Nothing You've Come To Expect - Alex Turner

23. (Part 2) finally, i slipped out of reality

~Warning: brief scene of drug use.~
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Everyone's taking advantage to take a nap on the bus as we reach Ferrara. The Puppets will play tomorrow night at the festival Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle.
I'm too excited to rest. I'm thinking about the amazing time we had last night at the Cavalli evening. I actually had a great time despite the initial disconfort and a couple of awkward moments. The amount of celebs I was around is ridiculous, I felt so out of place at times.
I did get a lot of looks, which felt strange but I tried to not let it get to me. I think the numerous champagne glasses we were offered helped.

The Daily Mail and The Sun kept following our story, in the meantime. They did have the guts to say that Alex left the Puppets to come back to me in California. Then they made up that we broke up when he went back to Europe. Now they're losing their minds about us being together at the Cavalli fashion show.
We're officially together now. And they published my name...which I'm not so happy with, but I guess it had to happen sooner or later. They must have gotten it from the guest list. It makes me nervous; I feel like I exposed myself too soon. I hope nobody will bother me.

CLAUDIA
Omg girl....look at you!!!

She's sending me some links with pictures from the night before.
I could tell in what part of the night they were taken from the expression on my face: the ones with the awkward, nervous smiles are from early in the evening; the ones where I look more relaxed and having fun are from the second part of the night- after all the champagne glasses, to be more accurate.

Aside from me looking a bit lost on some of them, all the pictures with Alex and I are pretty nice, I saved them all. I never had such glamorous shots. There's one in particular that I love: it's from the red carpet. You can see my nervous smile in the photo as I'm looking at Alex. He's returning my glance, with a reassuring smile, his hand firm on my waist, protective. There's something really sweet in it.

CLAUDIA
Aww you two...you look so great together hon. Look at these pictures. He's so in love with you.
CLAUDIA
How was the show??

I laugh quietly thinking about Alex's comments on each piece of the catwalk show, consisting in hilarious one liners.
"Maybe I was a little too wild in the 70s."
"I'm just a bad girl trying to be good."
"I'm a big name in deep space, ask your mates."
And so on.

"You should be walking up there." He told me at some point.
"Sure!" My tone was obviously sarcastic.
"You could totally be a model."
I looked at him funny. "Not only that's the last of my aspirations in life, but darling, I'm as tall as a garden gnome and my thighs touch. I doubt these are allowed on catwalks."
He laughed, then leaned his head onto mine to talk into my ear. "Your thighs make me hot."

There was an after-party with an open bar and an amazing buffet.
I was hungry as hell because I didn't have lunch; I had to rush out to meet with Ceci and all we had all day at the salon was cucumber water and some not very fullfilling healthy snacks.
I walked through the various food stations, selecting different foods to add to my plate which was about to become full.

Reminder: I have lived in the States for years now; I miss the real Italian food. When I come back to Italy I can't help but stuff my face. I was actually containing myself, if anything.
I looked around at the other guests, barely putting anything on their plates and I started feeling a bit self-conscious about my appetite. I felt like I was the only one actually interested in the yummy food.

I bumped into Miles, with a full plate as well. He noticed mine. "Hungry?" he asked laughing.
"Very! Are you also starting to feel a bit unrefined?" I asked him giggling.
"The secret is..." he came closer and placed a hand on the side of his face to keep this revelation private, "...not giving two shits."
"I like your philosophy, Mi. I'll try to make it mine. I just don't want to embarass Alex."
"I doubt he gives a fuck, darling. Hey did you see that there's tiramisù over there?"
"No! Oh my god, I need that!"
"Let's go!"