Page 66 of Just for December

‘Wait, what?’ Evie asks, pulling away.

‘I heard her on the phone when I went to pee this morning, after I woke up. She was talking about you and Duke, and then said something about a link. And then this story hit.’

‘Why would Katerina feed the press?’ Evie asks. ‘She’s supposed to be my friend …’

Magda sighs. ‘No idea. I could be wrong – I don’t have proof. When I asked who was on the phone, she saidnobody, and I didn’t want to accuse her without proper proof …’

‘Yeah,’ says Evie. ‘I wouldn’t have said anything in that moment either.’ Her tears are drying now. She’s over it. It’s her superpower: she gets sixty seconds to be upset, and then she gets the hell on with it all. ‘Is that the intervention then?’ she asks.

Magda shakes her head. ‘Only partly,’ she says. ‘I wanted to talk to you about everything, to be honest. Being here, Evie, I can see there’s a lot you’ve not been telling me – from yourmom to the money stuff. I’ve been thinking, and your self-worth is, like, in the toilet. Sometimes it’s self-depreciating and droll. You’re funny, Evie, and you know you are. But Christ if that humour isn’t the strongest, best defensive mechanism I’ve ever seen. And now I know you don’t even let yourself enjoy your work, that you have to get rid of all the money you make because it makes you feel … well, I’m still not sure.’

‘Like crap,’ Evie supplies, playing with the hem of her jumper so she doesn’t have to look up. ‘I know I need to sort it out. This big movie money – I’m going to get a financial adviser. I’m going to face it head on. I’ve decided.’

Magda softens. ‘Okay,’ she says, slowly. ‘Well, that takes the wind out of my fighting sails, then. That was basically what I was going to suggest.’

‘Beat you to it,’ Evie says.

‘You always have.’ Magda shakes her head, but she’s smiling wryly when Evie dares look at her. It’s very embarrassing, being thirty-six and terrible with money. She’s not proud of it. She’s mortified, really.

‘If you have any resources or whatever,’ Evie says, ‘I’ll take them. Spreadsheets or anything.’

‘I do,’ Magda says. ‘And I can. You need several savings accounts, a proper retirement plan, a way to pay your mom’s care that is sensible and sustainable – don’t just give them all your money at once. And you can invest, too. Wealthy people don’t get wealthy by earning money, they get wealthy by having their money make money.’

‘Now there’s a soundbite,’ Evie quips.

‘And you can set up recurring donations to charity, too. If you want to give your cash away, at least make it count.’

Evie nods. ‘Yeah,’ she says. ‘I should do that.’

‘And I’m going to help you go through your stuff, see what we can sell and for how much. It’s so easy to put stuff up online, and between us we can manage the post office runs or courier pick-ups.’

‘I can hire somebody to do that,’ Evie starts, but Magda shakes her head.

‘We’ll do it together,’ she says. ‘Because you’re going to let me help you. Even if I have to elbow my way in! Surely after all this time you know I’m your ride or die, Evie. It’s you and me.’

Evie looks at her and blinks. ‘I think I blew it with Duke,’ she says, sadly, her voice wavering. ‘I don’t know how, but I know I have.’

‘Everything is fixable,’ Magda says. ‘And actually, first and foremost what we need is one last fake date – and a bit of misinformation to Katerina, too. Let’s try to catch her out. We can’t do anything about what’s already up there, but we can play her at her own game, right?’

Evie nods. ‘Okay,’ she says. ‘But you might have to talk to Duke first. He’s soft on you. You make him laugh.’

Magda smiles. ‘The man’s got good taste. What can I say?’

33

Evie

‘This is unbelievable,’ Evie marvels, as they snake up the big winding hill that Neuschwanstein, a mediaeval castle that looks like something straight out ofGame of Thrones, sits upon. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so beautiful in my life.’

She’s in a people carrier with Magda, Daphne and Duke, who has barely said a word since they got in the car forty minutes ago. Now isn’t the time to push him, not when they’re with the others. He’s agreed to be photographed one last time with Evie, though she hasn’t explained the real reason behind it yet: so she can know if Katerina really is the one selling stories to the papers. If she is, Evie hasn’t quite figured out what she’d like to do about it, but they can cross that bridge when they get to it. For now, Duke thinks he’s simply continuing with their fauxmance for the good ofthe movie, which he has an even bigger investment than ever in as director. And so here they are, ready to be papped. Evie will explain to him later who the leak is, if Magda’s suspicions are true.

If the Disney logo was a real castle outside of a theme park, it would be Neuschwanstein. White stone turrets of various heights rise and fall in peaks and troughs, with a solid stone block of a base at the bottom, then another big stone block above that, but set further back, so that it almost looks like the castle is setintothe hills from a distance. Up close it serves to simply make Evie feel teeny-tiny, but in a good way. She doesn’t mind being reminded every so often that her place in the universe is actually minuscule, that the world does not keep turning on every breath she takes. She’s just a person, with lots of other people, on a planet that has sweeping landscapes and snow-covered trees and hills as tall as giants.

‘Shall we get this over with?’ Duke grumbles when the door is opened by their driver, and Evie’s heart drops just enough to let her know that she’s hurt by his mood. If she thought they could gloss over whatever happened the other night, after they slept together, she was wrong. Although, Daphnehadsaid something had happened with his mom. Maybe Evie doesn’t need to take this so personally. Maybe she can just be there for him, as a friend, all sex aside. She’s been enjoying that – the friendship bit. As they file out of the car, Evie doesn’t need any instructions about where to go or how to play it. She’s a dab hand at all this by now: she knows that if they walk and talk for long enough, Carter, Duke’s PR, or the producers, will have planted a pap who will catch it all.

‘This way?’ she suggests to Duke, pointing towards a path looping around the lower part of the castle. He nods. They set off.

‘You must have seen some amazing places in your time,’ Evie says congenially as they navigate the path. Even under the snow she can see that the place is manicured to perfection. She wishes she’d brought her sunglasses, though. This much snow is blinding.

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