Unscripted Love • A Tom Hardy fanfic

Chapter 38

"Wait, I can come right?" Fiona asked excitedly.

"Yeah, if you want," Tom laughed. "You can meet the other woman in my life."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm just joking," he poked her side, teasing her. "But also, I'm not."

"Ok, go on," Fiona pressed with a smile.

"My agent's assistant, she helps me with literally everything," he kissed her on the cheek, "work related."

"Oh I bet she does a lot of jobs," Fiona winked.

"Not since you came along," he tried on a black button down and looked in the mirror.

"Wait, now I'm not sure if you're joking or not," she browsed the outfits she brought to London with her. "What should I wear?"

"Something cute, maybe low cut. No panties," he suggested, "I am joking."

"About the assistant or what I should wear?" Fiona laughed.

"I'm kidding about Melanie, love. You should definitely take my clothing suggestions though."

"Melanie?" Fiona asked, remembering Leo had thought that's who picked up the phone a few months ago.

"Yeah, it's her name," Tom teased.

.   .   .   .

Anxiously waiting in the full audience, she bit at her nails. She had never seen Tom be Celebrity Tom before. She saw him in Bronson and the play, but that was different. Now he was on a late night talk show that interviews movie stars and she was there as his date.  When the host introduced Tom, her heart fluttered in anticipation. Reading Tom's face, she knew he was nervous too.

Fiona leaned forward, watching from the edge of her seat. Her heart thudded for him, she imagined at least a few other girls in the crowd were pining after him as well. To England, Tom was already an icon for playing such tough, menacing characters, to her he was this sexy but goofy guy she happened to meet one day.

The interviewer asked Tom about his past with addiction and pushed for details as if it was a juicy story.

"I can't remember, a lot of it is blackouts," he said, hoping that would get him to move along. Fiona hoped he would.

"You would black out?" Jonathan asked, almost surprised

"Of course," Tom replied.

"And this was with alcohol?" Jonathan pressed.

"Yeah, and everything else."

"What's that, all the different substances?" Fiona felt bad for Tom to be bombarded with these questions. She never asked him to go into detail about his past. She assumed if he wanted to talk about it, he would. She didn't know the full extent of it and yet, this man was forcing him to tell all of England.

"Yeah," he said with a slight eye roll, wanting to be done.

"Most of them?" Jonathan continued.

"Everything."

"And this was all in one evening?"

Tom thought about it, "probably, yeah."

"You're lucky you're still here," he said. Fiona couldn't imagine what Tom was like then. Mostly she was wretched for what Tom must have felt that made him turn to all of that.

"Yes and I'm very grateful. It's no joke," Fiona nodded, it wasn't a joke. She thought if she never met Tom and how desolate her life would be.

Then Jonathan asked where Tom might find himself the following mornings. Tom chuckled and began to answer but stopped and looked out into the audience.