Ned was the first to move. Unbelievably, he covered Chiara's eyes, or tried to, anyway, while grasping her elbow and turning her away so she wasn't facing the bed and the four naked people on it.

"Ned, what are you doing?" Chiara reached up, pulling his hand away from her face as she resisted his attempts to maneuver her body.

"What the devil is going on in here?" Ned demanded, interposing his body between Chiara and the bed.

Meanwhile, Drew was scrambling for his clothes, yanking his jeans on and pulling his shirt over his head, pitching the girl off his lap in the process and causing her to land, rather hard, on the floor.

"Ow, that hurt," she complained, rubbing her hip where it had connected with the carpet.

Drew quickly zipped and buttoned his pants and tried to walk out of the room, but couldn't because Ned and Chiara were blocking it. He stood in front of them, unsure what to do.

Only Gary and his companion seemed unaffected by Chiara and Ned's appearance in the room. They were watching the other four with avid interest from the bed, completely unembarrassed by their state of undress, just waiting to see what would happen next.

"So Drew, who is the fat girl?" The girl on the carpet asked again, beginning to sound whiny, her child's voice going up in pitch. "I don't see why we have to stop, just because she showed up. You still want to shag, or what?"

"Christ, Margaret, shut your fucking mouth, put your sodding clothes on and get the fuck out, please?" Drew said, not looking away from Chiara. He finally looked at the bed, grabbed a pile of clothes, and tossed them at the girl, hitting her in the face with them.

"My name's Marjorie," she complained, pulling the dress on over her head, rising to stretch it over her hips. It was skin tight and she looked just as naked as before she put it on. She looked at Chiara, her expression sulky. "You're not going to shag her, are you? I mean, I'm better looking, I've got the better face, the better body, plus I was here first. I should get to shag you first, I think."

"For the love of Christ, Margaret, Marjorie, whatever the fuck your name is, could you please just leave? In the name of all that's holy, please?"

"I'm not leaving without Audrey," she pouted, looking in the direction of her friend, who was still lying naked on the bed with Gary.

"You're kidding," Gary said loudly. "We're not finished yet!"

"Audrey, get dressed, please, come on, party's over," Drew instructed, gesturing toward her clothes.

Audrey quickly obeyed and went to stand next to her friend.

"We can't, the fat, ugly girl and Neddy are blocking the door," Marjorie pointed out.

Chiara and Ned obligingly moved out of the way and the two girls left, carrying their shoes and bags, giving the boys last, longing looks over their shoulders as they did so.

"Nicely done, mate," Gary said, pulling his briefs up from where they were hooked around his ankles. "Now I have to go cut another one out of the herd."

"Gars, please, just get the fuck out," Drew said in a tired voice.

"I hope you didn't do all that on my account," Chiara said, finally talking to Drew for the first time. "It was completely unnecessary, if so."

Drew just ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. "Can we just wait until we're alone, and then talk for a bit, please?"

"That's my cue to leave, I take it?" Gary said, slipping his shoes on. "I'm going, I'm going." He sauntered to the door. "What about Ned? Why does he get to stay?"

Chiara was still holding Ned's hand. "No worries, Gary, we're going with you. Seems like Drew needs some alone time, I think." She turned to the blond boy next to her. "Come on, Ned, let's get a drink, okay?"

Ned looked confused, but willing.

"Come on, CC, please--"

"No!" Chiara whirled on him. "Don't you dare stand there and 'CC' me while you're still drooling from having Marjorie's tits in your mouth, okay?" She gestured behind her to the door through which the girls had exited. "It's really too bad that you sent them away, because you really do deserve to get whatever action you thought you were going to get from her, Andrew. As for me, I have nothing to say to you.

"Besides, I'm probably too fat and ugly for you to want to talk to anyway, don't you think?

"And don't worry, I won't tell your mum. She very kindly invited me up here for a few days, thinking it would be a treat for me, and a nice surprise for you. Wouldn't it be nice for her if she didn't have to find out how wrong she was on that second point?" She swallowed and looked at Drew. "I won't tell her if you don't, okay?"

She turned back to Ned. "Take me to that drink, Ned? Please?"

He looked at her face, at how she was holding on by a thread, and nodded, leading her from the room, and this time Drew just let them go. After he was alone, he sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands, pulling at his own hair.

Fuck and bugger.

