I didn’t want to talk to Leon, but he had no intention of listening.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

Was he seriously yelling at me?

‘Excuse me?’

‘Are you fucking spying on me? Did Sienna put you up to this?’

‘Oh my God, I work here!’

Leon shook his head, pacing in front of me, running his hands over his head.

‘Fuuuuuck!’ he screamed.

People lining up outside stared on, the murmuring increasing as, one by one, the outside diners realised the identity of the man having a momentous meltdown in front of them.

‘Look.’ Leon got right up into my face, forcing me to step back. ‘You can’t say anything to Sienna.’

‘Are you kidding me? If you don’t tell her I sure as hell will.’

He looked at me for a long moment, his eyes boring into mine; his jaw was clenched so tightly I could see a vein bulge in his neck. ‘That would be a serious mistake.’

In that moment, it all came flooding back. All the people I had trusted, so-called friends and colleagues, and all the secrets they had kept from me, covering for all of Scott’s lies. They had protected him by blaming me, just as Sienna would no doubt be blamed, and Leon would come out unscathed. My blood boiled as I recalled the deception, the hurt, the embarrassment, the betrayal.

I looked Leon dead in the eyes so he could be sure I meant what I said. ‘We Aussies have to stick together.’

He scoffed. ‘I’ll ruin you and your little buddies; you’ll never work in this town, I’ll make sure of that.’

‘Chill out, Leon. You don’t have to be a complete prick every day of your life.’

Much to my surprise, he broke into a wolfish grin; the rage had simmered as he stepped back up to me, running his finger along my arm. ‘You know, it’s a real shame … I think you and I would have made much more sense. Tell me, do you bite as well as you bark, babe?’

I laughed. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that action superstar Leon Denero would want to hook up with me. I guess I should have felt pretty special, but I didn’t.

Instead, smiling sweetly, I reached over to the table next to me, and surprised the diners by taking their pitcher of beer. ‘Next one’s on me.’ I winked at the table, then turned to Leon and poured it over his head.

‘ABBY, WHAT THE FUCK?!’

Light bulbs flashed as the paps emerged from God knows where, getting into our faces; the queue erupted into laughter and applause as I placed the jug down and dusted off my hands.

Leon furiously wiped beer out of his eyes, pulling at his sodden shirt.

‘You stupid bitch! Don’t you know who I am? I will fucking ruin you!’

I scoffed. ‘Oh, Leon, that is so clichéd. Stop embarrassing yourself.’

I pushed past him, the hoots and applause deafening. The sound of it carried me through the restaurant and I took a deep breath of satisfaction – until I heard my name.

‘Abby!’

I stopped, glancing up, my smile completely falling from my face as Jay stood before me, looking at me in utter disbelief.

Ah, crap.

If I had thought Leon looked angry, Jay was next level, his eyes darting between me and Leon, who pushed and swore at the cameramen surrounding him.

‘Get out of my goddamn face, man!’

Jay’s eyes dipped to the empty pitcher in my hand. There was nothing I could possibly do or say – he had obviously seen the whole thing. So I did the only thing I could do; I untied my black apron, placed it in the pitcher and handed it to him.

‘You can use my wages towards table twelve – they’ve earned it,’ I said, moving past him. I didn’t go back inside, I didn’t collect my things, I simply disappeared into the night.

‘Oh my God!’ Billie was as white as a ghost. ‘Oh. My. God.’

‘Yeah, you’ve said that.’

‘Abby, what were you thinking?’

‘Well, clearly it was more of a reflex than a thought process.’

‘And Jay saw everything?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Oh my God.’

‘Billie, you’re supposed to be making me feel better.’

‘I-I don’t know how.’

‘Yeah, I don’t know how either. I think I’ve completely blown it.’

‘Do you think Leon will make trouble for you?’

‘Oh, screw Leon. I couldn’t care less about him. Billie, you should have seen Jay’s face.’

Billie winced.

‘Seriously, I had one job to do. One. Job. Shut up and give people the VIP experience, but no, I couldn’t even do that.’

‘Well, in your defence, I like that you stuck up for Sienna. What a creep.’

‘To be honest, if I had my time again I don’t think I’d do it any differently. I am so sick of seeing the Dions, the Jakes, the Leons running around thinking they are these big VIPs, and for what? Pretending to be heroes and doctors and heartthrobs on a screen. None of it’s real! We all just take ourselves so seriously. We think that we’re something special, that our ridiculous stories of who’s dating who is somehow worthy of a three-page spread.’ I shook my head. ‘I just don’t know what’s real anymore.’

‘I think you know,’ Billie said.

I looked up from my hands, the feeling of hopelessness washing over me. ‘Jay’s real, and I have completely ruined everything.’

‘Talk to him.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t think I could bear it,’ I said, moving to stand.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Bed. Maybe I’ll wake up and it will have all been a dream.’

‘Or maybe you can just wake up and face the music.’

I cringed. ‘Don’t wake me up – I want to stay in bed as long as humanly possible.’

‘Ignorance is bliss, huh?’

‘Yeah, something like that.’