Page 65 of Just for December

‘Mum!’

The line goes dead.

32

Evie

Evie doesn’t have anything official to do on set that day, save being available if any of the actors decide they want character help, which seems unlikely on account of the fact that they haven’t so far, and they all know their characters better than her now anyway. That’s why, when she gets back to her hotel room after breakfast and Magda is stepping out of the shower, there’s nowhere to hide when Magda says: ‘I feel like I’m losing my authority by announcing this in a dressing gown, but I’m staging an intervention. We need to talk.’

Evie looks at her friend. Magda wasn’t here when Evie came down after her fight with Duke last night and hadn’t returned by the time Evie, who had tossed and turned all night, left for a very early morning walk. She looks tired. There’s a tiny bit of mascara still clinging to the side of her eye, and her skin is pink from the heat of the water.

‘Areyouall right?’ Evie asks, kicking off her shoes to lie on the bed. Seems like neither of them slept much last night. Thoughts of Duke kept her staring at the ceiling. Why did he disappear like that? It’s so freakingodd.

‘I think I know a … thing,’ Magda says, slowly. She sets her mouth in a firm line and then blows air into her cheeks so they inflate.

Evie frowns. ‘Your ability to communicate clearly is top-notch. I understood every word of what you just said,’ she says, sarcastically.

Magda perches on the edge of the bed. It’s not a big room, especially for two women with bursting suitcases and a week of shopping behind them, but it doesn’t need to be. Their college dorm was smaller than this, and they survived. In fact, look how far they’ve come, baby.

‘Does this have something to do with where you were last night?’ presses Evie.

‘Oh, well,’ Magda says. ‘Yeah. I ended up crashing in Katerina’s room. I can’t even remember why we went up there to be honest – I’d drunk a lot. But then we watchedParks and Recon her laptop and I fell asleep.’

‘Oh,’ says Evie, her bubble burst. ‘I thought maybe you’d hooked up.’

‘What!’ Magda laughs. ‘No! I wouldn’t do that to you, get unprofessional on your work trip!’

‘I would have forgiven you,’ Evie tells her.

‘Anyway,’ Magda says, reorientating the discussion. ‘Youdisappeared last night, and I have an incredibly big suspicion as to where, and with who.’

‘We’re talking about you right now!’ Evie says, becauseshe can’t get into it. It was amazing with Duke – natural and fun and somehow it felt like what everything had always been leading up to. There was an inevitability to it. She’s still processing that he got cross in the way that he did. She didn’t mean to upset him, pointing out the shelf life of their dalliance.

‘Well, only because you derailed my intervention!’ At this, Magda hesitates. ‘Have you seen the news today? Or rather, the gossip sites?’

‘No,’ answers Evie. ‘What’s that got to do with the price of fish?’

Magda goes to her laptop and pulls up a story about Evie and Duke, but there’s no cute headline about them frolicking in the European winter – it’s a cutting and horrible piece about Evie’s mum being in a home. DUKE CARLISLE’S WRITER GIRLFRIEND LEAVES GRAVELY ILL MOTHER ALONE IN CARE HOME SO SHE CAN NIBBLE SCHNITZEL ON GERMAN FILM SET.

Evie reads the article, getting increasingly horrified. How do they know all this? And how are they able to print it when it’s her – and her mom’s – private business? It’s like a leech has been stuck to her carotid artery and is draining her dry. This isn’t fair.

‘… Evie?’

‘How do they even know all this?’ Evie says, her voice barely audible. ‘This is my life. Not tabloid fodder. My LIFE.’

Magda scoots over and puts a hand on Evie’s knee.

‘Why didn’t you tell me how sick she’d gotten?’

‘I didn’t want you to feel sorry for us.’

‘Evie,’ Magda says, mouth agape. ‘I’m your best friend. I’m here tohelpyou. Not pity you.’

Evie shrugs. What must it be like to just … ask people for help? To tell them your secrets so they don’t weigh you down and make you feel like you’re drowning? How do people get to be that way? Evie loves Magda with her whole heart and doesn’t know what she’d do without her. And yet. Even Magda gets the edited version of her life. Everyone does. It’s safer that way. Then when she’s inevitably rejected, it’s still on her terms. She can never be left for who she really is. A tear rolls down her face. She wipes it away. For crying out loud.

‘Dammit,’ Evie says.

‘Come here,’ Magda insists, and as they hug she says: ‘I think it’s Katerina who’s feeding the press.’

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