Out in the main part of the suite, the party was raging. Gary quickly found another girl and a quiet corner to conduct his business, and Ned grabbed drinks for himself and Chiara. They opened the door and went out on the terrace, which was close to deserted because of the cold, even though there were cone heaters to create an artificial warmth as they stood looking out over a glittering London.

"Did I miss something?" Ned finally asked after they'd passed a few minutes, just sipping their drinks. "Is there something going between you and Drew?"

Chiara took a deep breath, and finally shook her head and shrugged at the same time. "No, not really. I mean, maybe? Like a casual flirtation or whatever? But nothing important, obviously. I mean, I'd have to be fifty kinds of stupid to pursue or even want that with someone like him, wouldn't I?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for one thing, he's who he is, isn't he?"

"Hey, Drew's a good man, a real mate, I'll have you know," Ned responded, and Chiara reflected that it was a testament to who Ned was for him to assume she was impugning Drew's character rather than talking about his fame. "He's gotten a reputation for some things that aren't really his fault, you know?" Ned finished his drink. "He's stout of heart, and loyal as well."

Chiara smiled and turned to Ned. "Ned Hunter, has it ever occurred to you that you might be describing yourself? And besides, I meant that he was so famous, so well known, he has access to so many women that it would be ridiculous to expect his head to be turned by a country gardener, that's all."

"Oh." Ned looked out over the city. "Well, you've managed to turn my head pretty far," he said, smiling at the London Eye.

"What?" Chiara nudged him, but he wouldn't look at her, merely continuing to look at the Eye.

"No, no, I'm not going to repeat myself, it's too embarrassing," he said, laughing as he looked at the giant Ferris wheel. "I didn't know about this 'casual flirtation' you've been having with Drew, though."

Chiara didn't know what to say. Her mind was still reeling from the unsavory scene she'd witnessed in the bedroom. Even though she wasn't naive enough to think that she and Drew were in a relationship, or exclusive, or committed to each other or anything like that, her first impulse when she'd seen Drew reach for the pretty girl and heard his hurtful words had been to turn and run from them, as far as she could. As adult, as worldly, as cynical as she purported to be, she was also human and female enough to admit that she had hoped, in her heart of hearts, that she and Drew had embarked on something, something that would turn out to be leading somewhere. Hearing him dismiss her to horrible Gary, hearing him praise the other girl, the girl with the empty features and characterless voice, had cut her, deeply.

"But Ned, you're in the same, famous, well known boat as Drew, aren't you?" Chiara said, laying a hand on his arm. "I would have the same expectations of you, understand? However kind you were, you would pick the glamorous, gorgeous woman over the country gardener as well, wouldn't you?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Ned, you're being thick on purpose," Chiara said with a smile. "If we're equal in every other way, equally clever, equally funny, equally kind, but one looks like Marjorie back there, and one looks like me, why wouldn't you pick her? I get that, don't tell me you don't?"

In response, Ned set his empty glass aside, carefully set Chiara's glass aside also, and took her in his arms and kissed her.

Chiara shivered a little, and not just because, heaters notwithstanding, it was slightly chilly on the terrace.

Ned was slightly shorter and bigger than Drew, and it took her a moment to adjust. His kiss was very gentle, just like him. There was no sense of searching, of need, like with Drew, but only of finding, of arrival, like Chiara's mouth was what he'd been wanting all day. Chiara felt like Ned was smiling as he kissed her. He waited until she parted her lips to search for her tongue with his, polite in kissing as he was in everything else, and this made her smile.

He finally broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers.

"I hope that was okay," he murmured. "Since there's 'nothing important' going on between you and Andrew?"

Chiara nodded.

"Come on, let's get back inside, you're cold," he suggested.

She nodded, and they'd just stepped inside when Ned, who was still holding her hand, was roughly pulled from her grasp.

"You wanker!" Drew was right there, yelling in Ned's face, exuding the fumes of the whiskey he'd obviously been knocking back since parting company with them. "You just couldn't wait to get her alone, could you, fuckface?"

"Oh god, he must have seen us," Chiara said to Ned, though her voice was so quiet she wasn't sure he could hear her.

Drew heard her, though, unfortunately.

"Yeah, I saw you!" he agreed, nodding at Chiara, hair flying. "How could you? He's my friend, my mate!"

He turned to Ned, and without any warning whatsoever, pulled his fist back and let fly, punching Ned hard in the face.