Flashing lights, the deafening sound of a hundred
screams, thousands of scantily clad girls, and he was only looking at her.
Chloe looked up at Mark who was standing on the Manchester Evening News
arena stage. Never taking his eyes off her for a minute, he adjusted the
microphone attached to the two keyboards he was standing behind.
“The song we’re gonna do now is one I hope you’ll all know.” Mark
shouted out to the crowd as they screamed back at him.
“Yeah, it’s a b-side from Caught In The Middle, which you guys helped
get to number TWO!” Ben shouted enthusiastically, coming to the front of the
stage, microphone in hand.
He winked and waved at a few girls in the crowd as they shrieked and
jumped up and down.
He wasn’t looking at her.
“What’s that?” Ben asked a girl in the front row, leaning forward and
cupping his free hand around his ear. “2:59? Well I dunno, is it 2:59, Mark?”
“It’s not 2:59, Ben.” Mark said.
“Well what is it then, Mark?” Ben asked, grinning.
“Shall we just get on with the song, Ben and Mark?” Paul asked, playing
along with their little game.
“I think that would be a very good idea, Paul. What do you think,
Chris?”
“Let’s do it!” Chris said.
Chloe smiled. They should have known that Chris wouldn’t get it. Bless
him.
“Alright everybody,” Ben shouted as the music started up. “This is Power
Of Desire for you all!”
Power Of Desire? That was a weird choice, Chloe thought as Chris started
to sing.
The lights dipped around the arena to create a romantic atmosphere and
as Chloe listened to the words Chris was singing, an uneasy feeling began to
form in her stomach.
“Falling for a fantasy, I threw away my destiny, I don’t know where to
start, healing broken hearts.”
Well those were certainly… topical lyrics.
Chloe tried to shake the feeling. It was just coincidence, it didn’t mean
anything. They were just words.
a1 carried on singing and, far from leaving her, the feeling in Chloe’s
stomach increased and she started to feel faintly sick. Still, just words,
right?
“I was tempted by the power of desire, I surrendered to the calling of
the fire.”
Uh-oh…
“There is nothing I can ever say to change the things I did, but I
promise you, I’ll make it up to you.” Mark sang, looking straight at her.
Chloe shivered.
Oh my god.
Someone knew.
But… but… how could someone know?!
Who knew?!
Suddenly all Chloe wanted to do was get out of there. Get out of the
sight of the person standing up on that stage who knew her biggest secret. It
could be any one of them, they could be looking at her right now, watching her
reaction, knowing that they’d found her out.
But who was it?
Oh God, what if it was Ben?! What if he was pretending he didn’t know
and was waiting for her to confess it all to him? Chloe hoped that wasn’t the
case. Please, let it be anyone but Ben. But if it was Paul or Chris, how
did they know? No-one was meant to know, that was the whole point of a secret
affair.
Chloe began to get the feeling that this was slowly getting out of hand.
Or had that happened a long time ago?
Not able to take it any more, Chloe stood up and
walked along the front row, past the masses of screaming fans and past the
security guards standing by the backstage entrance. Taking a backwards glance
at the stage she saw Mark looking at her with a confused expression on his
face. Chloe wondered if he knew that someone knew. If he did and hadn’t told
her she’d kill him.
Chloe walked briskly down the samey corridors until she reached what she
thought was a1’s dressing room. Slowly opening the door, she let out a relieved
sigh when she saw Christian’s guitar case resting against the side of a chair.
As she went to sit down on the sofa she brushed against something on the table
next to it, knocking it off onto the floor. She reached down to pick it up and
when she saw what it was, everything seemed to fit into place.
It was Paul.
Paul was the one who knew. Those questions he’d been asking her earlier…
she hadn’t fooled him at all.
As she put Paul’s mobile back on the table, Chloe’s mind went into
overdrive with panicked questions.
How did he know?
How long had he known?
Did he know she knew he knew?
Did Mark know he knew?
Had he told anyone?
Was he going to tell anyone?
Was he going to tell Ben?
