Ruby Tuesday

chapter twenty three

    I held his face in my hands so I could gaze into his eyes, the smiles freezing on our faces, “Good because without your love I’d die as well.” And then I brought his mouth to meet mine hungrily.

    I stood in the doorway watching him close the boot after a morning of making love and having him serenade me. He was pretty late. I squinted against the bright light of the day. “Jack,” I called as he strode to the driver’s side, he glanced at me. “Keep fidelity in your head. When you’re done you should go to bed.”

    He winked and put a hand to his heart as he feigned being hurt by my warning, “You mean don’t say hi like a spider to a fly?”

    I nodded slowly, raising my eyebrows I said, “Jump right ahead and you’re dead.”

    “I already miss you baby,” he blew me a kiss and got into the car. I waved him off as his car zoomed loudly down the road.

    While he was away I went around with the other girlfriends shopping, spending Jack’s money and just generally having the time of my life. Obviously not completely because my lovely boyfriend wasn’t around, he was somewhere else getting other women’s knickers thrown at him. It made me nervous; I was ready to admit that. It made me extremely nervous when I thought about all the other better looking girls batting their eyelashes at him and he might just be stupid enough to fall for it. I just had to trust him…as hard as that was sometimes but there was nothing to strive for if there was no trust.

    I was at the modelling studio with Angie while the final touches were applied to her makeup. She seemed to love it. I watched as she was positioned at an awkward angle on a seat and then told how to look at the camera as it flashed away. “They call me an icon Ruby!” She gushed in between the bulb flashes. “I got a call from this French magazine the other day and they want to do a photo shoot with me in. You know who they had on the front page last month?”

    I shook my head slowly, “No, who?”

    “Bridgette Bardot!” She gave me a hilarious look which made me snort. “I’m not joking.”

    My mouth fell open and Angie nodded, eyes wide and mouth stretched open in an ear to ear grin. We both squealed at the same time, “I can’t believe this is happening! I can’t believe this is actually happening!” I threw my arms around her and Angie being the tall one picked me up and spun me around where we fell into a clothing rack. It fell over with a clatter and going bright red Angie dropped me where I fell on the floor laughing my head off.

    She struck a pose, “How does it feel to be best friends with a world famous model?”

    Giggling I held my hands up so she could haul me back to my feet as an assistant muttered under his breath, picking the clothes back up. “Pretty good, you’re stunning Ange, I always knew that.”

    The photographer grabbed her arm and hauled her back in front of the camera again; Angie winked and then wiped the grin off her face as she posed. After the photo shoot Angie took me out shopping where she bought us two beautiful cocktail dresses and then we went out for the evening. She looked drop dead gorgeous but there was nothing particularly new about that. I felt good if a little bloated, standing sideways in the mirror when I had tried the dress on.

    “I think I’m gaining weight,” I mumbled wondering if I cared or not. Angie stared as well and opened her mouth to say something before shrugging it off and grabbed my shoulder telling me loudly that the dress was perfect.

    First we went out for a meal and then she took us to a bar, a fancy bar where everyone dressed up and drank cocktails and we sat sipping ours pretending that we were fancy well-to-do people rather than the rural peasants we really were. You would not have believed how many men came up to us asking Angie if she wanted to go and dance with them. The live band was pretty good. She would simper and shake her head which surprised me. She loved the attention though.