скачать книгу бесплатно
Jack shrugs his shoulders.
‘Maybe you tricked me into marrying you so you could get your hands on my $20k.’
‘I don’t want your money, Georgie. I want to get off this plane, on the next one back and get a divorce.’
‘We don’t need a divorce, we need an annulment,’ I tell him.
‘What’s the difference?’
‘We can get it annulled immediately. It’s like cancelling it out – so long as we didn’t have sex.’
‘We didn’t,’ he insists, a little too quickly for my liking. ‘So let’s just get this done and go our separate ways.’
I think for a moment. I want to get an annulment as soon as possible – of course I do – except… I’m supposed to be arriving in England today and pre-wedding forced-fun starts tomorrow. If I don’t turn up, I’ll be in so much trouble. My auntie will probably think I’m doing it to ruin my cousin’s big day week. And then there’s my problem of not having a fiancé… The cogs in my head are turning.
‘OK, we both just need to calm down and think about what’s best for everyone. Marriage is about compromise, right?’ I joke.
Jack pulls an unimpressed face.
‘Sorry. So, I can’t get the first plane back because I need to be around for my cousin’s wedding. You’ve heard my story, you know I need to be there. And you know everyone is expecting me to turn up with my fiancé.’
‘So, what, you think turning up with a random husband is going to show you in a better light than admitting you got cheated on and broke up?’ he asks in disbelief.
‘No, of course not,’ I reply. ‘But the last time my parents visited was not long after John and I got together and he was away on tour, and his passionate hatred of social media means he would never let me upload photos of him.’
‘Your ex was a dick. So?’
‘So, no one knows what he looks like,’ I point out. ‘So, you can come with me and pretend to be him. It’s only a week, it’s a free holiday with a fancy wedding – it’s not like you’ve got work, is it? Plus, if you do this for me, I’ll give you half the money. I’m sure that will come in handy while you look for a job.’
Jack laughs.
‘Let me get this straight – you’re going to pay me $10k to pretend to be your fiancé for a week? Then what?’
‘Then we’ll head back to the US with our already-paid-for return tickets, get our annulment and I’ll make something up about how I dumped you for having a small penis.’
Jack laughs.
‘You’re really serious, aren’t you?’
‘I didn’t ask for any of this,’ I tell him. ‘I’m just playing with the cards I’ve been dealt.’
‘Oh, well, I can’t resist a gambling pun,’ he laughs. ‘OK, fine. But it’s one week, and then home to get this annulled, OK?’
‘Oh, definitely,’ I tell him. ‘I don’t want to be married to you any more than you want to be married to me.’
‘Easiest $10k I’ll ever make,’ he says, leaning back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head.
I pull an unconvinced face at him.
‘You won me $20k playing poker,’ I remind him. Surely that’s easier?
‘Yeah, but you need money to gamble in the first place. I couldn’t afford to gamble that kind of money, even if I am a great player. Do you know how much it costs to live on your own?’
My face falls as I realise I’m going to be finding out very soon. It takes Jack a moment to realise what he’s said.
‘OK, so, you’re the mastermind of the plan. Talk me through it,’ he says, almost excitedly.
‘Well, now that horrible ring is off… no offence…’
‘None taken,’ Jack replies. ‘I’m pretty sure that one came from a vending machine.’
‘Nice. Well, I’ll put my engagement ring back on.’
I take the ring from the little pocket in my handbag where I hid it and slip it back onto my ring finger, where it used to belong.
‘Holy shit,’ Jack exclaims, grabbing my hand for a closer look. ‘You’d win $20k a whole bunch of times if you flipped that thing, if you know what I mean.’
‘Sell it?’ I ask, because I’m not entirely sure I know what he means. Jack’s Nevada accent is strong, and he talks like he’s a cool guy – or at least, someone who spends a lot of time around cool guys. ‘I’m not selling it. Once this week is over, I’m giving it back. I want nothing from him. I don’t even want to talk about him.’
‘Well, that’s unfortunate,’ Jack laughs. ‘If I’m going to pretend to be him, I’m going to need to know all about him.’
I sigh deeply and massage my temples.
‘My head is still banging, how is it you look so bright-eyed?’ I ask.
‘Maybe I’m just more used to drinking,’ he laughs. ‘Why don’t you get some sleep? It’s going to be a long flight. We can talk when you wake up.’
I think for a moment.
‘OK, sure. Thanks,’ I reply.
