Page 23 of Two Wrongs
‘Are things that bad?’ she asks, a little more solemn now.
‘No,’ I answer immediately. ‘They’re okay. I’m just tired. The flight—you know?’
‘That’s all it is?’ she asks, unconvinced.
‘Abso. Come on, don’t keep me in suspenders. What’s so funny I need to hear?’
‘Suspense, y’wee daftie.’
‘Come on—not even I’m that awful. I was being ironic.’
‘Hmm,’ she responds, unconvinced. ‘It’s no’ so much funny ha-ha as funny strange.’
I make an enquiring noise, staring at the clear liquid as I swirl it around my glass.
‘You don’t happen to be working for some Hollywood bigwig, do you?’’ She doesn’t wait for an answer to her cryptic question. ‘But no. You couldn’t be. You’d surely share that kind of information with your best pals.’
‘Shall I just go—hang up? This seems to be a conversation you’re happy to have with yourself.’
‘You see,’ she says, ignoring my snark, ‘June was hogging the computer earlier—’
‘I was asking Dr. Google about my bunions!’ calls June’s voice somewhat farther away. ‘Leave the poor girl alone,’ she then calls. ‘She might have had to sign one of thoseFifty Shadesdocuments. You know, one of themnone-gots-clothes-offagreements.’
‘Away with your nonsense.’ That Natasha’s voice sounds distant means she’s turned her head from the phone. ‘Nondisclosure, woman, and she’s no’ with Christian Grey!’ ‘So,’ she says, her voice becoming clearer again, ‘I was doing my wee morning celeb cyber stalk on my phone when I came across a photo of someone who looked an awful lot like you.’
I don’t so much as comment as I make a vague noise down the line.
‘Aye, taken outside of what was labelled,Dylan Duffy’s Love Nest. Long range camera, but she looked like you. She even had a pair of those trousers on that Fin brought you back from Italy—you know—the ones; those yoga pants?’
‘Did her bum look as good in them as mine?’ I manage a weak laugh. ‘They’re only pants. I bet you can get them all over the world.’
‘That’s the thing; Fin says they were a one-off. Only one bolt of the fabric ever made and designed just for you. Just to be sure, I kicked June off the laptop for a proper look.’
‘I can’t think why,’ I bluff. ‘The material must be similar because I’m pretty sure I’m not at Dylan Duffy’s house.’
‘I didn’t sayhoose. I saidlove nest‘cause he apparently lives in the city somewhere. So are you shacked up with him—livin’ large at his shag pad?’ The latter she whispers into the phone sort of avidly. ‘You can tell me—just me—June has’nae got her hearing aid in.’
‘I am not.’ I am not shacked up with him. I’ve just got a temporary stay in purgatory. A waiting room for hell where at least the vodka’s decent. I top my glass from the bottle as Nat sighs.
‘I didn’t think so, but I thought I’d check, especially as you have a backstory of sorts.’ Understatement of the year. If only she knew.
‘Sorry to disappoint.’
‘I’d be as green as a leprechaun’s arse if you were.’
‘Why?’ I sound sort of incredulous, probably a reflection of my not-so-pleasant stay.
‘He’s one big hunk of dickalicious, isn’t he? Even if he wasn’t meant solely for woman-flesh.’
‘Not meant for—what? You mean you think he’s gay?’ What a hoot. I might not like him—might despise him even—but no one who’s ever met Dylan would confuse him for anything other than straight.
‘All those women he’s supposed to be fu—f—fondling? Come on; there are just too many for it to be feasible.’
‘You think he has lots of women?’ I almost choke on the words.
‘He’s hadloadsof women on the go these past few months.’
My heart sinks. ‘Yeah?’
