the ad campaign of your career, hence breaking her heart. Ring any bells twatbadger?”
“What?”
“Don’t deny it,” Kira snapped, slicing her hand through the air to silence me. “She heard you talking to Ben on the plane.”
I wracked my brain trying to remember what had been said on the journey and my heart sank.
Leave Urvi to me.
Bugger. I’d only said that to keep him away from Urvi until I’d prepared her for his offer. I didn’t want her going in blind and agreeing to a deal which wasn’t the very best she could get. With that song she could afford to play hardball. Ben would walk all over her otherwise. But I could see how it would have come across - not me protecting Urvi, but me using Urvi to get what I wanted.
“I need to speak to her.”
“Well you can’t.” Kira glanced behind her and then looked back at me. “What her bloody family did was bad enough. And now you.” She shook her head. “You’re just the icing on the cake. She doesn’t need this shit. Her health -”
“Is she okay? Is she sick?” Panic gripped me for a moment and my chest felt too tight. My worry must have shown on my face because Kira’s expression softened.
“He diabetic control is fine. That machine is a Godsend. At least you did something right.”
I ran both my hands down my face in relief. It had been a week since we arrived home and I still hadn’t spoken to Urvi. At the airport she didn’t have any luggage to claim, so when I emerged from the long wait for mine she was gone. A curt text message told me she had to get back as she had college the next day. It hadn’t sounded like Urvi, but then I’d thought maybe that’s how she was over text. How would I know? We’d never texted before. Maybe she didn’t like to waste her energy typing. But then she’d avoided my calls all week with no explanation. It was like Saint-Tropez had been some sort of dream, like it never really happened. And then I started to worry. What if she was sick again? What if she was swamped at college and didn’t have time to eat properly?
“Look, Kira. I really just want to see her. Can you please tell me where she is?”
Kira sighed and then narrowed her eyes at me.
“I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt, big guy,” she said. “But only because you got her that reader and you seem to give a monkey’s about her health.”
With that she pushed past me into the corridor, shut the door behind her and started down the lobby stairs.
“Well, are you coming or what?” she called behind her.
“Er . . . oh, okay where are we . . . ?”
“I told you she was busy. She may well skin me alive for this but I’ll take you to her. You can have Libby’s ticket.”
“Ticket? What . . .?”
“Keep up, cockwomble,” Kira snapped and I jogged after her down the stairs.
*****
Urvi
The hall was packed. I’d expected it, but it still scared the crap out of me. I loved composing, performing was still a bit of a struggle. But the performance part was a third of the mark for the course and I couldn’t afford to throw it away. Besides, the song just hadn’t sounded right with anyone else singing or playing it. Deep down in my bones I knew it had to be me.
Mena played the last notes on her violin and I smiled. It was perfect, as always. Her family would be so proud. She’d told me they were all there, even some of her ‘weird cousins’. She pretended to be annoyed with their excitement when they came to see her backstage, but I could tell she was secretly chuffed to bits. There would be no family seeking me out today. Nobody in the audience for me, other than Kira. But I was guessing that the sheer force of her personality would make up for the hordes of relatives all the other performers seemed to have in attendance.
My breathing was too fast as Mena bowed and made her way off the stage.
“Urvi?” Mrs Hayes, one of my tutors, touched my shoulder. “It’s time to go, honey.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before closing my eyes tight. It had been a difficult month, but I needed to block out everything now in this moment. Life had proved to