What a time to run out of battery, I thought. I wanted to hurl the phone across the room in fury. Instead, I lunged for Rosie's landline, and called him back. "What happened?" He asked.
"Ran out of charge. So, back to the question, have you slept with her?"
"No, I haven't," he said. "Sarah, it's you and only you. Surely you know that by now?" His voice was soft, earnest. He sounded like my Henry again. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. "Please Sarah, I just can't be without you. Hearing your voice....." He trailed off.
"I miss you too," I said softly, "but I hit rock bottom out there.
"I know you did, and I didn't take care of you as I should have. I know that. I just sort of avoided it."
"This girl," I said, "she thinks you're her boyfriend. It's all over the networks. Her family have been telling your fans that you're gonna marry her."
"Oh Jesus," he breathed. "I just trained with her, she's a superman fan." He paused. "I stupidly thought if you saw me with a girl you'd be jealous enough to come back. Mike introduced us."
"Was it his idea to make me jealous?" I asked. I needed Henry to figure out for himself how much he'd been played.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Listen, I need to make some calls. Can I call you back in a little while?"
"Sure. I'll charge my phone."
"I love you Sarah. It's only ever you, don't forget that." He sounded choked up. The phone went dead.
I busied myself making a drink and tidying up. It gave me time to think. I wanted desperately to run back into his arms, but I'd hated being so far away from my own life. In a moment of clarity, I realised that I'd done nothing and seen nobody but Rosie since I'd been in London. My life wasn't in a place, it was with a person and that person was Henry. I prayed that he'd understand how he'd been used and walk away from the malign influences around him. An hour later the phone rang.
"Hiya," I said.
"I've been had, haven't I?" He said without preamble.
"I think so. It's certainly how it looks to me. Have you spoken to Alan?"
"He's just torn me a new one. Apparently my charity are on the verge of dropping me, the studio are looking around for a new superman and the investors for my next movie are extremely nervous. Alan's having kittens, thought I'd been on drugs or something. I just didn't realise how isolated I'd been." He sounded despondent.
"You need to publicly cut them off. Have you spoken to Gym Jones about changing your trainer?" My neck prickled with fear at the thought of him losing his place in the franchise. I knew how much it meant to him to complete the whole justice league movies.
"Not yet, I will. I just don't know how to fix this. I looked at the gossip sites. You know they're hash tagging #careerender, don't you?"
"I do. I've been watching it unfold."
"And you didn't think to tell me?" He sounded annoyed, which was a bit rich given it was all his own fault.
"I thought you were happy with her. It's how it looked. I never joined in with the online slating and speculation. I didn't drive it, nor did I try and stop it. I just read it."
"Did you see what they wrote about you?"
I gave a hollow laugh. "Of course." I'd actually been quite gratified that the fans had done a turnaround and agreed that I was far better than the huntin, shootin animal killer that appeared to be Henry's new girlfriend. They'd shut up about my man hands and wondered aloud how Henry could go straight from 'a lady' like me, to a redneck like her. They concluded that he'd lost his mind.
"They'd welcome you back with open arms, almost as much as I would."
"Sack your trainer and change gyms. I'll come back."
"Already done." I could almost hear the smile in his voice.
"I'd better go book a flight then. Do you have a fixer out there yet?"
"No."
"Then I'll tip of the paps that I'll be arriving and you'll be meeting me at the airport. They'll all want the reunion pictures."
"Let's give them some pictures worth printing eh? God, I've missed you. Have you missed me? Even a little bit?"
"Of course I have."
