door and slipped it round her shoulders.
‘Don’t do that,’ said Jimmy.
‘Do what?’
‘It’s Kate’s.’ He leaned back on one elbow. ‘Just a bit weird, that’s all.’
‘Sorry,’ she said, but she didn’t take it off. Jimmy was a cheat, a cocksman–if he hadn’t any qualms about taking strange women into his marital bed then he couldn’t get arsy about his wife’s dressing gown. Instead Chloe padded into the bathroom and turned the shower on.
‘Besides, you’ve been getting enough exercise,’ called Jimmy, with a wicked grin.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘Not really. Don’t know about you, love, but I’m knackered.’
‘You’re never knackered, Jimmy,’ she said, letting the robe drop tantalisingly to the floor. She stepped in, the glass around her steaming up.
‘Try me!’ he yelled as the pounding water took over.
In the silver rack was a selection of shampoo bottles, obviously Kate’s, and Chloe took pleasure in using the products. It was curious to be the other woman, but not altogether alien–it felt too much like retribution for that. She knew what it was like to be on the other side, and she’d earned her right to try it a different way.
In the end, they spent the morning by the infinity pool. Sweet-scented palms sweltered beneath an azure sky, the sugary smell of coconut tanning lotion thick in the air. Chloe swam fifty lengths with ruthless efficiency, Jimmy watching avidly from a sun lounger, a thin joint hanging out the side of his mouth.
She pulled herself on to the side, wrung out her long dark hair and arranged a pink towel beneath her. Relaxing back, she showed her tits to the sun–and to Jimmy, who, predictably, came to sit down next to her.
He passed her the joint, running a thumb lazily over her left nipple. ‘We should get married,’ he mused.
Chloe’s eyes flew open. ‘Are you serious?’
‘I’m a comic. What do you think?’
She reached for her Ray-Bans and put them on. ‘I think you’re a nob,’ she said, tilting her head back. Though it had been an intense week–for the first time in her life Chloe understood why people might get married on impulse, just like that after a few days, because when you were having sex like she and Jimmy were having sex, the rest of the world and all its rules, like other people and time and the usual order of things, went out the window. She had always thought that the relationships that worked were built on steady, solid years together before any kind of commitment. Obviously that hadn’t worked for Kate and Jimmy, or her and Nate—or her parents, for that matter. So what difference did it make?
Jimmy lay down in her lap, trailing one hand in the crystal water.
‘D’you know Cole Steel?’ she asked suddenly.
‘Vaguely,’ Jimmy said, taking back the smoke.
‘Brock’s got me auditioning for his new movie. Do me a favour and put in a word?’
His voice was tight. ‘Come on, Chloe, don’t go there.’
‘Where?’
‘You know where. This hasn’t got anything to do with either one of our careers.’
‘I know that,’ she said quickly. ‘I was only asking.’
‘Well, don’t. I’ve been put in that position too many times.’
‘You mean you’ve slept with too many actresses,’ she shot back.
Jimmy didn’t say anything.
‘Forget it,’ she muttered.
‘I will.’
Chloe looked down at her lover. He really was rather thin, she thought critically, taking in his stringy body and knobby knees.
Despite herself she thought fleetingly of Nate, so physically different from Jimmy. The Hides’ new album was getting excellent reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, but she couldn’t feel happy for him, not after how shittily he had treated her. After the break-up she had flown straight back to LA. Melissa Darling had called her from London the following week with news that Nate was badmouthing her to anyone who would listen, including the press. Fortunately there were enough other accounts of that night and it was perfectly obvious who had suffered in the relationship. Oddly it didn’t seem to be doing either of them any harm–Nate had reinforced his wannabe bad-boy image and she had come out as the wronged, innocent party.
‘It might not feel like it now,’ Melissa had said, ‘but in time you’ll see it’s better this way. You’re the girl who got caught in the wrong crowd. Better than the heartbreaker, Chloe.’
Jimmy extinguished the smoke in the pool with a fizz. ‘You’re a million miles away.’
‘Am I? Just thinking.’
The phone rang from inside the house.
‘Shit, better get that,’ said Jimmy, leaping up. Moments later he emerged, looking exhausted.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘That was Kate. She’s coming back from London.’
Chloe was alarmed. ‘What? When?’
‘Keep your knickers on.’ Jimmy yawned. ‘Couple of days.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yeah.’
A pause.
‘I was getting used to this,’ he said, his smile crooked.
Chloe glanced up at him. Some small, old part of her thought, You’re a real arsehole.
Jimmy seemed to think about sitting down, then padded to the opposite end of the pool and shook out his muscles. He looked troubled.
‘What’s this, an attack of conscience?’ she taunted. ‘This is real life, Jimmy–you make your choice and you pay the price.’
He disappeared into the pool with barely a splash and swam the length underwater. When he emerged at her end he grabbed hold of her knees. ‘That’s what you think I want you for?’ he mocked. ‘Real life? This is just fantasy, Chloe, and you’re part of it.’
‘We’re not getting married then?’ she flirted, kicking gently and sending a glittering splash into his face.
He looked at her funnily. His eyes were kind, she thought. Once upon a time he’d probably have been the perfect husband. If such a thing existed.
‘Not yet,’ he said, his gaze holding hers as he fed a hand between her legs. ‘Not yet.’