Chloe knew she was in trouble. She’d had a go at Paul for lying to her
when she’d been doing the exact same thing to him. He was hardly going to be on
her side now, was he? He could be out for revenge, he might just feel betrayed
enough to tell Ben.
As if on cue, the dressing room door opened and in walked Mark.
“Are you alright?” he asked, coming straight over to her and putting his
hands on her waist as she stood up.
“Where are the others?” she asked.
Mark looked over his shoulder, “They’re just coming, I had to see if you
were okay. You left really suddenly.”
Chloe knew she didn’t have a lot of time before everyone else arrived
and she had to decide how much to tell Mark now.
“Who decided you perform Power Of Desire?” Chloe asked, deciding to make
sure she was right in her suspicions before she alerted Mark to them.
“Well, we all did.” Mark said, looking confused.
“But who initially suggested you do it?”
Mark thought. “Um… Paul, actually. I….”
Mark was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Getting used to the
routine, Chloe and Mark broke apart, leaving a good safe distance between them
and innocent looks on their faces.
“Hiya!” Chloe said, smiling “happily” at Ben. “Was just telling Mark how
good the show was.”
“Hope I haven’t missed all the praise, you know how I enjoy it.” Ben
said.
“Show was great.” Chloe said, giving him a hug. “Unusual choice of
finishing song.” She added, looking straight at Paul.
If he was going to test her, she was going to test him too.
Paul held Chloe’s gaze without flinching, giving away nothing in his
eyes.
“Yeah, it went down pretty well though, don’t you think?” Ben asked,
sitting down and opening a bottle of water.
“Seemed to.” Chloe agreed, taking a last glance at Paul before giving
up.
“Doing the fans tonight, guys?” Del asked, coming into the dressing room
and handing Christian a blue denim jacket with a sheepskin collar.
Paul sniggered and raised an eyebrow.
“Unfortunate choice of words there, I feel.” Chris commented.
“Well the amount of rumours that go around about you lot, I wonder if it
is.” Del said. “Come on, I don’t wanna be hanging around here any longer than
we have to.”
The group picked up their things and headed towards the car park out the
back of the arena. As they opened the door they were greeted by screams and
shouts of “Mark!” “Ben!” “Paul!” “Christian!”. Chloe stood back and watched as
the four pop stars walked towards the group of fans packed behind the barriers
providing a “safe” way out for the celebrities. In no time they were dispersed
amongst the crowd, signing autographs and posing for photos. Most of the fans
were crowded around Ben, while Mark, Chris and Paul attended to the stragglers
on the outskirts of the ‘We Love Ben!’ club.
In times like this, Chloe always used to think how lucky she was to be
with the guy so many girls wanted to date, to be in a position people would
kill for. Now however, all she could think was what a cow she was for doing
what she was doing to him. But did she care enough to end things with Mark? Put
it this way, would she still be going to his room tonight?
Of course she would.
Because she couldn’t stop. He’d done something to her and now she was
addicted to him. No matter how much she hated herself for what she was doing to
Ben, no matter how scared she was that he’d find out what was going on, she
kept going back.
She had to.
Chloe noticed Chris hanging back from the others a bit.
“Not in the mood?” she asked, going over to him.
“They don’t wanna talk to me.” He said with a smile.
Chloe looked over at the girls staring adoringly at Ben, Mark and Paul.
She always stayed well back whenever they did this. In her position, coveted as
it was, it was best to stay in the shadows so the fans didn’t know she was
there. As she’d discovered, some of them were lovely girls, but some of them
had trouble accepting that Ben wasn’t single and hadn’t been for the last
eleven months. To ease their pain they made her into their archenemy. Without
having said as single word to her, sometimes without even having set eyes on
her, they hated her. Chloe could understand it totally, she knew she was the
“bad guy” so she didn’t like to rub their noses in it.
Chloe and Ben didn’t try to avoid being seen out together in public,
after all, it wasn’t like their relationship was a secret, but times like these
belonged to the fans. She could see Ben whenever she wanted to, it was only
fair that the fans had a few minutes where he was all theirs. It’s only polite
to share.
