Sophie had cast aside her film script with a dismissive ‘pah!’ and had started to leaf through OK! magazine instead. Ella was now beginning to bitterly regret the charitable impulse that had made her take pity on the actress at the airport. ‘Oh, look!’ said Sophie with a pleased smile. ‘Hasn’t Jodie Kidd got enormous! She’s put on at least half a stone since I last saw her. At the BAFTA’s, I think it was. She turned another page. ‘Eeyoo. I don’t think much of the Spring collections, do you?’ she said, flashing a glossy photograph at Ella and resuming her running commentary without waiting for a response. ‘That dirndl shape is sooo unflattering,, isn’t it? Even I couldn’t carry it off. Oh, look – somebody else I know!’ She looked at Ella, plainly waiting to be asked Who?

‘Who?’ obliged Ella dully.

‘Rory McDonagh. I knew him before he became a Hollywood big shot, you know.’

‘Oh?’ Ella perked up a bit. Rory McDonagh was an actor she’d always liked. There was something of the maverick about him. ‘What’s he like?’

‘Well, he’s quite a private individual, so there’s not a lot to tell.’ She gave Ella a sweet smile and then continued: ‘He’s not that good in bed, actually. Oh! How indiscreet of me!’ Her eyes went very wide and her hands shot to her mouth. ‘Forget I ever said that, Ella, will you?’

‘Sure,’ said Ella, She really wasn’t interested in Sophie Burke’s sex life.

But Sophie obviously was, because she continued to fill Ella in, keeping her eyes demurely downcast.

 

© 2005 Kate Thompson