Angel by Katie Price Page A

going; she just knew
she had to get away. He ran after her, but Angel
refused to stop, feeling furious by now.
    'I don't like being used, Mickey.' She rounded
on him when he'd caught up. 'If all you're looking
for is publicity, fucking leave me out of it.'
    'Babe, I wasn't – I thought it would be good for
both of us.'
    'I hardly know you and I don't want to be in the
papers for this.' And, seeing a taxi driving towards
her with its light on, Angel held out her hand to hail
it.
    'Don't go now, please, I'm sorry I fucked up. I
really like you, Angel, don't go,' Mickey pleaded.
But Angel had already opened the door and
jumped in. She didn't look back as the cab pulled
away.
    She felt completely deflated when she let herself
into her flat a little later. The evening had started
so promisingly and she really thought she had
something special with Mickey. But clearly he
didn't feel like that. The thought of him making a
public display of their relationship, reducing it
down to a bit of calculated publicity, made her feel
like a fool. The only consolation was that she hadn't
slept with him. She turned off her mobile, took a
long shower and got into bed, where she lay awake
for a long time before finally falling into an
exhausted sleep.
     
    'You were right to warn me about Mickey,' Angel
said miserably, having spilt the whole story of what
had happened the night before to Danni. They had
flown to Malaga that morning, where Angel was
modelling swimwear for a tabloid spread looking
ahead to the next summer's range, and Danni was
putting the finishing touches to her face. Angel
trusted Danni and often found herself confiding in
her. She'd come to rely on her for advice – not only
did she know everything there was to know about
the business, from which glamour girls to watch out
for to which photographers were arseholes, she was
also good at cutting through the crap and sizing up
a situation.
    'Come on, Angel, don't let him get to you,' Danni
replied sympathetically.
    'I just hate feeling that he was using me. That I
didn't matter to him, that I could have been any
girl,' Angel muttered, trying not to move her face
too much while Danni applied the blusher.
    'Well, forget him, there's plenty of other men out
there who won't behave like that wanker.'
    'Hmm.' Angel wasn't convinced. So far, she had
a crap track record when it came to choosing men:
Cal had wanted her briefly in the nightclub, then
pretended nothing had ever happened between
them, Juan turned out to have a fiancée, and now
Mickey. Men were bastards, she decided.
    'Chin up,' Danni told her firmly. 'Just take a look
at yourself, you look fab.'
    Angel smiled as she surveyed Danni's handiwork
in the mirror. She did look good – her skin bronzed
and flawless, false eyelashes giving her sultry, sexy
eyes, and a shimmer of gloss emphasising her full
lips. She shook out her long hair. She was here to
do a job and only that mattered.
    The day was a great success. She was feeling
more and more confident as she modelled, and
while she posed round the turquoise pool in a
variety of bikinis she pushed all thoughts of Mickey
out of her head, concentrating on perfecting her
sultry come-and-get-me-if-you-dare stare and sexy
pout.
    The photographer was full of compliments as he
moved around the set, shouting instructions and
encouragements. 'You should be doing the lad
mags, Angel,' he finally said at the end of the shoot.
'They'd absolutely love you.'
    'Yeah, well, I wouldn't expect that so soon, I've
only just started,' she replied, secretly grateful for
his compliments on a day like today.
    'Don't be so modest, it won't get you anywhere
in the world you're in,' the photographer joked,
gesturing to his assistant to start packing up the
gear. Angel smiled. She would love her career to
take off, but she certainly didn't expect it to
happen overnight.
    She didn't get back home until midnight, and
once she closed the door of her flat all the buzz
from the day seemed to drain out of her.