Page 94 of Marley
I stayed drunk in my hotel room for two days. I was still too close, too tempted to go back and claim her, to make her mine, until I would do what I did best and fucked things up, until I broke her.
I called Andrea again and booked a flight to the States.
I checked in with Len and told him I just needed some time to myself. We had nothing on anyway. With only a month till his wedding, we had nothing scheduled until later in the year when we’d start the new album.
I needed to be back in England in three weeks for my final suit fitting, which gave me plenty of time to be seen and photographed with a different woman on my arm every night. I went to every place in LA we usually avoided. Every club, bar, and restaurant I knew the press hung about outside, I was there. I made sure I gave them plenty of opportunity to get their shots of me leaving, and I made sure I was with a different woman each time.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt Ash, I didn’t, not at all, but I knew if I went where I was sure our feelings were taking us, I’d eventually let her down. I’m Marley Layton, fucking things up is what I did.
With just a couple of days left in LA, I spoke with Maca on the phone and he told me that he and George had found a place in Hampstead, and had been able to move straight in. Ashley had taken over G’s flat, which she had left fully furnished for her.
“I take it things didn’t work out between you, what with the way you just took off?” Maca asked me down the phone.
“Why, what’s she said?” I asked, waiting for Georgia to jump in and give me a bollocking. I was actually surprised I hadn’t heard from her or Jimmie by then.
“Nothing much. Gia has only seen her a couple of times. G’s tried going back to work, but the press are up her arse so she’s promoted Ash to area manager. The flat and a car come with the job.”
Well, that made me feel a little better and a lot worse.
In the note that I’d left for Ash, I’d told her to stay at my place for as long as she liked. Despite the shitty thing that I’d done, I was hoping that she might still be there when I went back for the wedding.
“I think she told G that she’d got back with her ex and that’s why things hadn’t worked out between you two. I assumed that’s why you took off. I know you said you liked her.”
“Her ex? What fucking ex?” I paced the floor of my hotel room as I shouted down the phone. What ex? There was no ex? She never told me about any fucking ex? Probably because I didn’t hang around long enough for her to tell me much about anything.
Images of Ashley, small, vulnerable, curled up all warm beside me, hot and sweaty from sex, water dripping from her in the shower, flash like snap shots through my brain. The thought of someone else seeing her like that, sharing moments like I had with her, touching, tasting and smelling her make head feel like it was about to explode.
Whoever the fucker was, he had to go.
Even kidnap and murder seemed like reasonable possibilities in that moment.
“Oi. Hold your fucking horses. I don’t know what ex, she’s your bird.”
“She’s not my bird.” I bit back.
“Well, not if she’s back with her ex, she ain’t, no.” We were both quiet for a few seconds. “Sorry mate. I thought you knew. I thought that’s why you left.”
I let out a long sigh. My head was now pounding and my brain was in overdrive. I needed to get back to England and put things right.
I’d fucked up. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s what I did, but this time I’d fucked up massively, and possibly lost the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“Mac, I need to go. I’ll be home tomorrow and give ya a bell then. Give my love to George.” I never gave him a chance to say goodbye before I cut him off.
I called Len and asked him to get me on the next flight back to London, and to have a car waiting for me when I landed.
By ten the next morning, I was pulling up outside Posh Frocks. I pulled my cap down low and ran into the shop.
“Morning, Lorna. Ashley about?” I kept it casual and talked to the girl like I’d known her forever. We’d chatted a few times when I’d been waiting for Ash and I’d signed some stuff for her.
“No, she’s out on the road today. She might come back here later, but not until around four. I can call one of the stores she’s visiting today and let her know you’re looking for her?” She said with a smile.
I liked Lorna. She was a bit older than me, and wasn’t fazed by who I was.
“Nah, that’s all right. I was hoping to surprise her.” I told her with a wink.
“Oh, so she’s not expecting you?” She asked and something in her tone had me questioning her.
“No, why’s that?”
