedroom door. “I thought you loved me!” I add, looking at Adam one last time before slamming the door behind me. I get downstairs as a big sob threatens to overwhelm me but I take a couple of deep breaths and hurry outside to the taxi, which has thankfully just pulled up.
I sit on the back seat and rummage in my handbag for my compact mirror, hastily rubbing streaks of mascara off my cheeks. As the taxi heads off to the airport, I have to keep blinking away tears as sentences from the article kept flashing across my brain. Suddenly my phone rings. I pick it up and see that it’s Gina.
“Hi Gina – if you’re ringing to tell me about the girl in the papers, I already know” I say. “I’ve had a massive row with Adam and I’m on my way to the airport right now”.
“Oh Gail!” Gina says shocked. “That story is absolute rubbish. You don’t seriously believe it?”
“I don’t know” I say miserably as my phone beeps to tell me there’s another call waiting. I lift the receiver briefly away from her ear to see who it is and I can see it’s Sharon calling. “Gina I’m going to have to go – Sharon’s on the other line” I say, “I’ll phone you when I get back okay?”
“Okay – but you must talk to Adam about it. Promise me?”
“I promise” I say and click on the other line.
“Darling! I take it you’ve seen the newspapers?” Sharon asks.
“Yes I have” I say grimly. “I’ve left Adam at the villa and I’m on my way to the airport”.
“Why?” Sharon asks. “You don’t seriously think it’s true do you? Gail, Justine is – to put it bluntly - a slapper and a gold digger. She is well known on the nightclub circuit, always hanging round footballers and TV stars”. My phone beeps again and I looked at the screen to see who it is. It’s Adam. I reject the call and then go back to Sharon.
“I really think you should go back Gail” Sharon says.
“No. No I’m not” I say. “All this time I thought he loved me. And all that time he’s been shagging her!” Tears start sliding down my face. “Look - I’m going to have to go okay? I’ll call you later” I say and hang up. I then briefly call my mum to let her know I’m ok and that I’m going to Alex’s, then switch off my phone. I don’t want to talk to anyone else right now. All I want to do is get back to England.
When I arrive at departures, I hurry to the nearest airlines desk and explain that I need a flight as soon as possible. The girl behind the desk looks at me for a moment.
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” she asks finally, peering at my face.
“No – I don’t think so,” I say. The last thing I need is for someone to recognise me. “Please can you help me?” I ask pleadingly. “I just want to go home”.
“Let’s have a look for you” the girl says kindly. An agonising moment passes by as she looks at her screen and I rest my head in my hands, my elbows on the counter. Please God – please just let me get home.
“You’re in luck!” the girl says, looking up from her screen and smiling at me. “We’ve got one seat left on the 12.45 flight. It’s on the aisle though – is that okay?”
“Yeah – whatever, that’s great” I say with weary relief. It could be in the bloody hold for all I care as long as I can get out of here. I pay for the flight and the girl issues me with a ticket.
“Go to check-in and then through to departures straight away” she says.
“Okay. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it”.
“No problem” the girl says and I hurry over to check in. I then quickly ring Alex to tell her what flight I’m on and hurry to the departure lounge.
In no time at all, the plane boards and I find my seat. I shove my bag under the seat in front, fasten my seatbelt, sit back in the seat and close my eyes, feeling totally devastated. How could he do this? And her – bloody Justine! Bloody cow! How could she do this? What gives a woman the right to walk into another woman’s life and wreck it – to whip the carpet out from under her feet and completely turn her life upside down? Awful mental images of them together flash in front of my eyes and inwardly I wince. The plane starts speeding up and soon we are taking off. I bite my lip, trying not to cry again.
“Would you like a drink?” a voice suddenly asks at my side. I open my eyes with a start and one of the cabin crew is stood there smiling with a drinks trolley. She looks about the same age as me, but with a lot more makeup on.
“Cup of tea please” I say quietly. The girl pours some water into the cup and pulls the plastic tray down on the back of the seat in front of me so she could rest the cup on it. “Can I have a bar of Dairy Milk as well please?” I ask.
“There you go,” she says, handing me a bar of chocolate. “Cheer up – it might never happen,” she continues breezily and a huge sob wells up in my throat. Suddenly I’m crying like mad, tears running down my face and then my nose starts running and there’s all this snot and tears everywhere. “Oh dear me!” the air hostess says, looking at me with eyes full of concern, “let me find you a tissue”. She rummages in a little basket underneath the trolley and then gives me a small packet of tissues. The man sitting next to me looks at me and then looks away, faintly embarrassed as I try to stop crying.
“What is it? Is it flying?” the air hostess asks and I shake my head, snivelling.
“Is it a man?” she asks quietly and I nod my head and screw my eyes up. The air hostess crouches down next to me. “Right – I’ll just get one of the other girls to take the trolley down to the other passengers and then you can tell me all about it” she says, patting my arm, before standing up and gesturing towards one of the other cabin crew members stood further down the plane.
Sometime later, there isn’t just the girl who was pushing the trolley earlier stood near me, but two other cabin crew members as well.
“Bloody men!” the trolley-pushing girl says and the other two nod in agreement after I tell them what happened between me and Adam, although I don’t tell them who Adam is, just that he’s someone quite famous.
“We’ve heard it all before on here haven’t we?” one of the girls says to the trolley pushing girl who nods her head vigorously.
“Do you remember that girl who sings in that band – you know - them that had the Christmas number one last year?” she says and the other two nod. “She had flown in to surprise her fella and found him in bed with someone else!” she explains to me.
“Really?” a woman chips in from the row across from me. The cabin crew all nod their heads slowly.
