chapter028
Edie awoke to the minor confusion of blackout curtains plunging the room into a permanent midnight, and no one else in the bed. She sat up. No sounds of a shower running?
The mystery of Elliot’s whereabouts lasted under a minute before he reappeared through the door, fully dressed, brandishing the ubiquitous phone, and looking like he’d had a day of meetings already.
‘Morning. Brace yourself,’ Elliot said, seeing she was awake and switching a lamp on. ‘Someone sold pictures of us last night, and they’re running already.’
‘Fuck! What?! Who did that?’
‘No idea. My galaxy-brained brother failed to tell us that, though it looked like a private party, it wasn’t. I quote: “We’d maxed the limit for how many people were allowed up there with our guest list, so I thought that’d do it.” They were doing one in, one out, so there were members of Joe Public present throughout. Or we could be tidy and blame it on Anto of Stevenage.’
‘Oh … shit …’
‘The other Chuckle brother here had his phone on silent, so no one could get hold of me. I’d already told Lillian that, if she was asked to confirm we were together, she should say yes. She went with that. She used it as barter to stop them putting a “Do you know Edie?” number to call at the end of it, too. I hope that’s all right. I didn’t see the mileage in lying?’
‘Sure, yes.’
Oh God, the hotline tip: she’d been through that mill. It felt like she was on Morrisons CCTV with a frozen chicken up her rain poncho and had made Crimestoppers.
A quietness fell as Edie digested the news that she was, at this present moment, naked in a four-poster bed and simultaneously exposed in unknown ways on another platform.
‘Are you working up to being angry and freaked out? It’s understandable if so. I put you in this situation, in more than one way, and it’s not fun.’
‘No …’ Edie said. ‘Unless I look like a root vegetable?’
‘Derp. You look gorgeous because you are. Want to see the write-up? I personally think it’s not too bad, but I’m a grizzled veteran of this shit, obviously. Plus, I know you weren’t keen on the limelight.’
‘I knew it had to happen – it just made me anxious.’ She tucked the covers more tightly under her armpits and took a shaky breath. ‘Yes, bring it on.’
‘Here, stop you squinting at a phone screen.’
Elliot picked up a laptop from the table at his side, opened it and brought up a tabloid page.
He placed it on the duvet in front of her.
EXCLUSIVE: Elliot Owen and the girl next door. Star’s new girlfriend is ad exec from Nottingham.
Edie gulped and could feel a pulse in her neck.
It was deeply disconcerting to sneak photos of yourself you didn’t know were being taken. And Edie was confronted with them at the same time as the general public: a newspaper’s website with huge international eyeball traffic.
Try the sensation of having been tagged in a Facebook album when in your cups, multiply it by many magnitudes, and take LSD.
Edie could see the pictures were all from a certain phase of the evening, after the engagement announcement, when Elliot and Edie had put a distance with the crowd, and he’d suggested they kiss.
George Michael’s ‘A Different Corner’ had come on, and conversation had rapidly disintegrated into meaningful looks, whispering secrets, and a watery-eyed certainty that every other lyric was uniquely pertinent to them.
She skimmed, heart thudding, over the half dozen surprisingly sharp images for a sly amateur papping – thanks, iPhones – though it blurred her a little, flatteringly. The quality was a version of a filter.
As she scrolled up and down and up again, she marvelled that they were actually … nice? Even very nice. You could risk ‘quite delightful’.
They effectively captured the pretty intense adoration between them, Edie’s face angled up to Elliot’s like a sunflower to the sun, his arm wound proprietorially round her middle. There was one where they were kissing, which was pleasingly filmic and classy, not heavy petting erection section hour at Mavericks Nightclub in Huddersfield.
In the final one, Elliot’s face was buried in her neck, a hand on her behind, an unequivocal statement that the paparazzi of the West Village would’ve loved.
‘I didn’t think we were this handsy obnoxious!’ Edie said. ‘Are we this handsy obnoxious?!’
‘Cameras lie,’ Elliot said, smiling. ‘They turn split seconds into major events.’
They shared a look that said neither of them wanted to relitigate Ines Herrera.
Edie returned to the screen.Against all odds, she didn’t hate the exposure. Maybe it was the power of a good dress or that she wasn’t ashamed of her relationship – quite the opposite. If this was their official debut as a duo, it was legitimately charming. It accurately depicted two people in love.
The only thing Edie minded about these pictures was not knowing who took them.
It occurred to her that it was a true rite of passage moment for her: not your name in a headline but the mistrust of those around you. You had become a commodity of value and were forced to face the fact that you might know thieves.
Her eyes moved to the text.
He recently set tongues wagging with a loved-up display with co-star Ines Herrera in New York … but it seems Elliot Owen’s heart has been won by someone closer to home.
The Blood Gold actor was snapped at a party in London this week with his girlfriend, Edie Thompson, 36, who he met when she was ghost-writer on his autobiography.
And as our pictures show, they made it VERY clear how they feel about each other.
They were first seen together in summer last year having a public argument in their home city, outside a local nightspot. Whatever the altercation was about, they’ve since clearly ironed out their differences, kissed, and made up.
‘They didn’t let go of each other all evening,’ said our witness. ‘He was the perfect gentleman, fetching her drinks and introducing her to everyone. They were kissing and cuddling in full view of all the partygoers and definitely weren’t hiding the fact they’re an item.’
Thompson, who works at the Nottingham office of London-based ad agency Ad Hoc, lives in a city suburb in a modest ￡350k semi-detached house, a far cry from the lifestyle of her new beau.
She remains an account manager and copywriter, according to the Ad Hoc agency’s website. Meanwhile, Owen’s star is on the rise since he won an army of female fans in the acclaimed fantasy saga. The 32-year-old heartthrob has landed roles as superhero The Void in the forthcoming Warner Bros blockbuster and has signed up as romantic lead in HBO’s new series about a Manhattan restaurant, Your Table is Ready.
Another source close to both said: ‘He loves the fact she’s not impressed by his fame and treats him like any other person. Edie’s very down to earth and opted out of the starry lifestyle of red carpets. It’s clear she likes him for himself. Everyone is amazed by how hard and fast Elliot has fallen, but it’s obvious she’s very good for him.’
Reps for Owen confirmed the relationship when we contacted them, saying: ‘It’s early days, but they’re very happy.’
‘My God,’ Edie said, looking up.
‘What?’
‘I think every word of this story might be true.’
‘Hahaha.’
‘Except my house was ￡370k.’
She looked at her phone charging on the bedside table and scrolled through a waterfall of notifications so long, it’d take minute after minute to get to the end. The most recent was Richard. She unlocked and opened it.
Not one but two mentions of the agency? I’d like to shag Elliot Owen myself. R x