Free Unlucky Break by Kate Forster

night had rolled so easily off his tongue. He wasn’t even shocked by his ability to lie anymore. He’d done it so many times. There were so many cover-ups, so much bullshit. He took the weight of Nikki’s pain because he could. But how long could he keep it up?
    As he swung the hammock gently, the girl from the night before came to mind. What was her name? He hadn’t found out, he remembered. He couldn’t place the accent. British, maybe?
    She was the most genuine person he’d met in a long time in Hollywood. She didn’t seem impressed by his fame. He was so sick of the way people acted like they didn’t care about celebrity when really they did. No, the girl last night had seemed interested in just him . She was funny. Smart. He’d liked the way she thought before she spoke, as though she was weighing the words in her mind. That kind of thoughtfulness was hard to come by in this town.
    ‘Hey, baby,’ he heard. Nikki was standing in the doorway.
    ‘Hey,’ he said curtly. He didn’t move to get up. He was pissed and he wanted her to know it.
    ‘You okay, baby?’
    ‘No, I’m not okay, and I’m not your baby, Nik.’ The clouds swung back and forth as he rocked in the hammock.
    Nikki walked over and stood next to the hammock so that it bumped into her, jarring him unpleasantly each time he rocked.
    ‘What?’ he said finally, and swung his legs onto the ground.
    ‘Why are you angry?’ pouted Nikki.
    James shook his head in disbelief. ‘Are you serious?’ he said, fighting to control the volume of his voice. ‘You kicked some random girl into the pool last night because I was holding her hand. Who does that?’
    ‘Were you going to sleep with her?’
    ‘That doesn’t matter. It’s none of your business, Nik.’
    The thought had definitely crossed James’s mind. He was only human, and the girl was hot, in that dress that left little to the imagination. But sleeping with her hadn’t actually been his motivation for asking her to leave with him. He’d really wanted to talk to the girl who made him feel as though he was interesting, not just good-looking. The girl who was in love with a character from a book.
    ‘Have you slept with anyone since me?’ Nikki asked pitifully. She took James’s hand and held it to her chest, undoing her silk shirt with her other hand.
    James stood, mesmerised by her cool, blonde beauty. Goddamn it, she was beautiful. But so crazy.
    He slipped his hand onto her breast and felt her nipple harden. They stood, breathing in sync for a moment. Then Nikki moved to him and the spell was broken. James pulled his hand out.
    ‘It’s over Nik, really. You know this.’ He sounded angry, he knew, but how could he make her understand?
    ‘You’re a prick,’ she said coldly, turning and storming back inside.
    James heard the front door slam. He fell back on the hammock, his hands covering his face. She’d be back. He just had to decide whether he’d pick up the pieces next time.

6

    ‘I can’t believe they said I was a crazed fan.’ Andie sat at the breakfast table reading the TMZ website on her laptop.
    ‘ I can’t believe that Chloe Malle put me in her best dressed this week on Vogue ,’ said Jess, looking at her iPad. ‘All because you dressed me like the girl from that book! Who was she again?’
    ‘Daisy Buchanan,’ said Andie, not looking up from the computer. She read aloud. ‘“Nikki Morgan stepped in to save James Hawthorn last night when a crazed fan attacked him at the Skyhigh Bar.” Oh my god, it’s all lies.’
    Jess had come over for breakfast, which seemed to be a normal occurrence. Marta put fruit salad in front of her without waiting for an order, and Jess helped herself to coffee and picked at the fruit salad as she browsed the fashion and gossip pages.
    Cece ate her six strawberries slowly. ‘That’s life in the tabloids.’ She shrugged. ‘You can’t let it get to you. At least no-one knows who the crazed fan was.’
    ‘I thought he liked