Chapter Thirty-Six #2
‘Nice to meet you, too,’ she said tightly. I couldn’t believe they hadn’t met before, but equally the whole summer felt like a fever dream to me now so if you’d said I’d spent it filming a Space Jam sequel on Mars I’d probably have agreed with you.
He looked down at me, arms folded, probably judging the fact I had two types of pastry on my plate. ‘It’s silly, all of this avoiding each other, don’t you think? We have a film to promote after all.’
I shrugged. ‘I’m not avoiding you, I just don’t have anything to say to you.’
He smiled, a cruel little twist of his mouth. ‘If you insist. Well, I’ll leave you to it,’ he said, striding off to his own table.
‘Ugh, he is so awful, I don’t know what I ever saw in him!’
‘He’s quite handsome but there’s more to life than that, isn’t there?’
‘I’m realising that.’ I checked the time. ‘I have to go and get ready for the press junket, I’m sorry, Mum.’
‘You’re beautiful just the way you are!’
‘Well, now I’m the Vespucci spokesmodel, I can’t be seen with a hair out of place, and if they’re happy to pay for it, I’m happy to sit there and have someone do the hard work for me.’
‘Will I see you again, darling?’
I thought about it for a moment. ‘Maybe not, you might be gone by the time I’m done.’
‘Well, in that case,’ she said, getting to her feet and drawing me into a tight hug, ‘I’m beyond proud of you.
I know Dad is, too. This is more than we could have ever dreamed of for you, darling.
’ The mention of my dad made me want to cry.
In the midst of all this success and happiness and fulfilment, it felt wrong that this was so off-kilter.
I tried not to think about it too much, but whenever I had to confront it the whole thing hit me again like a tidal wave.
The publicity work for Orientations had been orchestrated – thanks to the hard work of Chloe – like an elegant dance that meant Ben and I never had to speak to each other.
Instead, I had to spend the day speaking endlessly to everyone but Ben.
The festival had been subject to some scrutiny the previous year for giving almost no press access to ‘A-list talent’, so in response we had been scheduled for a gruelling day of publicity.
It reminded me of when we were on the press tour for the first Wonderwick film, delirious with fatigue and brain-addled with jet lag, and one of my more experienced adult co-stars had once drily observed to me that A-list actors didn’t get paid to act in the film, they got paid to publicise it. I had quickly discovered he was right.
We did hours of round-tables, followed by some one-on-one interviews with the biggest news outlets in the world.
At first I had been nervous, a little unsure how to talk about the film, about my role and the work that had gone into it, but I soon found my own words, my own account of making the movie that was now the talk of the festival.
‘Well, Emily is very special. I think it’s easy to underestimate her because of her relatively limited experience, but I could see something in her.
I knew there was potential there if she was given the right material,’ Edgar said to a French film journalist who was nodding sagely as his dictaphone took in our conversation.
I’d heard Edgar say a version of this several times already and it never got any less exciting to me.
The fact I was someone that people could see the potential, the talent, the untapped reserves of something. That meant so much to me.
The evening wrapped up and we were transported back to the Gritti Palace, the night air thick and full of drama. Venice was such a magical place, and I couldn’t believe I was the surprise star of the festival.
When I put my keycard to the reader on the door, I almost didn’t want the night to be over.
I thought about going to Lucy’s room and asking if she wanted to get a drink in the bar.
But best not, since I had an early meeting with Vespucci about a big photo shoot I had booked in Milan in a few weeks.
Grudgingly, I figured I should probably get my beauty sleep.
Pushing open the door, I was hit first with the knowledge that the lights were on, followed by the stomach-dropping realisation that there was someone in my room.
‘What the fuck?’ I gasped, wondering if those were the last words I’d ever speak in my short life. At least I’d be going out on a high.
‘There’s my girl!’ beamed none other than Josh Sacco. He was lying on the bed in a white T-shirt and grey jersey shorts, his arms stretched out towards me. It was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life.
‘I thought you were a murderer-stalker!’ I said because the alternative was bursting into tears, a mixture of relief and unadulterated joy at the sight of him.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I thought it would be romantic! Your mom helped, got the hotel to issue another room key!’ So she was in on it too?! This meant she certainly approved more of Josh than she did of Ben.
‘What are you even doing here?!’ I asked, delight washing over me like slipping into a warm, deep bath.
‘I couldn’t stay away.’ He shrugged. ‘Don’t ever look up how much it costs to fly from Ibiza to Venice in September. Promise me.’
‘Josh!’ I ran into his outstretched arms and just lay on top of him for a moment, breathing in his scent. All deep and earthy, smoke and wood. ‘You’re too much.’
‘You deserve the world. Your movie is gonna win the Golden Lion, I just know it.’
A day ago I’d have rolled my eyes at him and told him to shut up, that there was no way we’d win the biggest award at the festival.
But now? It was starting to feel deliciously possible.
‘Don’t say it! Don’t jinx it!’ I had the absolutely crazy idea of taking Josh with me to the ceremony. Wouldn’t that be something?
‘Fine, how about no more talking?’ he said, his hand against the back of my neck, pulling me towards him, unzipping my dress so I could wriggle out of it and throwing it to the floor next to the bed.
Undressing Josh was like unwrapping a Christmas present, his body just the right side of ludicrously ripped to still be fun.
I ran my hands over his chest, his shoulders, just delighting in the feeling of him being there.
It was incredible how quickly I’d been able to shift from seeing him as this person I’d known since I was thirteen to a completely different kind of person, like he’d been playing a role before and now he was fully himself.
I felt as if I was fully myself, too, in a way I hadn’t known was possible.
We lay together in the bed, feeling almost drunk on the pure pleasure of being back together. ‘Want to get room service?’ I asked him.
‘Sure do, you’ve worn me out,’ he said, sitting up against the button-back headboard.
When the hotel staff arrived with a tray full of various pastas under a huge silver cloche, Josh’s eyes shifted nervously around the room, as if he was trying to blend in with his surroundings and make himself invisible.
‘Should I have hidden in the bathroom?’ he asked as the door closed behind them, a healthy tip in hand.
‘It’s fine, they’re sworn to secrecy.’ I shrugged. ‘Official Hotel Secrets Act or something. Why, are you embarrassed about going out with me?’ I asked, playfully.
‘Christ no,’ he said, twirling some spaghetti around his fork. ‘I just want us to take things at a pace that’s right for us.’
‘Me too.’ I settled onto the bed next to him.
‘Eating room service on the bed always makes me feel like I’m a kid again.
Not a kid, I mean, but early Wonderwick.
It felt so decadent! It’s not like my parents were short of money but if we stayed in a hotel we would never order room service.
So it’s something that always reminds me of when that changed.
And because I was a kid I would always eat it on the bed, just because I could. It felt so rebellious!’
‘That’s a very Emily Montgomery kind of rebellion,’ he says, leaning forward and planting a kiss on my cheek.
Josh ate his outrageously expensive room service and we watched Italian TV, which Josh only sporadically understood.
‘It’s good for the brain. I’m sure I’m taking it in by osmosis?
’ he said, when I questioned why we were watching it.
I just rolled my eyes and kissed him, because truthfully I felt happier in that moment than I had in a long time.
The success of Orientations, being able to share the moment with my mum after everything she’d gone through, feeling so beautiful in my dress, the announcement of the Vespucci deal, and to top it all off, Josh being here?
It was better than I could have thought possible.