‘It was. So what are you running away from?’

  She turned to stare at me. ‘What makes you think I’m running from something?’

  ‘Bruising on your knuckles and on your face, a holiday away alone, a cheap close place, a night flight – not planned.’

  ‘Bit of a smart ass … aren’t you.’

  I stared out to sea. ‘A few days ago I visited a local hospital in England - I go when I can, to cheer up the ladies on the cancer ward.

  ‘I found a lady dying, her father having killed himself after he was cheated out of his farm. If you’re not happy … I’m sure that lady would swap places with you…’

  She studied me. ‘A bit early to be kicking me.’

  ‘We all need a good kick now and then, but mostly just a hug at the right time, and to get it all in focus. So why don’t you take the sunglasses off.’

  She hesitated, then took off the baseball cap and sunglasses, revealing a bruised eye and cheek, plus well maintained light brown hair to her shoulders. And now I recognised her, Alicia something, a few top Hollywood movies under her belt.

  I had stood and closed in, and now I reached across and cupped her cheek. She shuddered, wide-eyed, as if I had given her an electric shock. ‘It costs me nothing to help you, same for the lady dying of cancer, and my girls don’t judge.’

  I withdrew my hand. ‘Problem is, you come from a cesspit of Hollywood double-dealing and arseholes, and you don’t know who to trust, so therefore you trust no-one.

  ‘Where we come from, it’s different, and we see the world through different eyes. You’d find Sweden boring, we find it … safe, and with a real lack of arseholes.

  ‘Where we come from … the photographers politely ask your permission to photograph you, and they sit down for a cup of tea afterwards.’

  ‘Sounds nice,’ she said with a shrug of a shoulder, back to staring out to sea.

  ‘When my girls got into modelling it was after an agent tried to rip them off. I told them: if it’s not fun, don’t do it, because if you’re not enjoying it then the camera will pick-up on that. You need to sparkle for the camera.

  ‘And right now, you … you’re not enjoying it, no sparkle, no zest, not keen to get up in the mornings, are you?’

  A glance at me, and she again shrugged a shoulder.

  ‘We’re here … if the airport novels are not doing it for you, and you need another human being.’

  In with the sleeping girls, I lay down and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what Alicia was going through, and having a pretty good guess.

  When the girls finally stirred, I gathered them together. Whispering, I began, ‘Famous actress next door, but … not happy; I spoke to her.

  ‘She has a bruised face and hand, from fighting with a boyfriend I think. She’s here hiding away. If you talk to her, just understand that she wants to hide away for a while, but I told her she could join us if she wanted to.’

  ‘What’s her name?’ Rita asked.

  ‘Alicia something, she was in a movie with Brad Pitt.’

  ‘Alicia Stone. My god.’

  ‘Give her space, she’s … hurting.’

  ‘We fix her boyfriend,’ Olesya suggested. ‘Take photo with you like Jacqueline, and send it to America.’

  The twins gasped, and my eyes widened.

  ‘Olesya, you’re smarter than you look,’ I told her.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said with a smile. She lost the smile. ‘What?’

  The twins laughed at her as she whacked my arm.

  Bags packed an hour later, reception had booked a minibus for us, and we were soon on our way to a beach that reportedly had rocks, nice rocks. At the beach, all of us in disguise apart from Josh, we walked till we were alone, finding nice rock formations.

  The girls had their bikinis on, and fresh from the ocean they posed whilst shining wet, against the rocks, laying down, three arses in a row.

  Oleysa took charge of the digital camera after she had washed her hands and wiped them, and I proudly posed with the girls – as if they were my James Bond girls.

  Back with the minibus, and we headed back to the hotel, but we stopped at a row of tacky tourist shops, soon finding towels with national flag designs on them, many European flags bought and carried back.

  Back in the room, $75 handed to Josh for his time, and we ordered some food in the room, soon sat on the balcony and staring down at the people around the pool, the fat pink people.

  An hour later, as we finished, Alicia appeared on her balcony. I waited.

  She turned her head. ‘You must be the triplets.’

