“Fuck off home, George. We don’t want you here. You stink and we don’t love ya.”
I flip Marley my middle finger and let out a long sigh. “What time does Cam land?”
“Ten past seven.”
“What time is it now?” I ask.
“Three. By the time I get you home, it’ll be time to shoot to the airport.” I look around the other side of Benny to where Lennon is sitting behind his desk talking on his phone.
“Hang on a minute, Max.” He covers the mouthpiece. “Go home, Georgia. Have a nice long bath, a glass of bubbly, wash your hair, shave all the bits women shave and wait for Cam to arrive.” I smile at Len.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were gay after that suggestion.” He pouts, rolls his eyes and points at me with his pen.
“And wear the blue lace thong and bra, that set totally sets off your eyes, darling.” He flutters his lashes and continues, “Now fuck off out of here. I’ll see you at mine Monday morning for the piss-on-a-stick party.” I smile at him, then move my eyes to Ben, who’s now leaning on my desk. He shakes his head.
“I don’t even wanna think about what that might mean. You Layton’s are fucking weird. I tell ya.” A rolled up piece of paper hits Benny up the back of the head and I cringe as I look at him. He looks back at me with raised eyebrows. “Marley, when I catch you, I will break your fucking face.”
“Benny, Benny, Benny. When you lose ten stone that might happen. Till then, dream on, sunshine.” Ben shakes his head some more.
“Let’s go, George. We’ll leave the children to play.”
I grab my bag from under my desk and head for the door. Just as we step outside to the lobby, Benny pops his head back in.
“Oi, Marley, tell Ash that I love that new red thong with the beaded crotch.” I laugh and keep walking towards the lift as Marley calls out.
“What the fuck, Ben? What’s that mean? When’d you see her new thong?”
The doors slide back and I’m joined by a chuckling Benny.
“You know he’ll be on the phone to Ash now, wanting to know how you know about her new thong.”
He shrugs. “Serves the fucker right, throwing paper at my head. Sorry, George, shouldn’t swear.”
“I’ll let you off, Ben. Just don’t let Cam catch ya, especially around the baby.” He raises his eyebrows and makes a small upward motion with his head.
“How you doing with all that, George? Can’t be easy for ya?”
I fold my arms across my chest, instinctively becoming defensive. “I’m okay, Ben. It hurts, but it is what it is. There’s nothing I can do to change things, so all I can do is try and make the best of a bad situation.”
He nods his head and I follow behind him out the lift and into the underground car park of the block where Len has his offices. “I admire ya, George. Tamara’s fuckin’ mental. Even when she weren’t on the sniff, she was always a bit odd, and on it, she’s just a fuckin’ psycho.”
I shrug as he opens the door to the Land Rover. I climb in and watch as Ben walks around to the driver’s side and climbs in next to me.
“I love Cam, and unfortunately, Tamara is part of the package that comes with loving Cam. He puts up with all the shit I come with, the press attention, the fans and whatever. One crazy junkie is nothing compared to all of that. It’s what you do when you love someone, Ben. You accept everything about them unconditionally.” Benny chuckles as we pull out into the Friday afternoon London traffic and start heading back to the Essex countryside and home.
“You’ve become quite the philosopher ain’t ya, George? Grown up a lot from that mouthy little Essex bird who used to come in the wine bar.”
I smile as I think back to those days. “Age does that to ya. I’m still me, underneath it all. I’m still that same mouthy Essex bird, but life happened, Ben. I’ve lived and loved and lost and experienced a lot, and I hope I’ve learnt from all of that.” He takes his eyes from the road and gives me a wink.
“You do all right, George, you do all right.” I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I’ll take it as a compliment and I close my eyes as I listen to Ashanti’s “Foolish” on the radio. I must drift off to sleep, as the next thing I hear is Benny saying, “What the fuck’s goin’ on?” I open my eyes to about twenty paparazzi surrounding the gates to my house. Benny pulls over and tries to do a U-turn but we are on a narrow country lane and what starts out as a possible three point turn, ends up being about an eight point turn.
“Any idea what this is about, Georgia?” Ben asks as he finally gets the car facing back the way we came. The paps have noticed the car and a few of them are now running towards us. I shake my head.