So no-one had really noticed that Chloe was part of a1’s entourage on
this particular occasion until she stepped forward to talk to Chris. Then a
couple of girls looked up and saw her standing by him. They started whispering
to each other and soon more people became involved in the conversation. Chloe
could see they were talking about her, but she stood her ground. After all, it
wasn’t like this had never happened before. When her and Ben had first started
going out she’d got it all the time. The whispering, the staring, the personal
questions about their relationship to Ben. At first she’d been really conscious
of it, it had made her feel really uncomfortable, but she’d got used to it, and
as the fans had got used to her being around it had got less and less frequent.
It had been a while actually, but Chloe wasn’t surprised. There was always
bound to be a few new fans that didn’t know who she was.
But then you should never expect the expected.
Suddenly there was a loud shout of “WHORE!” and everyone fell silent.
The crowd stopped screaming, the boys stopped signing, and everyone was
looking at Chloe.
She froze. She didn’t know what else to do. It had been so long since
she’d come across anything like this that she’d forgotten all the advice she’d
been given about how to deal with it. Someone she’d probably never met, one of
the girls she’d been so nice about had just called her a whore. No-one had ever
said that to her before. She’d had “bitch” and “cow”, but never something as
strong and as hurtful as that.
And it did hurt, because Chloe knew that in a way it was true. Whore was
a bit harsh, but by two-timing Ben she was sort of opening herself to being
called that. But the fans weren’t supposed to know about that. They couldn’t
possibly know, it was just an unhappy coincidence. It had to be.
Even so, Chloe started to feel a bit paranoid. What if everyone knew?
What if they were just waiting for her to slip up and get caught out by Ben?
What if her life was all one big soap opera with her and a1 as the characters?
What if everyone could see everything that she did? It sounded ridiculous, but
what if?
The noise from the fans had started to pick up a bit
after they’d got over the initial shock of someone actually saying what they
all probably really thought but didn’t dare say. Ben hadn’t started signing
again though, and was coming over towards Chloe with a concerned look on his
face. Chloe saw Mark looking over at them, probably wishing he could do the
same as Ben. She didn’t want to be fussed over though; she didn’t want to make
the situation worse or draw more attention to herself.
“Ben, it’s okay, go back to the fans.” She said, feeling embarrassed and
awkward.
“No, it’s not alright!” Ben said, and Chloe could see an angry glint in
his eye.
“It is.” Chloe said, trying to keep him calm. “I’m fine, don’t make
things worse. I’ll go and sit in the car with Chris.” She said, touching his
arm and looking to Chris for confirmation of this statement.
Chris nodded.
Chloe looked at Ben praying that he wasn’t going to lose his temper. He
was a soft touch most of the time, but he did tend to be a bit protective over
her. Much as part of her wanted him to have a go at the person who had shouted
at her, she knew that if he lost it in front of the fans he’d be in big
trouble.
“Really, it’s okay.” She said in the same reassuring tone. “Don’t let it
get to you, we knew this would happen.”
“Yeah, but not now!” Ben exclaimed. “Not after this long.”
“However long we’re together, people are still gonna hate me.”
“But I don’t want them to!” Ben moaned. “I want them to love you, like I
do.”
Ben started to get closer, but Chloe tried to keep him at arms length.
“Ben, no public displays of affection, remember?” Chloe said gently.
“I’ll see you in the car.”
She gave Ben’s arm a quick squeeze before turning and walking with
Christian to the car.
“Are you really okay?” Chris asked, as they sat in the safety of the
locked people carrier.
Chloe nodded. “I’m fine. I didn’t want Ben to get angry.”
“I know. But you don’t have to put on a brave face now.” Chris
persisted.
Chloe smiled. “You’re such a sweetheart.” She said, falling into Chris’s
hug and letting a few tears escape from her eyes.
She didn’t mean to cry, she really didn’t, but when she was even vaguely
upset and someone was nice to her, it just made her crumble into a big heap of
pathetic. She might have been using the fan incident as an excuse to let out
her inner emotions, but only part of her was crying because of it. The other
part was crying over Mark. It was just all getting too much.