  Rita stood. ‘Pleased to meet you. Twins, and one adopted sister.’

  ‘And you play piano…’

  ‘Yes, some small concerts. If you want to join us you can tell us what you think of today’s digital photoshoot.’

  Alicia considered that, then nodded. I opened the room door, finding her to be petite, and shorter than the twins. We sat around the internal tables, chairs brought in from the balcony, the digital images replayed.

  I told Alicia, ‘We sell posters, to teenage kids and others, and we’ll see if some of these images are good enough to add to the list.’

  ‘Does it make much?’

  ‘This year it’ll be more than a million dollars.’

  ‘Not bad.’

  Rita told her, ‘We did a one day TV advert in Copenhagen, seventy-five thousand dollars.’

  I explained to our guest, ‘We have a business together, and the money we make goes into the business.’

  Frieda touched the bruised hand. ‘Do you want some ice?’

  ‘Ice? Uh …no, thanks. It reminds me of how much I enjoyed hitting him.’

  The girls laughed, and they recalled kicking a drunk American in the balls in Jamaica.

  Oleysa asked, ‘Your boyfriend no good?’

  ‘No good,’ Alicia repeated. ‘He … sees other women.’

  ‘We share,’ Olesya stated.

  ‘Share?’

  ‘We share Ricky.’

  ‘You’re … happy to do that?’

  Rita began, ‘Yes, why not, he looks after us. We shared a boyfriend before. Physical and emotionally identical twins.’

  ‘Did … your parents try and split you up?’

  ‘They did, but they love us, and when Ricky came he shouted at them and now they accept us as we are.’

  Alicia glanced at me. ‘You can shout at my parents as well if you like.’

  I explained, ‘The twins are lucky to have great parents, but all parents worry for their kids and want the best for them, just that … it is society’s idea of what’s best for them, it is … grandma’s idea of what’s best, and … what will the neighbours say.

  ‘If you want to be a freak and be happy, you can do that, but first you need to stop doing what your parents, and society, expect from you.

  ‘The twins know they have a dependency, but they like it and accept it – and to hell with the world.

  ‘And them being twins helped us to market ourselves, me plus them as a team, and we’ve done well from it, now much sought after for TV commercials and static shoots. So we may make some money for a year or two then go do something else. Modelling and acting is about short-term popularity.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ she sighed out.

  I pointed at Olesya. ‘This one had a devious idea.’

  The girls all smiled.

  ‘What?’ Alicia asked, taking in the faces.

  Oleysa began, ‘If your boyfriend is no good, we take photos of you with Ricky and send them to American newspaper. Ricky is the best looking man in the world, everyone wants to meet him.’

  She stared back at Olesya. ‘He would freak out, yeah. LA media would hound him as well.’

  ‘We can stage photos, like Jacqueline Dupont,’ Olesya suggested. ‘Ricky pretend he like her.’

  ‘I love your eyes,’ Alicia told Olesya.

  ‘From Russia,’ Olesya responded with a beaming smile.

  Alicia faced me. ‘Are you … good at pretending?’

  ‘I don’t need to pretend, just be myself with you in frame, and the media will fill in the blanks for us.’

  ‘If it’s not prying … you girls really share him?’

  Rita smiled. ‘Ricky does a great massage, and a great pussy massage, then we have sex.’

  ‘A … what?’

  ‘Pussy massage. We have one or two orgasm, then sex.’

  Her mouth opened, closed, and she shook her head.

  I told her, ‘Trick to a good relationship, is to always satisfy the lady first.’

  ‘Not what my boyfriend thinks.’

  ‘He is dick,’ Olesya firmly suggested.

  Rita pointed at Alicia’s face. ‘First we fix your face, and some sun and some make-up.’

  I told Alicia, ‘Not safe for you around the pool, unless it’s early.’

  She nodded. ‘I would have avoided it, yeah.’

  ‘There’s one American lad here, on my payroll, he can help protect you from the drunken idiots. And we have a secret weapon, a small Swedish army.’

  The girls laughed loudly.

