Free The Overnight Fame of Steffi McBride by A.J. Crofts Page A

first, and that attracts everyone else’s attention, which is really embarrassing. All you want to do is make them go away before anyone notices, but if you ask them to fuck off they just act like they can’t hear you and keep snapping away.
    As we had been a bit wild about shedding our clothes it took me a while to find the tracksuit bottoms the phone was in. I got there just in time before it stopped ringing, but in too much of a rush to check the name before picking up. If I’d known it was going to be Luke I probably wouldn’t have chosen to take the call while I was stark naked and still pretty sweaty from having been a bit athletic.
    ‘Oh. Hi,’ I said, scrabbling to find a voice that wouldn’t raise Pete’s suspicions that I was being rung by another man before I’d had a chance to explain, but would still sound friendly and welcoming to the new pop star in my life. ‘How are you?’
    ‘I’m great, I was just listening to Nancy and Lee and thinking of you …’
    It sounded like he was settling in for a bit of a long, leisurely, casual chat, which I definitely didn’t think I was going to be able to get away with under the circumstances, even though I couldn’t think of anything I would rather do.
    ‘Listen, are you going to be around later?’ I asked. ‘Could I ring you back?’
    ‘It’s later I was wondering about,’ he said. ‘Would you like to come round for supper?’
    Now I had to think quickly. ‘Sure,’ I said lightly. ‘Can I ring you in a couple of hours and we’ll chat about it?’
    ‘That would be great.’
    ‘OK.’ I hung up quickly before he could say anything else.
    ‘Who was that?’ Pete asked sleepily, pulling me back under the duvet.
    My brain racing, I remembered that Luke was listed on the phone and Pete would be able to catch me out if I lied. ‘I’m doing this singing programme with a guy called Luke Lewis. He wanted to talk about the song we’ve been given.’
    Not exactly a lie.
    ‘I know that name, don’t I?’ Pete murmured, sliding his hands back down my body.
    ‘Used to be lead singer with the West End Boys.’
    ‘Yeah, I remember them. He was cool. Nice singing voice. You singing with him?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘That will be cool, man.’
    To stop him thinking any further I gave him a blow-job to finish him off, which sent him off to sleep like the rest of his flatmates, and I was able to slip back out on to the street a couple of hours later without any of them even opening their eyes. I dialled Luke’s number as soon as I was safely in the back of a taxi.
    ‘Hi, sorry about that, I was with some friends and it was a bit awkward …’
    He gave me his address, somewhere in Fulham, and I saidI’d pop over later. I hope I sounded casual, not like my tongue was hanging out. At eight o’clock I was there, all bathed and shaved, fake-tanned and ready for action. If I’m honest, the flat was a bit of a disappointment – pretty shabby and rundown – but then I had got used to living with brand-new footballers’-wives-type stuff, so probably my taste had got a bit distorted. He looked so gorgeous I had to hold on very tightly to my self-control not to throw myself all over him the moment he opened the door, and he’d cooked me a meal. I loved Pete to death, but he’d never even shared a KitKat with me, let alone cooked me a meal. If we ever went out for a takeaway, he was always having to borrow the money off me to pay. This was the whole romantic deal: table laid up, wine chilling in the fridge, Nancy and Lee on the music system.
    ‘I’m so pleased you came,’ he said as he took my coat and hung it up. ‘I’ve been thinking about you a lot.’
    He’d been thinking about me? I’d hardly thought of anything else but him from the moment we parted at the studio a couple of days before. I’d only really gone round to Pete’s to take my mind off Luke Lewis. Now I feel guilty for even saying that. I was being such a cow to Pete, but even he had to