So what do you think, guys?” Paul asked. “Another round at the bar?”
It was an hour after the show and the a1 boys were, once again,
congregated in the hotel bar. Paul was over the moon at his alcohol ban being
lifted and was making up for it now. He must have been on about his sixth pint
already, and Mark was surprised he didn’t just go and lie under the
pump.
He, on the other hand, was keeping an eye out for Emily and Liz. If he
saw them, he planned to dive under the table and hide until they’d gone. After
the stick he’d got from Chloe earlier, he was determined to avoid any form of
female contact indefinitely. He certainly didn’t want to be in her bad books,
and after the fan episode earlier that evening he was trying hard to do
everything right and not upset her.
He’d been as horrified as Ben by the whole thing, but if he was honest
he didn’t think Ben had handled it very well. That wasn’t what he would
have done, anyway. Chloe was clearly shocked at having something so horrible
shouted at her and, even though she’d told Ben she was okay, Chris had said
she’d been crying in the car. That wasn’t being fine in Mark’s books, and maybe
Ben had picked up on that, but he shouldn’t have gone back to the fans
on Chloe’s selfless say so. Love comes before everything, or at least that was
what Mark had been led to believe. If he was Ben, he’d have taken Chloe back to
the hotel there and then. So what if a few fans didn’t get a complete set of
autographs? He’d have told them all to sod off! Chloe was way
more important than them.
But maybe Ben just didn’t feel that way. And if he didn’t then why the
hell did he deserve to be with Chloe when Mark was very much without her?
“I think we’re gonna have an early night actually.” Ben said.
We.
Mark tried not to scowl. What he wouldn’t give for “we” to mean him
and Chloe.
“Early night, eh?” Paul asked.
“Uh-huh. Sleepy.” Chloe said, stifling a fake yawn and
avoiding Mark’s doleful gaze.
Oh yeah, nice early night, he knew exactly what that meant. Eurgh, he
felt sick.
“I think I’ll be off too.” Mark said quietly. “I’m exhausted after the
show.”
“Um, yeah, actually, I might too.” Paul said.
“But what about another round?” Chris asked.
“Well before, when I said that… I didn’t realise how tired I was until
Mark mentioned it.” Paul said.
“Oh well fine, leave me drinking on my own then.” Chris said.
“I’m sure Ben and Chloe wouldn’t mind if you joined in with them.” Paul
said.
“I’m sure Ben and Chloe would very much mind if Chris joined in with
them, as you so tactfully put it.” Ben said to Paul.
Mark needed to leave now.
“So, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” He said, standing up and turning to
go.
“Hang on, wait for me mate.” Paul said, standing up and downing the rest
of his pint at the same time.
Mark didn’t really feel like company unless he could pour his heart out
to them, and as he’d promised Chloe that he wouldn’t tell anyone after what
happened the last time, all he could do was keep it was to himself. He wasn’t
in the mood to have a conversation with Paul, and silence was best kept on your
own, so he’d rather Paul stayed in the bar.
However, the sooner Paul went to bed, the sooner he’d be asleep and the
sooner Chloe could come over.
Mark smiled to himself.
That was all that was keeping him going. The thought that soon he’d be
able to hold her again. Even being away from her for a second he missed her so
much it was ridiculous. This was love in its purest form, so intense it was
almost too much to handle.
As Mark left the bar with Paul he thought back to the days when the most
he could do was dream about Chloe, when he tried to avoid her as much as
possible because… Actually, why had he done that? It had only been a
couple of weeks ago, but already it seemed so far from everything that ever
was. Mark couldn’t imagine not wanting to be around Chloe now, the thought was
virtually beyond comprehension. It hadn’t been that he didn’t want to be
around her though, he’d wanted nothing more than to be near her all the time,
but he’d been so… ashamed almost of the feelings he was having for a mate’s
girlfriend that he thought if he avoided Chloe as much as possible, then at
least if his feelings for her didn’t subside, he’d prevent himself from
accidentally slipping up and confessing how he really felt.
