Page 34 of Bad Influence
‘Oh my God, honey. Your face!’ Coco didn’t mince her words.
I pushed my hands against the floor and used the wall to steady myself as I stood up.
‘I threw down a medicine ball and it bounced straight back up.’ I winced, placing the ice back over my swollen top lip.
Coco gasped.
I gently dabbed the frosting of ice on my lip with a tissue. ‘I mean, who’s heard of a medicine ball that bounces?’ Iadded, quietly pleased that there was something to blame, other than myself. ‘It was the ten kg.’
‘Ouch.’ She made a face.
‘Yes, ouch,’ I repeated sarcastically. It was actually quite hard to speak.
Coco studied me. ‘You look like you’ve had a lip job,’ she said with concern, ‘that went wrong.’
If I wasn’t mistaken, her lip curled slightly with amusement. Instead of annoying me, it provided some reassurance that, if she was finding it funny, it couldn’t bethatbad. At least not in need of the hospital.
‘Thanks. It feels like it too.’ I pressed the pack onto my face again, to give myself some respite from the hot sensation of blood rushing to my lips. ‘But how am I going to explain this to Mandy?’
Coco smiled. ‘Tell her you went to Harley Street in the middle of the night to get your lips done, and it didn’t agree with you?’
‘Great idea, I’m sure she’ll go for that,’ I replied.
‘Just tell her you got beaten up by a medicine ball?’ Jimi offered. ‘But not on my watch. I’m not sure my insurance would cover it.’ He looked a little worried.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t sue you,’ I replied. ‘I’m more concerned about the immediate future.’
‘Come on,’ said Coco, gesturing to the doorway. ‘You’ll survive, Amber, it’s honestly not as bad as it probably feels right now. I came to tell you both that breakfast is ready. You’ll feel better with something in you, and we can figure out a plan.’
‘Morning, gang, what’s on the breakfast menu?’ Blair joined us in the large kitchen. ‘Oh WOW. I didn’t know Jocelyn Wildenstein was joining us for breakfast this morning,’ they said, stunned. ‘What happened, Amber?’
The bleeding had mercifully stopped now, but the fact my upper lip was twice the size of the lower wasn’t something you could easily miss.
After we had eaten a breakfast of oats with turmeric, sultanas, psyllium husk, collagen, and hemp seeds – Coco blended mine so I could drink it through a straw – Blair nudged me. ‘Come on, let’s take a smoothie to Her Royal Highness. Lola will be here to do her make-up shortly, and Mandy needs something to wear to Harrods. The crew are coming to film.’
I followed them into the hallway and Blair noticed me stop in front of the large decorative mirror there, to peer at my lip.
‘It honestly doesn’t lookthatbad,’ they said. ‘I’m getting used to it. But if you’re worried, why don’t you accompany Mandy to her cryotherapy appointment? It will help bring down the swelling.’
I wondered what cryotherapy was. ‘Does it actually make you cry?’ I asked.
‘No! It’s basically a short stint in a giant freezer – for health benefits. Mandy uses it to “increase her metabolism”, what she means is to lose weight. Shelovesgoing to it with someone new – and to be honest, I already feel like I’m walking on thin ice this morning because I’ve just had to tell herHELLO!magazine have passed on a photoshoot,’ Blairsaid, looking down and quoting, ‘“We can see that Mandy has a big following in the US, but we’re afraid she’s not well-known enough over here to warrant a shoot at present. We would need a new ‘hook’ to consider it.”
‘Not well-known enough? That’s four words Mandy hasn’t heard in a very long time, and as for ahook, by that they mean personal news like a divorce or pregnancy. I daren’t tell her that part,’ Blair said.
‘Did you tryOK!magazine?’ I asked.
‘Are you joking?’ Blair said, blanching. ‘No global star would be in their pages.HELLO!will come crawling before long. We’ll make sure of it. Anyway, she’s been in a foul mood ever since. I call her Medusa when she’s like this.’ They waved their fingers above their head illustrating snakes.
‘Don’t make me laugh, it hurts.’ I squirmed. ‘Being in a freezer with Medusa doesn’t sound like the most appealing way to spend an afternoon, but if you think it will help, at this point I’ll try anything.’How bad could it be?
‘Come on, let’s get her ready for Harrods,’ Blair said. ‘I’ll tip off a pap I know, so at least she’ll get a column centimetre, if not an inch, going in.’
My dress code for Mandy about town was simple, effortless luxury – I had built her a staple collection of black, beige, and cream tank tops, matching cashmere, and white jeans, finished with fine gold jewellery. It was understated for a moment like this when she needed to look cool and chic when captured on camera as we entered Harrods.Simple, huh?
Except Mandy had other ideas, picking her most eye-catching bright yellow Prada handbag, and the silver Bottega Veneta mirrored knee-high boots currently trending on Vogue.com, to finish the look, commenting that she was looking for ‘maximum eyeballs’ during her visit to the upmarket shopping mecca.
It wasn’t an outfit I would have put together myself, but I doubted anyone was sitting at home waiting to judge my styling today, so I decided it was best not to argue, and was thankful for the fact Mandy was so engrossed in prancing around the bedroom in the futuristic boots that she didn’t notice I was sporting a pout to rival Victoria Beckham. This was one benefit of working with a star like Mandy – she didn’t care about anyone else as much as herself.