  Rita told Alicia, ‘We have the Swedish ladies’ beach volleyball team here, all strong. Last night they punch American man and he is asleep.’

  ‘They’re not to be messed with,’ I put in. ‘And they’ll protect you.’

  ‘Well I could do with a swim.’

  I walked to the balcony and peered down, spotting the team, as well as Josh. Back inside, I reported, ‘They’re down there, my guy as well. Get your bikini on when ready, grab a bag.’

  ‘Give me ten minutes.’

  We met her outside the room, doors checked, and we walked to the lift together, but her baseball cap and sunglasses would have made her hard to recognise.

  At the pool I waved over Josh. ‘New job, to protect this lady with your life, you get extra. This is Alicia Stone.’

  ‘God damn. Great to meet you.’

  At the volleyball team they shouted greetings, Rita soon explaining Alicia in Swedish. Sun beds were made available, so that we could sit in the middle of them.

  I told the captain, ‘Alicia goes nowhere alone, always two girls with her.’

  The captain nodded.

  I hit the pool, Alicia escorted in, the twins diving in. And Alicia had the body and the curves, it was easy to see why she had landed the top film roles. After two long lengths I waited for Alicia at the side of the pool. ‘Feeling better?’

  ‘I love to swim, had a friend with a big pool, house in the hills, but he tried it on.’

  ‘The twins swim like Olympic athletes.’

  ‘Can’t believe you satisfy them all. My boyfriend couldn’t even satisfy me.’

  ‘I have no sex drive, no urge to finish quickly, no urge to possess and to control; I’d be happy with a good book. The girls tell me what they want, and when, and I do it. Afterwards, I enjoy myself.

  ‘But it’s not just sex, the twins are very special, talented and kind, and Olesya … she’s a delicate flower than needs protecting from the world. I like protecting her, and she sleeps better knowing that I’m around, or at the end of the phone.

  ‘She had a tough childhood, a real horror story, she should be in a padded cell the way she was abused, but she came through it, and I like the fact that she needs help; never liked tough women.’

  ‘She was abused?’

  ‘In many ways.’

  ‘She seems OK.’

  ‘She found me, and I helped. And slowly we worked her around, and now she’ll perform a concert in front of people and not worry about it. When I met her she thought she was ugly, same for the twins.’

  ‘You seem to like helping strays…’

  ‘Doesn’t cost me anything. As school president I organised the other kids, to sit in with old ladies in my home town and stop the house burglars. I got to know a lot of old ladies, each with an interesting life story to tell.

  ‘And the man that got knocked cold last night, if I dissected him he’d probably have a story to tell, and a reason for why he’s such a drunken idiot.’

  ‘We all have a story, how we got from the womb … to a stressful career and a fist fight with your boyfriend in one easy step.’

  I told her, ‘It’s not too late for you, you’re just getting started, you just need to ask why you’re doing it. For the money, to show off to the girls in school that were mean to you, or because you like doing it.’

  ‘I’d say … all three. I started off liking it, I like the money, and I like being better than the bitches in school who labelled me as ugly.’

  ‘You need to find a way to enjoy it, no stress. I started my own agency, told the others to fuck off. We do it if it’s fun, we do it our way. I won’t be fifty years old and full of regrets, looking back at the mistakes.’

  ‘Well … we all want that, it’s just getting there in one piece.’

  ‘Do you do the parties?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Drop them, pick up a book.’

  ‘They help to network -’

  ‘They help to burn you out, booze and drugs and … shallow people on the make. You got to this point, an escape needed, so will you escape again a few months from now, and again next year?

  ‘I had invites to Hollywood, but I said no. The girls mean everything to me, my parents as well, and I can’t be bribed by the high life and the money – I read too many autobiographies for that.

  ‘For me, that’s the best way to learn – about other people’s painful mistakes - in a book.’

  She nodded. ‘Hollywood is full of burnt-out actors, some sleeping on the streets.’

  ‘So what will eventually kill you? Drugs, booze, a boyfriend, or your own hand?’

  She offered me a sorrowful look. ‘Hopefully, none of the above.’

