In a fortnight

Chapter 9

  A week had gone by since that kiss, that kiss that rendered me senseless, numb. I couldn't bring myself to see anyone after that. I felt like my entire happiness had been taken with him. I wasn't in love, atleast I don't think I am. But that kiss, why did it affect me like this?

Every moment I spent awake I thought how my lips tingled at his absence. How I yearned for him. A few days ago I got an email about a PR stunt to promote season 2 of House of the Dragon. Dating Tom. I thought he'd never agree to that but it turned out he came up with the idea and pitched it to the producers without my knowledge.

My manager knew I wasn't feeling well enough to go through with replying to emails so she accepted on my behalf. I was furious, my heart yearned for Harry, my body craved Ewan. Now I had to date Tom? When would this nightmare end.

I'd be lying if I didn't say he wasn't a bad kisser or lover, but he wasn't the man I wanted at this moment in time, if you would have asked me a month ago I would have jumped at the idea but now? Now everything was different.

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"Can you hurry, she has to go out there. Or we will be late." My manager had told my makeup artist a bunch of times about the inconvenience of showing up late because of traffic.

"I'm going as fast as I can, I'm not trying to mess up her face." The makeup artist was applying my lipstick with a Qtip, she was very close to my face. Her perfume smelled great. With a hint of mint and rose. "And done."

She stepped away admiring her work as I got up. I looked so good. My manager ushered me out of the chair and into the hall to leave.

"Thank you, I'll make sure to tip you." I almost wasn't able to say it, I loved making the people that worked on me feel appreciated. It gave me a sense of pride to know I was helping someone and possibly making their days.

"Ok so today you are debuting your fake relationship with Tom, so he will meet us there. No one knows, not even the cast. You know, to make it more realistic and not so obvious it's for PR." My manager escorted me forward, I felt like a circus animal, that my pain was everyone else's pleasure. I felt stuck in a role I couldn't get out of.

"I see him." I looked at Tom, he was well dressed in a green suit, a plain suit and dress shoes that compliment his outfit perfectly. I on the other hand had on a floor length red dress, with a black purse. Could you tell I loved the colors red and black?

"Ok remember, smile and don't tell anyone this is staged, you are a happy couple that are very much in love." Teresa, my manager, fixed a bit of my hair as I clutched Tom's bicep and straightened my back.

I smiled at Tom and he returned it, my stomach felt uneasy, like I was in need of the bathroom. I didn't want to do this. But it was my duty to play a role.

"Are you ok? You look pale?" Tom whispered in my ear as cameras turned towards us behind the curtain. I turned to Teresa and she gave me a nod to go ahead and walk out. I took a deep breath and leaned into him.

"No im nervous." As more flashes came our way, I felt like hiding behind him, I remember my hand tightening around his arm.

"You'll be fine, I'm here for you. When you feel uncomfortable we will leave." He said as he started walking towards the carpet.

Everyone took an opportunity to take pictures of us, I smiled and waved at them, as did Tom. I stopped Tom to pose for the cameras so they got their daily dose of drama. The flashing felt painful to my sunken eyes. I felt everyone's eyes on me,I looked up and saw Ewan with his hands around some brunette. Yet he was staring at me and Tom, my heart felt heavy.

I wanted to walk up to him and kiss him. To tell me how much I crave his hands on me, but I couldn't, we made eye contact. How I wanted to walk towards him so bad, but I looked away and towards the cameras.

I tried to avoid eye contact with Tom, I didn't want to feel sickly, not that he makes me sick. The situation made me sick. Tom was very attentive to me and I loved the attention, but I couldn't hold off my jealousy of seeing Ewan with that woman. The way he kissed her cheek. I felt sick.

"Are you ok? You're staring at Ewan too much, they'll notice." I was brought out of all my thoughts by Tom. I looked from him to Ewan then back to him and smiled. Two can play this game Ewan. Was this a one sided competition? Yes. Yes it was. Was I going to win said competition? Yes I am.

I put Toms arm around me so I was closer to him in an almost snug hug and went straight to the interviewers, the rest of the cast tried to hide their surprise.

"Oh my god. When did this happen?" The interviewer laugh and we did along with her.

"It's actually been months in the making and we thought why not make us public today." I turned towards Tom and caught him staring down at me, admiring me. I could definitely get used to this.

"So we were not prepared for this so let me just ask you some random questions. So that picture that was taken a few months ago, is that was started this?" She gestured towards us. I really couldn't think until Tom spoke up.

"At the time we were very much trying to hide our infatuation for each other. But that situation gave us the strength to be amongst the couples here tonight." I nodded to his words agreeing with him whole heartedly while Ewan was next to us doing an interview.

"Now how do you think your fans are reacting to this right now?" She asked but I drowned out her question with the sound of Ewan and that woman laughing. It made my skin crawl.

"Amara?" Tom looked at me, then back at the interviewer. "She's feeling a bit sickly you know, hang over." He joked and I laughed a little too loud, in fact.

"I think they're going a bit insane. As they should of course." I tried to play it off but I couldn't, I was exhausted. I squeezed Toms arms signaling to him that I wanted to leave.

"I'm so sorry, I'd have to go but I'll see you in a bit, I need to answer those cheeky questions." Tom and I departed to were no one would see us.

"I'm so sorry." I looked down and kind of wanted to cry, how could I mess that interview up.

Tom put both of his hands on either side of my face and lifted my head to look at him, with his thumbs he wiped my tears away.

"Hey it's ok. It's completely fine. We just need to be in this together and get through this. No don't cry." He looked me in the eyes and I couldn't help it, I started bawling.

"Can. I. Hug. You." I didn't know what to do with my hands. I felt weird just having my arms to my side.

"Yea of course, just don't wrinkle my suit." He adjusted it a bit in the front and pretended to wipe some dirty away and pointed at a spot. "Put your head right there I don't want tears on this custom suit, dear."

I was about to put my head in that spot and go in for the hug, when he moved before me and placed my head next to his shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his back and he had one hand on the back of my head, and the other on my back.

"Thank you so much Tom." I snuggled into his neck.