Alison Found

"She went out with him?"

"Not really, a few dinner dates and a couple of parties, I think. The relationship was in his mind and the scandal mags of course. He's not her only ex here; I can see at least two others." Then she gestured in the direction of the bar, "and of course there's Simon!"

"He's here? I said as I looked, then answered my own question. "Yes, I see he is. Was she serious with any of them?

Lucy took her time answering, "I've been with her for six years, and she's had a few casual relationships in that time. I suppose the six months with Simon was the most serious I remember her being. But even with him, she seemed a bit distant, and when your birthday reminder popped up on her phone that was the end of him."

I looked back at the group around Ali and said, "So I think it's time I see where I stand with her."

Lucy took hold of my arm as I started to move. "Be careful, she doesn't like being interrupted when she's talking," she warned me. "For as long as I've known her she doesn't like it when people come up to her at parties. Watch, if she wants to talk to someone, she'll either call them over or join their group."

"I'm people?" I asked.

"I don't know what you are yet."

"So let's go and find out, shall we?"

I moved across the room and stood beside Ali. She was talking to the tennis player whose hand still rested possessively across her shoulders. She hesitated and stopped speaking when she felt my presence move inside her comfort zone.

She moved to see who was standing there, her lips tight, the smile on them starting to fall away. Then reappearing as bright as a light as she registered who was standing there. She shrugged her shoulders displacing the arm resting on them and made that half step that completely closed the gap between us. Her face lifted up, and she pulled me into a kiss.

"Ash, who's this?" the tennis player said. I don't think he appreciated my interruption, at least that's what I gathered from the look of anger that flashed across his face. He tried to put his arm back around her, but she stopped him.

"Billy, this is my fiancé, Josh. He's the one I've been in love with since I was eight.

Oh yes, that was his name, Billy Gonzales. I knew it began with a B.

"Your fiancé? But I thought you and me..."

Ali gave him a sad smile. "No, you and I are just good friends and that's all you will ever be." She added, cutting him down to size.

He looked at her for a moment and then walked away. A harsh, "Bitch," floating behind him. The rest of the group stared at me, and I smiled back at them.

It was easy to work out that they were uncomfortable with me, an outsider who was there to take the queen bee from the hive. Ali did her best, introducing me to the group, some of whom were her closest friends, but it was quickly apparent they belonged to a different world to the one I inhabited, and one I had little interest in.

Her friend's conversations dropped into a shorthand known only to themselves. Discussions about people I didn't know, nor frankly did I want to, and situations I cared even less about. Slowly Ali stopped trying to include me, and after five minutes of being ignored I gave up attempting to be social and took the opportunity to move to the bar, seeking a decent drink.

I waved a barman over and ordered a large malt. I took the proffered glass and turned to rest my back against the bar while I watched Ali. She was the most beautiful of the women around her; she was like a queen bee accepting the attention of her workers as her companions danced in attendance. This was just what I had been worried would happen and I regretted allowing her to convince me to delay my flight back to the boat.

Time passed and the group around her pulsed and morphed as people joined and left. I was on my third drink, somewhat disconcerted, but sadly not surprised that she hadn't returned to me.

"You won't last, none of her boyfriends ever do. Well, other than me, that is"

I looked to see Simon beside me. "I've had you checked out," he continued. "You are just a two-bit journalist, living on a boat. Do you honestly think she'll be happy to slum it, playing your dutiful girlfriend for very long?"

His usually handsome face was twisted in anger, and while I'd been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and try and like him for Ali's sake, he wasn't making it easy.

"That's her choice," I replied. "She knows what I am and that I'm not going to change. So how long did you last?"

He smirked and said, "What makes you think she's over me."

"Well, I don't see you over there." I gestured over to the group around Ali.

"Neither are you."

"I'm happier over here."

He laughed, "I'll give her a few weeks, and she'll be knocking on my door again. I've been fucking her for the past year. How does it feel to be getting my sloppy seconds?"

"I think that's the other way around; I first slept with her 22 years ago." Well, I suppose holding hands as eight-year-olds as we slept in the tent counts in this game of Ashley top trumps, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I smiled at the anger flashing in his eyes.

