‘I stopped that after the Ava Rose thing … stopped having relationships. No more disappointment for me. It was fuckbuddies all the way. U
ntil you.’
‘Until me.’
I understood now what was at stake. If Jasper took a lover, he wanted them, body and soul. Nothing less was going to do.
‘Sarah,’ he said, ‘you say, “It’s complicated,” and I suppose a lot of people would agree with you, but is it? Really? I want to love you for who you are, and I want to be loved for who I am. Not because I’m famous, or I’m pretty bloody good at the Dom thing, or … do you know what I mean? All of me. Good and bad. I need somebody who accepts it all.’
‘Do I know the worst?’ I asked gently, hoping against hope that there weren’t any corpses in his closet.
‘Absolutely. I’m a controlling bastard, I admit it. I like everything just so. I have high standards and I get pissed off with people who don’t. I like whipping willing women. I’m ambitious and I’m driven, perhaps a bit too much sometimes. But if you’ll stay with me … if our life can be like that summer was … God, I’d change anything about myself for that.’
‘So would I. It was perfect. It was like a dream. But we have to live in the real world now.’
‘We can make our world.’
‘The way we want it?’
‘The way I want it.’ He flashed a rueful smile. ‘Sorry. Joke. Bit of a rubbish one. Yes, love. The way we want it.’
‘I’d do anything for you,’ I said, the words spilling out with yet more tears.
‘So would I,’ he said. He picked up the laptop again and started clicking. Within a few seconds my Facebook page was on the screen.
‘So …’ he said, handing the machine to me. ‘Why don’t you log yourself in and …’
I took it and typed in my password, then accepted his friend request.
‘And?’ he prompted.
I moved the cursor over ‘Relationship Status’ and clicked on the menu.
In A Relationship.
Yes, we were.
Chapter Eight
‘That guy, the film director?’
As Monday-morning ‘have a good weekend?’ greetings went, Rob’s opening gambit was unusual.
‘Sorry?’
I buttoned up my spencer and raised an eyebrow at him as he threw off his overcoat and rummaged in the costumes wardrobe.
‘Your Facebook. You changed your status. It’s him, I suppose?’
‘Oh. Yes. It is.’
Rob made no further comment for a while, absorbed in picking his duds for the day. At the door to the dressing room he paused and said, ‘So we’ll be seeing you in the pages of Glamour magazine, will we?’
I laughed. Honestly, nothing seemed further from the realms of probability. In my mind, it was still Jasper and I, shielded from the world, safe in each other’s arms.
I did a double-take, then, when I got a text later in the day, from Jasper.
‘Swish do in London this wknd, fancy a turn on the red carpet?’