TMS-the mighty storm

Chapter 11

"All good I hope?"

"That's all my thoughts of you ever are. I miss you," he breathes down the line.

I'm wicked and evil, and I'm going to Hell.

"I miss you too ... um, Will ... I just wanted to give you a heads up ... because well, there's a story in the tabloids about Lauren ... and me. And it suggests that we are ... um ... sleeping together. Which obviously we're not."

Why did I say that?

Because you're a coward.

No, I just can't tell him this over the phone.

Will hasn't said anything, and the silence is stretching.

"Are you still there?" I ask.

"Yes." His tone is as stale as last week's bread. "Why do the tabloids think you're sleeping with her, exactly?"

"You know journo's." I cringe as I say the words. "Lauren sang this song at her show for me and they stupidly interpret it as she's serenading me. And they've said that Lauren said some stuff which she most definitely did not. Then I danced with her in the club, as I did some of the other guys in the band." A total lie. "And then my feet were cut and hurting from my new shoes, so Lauren carried me into the hotel ... and that's all," I add lamely at the end.

Silence again. I can hear him breathing down the line.

I hold my breath, nervously fingering the hem of my T-shirt.

Lauren's T-shirt.

I'm the worst kind of person.

"And there's definitely nothing for me to be worried about?" he finally asks, his voice tentative, wary.

"No, of course there isn't, baby."

I'm evil, pure evil.

I hear him exhale. "Then it doesn't matter. Don't worry yourself with it, darling."

"Well, I'm just worried about you ... that it will cause you some problems. You know, stick from the guys at work."

"It's not your fault, Cam." His voice is soft. "You haven't done anything wrong, so who cares what the papers say, or the dickheads I work with. They'll soon get bored and move onto to something else when they realise there's nothing in it."

The bedroom opens and I glance up to see Laure standing here in all her glory, before me.

Crap.

"Will," I mouth to her, pointing my finger to the phone, which is now pressed firmly up against my ear.

Her happy face drops, and she turns and goes back into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

And I feel sicker from that one look on her face, than I have from anything I have heard and said since I woke.

"So we're okay?" I murmur to Will.

"We're more than okay. I'm sorry, darling, but I have to go, I've got a meeting and they're calling me in now."

"Of course. Go. I'll call you later."

"Love you," he says.

"Love you too."

I hang up the phone and drop my head into my hands.

Then taking a deep breath, I get up and go to see Lauren, with absolutely no clue what I'm going to say to her.

She's sitting cross-legged on the bed, wearing her boxer shorts, and the TV is on. One quick glance tells me it's the Entertainment Channel.

"So we made the news," she says, gesturing to the TV with the remote. Her eyebrow is raised, but I can see the wary in her glance. "Was that what the phone call was about?"