“Yes – she just got straight on the first plane back and cried all the way didn’t she – poor thing!” one of the other girls says.
“Bloody men!” says the trolley-pushing girl again.
“Hey we’re not all like that,” the guy sitting next to me says unexpectedly. We all turn to stare at him. “Well we’re not!” he says and then adds, “If you want my opinion, I think that the bloke in question is an idiot,” and I can’t help but smile weakly.
“We’re going to be landing soon so we’d better go and get some things sorted,” the trolley-pushing girl says. “Sure you’ll be okay?” she asks.
“I’ll be fine. Thanks a lot” I say and the girl pats me on the arm, before heading off down the aisle.
“You’ll be fine!” one of the other girls says and gives me an encouraging smile as she walks off.
“You will you know,” the woman sat across from me adds.
“Thanks” I say and take a deep breath. At this moment though, I don’t think I’ll ever feel fine again.
I arrive at the airport, and after collecting my suitcase, put on my sunglasses to hide my red eyes. I’m glad I do because as I walk through into arrivals, I walk straight into a photographer in search of a story.
“Gail! You must be devastated!” he says, rushing up to me. “Any comment on the stories?”
“I have no comment to make at this time thank you” I say whilst thinking, why don’t you just piss off and leave me alone? I don’t know why I thought I liked this celebrity game. It’s horrible, absolutely horrible. I rush over to Alex who I can see waiting for me, looking anxious. As soon as she sees me, Alex runs towards me and envelopes me in a massive hug.
“Gail! Are you all right?” she asks.
“I’ve been better, I have to say,” I say, giving her a wan smile.
“Come on – let’s go home. We can talk about it in the car on the way back,” she says, leading the way out of the terminal building to the car park. We get to the car, put my suitcase in the boot and set off.
“So what happened then?” Alex asks and I tell her all about the massive argument I had with Adam earlier.
“It was dreadful Alex – I just can’t believe it,” I say snivelling.
“I know. It sounds awful,” Alex says soothingly. “Look, you are welcome to stay at ours for a bit while you sort things out - if you don’t mind sleeping on the settee that is - because the spare room is full of decorating stuff at the moment”.
“Thanks Alex” I say gratefully.
“I’m just going to nip in the supermarket” Alex says as we near her home “and get some things I need. Do you want to wait in the car or do you want to come in with me?” she asks as she pulls into a car parking space.
I rub my face with my sleeve. “I’ll come in actually – I need to get some bits and bobs myself” I say. “I did leave in rather a hurry and I think I’ve left most of my toiletries behind”.
“Okay” Alex says and we get out of the car and go into the supermarket. I pick up a basket and quickly select some shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. I’m just about to go to the till when I notice one of the newspapers on the stand near the magazines and my mouth drops open. There’s only a picture of Brenda from Delightful Plastic draped across the front of the newspaper, wearing just a pair of knickers under the headline –
‘ANOTHER FINCHLEY EXCLUSIVE!’
And like a moth to a flame, I have to go and look at it. Oh my God! Brenda is only claiming in an exclusive on page 9 that she fell for Adam’s charms as well after they had flirted a bit in a nightclub! “BRENDA?” I say loudly in complete disbelief. I feel sick. I can’t read any more. Adam hasn’t even met Brenda! The lying cow! I think furiously. I thought she was my friend! Some friend!
“What are you looking at?” Alex says, walking up behind me. She looks at the newspaper and gasps. “Oh my God! No way!” she whispers. “I can’t believe she has done this!”
“Neither can I” I say quietly.
“Well you know that it’s not true!” Alex says. “God! The two faced conniving cow! I can’t believe she has made all this up and for what? A bit of money? You wait till I see her!” She shakes her head. “What a bitch!”
“I don’t think I can take much more today” I say, putting the newspaper back. I feel sick. “Look,” I say in a low voice to Alex, “I feel really tired and I just want to get out of here. Let’s pay for this shopping and go home. I need to ring my mum and dad as well – let them know that I’m staying at yours”. I feel so exhausted and stressed and fraught that I’m sure what I’m saying isn’t making sense anymore.
“Right. Come on, let’s go” Alex says. We pay for our shopping and as Alex drives home, I reach for my phone and switch it back on. I’ve got several voicemail messages. Heart pounding, I press the button to listen to the messages. I bet they are from Adam and sure enough, seconds later, his voice comes on the line.
“Gail – it’s me. Please ring me so we can talk about this. Call me when you get this message.”
I don’t think so I think and immediately delete the message. I listen to the second message, again from Adam, but this one is much briefer. “Gail – it’s Adam. Please phone me” he says and then hangs up.
“Adam’s left two messages” I say.
“Don’t you think you should ring him and talk to him properly?” Alex says gently.
“No!” I shout suddenly, making Alex jump. “Look – I’m sorry – I’m feeling really shitty and tired and hungry – I can’t think straight at the minute!”
“All right, all right” Alex replies soothingly, “let’s get home and have something to eat, a glass of wine and then you’d better get some rest. I’m sure things will look a lot better in the morning”.
“I doubt it,” I say miserably. Things will still be as shit in the morning as they are now.
Chapter 28
“It’s only us!” Alex shouts up the stairs as she opens the door. “Do you want a cup of tea Dave?” she calls as I lift my suitcase inside.
“Yes please!” Dave answers from upstairs.
“He’s painting the landing” Alex explains, “I’ll just make us all a drink Gail, and then I’ll sort out some dinner”. She takes off her coat and goes to hang it up. She then carries the shopping into the kitchen, fills the kettle and starts to put the shopping away.
