He stalked into the room, clearly struggling to keep a lid on his fury. "Do you want to tell me exactly what all this is about?" He snarled.
I saw red. My own fury bubbled up, eclipsing the part of my brain which controlled tact and reason. "You went back to her. What did you expect, a pat on the back and a cheery 'good luck' wish?" I went back to my packing, breaking eye contact. Just looking at his familiar, beautiful face was destroying me.
"I joined her for dinner Sarah, she needed to get her name mentioned in a few places. What exactly is wrong with that? Even the gossips were cool with the pictures this morning, until you sent them all that little essay of yours. Why'd you do that to me?"
I decided to be honest and tell him the truth. "I was steering the gossips this morning, spinning it, you know. I was being asked whether the two of you were back together. I didn't know what to say, so I called you to ask."
"I didn't get a call from you, so don't lie," he butted in.
"Yeah you did, only it wasn't you that answered it. Your girlfriend did. Told me all about your night of passion, and that you were back together. She even told me to put it out there that you were about to propose." Stupid tears began to leak out of my eyes, rolling their way, unwanted, down my cheeks. I watched as Henry pulled out his phone and checked his call history.
"She was only there for ten minutes, just came to say goodbye. She's on her way to L'Aquila to start filming her next movie. I was only away from my phone for five minutes."
"Yeah, whatever," I sneered nastily. I didn't believe a word of it. "So why'd she know I was your PA? Is that what you told her because you're ashamed of shagging your fixer?"
He didn't answer, as he was too busy prodding his phone. I watched as he held it to his face. "Did you answer my phone to Sarah?" He asked as soon as she picked up. "Why did you tell her we spent the night together when we didn't? Were you just being a bitch?"
I could hear her voice raised through the handset, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. "I told you how much she means to me. Why did you try to sabotage that?" He listened intently. "I don't give a toss that my name is front page on TMZ. It's not on there for the right reasons and right now it seems that you're doing your best to wreck my life." Another load of squeaky sounding shouting poured down his phone.
I was interrupted by my lunch arriving, and after taking it from the waiter and tipping him, only caught Henry shouting: "Don't ever call me, speak about me or contact me in any way ever again. There'll be no more favours or help. Do. You. Understand?" He listened for a moment, then jabbed at the screen to end the call. He turned to me, "does that reassure you?"
He clearly wanted me to declare that everything was alright and throw myself into his arms, forgetting about the events of the previous night. In a typical blokeish way, I think he thought that we'd get back to normal and it would all be swept under the carpet. As much as I wanted him, I just couldn't set myself up for the heartbreak that was going to come eventually.
"I'm not coming back to you," I stated. "I just can't deal with being the mousey girlfriend hidden in the shadows. I'm sorry."
He sat down on the bed. "You're not a mousey girlfriend. If I'd known what she was going to do to us, I'd have never agreed to it. I just thought you were being a bit juvenile about it."
"Oh come off it," I yelled, "you knew fine well I didn't want you to meet her. I told you, plus I moved out of our room. I might not be a famous actress, but I'm also not a doormat either. You went out with her knowing that I advised you not to, both personally and professionally. You're just angry that I'm not falling into line with what you want. Now, I've decided to go home. You'll be a couple of days without a fixer, so just try not to get into any more trouble."
"You can't just leave. It's your job to be here, despite what's happened between us." Henry was incredulous.
"I told Clive to sack me. I've had enough. I just can't live in your world, with all the fakery and secrets. I'm sick of constantly worrying about the gossip sites, whether they approve of stuff or not. I'm going back to London to change jobs and find a nice, uncomplicated man who doesn't let TMZ dictate whether he upsets his girlfriend or not."
He scrubbed at his face. "I really don't want you to go. I thought what we have," he gestured between us, "was something special, something I've never had before. I thought you felt the same." He looked defeated.
"It was," I agreed, "but then you left me to have dinner with another woman, one that you've had sex with before. I saw the pictures of you gazing lovingly at her. I just can't compete, and I know at some point you'll want the whole 'Hollywood actress' power couple package. I can't fulfil that, so it's better to do this now."
"I'm an actor. Of course I can gaze lovingly at a lady's face when I knew there'd be paps around. It'd be more worrying if I couldn't," he asserted. "It doesn't mean anything."
"It meant something to me," I replied. "It was the same expression as when you look at me. I recognised it. Tell me, were you acting then as well?"
"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped. "How I feel about you is real."
I felt the tears bubbling up. I just didn't know what to do. I desperately wanted to believe him, but at the same time, I couldn't just forget how hurt I was. If I stayed, I'd have to repair all the damage I'd done to his public persona, plus I'd be going through the same thing every time the PR people wanted him linked to other actresses. It was just too much, I was torn. I let out a sob.
Instantly I felt his strong arms wrap around me as I gave way to the tumult inside. "We can get through this," he murmured. "You and I can get through anything."
"I don't want to 'get through' stuff. This is gonna keep happening," I managed to say through my sobs.
"No it won't. I'll make sure. I'll tell them I'm not prepared to have fake relationships any more. From now on, it'll only be you." He wiped his thumbs under my eyes, sweeping away the tears.
I sniffed. "I'll cancel my flight."