Then I stood up straight and grasped his hand in mine. I was afraid that regardless of whatever Ali's feelings about him were, he was a despicable bastard, and I saw no reason to like him. The skin on mine was rough; his smooth, constant handling ropes hadn't treated mine gently. My grip was strong and firm, another legacy of life afloat.

Simon winced as I squeezed his hand and pulled him in close and whispered. "I don't like you and if you ever talk about Ali like that again." I paused as I squeezed his hand even tighter until I heard the knuckles crack and he gave a sharp gasp of pain as he struggled to tug it from my grasp.

"I'll guarantee that you won't be able to use your hand for a month."

I let go, and he staggered back, his face white with the pain. He clutched his hand to his chest before hurrying away.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," came Lucy's voice from my other side. She was perched on a bar stool; her long legs crossed showing a lot of thigh. A tall ice-filled glass with several slices of fruit and a straw was clutched in her hand. "Oh, and he's lying, he and Ash haven't been sleeping together since last summer, he always was a bitter loser."

"Ahh," I said. I love that word; it carries so many emotions and meanings depending on the inflection used.

Lucy gave me a calculating look. "She's not doing it on purpose," and she gestured at Ali with her glass, drops of condensation falling on her legs.

Ali was in the middle of a small group of admirers, none of whom I recognized. Obviously, they were not strangers to Ali as she was very comfortable in their presence. Laughing and flirting with the men, stepping close to them.

"Any more ex's I need to be worried about?"

Lucy checked out the group over the top of her drink. "There's a couple, she went on a trip with him, a couple of years ago" and she pointed to a tall man. "They were supposed to be away a month, but she was back after a couple of days. No one else she was serious about that I know of."

She paused tapping her finger on her glass considering, "except maybe Antonio," she pointed at the man now standing next to Ali. "He's not an ex," she heard my sharp intake of breath. "I don't mean she still going out with him, they had a couple of one night flings in the past, but he has been trying to convince her to have a full-time relationship with him for years. He hasn't been successful, but not for the lack of trying."

The man was handsome, with a southern Mediterranean cast to his features. He looked in his late-thirties and was wearing an immaculate Amani suit. His hand rested delicately on Ali's arm.

"Who is he?"

"His father is Maurizio Rossi," she said matter of factly, pausing as she obviously assumed I knew who he was. I just gave her a blank expression which told her I had no clue.

She sighed at my ignorance, "Of the Rossi fashion house. He's supposedly their fashion ambassador, which as far as I can work out, means he flies all over the world at the company's expense, being photographed in the company of the golden set. I doubt if he's even on tonight's guest list, but no doorman would refuse him entrance."

"And Ali likes him?"

She gave a soft laugh, "It really is odd hearing you call her Ali; you're probably the only person in this room who knows Ashley isn't her real name, and I've only ever known her as Ashley."

"Antonio," I reminded her.

"Oh, yes. Hmm, I guess so, they're friends, and he seems nice enough. I know Ash likes meeting the people he knows and places he can take her to, so I suppose she's happy using him."

Ali's bright laughter reached us in a pause in the music. She raised her cheek, and Antonio kissed it. Her head turned a bit further, and she noted me watching her. She saw the expression on my face and stepped away from her companions leaving them looking surprised. Antonio took a step to follow her then stopped as he watched her. Her face lit up with a big smile, and she almost skipped as she hurried over to me.

"Hey, lover, miss me?" She said with a soft giggle that failed to mask a hint of anxiety.

"For 12 years," I said dryly, and immediately regretted it.

Her face fell, she glanced back at the group of people she'd just left, a guilty expression on her face as she realized I'd been standing over here for over half hour or so.

"Why didn't you come over and join us?" she asked.

I raised my eyebrows, "I was there, but after the first few moments, you and your 'friends' ignored me so I couldn't see the point of standing around like a spare peg." I raised my glass and took a sip, "so I found my own entertainment."

Ali looked embarrassed and swallowed a couple of times, then she asked Lucy, "Were you part of his entertainment as well?"

Lucy said, "God no, if anything he's been mine. You missed him seeing off an obnoxious Simon, and it was a lot of fun to watch."

