Page 143
Forty-Five
London suburbs
Mark barged past Fallon into her small living room.
“Lovely to see you, too.” Fallon shook her head and tightened the belt of her robe with a sharp tug.
He dropped onto her loveseat, his fingers yanking the zipper of his leather jacket. “Sit down.”
“No kiss hello? Who pissed on your corn flakes?” Fallon crossed her arms and sat down beside him.
“I’m looking at her.”
Fallon rolled her eyes. “Babe, chill. I told you already, I won’t share any more childhood photos with the Mail—”
“This isn’t about kiddie photos, Fal. This is about fucking honesty.”
“When have I ever not been honest with you?”
“Try New Year’s Eve.” He pulled off his jacket, chucking it on the armrest. “Did we have sex in Dublin?”
She laughed. “You travelled over an hour to ask that! You already know the answer—”
“Do I? Last night a friend overheard you and Wink backstage—”
“So?”
“I know what you said. Do you want me to fucking repeat it? Does ‘It was the best sex I’ve never had’ sound familiar?”
Her shoulders deflated. “Babe—”
“Why, Fal? Why would you do this to me? Why lie—”
“Mark—”
“What did Wink promise you, eh? In exchange for ruining my relationship with Alex? ’cause I know you wouldn’t just do something like this on a whim. He promised you something—that’s what he does.” He leaned in, his face reddening with rage. “TELL ME!”
Fallon flinched, keeping her voice low. “Mark, for fuck’s sake. Settle. Down. You’ll wake my flatmates.”
Mark stared, refusing to relax. “Tell me—” He gritted his teeth.
“Okay, okay!” She straightened her robe. “Before you arrived at the read, Wink wanted to know my story. I told him you and I knew each other as teens, how we dated. I figured it might give me an in, and he seemed genuinely fascinated. He asked what acting jobs I had done and if I had representation. The timing was perfect; my agent and I had…parted ways, a while back. He offered to sign me right there—so straight after the read, I did.”
“Without due diligence?” Mark shook his head. “That was stupid—”
“He seemed nice, okay?” She snatched a hand-rolled cigarette and a lighter from the table. “And you were signed with him. You seemed happy enough, joking around with him.”
He crossed his arms, exhaling heavily.
“Anyway, that evening, after the reads with you went well, Wink took me out to a posh steak place, to celebrate signing me AND my first proper movie role—he told me that the job was mine, right then, said our chemistry was ‘electric’ and the director loved me. I was so happy, and he was so nice. We talked for hours. I told him how our families knew each other, and he blurted out that he was worried about you, about your career. He said you and Alex were having problems: she didn’t understand the biz, was getting in the way…” Fallon lit the cigarette and inhaled slowly.
“And…” Eyes wide, his nod prodded Fallon to continue.
“I told him…I felt bad for her.” She blew smoke away from Mark. “I get it. Kissing, sex scenes, lots of time apart—it’s a big ask for any partner to be okay with all that. I remember exactly what he said next.” Fallon adopted a convincing American accent: ‘Mark could break America, Fallon. He’s a special talent, but he’s gonna throw it all away for some girl with issues.”’
Mark scowled. “Go on…”
“He said Alex was manipulating you, had some weird hold over you. How she’d deliberately have ‘anxiety issues’ when you needed to focus, like before a big shoot or audition. How she’d show up on set sometimes, make a scene…”
