Free Paradise by Katie Price

wondered if you had anything on you? I’d pay you back next time. I need a little pick me up, something to get me through . . . I can’t get hold of my usual source.’
    A coke-snorting hooker?
    ‘Sweetie, I don’t do drugs, I’ve always had a strictly just-say-no policy . . . well, except to poppers, but I don’t think you need those right now. I think you should go home and have a nice cup of tea then go straight to bed. We’ll get you a taxi, and explain to your gentleman friend that you’re not feeling too good.’
    ‘Would you really do that?’ Simone gazed at him, her eyes still brimming with tears.
    ‘No problem,’ Jez replied, and stood up, holding outhis arm for her to take. She struggled to get up and then looked once more at Angel. ‘You’re mad to think you’ll ever find another man like Cal. And it won’t be long before he finds someone else. I mean, come on, this is Cal we’re talking about . . . he could have
anyone
. I saw him the other month with about three model types hanging round him.’
    Bloody hell! Now Angel could feel tears pricking her own eyes. She tried to tell herself that they were tears of sympathy at seeing the wreck Simone had made of her life as she watched her totter towards the door, clinging on to Jez and Rufus for grim death, but knew that her words about Cal had struck home.
    Angel expected that Jez would return and make some bitchy quip about Simone being on the WAG scrap heap, but he was unusually subdued when he sat back down. ‘I never really liked her, but it was just awful seeing her in that state. She really cried when we got her in the taxi . . . said that men were never nice to her like we had been,’ he said quietly. ‘Makes you realise what’s important, doesn’t it?’ He reached across the table and took Rufus’ hand. ‘If I hadn’t met Rufus when I did, I could see myself going down that route.’
    ‘What! Being an escort and taking drugs?’ Angel asked, trying to inject a bit of humour into the situation. But Jez was having none of it. He shook his head. ‘Drink more likely, and a succession of one night stands . . . anything to fill the emptiness. It was Rufus who saw the real me, saw beyond the camp act that I put on.’
    He smiled at Jez, then looked at Angel. ‘So are you okay about what Simone said to you? I don’t think she meant it to upset you.’
    ‘It made a change from her usual slating of me,’ Angel tried to say lightly because Simone’s words hadreally shaken her. Yet again, she couldn’t seem to escape from thoughts of Cal.
    She ended up calling him when she got back to her hotel suite, on the pretext of finding out if Honey was okay, but really to hear his voice. ‘Did you have a good time with Jez and Rufus?’ Cal asked. He sounded sleepy, as if he was lying in bed. Angel had a sudden unexpected longing to be lying next to him.
    ‘It was eventful,’ she replied, going on to tell him about seeing Simone.
    ‘Christ, she sounds a mess!’ Cal exclaimed. ‘I had no idea. Perhaps I’ll send her a text, see if she wants to meet up sometime.’
    Angel knew Cal well enough to realise that he didn’t have feelings for Simone any more. After they had split up she had turned into something of a bunny-boiling stalker, and he very nearly had to take out an injunction against her. Angel should have been able to stay dispassionate at the prospect of them meeting up, but rational thought seemed to have gone out of the window and she was gripped by the most intense feeling of jealousy at the thought of Cal seeing Simone. Who was to say that his old girlfriend wouldn’t charm him again? She’d managed it before in the past. She might have been a wreck tonight but it probably wouldn’t take much to get her looking good again . . . The jealous thoughts swirled round Angel’s head like a sickening fair-ground ride even as she wondered why the hell she was getting so wound up.
    The following day she tried to ignore the emotional