Coz of course, Mark had been living in a happy fantasy world for the
last couple of months, a world where Chloe was his, and he spent so much time
there - because it was easier than reality - that he had been beginning to
worry that the boundaries would become blurred and he’d forget which world he
was in. He was worried that one day he’d go up to Chloe, put his arms round her,
get a slap from her, and an earful from Ben, and everyone would know his most
secret desires.
People had said that he seemed a bit distant at times, and he was! He
slipped in to his own private world so often that it had become second nature.
He’d drift off during interviews, go onto autopilot when the band were miming
on stage, people could be talking to him and he just wouldn’t hear them. He
still did it now occasionally, more out of habit than really needing to, but
still, in these dreams Chloe was properly his; there was no sneaking
around and the girl he loved didn’t go home to someone else at the end of the
day.
It was going to be weird when it all came out eventually. Mark wondered
how people would react when they knew. Would they hate him? Would it be the end
of the band? a1 had had a few really good years together and Mark loved it so
so much, but he’d give it all up to be with Chloe, he really would.
It would be strange if the band did stay together and Chloe was
going to gigs and interviews as his girlfriend and not Ben’s.
Realistically Mark knew that Ben would probably never forgive him, but if he
cared about Chloe at all then he’d learn to live with it. He’d have to. If Mark
knew that Chloe would be happier with Ben then he’d let her be with him,
because he loved her that much he only wanted what was best for her. But in
this case, he knew that what was best for her was him.
“You alright, mate? You seem a bit… I dunno, distant.” Paul said,
cutting into Mark’s thoughts like a knife.
Mark had been thinking so deeply that he’d almost forgotten Paul was
there. Actually, thinking about Paul, Chloe had been asking some really odd
questions after the gig earlier that night. Stuff about who chose one of the
songs or something, really random things. Mark had no idea what she was getting
at, but she’d left really suddenly during ‘Power Of Desire’ with a completely
spooked look on her face. He hadn’t had a chance yet to ask her what was wrong,
but hopefully he’d find out when she came over to see him tonight.
“It was really shit what happened with the fans tonight, wasn’t it? Bit
tough on Chloe.” Paul said casually, as Mark got the room key out of his pocket
and unlocked the door.
“Mmm.” Mark said.
“Do you think Ben did the right thing?” Paul asked.
“What do you mean? Mark asked cautiously.
No, he didn’t think Ben had done the right thing, but his guard was
already up against Paul after what Chloe had sort of half hinted at, so he
didn’t want to reveal too much about how he really felt to him. Mark wasn’t
exactly sure why he needed to be careful what he said around Paul, but he could
sense in Chloe’s tone of voice that something was up, and it was something to
with Paul choosing ‘Power Of Desire’ as the song to finish their set on. Until
he had a chance to speak to Chloe he was going to be careful what he said
around everybody!
“Well, you know, carrying on signing autographs and stuff like nothing
happened. I mean, what would you have done?” Paul asked,
“He probably didn’t want to make a scene.” Mark said diplomatically.
“Yeah, but Chloe was upset, wasn’t she? Don’t you think Ben should have
made sure she was really okay before going back to the fans? If she was my
girlfriend…”
“Well she’s not your girlfriend, is she Paul, so let’s not worry about
it now.” Mark snapped.
He was fed up of this conversation, and the vague thought Chloe and Ben
in the back of his mind of was making him irritable. All he wanted to do now
was get Paul to sleep as quickly as possible, and wait for Chloe to come over.
