‘You know the answer. I’m on sabbatical. I need space. I can get it here.’
‘Jenna, the only way you’ll get space is if you take yourself to Cape Canaveral and buy yourself a rocket trip. Wherever you go, people will be curious. You’re a household name, here and abroad.’
‘People forget that kind of thing quickly enough, if they’re allowed to. Otherwise those Whatever Happened To …? shows would never get made.’
‘You really want to end up on one of those?’
Jenna shook her head. ‘I don’t know. That’s the point, Lawrence. I don’t know what I want.’
‘Let me help you find out. I have a dozen sure-fire business ideas – all they need to get off the ground is a savvy partner and some capital. Why don’t we put our heads together and see what we can come up with?’
Jenna stared at him.
‘I don’t believe it. You want to get your hands on my money. You’ve had what I paid for the house, but that wasn’t good enough for you. Classy, Lawrence. Real classy.’
She pushed aside her glass and stormed out of the pub, Lawrence chasing her down the road with pleas for her to listen and not to misunderstand him.
But she left him behind and hailed the first taxi she saw, switching off her phone as she clambered into the passenger seat.
Back home, in the drawing room, Leonardo lay where she had left him, on his back on the mattress staring gloomily up at the ceiling.
He sat up when she came fully into the room and made to rise to his feet.
‘You weren’t long,’ he said.
‘No. Meeting wasn’t worth going to,’ she said briskly, letting her bag fall with a jink on to the floor. ‘Yet another chancer after my money.’
There was a pause while Leonardo decided against standing and sat back on the mattress.
‘Is that what you think of me?’ he said.
She frowned in incomprehension.
‘Of course not.’
‘Right. Just you said “yet another”. Thought you might include me in those.’
‘Well, I don’t. I’ve met a lot in my time, that’s all.’
They held each other’s eyes, neither one of them knowing how to break down the invisible wall that lay between them.
‘Listen, Leo, I’m tired,’ muttered Jenna, but there was no conviction in it.
‘Do you want me to go?’ asked Leonardo.
She couldn’t answer, and so he did it for her.
‘You don’t want me to go,’ he said. ‘When we kissed, it was like unlocking the door of our old broom cupboard. Everything always fell out on top of you, all at once. That’s what it was like, kissing you. Like you’d had all your … Fuck, this sounds stupid, but all your passion … shut up behind that door and when it was opened, blam! Drowned me in it.’
She looked away, burningly embarrassed. She had overw
helmed him. She imagined him in his tracksuit sitting on the wall by the supermarket, bragging to his mates. She fucking couldn’t get enough of it. She was desperate for it.
‘It’s been a while,’ she said coldly.
‘Hey,’ he said, holding out a hand that she didn’t take. ‘Don’t be like that. Don’t push me away. I felt the same, Jen. It was exactly the same for me. I’ve held so much back, these last few years. It was a relief, you know, to get some of it out. Come and sit down.’
‘It’s getting late—’