Page 65 of Hello Darling
18
Evan
I’ve played a man in love so many times, but in real life I haven’t told a woman I was in love with her since I was twenty-two. She was my first and last really serious girlfriend before I started devoting myself to my career. I consider myself a student of feelings and relationships. I know what lust is, I know what a dalliance is, I know what falling in love feels like, and I have no doubt that I’ve been falling in love with Stella since Day One. I’m just afraid that if I tell her, it’ll scare her off. One day, hopefully, she’ll realize that when I say “hello darling” I mean so much more than that.
As if reading my mind, somehow (something she was thankfully never able to do while we were dating), Georgia sends me a text on my London mobile. Totally out of the blue. Not a peep since she’d called to let me know things were over between us, and now she writes:Hey you! Just sayin’ hey :) Hearing great things about our movie! Hope you’re well… xx G
That ellipsis is so offensive to me now. If you’re asking a question, use a bloody question mark. If you want to know whether or not I’m pissed off at you, if I’m going to cause any trouble for you when it comes to doing publicity for our film, if I’m seeing anyone else and totally over you—just fucking ask the question.
That’s what Stella would do. Or at least that’s what she’d tell me to do.
So write and tell her you’re in love with someone else, you twat.
Easy for you to say, Hugh. You won’t have to endure weeks of press junkets with her in January.
Bollocks. You need to know that she’s not completely over you. You need everyone to be in love with you. Fucking actors.
Yeah. Fucking actors.
It takes me thirty seconds to type out a message and then I toss that phone into a drawer:
Hi. Great to hear. Really busy over here. Take care—see you next year.
Less than a minute later, my temporary phone rings, and I reach for it, hoping it’s Stella, but it’s my publicist Henrietta. This does not surprise me. Obviously, Georgia reached out because her publicist asked her to. It’s all aboutFallout. Hen’s assistant had sent me links to the new trailer that’s out now, and it was very good. Seeing fragments of my scenes with Georgia had reminded me of our chemistry on set, but that was all it had made me think of.
“Hi, this is Evan.”
“Hi, Evan! Please hold for Henrietta!”
“Thanks, Sandra.”
“How’s my favorite client?” asks my whiskey-voiced old friend, a few seconds later.
“Hello, Hen. I don’t know, I’ll be sure to ask Henry Cavill when I see him.”
“Ohhh, he’s the client I most want to lick, you’re the client I love to talk to, which is why it has been so difficult for me to put off ringing you because I know you’re trying to get away from all this, but the studio needs assurances that you’ll be at the premiere ofFalloutand do publicity with Georgia. They are quite literally up my arse now and I have to give them a firm answer.
“Of course I'll go to the premiere.”
“Even if she's there with Braden?”
“For fuck’s sake, when did my life become a CW show?”
“When you started dating the stars of CW shows, luv.”
“Right. I deserved that. Although to be fair, Georgia had graduated from CW star to film star long before I met her. Don't act like you don't love all this.”
“I certainly didn't mean to be acting that way--I adore it! How’s it looking for you date-wise? It’s early yet, but you still have time to knock up a supermodel. How are you getting on with this Jess girl? I hear she's a massive twat, but she's really not a bad actress. Sounds right up your alley.”
“Actually...”
“Oh God don’t tell me!”
“Not Jess, no.”
“Oh fuck—don't tell me you're already dating someone else!”
“You're my publicist, Hen, you're the last person I'd tell.”
