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Evelyn stands to the side. She’s holding a microphone. Once everyone is seated, she begins to talk, her voice reverberating around the massive room.
“Sorry to keep you all waiting. Let’s get this started then, shall we? Let me introduce to you... Josie Gunn.”
And then I am announced to the world. And a million photos are taken. And the focus is on me. And I feel so very alone.
And I try to smile through the attention. I try to speak. I don’t even know what I’m saying. I just want to seem to function as a normal human being.
“What’s it like dating him?”
“Him? Oh, he’s amazing.”
“How did you two meet?”
“He just... came into my coffee shop one day and ordered an almond croissant and then he kissed me.”
“Did you know about Victor before he kissed you?”
“Who doesn’t know Victor Penmayne?”
“Did you fancy him before you met him?”
“Who doesn’t fancy Victor Penmayne?”
“What did you say to him when he kissed you?”
“Kiss me again.”
My throat is dry. I feel fake even saying all this.
I turn to Victor. He seems so collected. Questions come to him as well, but he brushes them all with all the experience of someone totally at ease.
Yeah, I’m the complete opposite.
A million more questions are thrown my way, but I find it so hard to listen, let alone listen to what is coming out of my mouth.
I look at Victor again. I look out in the crowd. I see the journalists’ faces, all intent and focused on me.
The whole world narrows.
I’m spinning.
Yeah, I might be in way over my head here...
31
VICTOR
“Are we going to sleep in separate rooms?”
I turn to Josie.
“What do you mean?” I ask her as we stand in the main lobby of the hotel.
Even for me, the lobby is a marvel of elegance and sophistication. It’s got that timeless European feel – that embedded centuries of history and culture that just permeate the atmosphere. Even I was awed when I stepped out of the limo just then and took my first look inside the hotel where we will stay for the movie shoot. The architecture in here evokes classic Renaissance palaces. Majestic marble. Framed artwork hanging on the walls. Handsome Italian men in sharp suits behind the gold customer service desk with that Mediterranean passion of theirs that you could never find in some corporate chain back home.
Man, I always love coming to Europe.
“Are we in different rooms?” Josie asks me again, and I am brought back down to Earth and to her many worries.