After Mark’s outburst Paul was silent as he started to pull things out
of a black holdall. Mark took in the room surrounding him. It was just another
regular hotel room; two beds, couple of cupboards, a TV and an en-suite
bathroom, the same as they always stayed in. If they were lucky, in the more
expensive ones there were often three rooms in each suite; a living area, a
twin bedroom and a bathroom. It was rare that they go a room each, but Mark
wished that he was on his own tonight, especially with Chloe coming round. A
couple of candles strategically placed and the room would look magical. Mark
didn’t have a couple of candles, but that wasn’t the point. If Paul wasn’t here
then him and Chloe could have a romantic night in. A romantic night that could
lead to… no, he wouldn’t want to after Ben had been there first. Eurgh, what a horrible
horrible thought. Having said that, Mark did want to sleep with
Chloe. Verging on desperate to at certain moments, in fact. He wasn’t going to
push her or anything, but a bit of subtle hinting never did any harm. Could be
a little difficult with Paul in the room, but…
Hang on a minute - if he was sharing with Paul, and Chloee and Ben had a
double room, did that mean that Chris had a room all to himself? Oh, how was
that fair?! Mark actually had a proper reason for needing a room all to
himself, and there was Chris living in luxury for no reason at all. Mark didn’t
recall a single room being offered around, why had it gone straight to
Christian? Maybe he was sharing with Del?
“Paul,” Mark said, looking round to see Paul perched on the edge of the
bed scribbling into a small purple notebook. “Do y- What are you doing?”
“Song.” Paul said, brow furrowed in thought.
“Oooh, can I help?” Mark asked, walking over to Paul.
Paul stopped writing and rested the book face down on his lap.
“No.” he said.
“Why not?”
“Coz it’s private.”
“Private? How can it be private? You’ll show us eventually.”
“I won’t.” Paul said. “You think I only write songs for the band? I’ve got
loads you haven’t seen.”
“Oh.” Mark said, pausing as he tried to remember what he was originally
going to ask Paul. “Oh yeah. Has Chris got a room to himself tonight?”
Paul shrugged. “Dunno. I expect he’s sharing with Del, isn’t he?”
“That’s what I thought.” Mark mused. “Might go and asked him.”
“Mark, I…” Paul shouted after him, but Mark had already left the room
and was walking down the corridor back towards the bar.
If Chris had a room to himself, maybe he wouldn’t mind swapping? He
could at least ask, and if Chris wanted to know why Mark so desperately needed
a room of his own then Mark could explain, and he was sure Chris would
understand… Okay, no he wouldn’t understand, maybe he wouldn’t tell him the
truth.
Rounding the corner, Mark walked straight into Chloe who was coming in
the opposite direction. He seemed to have a bit of a habit of doing that.
“We must stop meeting like this.” He said with a smile.
“I thought you’d…” Chloe took a deep breath as Mark got closer.
She looked into his eyes and Mark could feel her heart rate increase
beneath her thin top as he couldn’t keep his hands off her. He ran his hands
down her arms and held her tightly against him as he kissed her gently.
“This is so dangerous.” Chloe said as she responded to Mark’s touch by
linking her arms round his neck and pushing his lips more firmly onto hers.
Mark knew they could be seen, he knew that at any moment someone could
come out of a room, or turn the corner and catch them, but if Chloe didn’t care
then neither did he. He didn’t care anyway, in all honesty. Even when things
were good like this there was always a voice in the back of Mark’s mind that
told him Chloe was never going to leave Ben to be with him, and he figured that
if they got caught then she’d have to. Or at least, it would give her a nudge
in the right direction.
Chloe pulled away from Mark, but he didn’t want to let her go.
“Ben’s waiting…” Chloe said, looking torn.
“Please don’t sleep with him. Not tonight.” Mark begged.
It had been what he was thinking, but he hadn’t meant it to come out
like that. He couldn’t help it though, the way he felt about her made it so
hard to even acknowledge that she was doing things with Ben.
Chloe looked a bit surprised, but then nodded.
“I won’t.” She said. “I should go, though.”
“You’re still coming over later, right?” Mark asked, his fingers playing
with the ends of her hair.
“As soon as I can. It’s just Ben…” Chloe looked uncomfortable. “…he gets
a bit wound up after a show. I don’t know how long it’ll take for him to fall
asleep if we don’t… y’know.” She looked up at Mark.
“Please don’t.” He said. “Do you know how much it hurts, thinking of you
with him?”
“I don’t think I do.” Chloe said.
Mark detected a hint of sadness in Chloe’s voice. Not to be confused
with remorse… he hoped.
“Think about…” Mark paused.
