Page 27 of Kissing Games
‘What about your manager?’
‘I don’t have one.’
‘But who organises your schedule, your staff?’
‘I do. I don’t have any staff.’
She sounded tired. He desperately wanted to cradle her in his arms, to ask why she didn’t have anyone to help her, but knew it all must be for the same reason she dressed down and all her stuff was knackered. She sipped the hot chocolate as if trying to find solace in it.
Charlie lowered his mug to the table. ‘So, if you can almost do it all when you’re busy, surely now you’ve got time to do itandhave a break?’
She shrugged. ‘I’ve been on this treadmill since I was a kid. I don’t know how to get off.’
‘But you didn’t work all the time when you were growing up. You still had holidays?’ he persisted.
Valentina stared off into the darkest corner of the room, her eyes unfocused. ‘The show aired five times a week, fifty-two weeks a year and my character was popular. When I finally left, I went straight to a film set. I had time off here and there, but I was also trying to do schoolwork, so it wasn’t a normal childhood.’ Her voice was lifeless.
Charlie tried to compare his teenage years to hers. ‘So, you never got drunk with your mates and threw up over your dad while he was reading you the riot act? Never streaked through the centre of town on New Year’s Eve for a bet? Never gave yourself a tattoo?’
Valentina shook her head, the corners of her mouth turning up.
He wanted to make her laugh. ‘You never had wild monkey sex on top of a bus shelter and got arrested for public indecency?’
Her eyes widened. She shook her head again.
‘You never made hash brownies and accidentally fed them to your mother?’
She clapped her hands over her mouth to stop a shocked laugh from escaping and shook her head vigorously.
Charlie leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. ‘Well then,’ he said, puffing out his cheeks. ‘You’ve never lived.’
‘Did you really do all that? How old were you?’ she asked, leaning forwards.
‘Oh, it wasn’t me,’ he replied, attempting to look serious. ‘It was a friend of mine, Charlotte. Charlotte Homiltan. She was a very bad girl. She did all of that before she was eighteen.’
Valentina laughed. ‘Then what happened to her?’
‘Her parents shipped her off to the army and she’s been a model citizen ever since.’
‘No more tattoos? No more streaking? No more wild monkey... business?’
Charlie held her gaze as energy crackled between them. ‘It’s the army. Tattoos and streaking are part and parcel of life. As for the wild monkey sex? I don’t think anything has beaten the top of the bus shelter.’
Valentina blushed. ‘It sounds uncomfortable and embarrassing.’
‘Those words pretty much sum up being a teenager,’ he replied with a grin. ‘On your days off, I think you should channel Charlotte. Have your teenage years in your twenties.’
A shadow passed over her face and she shook her head. ‘That chance passed long ago.’ She looked at her watch and stood. ‘I need to get back to bed. It’s so late.’
Charlie took her mug. ‘You go on, I’ll wash these up.’
She stifled a yawn. ‘You sure?’
He nodded and took the mugs to the sink. ‘Yep, go get your beauty sleep. Not that you need it.’
She smiled shyly and opened the door, turning her head as she passed through. ‘Goodnight, Charlotte,’ she said with a mischievous grin. ‘I hope you have wild monkey sex again one day.’
She closed the door and he heard her feet pitter-pattering along the corridor as she ran away. He leaned against the sink and groaned. She was going to be the death of him.