I really do need to get some sleep, but as I make myself comfortable I carefully and discreetly tuck my handbag at the side of my seat, keeping my money out of his reach. I’m not exactly sure how Jack could possibly steal it while we’re flying at 40,000 feet, but I’m not entirely sure I trust him yet…
Chapter Eight (#ulink_ec2aae3e-d449-53f8-9c05-59b6f7d5ac41)
The smell of maple syrup hits my nose before any of my other senses have chance to wake up. My ears soon follow, although the plane chatter is slightly muted, which means my ears must need to pop. Finally, I open my eyes slowly, just as I hear Jack roaring with laughter next to me. That’s when I realise that, at some point while I was asleep, I must have rested my head on his shoulder.
I sit up quickly, wiping the little bit of drool from my chin before he notices.
‘Having a lovely time?’ I ask sarcastically.
Jack notices me out of the corner of his eye and removes his headphones.
‘Huh?’ he asks.
‘I said, are you having a lovely time?’
‘Oh, you bet,’ he replies, smiling widely.
Jack is sitting comfortably, watching one of the in-flight movies while he tucks into a breakfast of French toast and bacon, covered with lashings of sweet-smelling maple syrup. His choice of tipple for washing his breakfast down? A glass of champagne, no less – not his first, I’d imagine, given how funny he’s finding this movie about a talking horse detective – Prancing Justice III.
‘You want a drink?’ he asks.
‘Not for a long time,’ I reply. ‘Y’know, lest I do something stupid like get married again.’
My husband laughs wildly.
‘You know what, I have a good feeling about this,’ he says.
‘That’ll be the champagne,’ I reply.
‘No, I’m serious. And it’s not just about the money – the money helps, don’t get me wrong. It will keep me going until I find another job, but… I don’t know. I don’t really have any family left so I don’t get invited to big family events like weddings.’
I pause for thought. When I moved to the States for uni, the truth is I couldn’t wait to leave life in Lancashire behind. I grew up in a small town just outside Blackpool, where everyone knew everybody’s business, and no one really had much going on. You’re born there, you grow up there, you marry someone from there and then you die there, leaving your kids to follow in your footsteps. I never wanted that to happen to me, so I got out of there as soon as I could, and avoided coming back like the plague. Sure, I’ve visited home over the years, but since John came on the scene, I’ve seen less and less of my family. The last time I visited, everyone was on my case about why I hadn’t brought John to meet them (I think my auntie might have been peddling a theory I’d fabricated him). The truth is, I was embarrassed. John is from a very well-off family and everyone in his line of business seems to be cut from similar cloth. He’s quite serious, bordering on stuffy sometimes, and I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t a snob. Taking him back to the town I grew up in, showing him the three-bedroom semi I lived in with my blue-collar dad and dinner-lady mum… It’s not that I’m ashamed of them, it’s just… I worried John would love me less if he knew where I came from. I know what you’re thinking: how did I manage to keep who I am from him? Well, let’s just say that even though I’m not a successful actress, I’m still a talented one.
‘Coffee then?’ Jack persists, snapping me from my thoughts.
‘Please,’ I reply.
As Jack calls over an air hostess and orders my drink, I examine his body language. He’s not like John at all. He’s so cool, with his relaxed demeanour and easy, charming way with everyone he speaks to. He reminds me of how I used to be, or how I thought I was, at least. The day I met John I was on my way back from an audition for the role of a rich, suburban housewife. I’d wasted a lot of time and a lot of effort on a lot of failed auditions, but I still wasn’t ready to give up, so I decided to take the clichéd, ‘dress for the job you want’ advice and wore exactly what I imagined a snooty housewife would wear. Turning up in the type of outfit I usually wore, like a plaid shirt-dress and pair of Converse teamed with bright-red lipstick and too much eyeliner, wasn’t going to cut it. From my pastel lemon twinset to my pearls, to my minimal make-up and newly trimmed bob, I looked nothing like myself and everything like the kind of girl who would catch John’s attention, it turns out. I was walking down the street, the weight of the world on my lemon-clad shoulders after yet another rejection, when a man sitting outside a café struck up a conversation with me.
‘How can someone be so sad when it’s so sunny outside?’ he asked me from over his cappuccino, which, I suppose, is just a posh person’s way of saying ‘cheer up, love, it might never happen’. As we sat and chatted I learned all about the kind of person he was, and having realised it was the temporarily classy-looking me who’s caught his eye, I kept the image up when he asked me on our first date, and then our second, and then it just stuck. Dating an orchestral pianist, going to his performances and the swanky events that go with them, hanging around with his fancy friends… I had to keep it up, or I never would’ve fitted in. His friends would mock girls in yoga pants and boys in flip-flops, and I would keep my head down, my mouth shut, and the door to my flat full of offending outfits closed, because I loved John, and I wanted his people to accept me.
Around the time I met him, I was starting to consider whether or not I should move back home. Not just because I missed my family, but because things weren’t really working out for me career-wise. Not only did he convince me I should stay because he’d help me find work (he’s worked on a few movie scores and said that he could introduce me to the right people in the industry – although that never happened), he promised me we’d start our own family someday.
