Read Friends & Rivals for Free Online Page A

mega-star. But over the years he had also provided a shoulder to cry on while she sobbed her heart out about her unrequited love for Jack. Lex knew that Kendall’s bitching was just displaced adoration. He sympathized. Unrequited love sucked.
    â€˜I’m not sure there’ll be too much time for fun in your schedule,’ said Lex. ‘You’re rehearsing every day you’re not performing.’
    Kendall shrugged. ‘I’ll make time. I wanna see Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. And I wouldn’t mind sleeping with Brett Bayley either.’
    â€˜Brett’s married,’ said Lex disapprovingly.
    â€˜Tell that to him,’ grinned Kendall. ‘How mad do you think Jack would be if Brett and I got together? We’re both Jester acts, after all; both Americans in London. Our paths are bound to cross.’
    â€˜Stop being provocative,’ snapped Lex. Reaching into his messenger bag, he pulled out the photographs he’d brought her. ‘Take a look at these. You need to pick one for the album cover.’
    â€˜Ooooo.’ Kendall leaned forward excitedly. ‘Has Jack seen them?’
    â€˜Not yet.’
Jack, Jack, Jack. If only she knew how transparent she was.
    â€˜Well, we can’t use this one.’ Kendall handed back the portrait shot. ‘I don’t look anything like myself.’
    â€˜That’s exactly what you look like,’ said Lex. ‘The camera never lies, remember?’
    â€˜Says the man who just had a sense of humour failure about the paparazzi,’ Kendall shot back. ‘I look like a twelve year old with TB. That’s a no.’
    â€˜You look beautiful.’
    â€˜Yada yada yada. Oh, now this I like.’ She picked up one of the thorn tree images. ‘Both of these. They’re sexy but classy. Like art.’
    â€˜
Like
art?’ Lex sounded horrified. ‘They
are
art.’
    â€˜You know what I mean,’ said Kendall. ‘They’re arty
and
commercial. The label’s gonna love them.’
    â€˜Do you love them? Lex hated himself for the tentative, hopeful tone he heard in his own voice. With other clients he was confident in his work. With Kendall, he never stopped feeling as though he was auditioning for her approval.
Pathetic.
    â€˜I do.’ Kendall beamed, leaning across the table to kiss him. ‘I love them and I love you. Where would I be without you, my lovely Lex?’
    Lex’s heart beat so fast as she pressed her lips to his that he worried it might jump out of his chest and start throbbing away on the table. He closed his eyes, let the happiness rush through him and immediately heard the
click click click
of a camera shutter. This time it was Kendall who spun around, shaking her fist through the café window.
    â€˜He’s my friend, asshole, OK? You can quote me on that. Read my lips: We are just fucking friends.’
    Lex’s happiness drained away like pus from a lanced boil.
    One day they’ll carve it on my tombstone: Just Fucking Friends.
    Jack Messenger pushed open his front door with a sigh of relief. It was good to be home.
    Jack didn’t enjoy travelling at the best of times, and this trip to England had been particularly stressful. He’d spent the entire eleven-hour flight home unable to concentrate, or to banish the vomit-inducing image of Ivan pumping away at that teenage violinist from his mind. Poor Catriona. A midlife crisis was embarrassing enough to watch, but Cat had to live with it. Or rather, she chose to live with it. That was the part that bothered Jack the most. The fact that even after all the betrayals, all the slip-ups and lies and bullshit, Catriona Charles was still in love with her husband. She still saw the Ivan she’d fallen in love with at Oxford. Whereas for Jack, that person, his friend, was all but gone.
    Dropping his suitcase on the floor, he wandered into his study. As usual it was immaculate, an oasis of