In the Interlude

Chapter 45 - How to do this again

Tom looked at his watch. It was almost nine. He wondered if it was a good time to call Aïcha. She had her big presentation at eleven, that much he knew, but he was on the fence about calling her now or waiting for her to finish. But what if she found out, one way or another? Shit.

She picked up at the second ring. "Tom!" She was happy he called, and it broke his heart a little at the idea of possibly upsetting her. "Missing me already?"

"Darling, you know you're always on my mind... Aïcha, listen," he cleared his throat, "there's something you should know. Can you talk now?"

She frowned and looked around. The open space was filling up quickly. "Sure, hold on," she said, a touch of worry in her voice. She took the call to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. "I'm listening."

"Well, hmm, there's this article on the internet, on me possibly dating someone, and it has pictures of us- but don't worry," he added quickly, "there's no mention of your name and you're definitely not recognisable on any of the pictures." Tom tensed up and waited for the impact.

"But how? How did this happen? What's the article saying? Oh God, what have I done..." She clammed up, her mind shrouded in a fog of remorse and anger. They were so careful. Or so she stupidly thought.

"Someone must have overheard us on Monday, after the Shakespeare reading? I don't know exactly how and who. I've sent you the link by email if you want to have a look, but you don't need to." He waited for her to say something, anything, but all he could hear was her breathing through the phone. "Aïcha? It's okay sweetheart. Every month or so there's an article spewing the same shit about me. Nobody cares."

But Aïcha was not listening anymore. "Sorry, I need to go." And she rang off.

Her heart beating a crazy drum, she stood there in the middle of the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. Hearing footsteps approaching, she quickly opened one of the stalls, lowered the toilet lid and sat there.

Her mouth grew dry and she was having trouble breathing, feeling sick and nauseated. How to do this again. Oh yeah, breath in through the nose, breath out through the mouth as if breathing through a straw, or as if blowing on a candle? Argh, sod it. This was not how she imagined her day going.

Aïcha sighed from relief as she saw no mention of her name in the article and that the pictures of her and Tom were indeed blurry. Maybe it wasn't that bad after all. Yes, her overall silhouette was visible, but she wasn't recognisable. Well, not to most people. Although she spent a lot of her time on social media for work, she didn't have a significant online presence.  It was unlikely that someone would find her on the internet.

She scrolled down the article, grinding her teeth at the mention of Vanessa. Then her eye caught the comments' section. 63 comments already. She smiled as she read the first one. "I just found out Tom Hiddleston has a girlfriend - sobs - I've never felt this sort of pain in my life."

This one is sweet, she thought to herself. "I hope he does get into a happy relationship soon, he deserves to start a family".

And then, it wasn't sweet anymore.

"Who is she? And most importantly, why is she? And what is that horrible sparkly handbag she has there? Tom, you can do so much better."

"He looks really good in those pics. Also, not an iota of sexual chemistry between them."

"Who is this nobody? She's bad for his brand and his career that he's fought so hard for."

"I'm underwhelmed tbh. She looks........ umm...very basic, very bland. Plain is a word/term that fits perfectly with this one. Let's call her plain Jane."