Thin Air Read Free

and
complacent, but still think they’re trend-setters.’
    Jay grimaced. ‘Harsh, but
accurate.’ She didn’t want to say more, because she fitted
comfortably into that world, writing a scathing column in ‘This’
once a month that attacked anything that promised controversy.
Still, she was aware that the youth of the country burned with
different fires now, and perhaps her writing spoke only to her
contemporaries, who lived in a time bubble of when anything had
seemed possible.
    She took a breath. ‘So, what
about you, then?’
    He laughed bitterly. ‘You know
about me.’
    ‘I’m not stupid, Dex.’
    He studied her. ‘No, I can see
that.’
    Later, Jay went back inside
alone. Dex had uttered a friendly good-bye and left. She was
slightly disappointed he hadn’t suggested they go on somewhere else
together, but was amused by the quaint way he’d formally asked her
for a date. They would meet tomorrow. She smiled to herself as she
moved through the twittering crowd of the party, mentally replaying
details of their conversation. His ego hadn’t been painful, he’d
really listened to her, he’d been interested in what she had to
say. How long had it been since she’d talked to someone like
that?
    Eventually, Jay came across
Grant Fenton in a corner, draped drunkenly over a scantily-clad
giggling girl.
    ‘Hey, Jay!’ Grant drawled.
‘Where’ve you been?’
    She sat down next to him, aware
she felt light-headed, excited. She hadn’t felt like that for a
long time. ‘Grant,’ she said. ‘I’ve just met the most amazing
man.’
    Perhaps if Jay had met Dex five years
before, they wouldn’t have been that different, but now they seemed
like opposites; she articulate, groomed and sharp; he mouthy,
scruffy and often insulting. He never insulted her, though. She
wondered what they saw in each other, and whether other people
thought they made an odd couple. Because they did become a
couple.
    He treated her from the start
with a puzzling familiarity as if he couldn’t see the exterior
she’d constructed for herself. There was something about her he
liked or needed. She wasn’t a career girlfriend, like so many other
women who fluttered desperately about the music scene. She didn’t
measure her own worth in terms of who she could persuade to sleep
with her. When she met Dex she hadn’t really wanted a regular
partner. Romance was great, lust exhilarating, but after the gloss
had dimmed, men, in Jay’s experience, tended to become unfaithful,
demanding or cruel. Dex became none of these things. She often
hated him for the things he said and did to other people, and
detested the public persona he’d created, but at home he was her
soul companion. They’d infiltrated the scene and had found each
other. They knew the truth of the music industry, but milked it for
all they could. It was their secret. They could laugh about it.
    For their first date, Dex took
Jay to a riverboat restaurant on the Thames. She wasn’t sure
whether this was because he thought she’d expect something like
that or a natural choice on his part. Throughout the meal, he was
attentive and amusing. Conversation flowed easily between them. As
the evening went on, Jay was conscious of a mounting sense of
surprise within her. Dex seemed too good to be true. Could she dare
believe in what she was being shown?
    Later, as they left the boat and
went to hail a taxi, a couple of kids came running across the road.
One of them screamed Dex’s name. Jay wasn’t sure whether they were
male or female. It all happened so quickly. The snarl that Dex
turned on them was frighteningly loud; the roar of a maddened lion.
‘Fuck off! Give us some respect, man!’ His teeth were bared, his
eyes dark with the emptiness of hate. Fortunately, before the
stunned fans could respond, a black cab swung to a halt beside
them. Dex hustled Jay in through the door. She lay back against the
seat blinking, feeling dazed. Dex took her hand, smiled at her.
‘Sorry,’