Ali sort of deflated in front of us. She looked around herself. Then she directed a comment to Lucy, "Asking Josh to accompany me here was a bad idea wasn't it?"

Lucy nodded in agreement.

"I keep forgetting he's not used to this degree of insanity, the need to network," Ali added.

"It just seems so superficial," I said. "But it is interesting watching you interact with these people. I don't know how you stand it?"

"I'm sad to say I've got used to it."

I gave a mild snort of derision.

"Hey, I said I got used to it, not that I like it," Ali said as she snuggled close to me.

"Do you need to stay here for much longer?" I asked, hopeful that she didn't.

Ali sighed, "A bit longer I'm afraid, we are expected to give another couple of interviews. I expect it's going to be interesting, especially since I've outed my poor old boyfriend to the press as my lover and soon to be husband." She pointed in the direction of the camera crews who were waiting patiently for her and her co-star.

"Less of the old if you don't mind, I'm only four weeks older than you," I said tongue in cheek.

"Oh god, my mother warned me about getting involved with older men!"

I smiled, and behind me, I heard Lucy snort.

Ali gave me a quick kiss, and I let my hand drift down her back to possessively stroke her ass. She pressed back against my hand and whispered, "Thank you, I'm going to leave you in Lucy's capable hands while I round up the rest of my co-stars so we can finish up here. I'll be right back as soon as we wrap up and then I'm going to let you take me home, and my ancient boyfriend will carry on playing with my ass and ravish me."

Without waiting for me to think up a suitable response, she headed back to the group she'd stepped away from a few minutes earlier. After a few moments, she and her co-star were led over to an area that had been set up for television interviews.

Should I go over and offer her my support was the question on my lips, answered when Lucy placed a hand on my shoulder and shook her head.

"Leave her to it; she'll only get anxious if she sees you watching, I'll go and keep an eye on her."

I nodded my head in agreement. This was Ali's time, and I didn't want to distract her.

The interviews were only supposed to last ten minutes each, but it took the second team over 20 minutes of fathing about to set theirs up. Ali sat in a makeup chair with Lucy by her side, waiting for the interviewer to get her war paint sorted out. Whilst most of her friends spread across the room, moving and coalescing into new groups only to disperse and reform a moment later, I spotted Antonio standing to one side of the camera crews and watched the interviews intently.

It was a good hour before time was called and Ali's obligations for the evening were over, and she started back in my direction. She'd only taken a few steps before she was intercepted by Antonio, who put his head close to hers and seemed to say something. Ali changed direction and followed Antonio to where several of her so-called friends waited, then her group of sycophants coalesced and reformed around her.

Enough was enough, so much for her, 'I'll be right back.' I walked over. Ali was standing with her back to me talking to that Antonio guy. I'd never felt comfortable at social events, and high amongst my dislikes was that moment when convention requires you to insert yourself into a group of semi-strangers. Their faces turn in your direction, and the conversation pauses, then the silence drags out until you shuffle away with your tail between your legs.

I stepped into the group and got the pregnant pause until the silence made Ali turn around to see what was causing it.

"Time for you lot to all fuck off," was what I wanted to say.

I didn't, I resisted the temptation and pushed down my anger. I was fairly sure if I did say anything I was going to regret it later. I just looked at her, tapped my watch and waited. Ali seemed to be staring through me, then her focus snapped to me, and she gave a brief nod and announced that she was leaving.

"Ashley, we will go in my car," Antonio stated, and he put his hand on Ali's arm.

Like hell she was. "Like fuck, she will," I snapped. "Al... Ashley and I are going home and you sure as fuck are not invited."

"No it is you who are mistaken, I have invited Ash to join me at my hotel for drinks, and she accepted a moment ago." He gave me a smirk, "You, I don't invite!"

What the fuck!

"Ali, what is this fuckhead talking about?" I snapped, moving in her direction, not trying to keep the anger from my voice. Ali's mouth opened in confusion, and she looked from me to him and then back again. Behind me, I heard a snigger.

A pair of well-built men reacted to my actions and stepped menacingly in my direction, only to pause as David materialized next to me.