  The twins joined us as we climbed out, the pool showers used. Dried off, I handed cash to the team captain for drinks, and I got a pitcher of beer bottles for us, Alicia grabbing one.

  ‘I’ve never been so protected,’ she noted. ‘And these girls all have such strong legs from the volleyball.’

  ‘Have you tried a woman?’ I idly asked.

  ‘In college, yes. And some weed and pills.’

  ‘Supportive siblings?’ I asked as the team came and went, beer or food sought.

  ‘Fuck no. Snakes.’

  ‘My parents are supportive, yet … dull compared to the twins’ parents. As a family they do sports, holidays together.’

  ‘Can’t even imagine what that’s like,’ she scoffed.

  ‘Just you, relying upon you, hence the bad-boy boyfriends.’

  ‘And the solution..?’

  ‘Is not easy for you, because acting takes you around the world nine months at a time. Makes it hard to form a good relationship. But you’d definitely benefit from talking to Jacqueline.’

  ‘Can you … set that up?’

  ‘Yes, of course. She has two months left, filming in Italy, then she’s free.’

  ‘And your supposed romance?’

  ‘Staged, my idea, to get more publicity for the Mercedes adverts.’

  ‘Your girls think we should stage something…’

  ‘It would piss off your boyfriend, and keep you on the front page, hence more job offers. And I could get you some modelling work in Europe, if you want a break.’

  ‘This is my break, or the start of it. I locked up my apartment.’

  ‘No film contracts pending?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then some modelling work may help, and your face in the media may help.’

  ‘Or I do a small Indie film in Europe.’

  ‘We have some contacts, Jacqueline as well. Do you want to be in the next Mercedes advert?’

  ‘Could I?’

  ‘It’s my call.’

  ‘I’d love to do one, to say that I did it; they have a quality about them, and I love Jacqueline.’

  ‘Two months’ wait,’ I cautioned.

  ‘I’ve waited longer for my boyfriend to fuck me the way I want it, trust me.’

  ‘Do you want to piss off your boyfriend, Hollywood style?’

  ‘Yes. Fuck him.’

  Sat in a quiet corner, baseball cap and sunglasses on, we posed, Rita taking a digital shot on maximum zoom, as if it was a sneaky shot.

  In the pool, and Alicia hung on my back, another zoomed snap taken, and finally a zoom snap of us sat together sunbathing.

  I asked her, ‘Are sure about this, the publicity?’

  ‘No one left there I care about. So fuck ‘em all.’

  In the manager’s office, we rudely grabbed his computer, cable attached and images downloaded, email sent to my London snapper, then to Pete Granton with a note. ‘Staged, but leak it like a sneaky shit, in LA, asap.’

  But I had sent a few snaps of me in the pool shower as well.

  My London snapper was awake and he called me. ‘We can use these photos?’

  ‘Yes, I want a hint at a romance, just a hint.’

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Mexico, with the twins. Met Alicia Stone and she wants some free publicity.’

  ‘Can I … sell them?’ he risked.

  ‘Can I …. get a cut?’ I mocked.

  ‘Forty percent.’

  ‘Done deal. Work quickly, but don’t try and sell into America, I have someone for that.’

  Pete Granton called an hour later. ‘What the heck you up to, boy, you trying to upset the twins or what?’

  ‘They’re here with me, it was their idea – staged shots. Alicia wanted to piss off her boyfriend.’

  ‘So … I can sell these?’

  ‘Of course you can. We get forty percent. But my English snapper will do the same, so act quickly and don’t sell in Europe.’

  ‘I have a low-life friend in LA, he’ll love it. But what if they ask you about the relationship?’

  ‘I say that my girls don’t mind if we share, which is true.’

  ‘I have some dirtbags to call.’

  ‘Oh, plug the hotel for me as well.’

  Back with Alicia, I told her, ‘Fuse has been lit, wait the bang. But if a few dirtbag photographers turn up here, move to a new hotel.’

  ‘Why? All publicity is good publicity, and I have the Swedish army with me. And I have you to protect me.’

  ‘I’m just one man.’