I shouldn’t be thinking about this right now; I should be filling Jack in on all the info he needs to pretend to be my elusive fiancé. It used to really upset me he wouldn’t let me put things on Facebook – I thought he was ashamed of me. But right now I couldn’t be more thankful, because the fewer people know about him, the fewer facts Jack and I will need to stick to. We can ad-lib the whole thing, and there will be no one with a dated timeline of information to fact-check any of it.
I explain to Jack that no one knows too much about John, so it shouldn’t be too hard for him to keep up the act.
‘So, you’re an orchestral pianist,’ I remind him. ‘We live together in LA but you travel around a lot for work, and most of the time I go with you. I work different temp jobs, so it’s easy for me to take time off. I’m between jobs at the moment.’
‘Pretty sweet life you’ve got going on,’ he observes through a mouthful of breakfast.
‘Had going on,’ I correct him. ‘So, you love classical music, pop culture makes you angry, social media makes you furious—’
‘Do your family know this stuff?’ he interrupts.
‘They know he doesn’t have a web presence. Well, I mean, they’ve noticed he doesn’t.’
‘Do they know he’s boring and kind of a douchebag, though?’
‘He’s not…’ I jump to John’s defence then wonder why I’m bothering. ‘No, they don’t.’
‘Cool, so I can reinvent the guy, make him seem like you have better taste.’
‘Must you?’ I ask with a slight whine.
Jack laughs as he polishes off the last of his meal, washing it down with the last of his champagne.
‘So, what kind of temp jobs do you do?’ he asks.
‘Erm, this and that. Office jobs, dog walking, marketing…’
‘Is that what you wanted to be?’
‘I wanted to be an actress – I still do. Things got put on hold when I met John. He was just so busy with work, and he was already established so…’
It always sounds like an excuse, when I say it out loud.
‘How did your parents feel about you moving thousands of miles away to become an actress?’
‘Well, I moved away for uni, so they were happy I was studying. And they’re happy I’m happy there with John – was happy,’ I correct myself. In the midst of all this make-believe, I mustn’t forget what has actually happened. Life as I know it is over.
Jack rubs his chin thoughtfully.
‘You got brothers or sisters?’
‘Two brothers,’ I reply. ‘Olly, who is a couple of years older than me. He’s like the model son because he’s got a good job and a house and a pregnant wife. Then there’s my little brother, Jacob, who’s currently studying for his A-levels. He’s eighteen.’
‘That’s a bit of an age gap,’ he observes. ‘So, he was how old when you moved to the States?’
‘My parents had Olly and me in their early twenties. My mum calls Jacob her “little surprise”, which I think means accident,’ I laugh. ‘He can’t have been more than nine or ten when I moved out.’
‘Would you say you’re close with your family?’
‘OK, now you’re just being nosey,’ I say with a laugh. ‘You can’t possibly need to know that.’
‘Just wondering,’ he replies.
I’m definitely the unremarkable middle child in the Parker family. They think Olly is wonderful because he got a steady job selling double-glazing, a house, and a wife – and now he’s got a bun in the oven, he’s flying through the motions, just as my parents hoped he would. The thing about Olly is, he was always the most popular guy in school, and he always found it effortless to wiggle his way out of trouble – as far as my parents are concerned, he can still do no wrong. Even now we’re adults, he still tortures me and teases me in the way siblings do. Jacob is Olly’s opposite; he’s very quiet and keeps himself to himself. Studying is his number-one priority at the moment, and it’s hard to tease him for it, really, because he gets results. It seems like the As come easily to him, but I know he studies hard. Still, I wish he’d let his hair down a little bit sometimes. I suppose, because I moved away when Jacob was only ten years old, we haven’t really spent much time together.
‘Do I have any siblings?’ Jack asks me.
I stare at him for a moment, wondering why he’s asking me, before I realise he means the role he’s playing.
‘Oh. No, you’re an only child.’
‘Well, that won’t be hard to fake,’ he says with a slight laugh. ‘I’m an only child.’
‘This is going to be OK, isn’t it?’ I ask him anxiously.
‘Sure. It’s just a week,’ he reminds me. ‘We get on OK, don’t we? Weddings are always fun. I’m still a bit freaked-out about being married, but we can fix that as soon as we’re back.’
‘Yeah,’ I reply. ‘It will be fine.’
A jolt of turbulence hits the plane, as though to remind me journeys don’t always run smoothly.
‘I need to stop at a store and grab a toothbrush and change of clothes. I only got on the plane to convince you to get off. Are expenses covered on this trip?’ he asks with a cheeky laugh.
