Temptation Island

‘He didn’t say. He gave me his card but I never called.’

‘You know what line he’s in?’

As far as she knew Linus directed mindless action blockbusters. She told Marty so.

‘That’s right,’ he said, and she detected a note of caution in his voice. He let the silence hang before adding, abruptly back to business, ‘So it’s not what we’re going for.’

‘I didn’t think so.’

‘Good,’ said Marty. ‘Take my advice, it’s what you pay me for, and steer well clear.’

When Stevie got back to her apartment, Will Gardner was waiting for her. Bibi’s brother was due to arrive this afternoon and her first reaction was one of annoyance. Couldn’t Will have called?

‘Hello, beautiful,’ he said when she exited the cab, drawing her into his arms and planting a kiss on her lips. She didn’t know what to say.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked eventually.

‘Do I need a reason other than this?’ He looped his arms around her waist and kissed her again. Stevie was hot and her top was clinging to the skin on her back: she wanted to get in the shower, change into a baggy T-shirt and sit by herself. It had been a hectic week and she realised now that Will was the last person she felt like seeing.

She didn’t want to be a cow about it. ‘Come in,’ she said. ‘Sorry it’s a bit of a mess.’

The apartment was in a basic, unfussy compound, laid out like the motels she had seen in films: a one-storey cream building that formed an L-shape around a central shared swimming pool. She doubted if the novelty of a pool would ever wear off. Since arriving she’d adopted a routine of early-morning swim followed by a healthy breakfast and a review of the day’s scenes.

Inside, Will helped himself to some apple juice out of the fridge, which he drank straight from the carton. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and pulled Stevie into an embrace. She felt yucky and wanted to change, but Will’s touch was all over her, his tongue in her mouth, sticky from the juice. Maybe if she slept with him now she wouldn’t have to later.

As they had sex he delivered a virtually non-stop stream of accolades, such as how gorgeous she was, how much he’d missed her, what a great body she had, how she was the hottest lay in the world. It felt wrong. Stevie had never been vocal during sex—and, besides, what was she meant to say back? Thank you. Now would you please hurry up and come? She realised then that Will had always been more into this than she was, despite what he’d said in the beginning. Breaking up would be horrible, but it was unfair to keep stringing him along.

Afterwards, he showered. Stevie took the opportunity to call Bibi. While Marty King hadn’t expressly said anything negative about Linus Posen, his remarks had unnerved her. Bibi hadn’t seemed herself recently: she wasn’t the sparky, carefree girl Stevie had met in New York.

Her friend picked up on the fourth ring. ‘Steve! How’re you?’

Stevie pulled the bed sheet up and lay back. She could hear the steady thrum of the shower, the change in rhythm as Will’s body moved beneath it. ‘Did you know Will’s here?’

‘Wow. I thought you guys were taking it slowly.’

‘So did I.’ She sighed, rubbing her temple. ‘What’s new?’

‘Well,’ began Bibi, ‘I was all set to call you, actually. I’ve got something I’ve been just dying to tell you! ’

Stevie sat up, willing it to be a successful audition. ‘Go on, then, spill!’

‘I’m moving in with Linus!’ Confused, Stevie waited for more. ‘He’s relocating to his house in Beverly Hills, and I’m coming with him! What do you think? Isn’t it incredible?’

‘Really?’

‘Yes!’

‘I didn’t even know you were dating.’

‘We kind of are, we kind of aren’t.’ Bibi cleared her throat, and for the first time in their acquaintance Stevie detected something forced in her enthusiasm. ‘We’re sleeping together. I mean, I don’t know if I’m the only one. But truthfully I don’t mind too much! And he must really like me, right? To ask me to come with him, I mean. Because the stuff I’ve been doing up till now hasn’t been great, but Linus says that once we’re in Hollywood he’s putting me in touch with all the major casting agents and when he starts spreading the word then it’s practically definite I’m going to make it! How can I go wrong? Steve, this is it for me. I know I said it before but this time it’s for real. I’m going to be a star!’

Stevie didn’t know what to say. ‘I’m so happy you’re moving here,’ she said at last, the only honest comment she could think to make.

Bibi and Linus were dating? How had that happened?

‘Tell me about it!’ crowed Bibi. ‘We’re gonna have the best time. I’ve really missed us living together.’

Will opened the door to the en suite and padded naked across the bedroom.

‘Me too,’ she said. ‘Listen, B, I’ve got to run. Call you later?’

‘Sure.’

Stevie put down the phone. Despite the blast of warm steam that had accompanied Will’s emergence, she shivered.

18 Lori

Lori changed while she was in Spain. As the weeks passed, the quiet seeped into her, the stillness and solitude bringing a peace long forgotten to her heart. For hours she would walk in olive groves, read books in her mother tongue, wander the narrow streets of the nearest village or play with the dog. She realised how beneficial loneliness could be.

Though she tried to resist, Rico Marquez was in her thoughts. One minute she worried for him and wondered if he was OK; the next she was consumed with anger at the risk he had brought, quite literally, to her door. Had Rico known about Diego’s visit? Had he requested it? At night, in her dreams, she was terrorised by images of the gang, the hunger in their eyes and the rasp of their threats, of what might have happened if her stranger hadn’t arrived …

Gratitude towards the man whose name she did not know flourished by the day. Time, rather than diminishing her obsession, only heightened it. The thought she would never see him again was unbearable. Once back in LA, she would seek him out. She had no idea how, where she would even begin, but if she did not try she would never forgive herself.

Corazón was old, but she was sharp as a pin. Often they would sit on the veranda, sipping lemonade and playing cards, speaking about the past, or when Tony was a boy, or not speaking at all, just listening to the crickets or the low chatter of her radio. They would prepare meals together. Lori learned recipes she recalled her mother making in happier times: she, too, had been taught them here. In so many ways she felt that she was treading the same stones. It was clear Corazón had cared for her mother like her own daughter.

‘You know that Tony loves you very much, don’t you?’ she asked one night. They were preparing a feast: salted bread and chillis and peppers dark as cherries. Lori was chopping red onion and its sting caught her in the eye, but if Corazón thought it was tears she didn’t say so.

‘It has been difficult for him,’ her grandmother went on.

‘I know.’

‘He remarried quickly because he believed it was best. He wanted you to feel secure.’

Lori couldn’t help herself. ‘He thought he’d better replace Mama, you mean?’

Corazón stopped what she was doing. ‘Oh, Loriana, that is not true. Tony struggled. He did not know how to be both a mother and a father to you.’

‘So he stopped being either?’ Lori wished she could let go of her bitterness. It was ugly, it ate her up, but she couldn’t help it.

‘When Maria got sick, it tore his heart out, right from his chest. I saw it, querida, spooling to the floor like a ribbon and gathering at his feet, and I knew I could never fold it back in. You cannot judge a man’s behaviour because of his grief.’

A long silence followed. Lori returned to the board but there was nothing else to do, she’d cut everything, so she drove the point of her knife into the wood and twisted.

‘He had to keep you safe,’ Corazón said.

‘Safe from what? My own decisions?’

Corazón put her head to one side. ‘Perhaps.’