"Ali what's going on," I repeated. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, frozen in mid-step.

David put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "I'll deal with this," he said softly to me. Then he moved to Ali's side and stepped between her and Antonio. With his back to both Antonio and his bodyguards, David pulled Ali to face him. Lucy and a second member of Ali's security team ushered the onlookers away until Ali, Antonio, David and myself were alone. Antonio's bodyguard's hovered in the background wearily watching David with the occasional glance at me.

"Ash, what's going on; have you agreed to go with him?" I heard him say softly to her.

She blinked several times before saying, "What, who?"

"Did you accept Mr. Rossi's invitation?" David repeated. "I need to know so I can rearrange the security detail."

Well, that wasn't what I thought he was going to do when he'd said he was going to deal with this. I didn't say anything, I just bristled in anger, and those standing closest to me stepped back.

Ali's mouth snapped closed, and she straightened up. She looked from David to Antonio before her gaze settled on me. "No, I ... no," she stuttered. "Toni, I'm sorry if you misunderstood me but I'm going home with my fiancé."

His expression turned into one that looked like a child who'd had his favorite toy taken away from him. Somehow I got the impression he wasn't used to his offers being rejected.

With that, she came over to me and hugged me, "Sorry," she whispered. "He asked me if I wanted a drink, I thought he meant here. I should have remembered he often arranges little intimate parties following these events."

"I take it you've been his guest at one before?"

She grasped my hand, as Daniel led us out of the reception room. She kept her voice low as we walked so only I could hear. "I've not been an angel Jos, so yes, I've been his 'guest' a couple of times, but the last time was more than a year ago."

She gave me a smile tinged with sadness. "This sort of thing is going to happen; you will meet people I've been involved with in the past, and some of them will try to rub it in your face.

I wondered how many I had met tonight, and she must have guessed what I was thinking.

"I promise I'll never hide my previous lovers from you, but neither will I rub them in your face. So in the pursuit of openness, I can tell you there are only two here tonight, you've met Simon, I'm afraid, and then there's Toni."

When she mentioned him, I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder to see if he was following us. I couldn't see him, but there was a group that appeared to be heading towards the exit.

"And Billy?"

Ali wrapped her arm around my waist. "Not him. That was wishful thinking on his part. It's not like there have been hundreds," she said. "I was pretty picky about who I would share a bed with; there's only been a few over the years. But I'm still friendly with some of them, so it's inevitable you'll meet most of them sooner or later."

She gave me a soft smile, "Some I'm sure you will like, but they are in my past." Then she lost the smile, "Others I'm not sure I liked even when I was involved with them. What about you, any girlfriends I should know about?"

I gave her a rueful smile. "None I've ever been that serious about. I live on a boat, so it's been mostly holiday romances. There was one girl who crewed for me for a year, but she decided to go back to school in the States."

We were waiting outside the club for the car to arrive. Ali was signing autographs for a few diehard fans when Antonio and his bodyguards caught up with us. His previously smiling face now had a bitter twist to it.

He stepped up to Ali and brought his face close to hers. "You don't say no when I ask you to join me, you will get in my car," he said in a low hiss. "You are mine for tonight because I've decided you are."

Ali looked flustered, and David and I moved to flank her as his limo pulled up behind ours that had just stopped in front of us. Our driver opened the passenger door.

"The lady said no," I said.

David stepped between Ali and Antonio. "Mr. Rossi, you need to walk away. Miss Bell has indicated she has no interest in joining you tonight or at any time in the future. You are making a scene, and the press is lapping it up." His words counterpointed by the fusillade of flashes and the shouted questions.

Antonio's security detail made the decision for him and pulled him towards his waiting limo. Ali and I climbed into the back of ours, and not for the first time over the past few days I wondered just what the fuck had I got myself into.

Part 2: The Mediterranean - Love lost (and found?)

I was back in my comfort zone, no longer feeling like the proverbial spare part. The sound of the wind singing through the rigging was counterpointed by the gentle rocking of the 'Lost Girl' as she rode at anchor. A powerful lullaby to which to fall to sleep to and wake up relaxed.