He was going to use the example of how thinking about him with another
girl made Chloe feel, but he knew she didn’t love him so it wasn’t the same.
Mark knew she loved Ben, but he couldn’t bring himself to use him as an
example.
“You could destroy me if you wanted to.” Mark said, tracing the outline
of Chloe’s face with a finger before kissing her softly on the lips. “What were
you going to say earlier?”
Chloe looked at him with a blank expression.
“In the dressing room? Something about Paul?”
“Oh! How do you know it’s about Paul?”
“Finely tuned to Chloe FM.” Mark said, tapping his head.
“I think he knows.” Chloe said seriously.
“About us?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure though. Just be careful what you say around him,
I’ll explain later.”
Mark nodded. “Okay. You better go. Go and sing Ben a lullaby.”
He gave Chloe another kiss and watched her walk away from him.
“You seen Paul?” came an accented shout from behind him.
Mark spun out of his daydream to see Chris walking up the corridor with
Del, presumably having just come from the bar.
Yes he’d seen Paul. The question was, had Chris seen him and Chloe?
“Erm, he’s in the hotel room.” Mark said. “Why?”
Chris held up a big brown teddy bear holding a heart saying ‘Paul’.
“Ambushed. They all love Paul, apparently. Been waiting all day to see
him and then ‘he didn’t even stop’.” he said tearfully.
“I’ll give it to him.” Mark said, taking the soft toy from Chris.
“Now don’t you go keeping that for yourself. I’ll be checking up on you,
I know how out of control your soft toy fetish has got. Oh, and make sure you
‘tell Paul I love him’.” Chris said with a grin. “Not me, obviously.”
“Obviously. So are you and Del sharing a room?” Mark asked.
“Hmph, I wish.” Del said.
“Nope, all on my own.” Chris said, a big smile spreading across his
face.
“Why?” Mark asked.
“Coz you had the single room last night.” Chris said.
“I did not!” Mark exclaimed. “Who said that?”
“Paul.”
“Paul.” Mark repeated.
He might have known it was something to do with him. But what was he
trying to achieve by making sure Mark didn’t get a room to himself…?
He did know!
Oh dear…
“I’ll go and give this to him, then.” Mark said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Sleep well.”
Mark left Chris and Del, and walked slowly back to his room. How was he
going to handle this? Paul obviously knew something, but Mark didn’t know what
he knew, or how he knew it. How could he know?! Maybe Mark could try and
put Paul off the scent. He could be really horrible about Chloe, or something.
Yeah, like he could ever do that.
Mark opened the door to find all the lights were dimmed.
“Thought I’d have an early night.” Paul said, coming out of the
bathroom.
“Yeah, good idea.”
Considering that Paul knew, he was making this incredibly easy for Mark.
He thought he might as well pretend he was going to bed too, so he started to
get undressed. He could always throw some clothes on when Chloe came over. Or
not…
“So how is everything?” Paul asked, climbing into his bed.
“Fine…” Mark said, going over to the en-suite and splashing some water
onto his face.
“How about the Chloe thing? That all sorted now?”
“Yep.” Mark said, planning to stay as monosyllabic as possible.
“So… what? You don’t fancy her any more?”
If Paul wanted juicy gossip he was going about it completely the wrong
way. He could at least try to be subtle.
“Uh-huh.” Mark said, squeezing some toothpaste onto a brush and putting
it in his mouth.
“She ever know how you felt?”
“Mmm.” Mark said, shaking his head.
“Oh. Good.”
Mark hoped that was the interrogation over with. If Paul settled down to
sleep now and all went according to plan at Chloe’s end, then she could be in
this very room with him in less than an hour. Paul did have a tendency to get
up in the middle of the night every now and then, still retaining some of the
odd sleeping patterns of his relative youth, but him and Chloe could always go
elsewhere. To her room for example, coz even if Ben did wake up he
couldn’t see a thing without his contact lenses in, so Mark could make a quick
exit.
“Ben and Chloe really love each other, don’t they?” Paul said as Mark
turned off the light. “They make such a perfect couple, Chloe and Ben…”