‘No, I get it, it’s a nice thing to do. I just didn’t realize you were that close to her. I didn’t think you and Harry were on good terms . . .’
Lee smiled. Liam had a way with understatement. ‘We’re not. But I didn’t do it for him.’ She dipped a prawn into the garlic butter, remembering why she’d called Gisele in the first place, hunting down the letter-that-wasn’t. Dita’s words floated back into her mind too. The Americans have authority to arrest him on sight. She felt another ripple of fear shimmy through her. That had been two days ago and there’d been no word since; she’d expected Cunningham to have been picked up by now. Unless he was on the move again?
‘Anyway, what’s up?’ she asked him, determinedly pulling her thoughts back to lunch. ‘I know you haven’t called this emergency lunch so that you can find out about my riveting Pakjesavond with my five-year-old.’
‘True that,’ he sighed, dabbing a napkin to his mouth and taking another sip of wine. ‘I need to ask a favour.’
‘Oh yes?’ She arched an eyebrow, looking at him over the rim of her glasses.
‘It’s about Haven.’
Lee paused for a moment. ‘The singer?’ Or specifically, the ‘new Billie Eilish’, as Lee knew her.
‘Yes.’
‘What about her?’ she asked warily.
‘I need to get hold of her.’
Lee sat back in her stool. ‘Oh Liam, seriously? I am not hooking you up with Haven—’
‘No, no, it’s not for me,’ he said quickly with a frown. ‘Jesus, Lee, no, she’s a teenager.’
‘So who then?’ she frowned, spearing a chunk of crab salad.
‘It’s for my boss’s daughter. It’s her eighteenth birthday coming up and he’s doing this huge party for her. They’ve taken over De School, got van Buuren on the decks, but all she wants is Haven singing there.’
Lee stared at him. ‘You know that everything you’ve just said to me is abhorrent, right? I want, I want, poor little rich girl.’
He put his hands up in surrender, agreeing with her. ‘I know, you’re absolutely right. It’s disgusting. She’s already ruined. They’ve got too much money.’ He didn’t mean a word of it. Money was his god. ‘But that’s not my lookout. I just need to make this happen and secure myself the fat promotion I’ve been trying and failing to nail for the past three years.’
‘It’s the only thing you’ve failed to nail for the past three years,’ Lee quipped, munching on a slice of avocado.
He mouthed a silent ha-ha, looking around and checking no one had overheard. ‘Seriously though. If I could just pull this off, it could be the break I’ve needed.’
Lee looked at him. Liam was a cryptocurrency broker, although no one really seemed to know what that meant (including Liam). ‘It’s pretty sad you’ve got to arrange your boss’s daughter’s birthday party in order to move up in your job, isn’t it?’
‘I’ll take whatever edge I can find.’ He shrugged. ‘Please Lee, I know you know her. Wasn’t she at your party last week? If I’d known back then they wanted her, I’d have asked her myself; it only came up incidentally on our way over to a meeting this morning.’
Hence his last-minute text. She watched him as she sipped her wine. He looked desperate, and Liam was never usually jostled out of his elegant air of calm. ‘When’s the party?’
‘Tomorrow night.’
‘Tomor—!’ Lee spluttered. ‘Oh my God, Liam! Not a chance! You’ve got to be joking!’
‘I know it’s highly, highly unlikely. But can’t you at least ask her? Where’s the harm?’ He spread his smooth hands wide. ‘Her management won’t even put the request through. Couldn’t you just . . . text her direct?’
Lee groaned, slumping back in her chair. ‘Ugh, that could be really awkward, Liam.’
‘I would owe you. I would owe you so hard!’
‘No, no, I’m really not sure—’
‘He said they’ll pay seven figures.’
Lee groaned louder. ‘That’s disgusting! Do you know what good that money could be put to, instead of a spoilt little rich girl’s eighteenth?’
‘I know, I know!’ He cringed, hiding his face in his hands. ‘We’re monsters. Debauched pigs.’ He peered through his fingers at her with his big blues. ‘But can’t you at least just ask her. For me?’
Lee stared back at his puppy-dog eyes. They were wholly resistable to her, but to most other women . . . To Mila . . . Yet she already knew perfectly well she would be seeing Haven at the Hot dinner tonight. It