Love in the Spotlight

Chapter Twenty One - Mr Midland and his crew

When Travis said that one of the producers had a mansion in France, Alice imagined a big house with a pool. Well, the pool was indeed there, but everything else . . . it was not what she expected. There was a castle instead of a house, a gigantic park, a golf course, a lake instead of a garden and on top of that small cottages scattered all over the estate. This looked more like a small country.
"Jeez, that's a bit too much, don't you think?" Alice concluded a bit disgusted when the car stopped in front of the main entrance.
"Almost as big as your house, Alice." Jon tried teasing her.
"Oh, please . . ." she just replied and got out of the car, totally ignoring the helping hand of a valet in a tuxedo.
"The weather is perfect," Travis added.
"Why wouldn't it be? The guy is so rich he probably ordered it," Alice muttered, following them up the big stairs.
"Oh my, is she always that charming?" Travis asked Jon, smiling.
"Always." Jon said, giving Alice the eye which she pretended not to see.

From the very morning she had felt nothing but doubts. And then, when they reached the airport and she saw the private jet, she knew this was a bad idea. She was supposed to just help out Ella at the set and then move on with her life, actually focusing on fixing her life. Instead she was getting on a private jet and flying to France, stepping deeper into all that celebrity swamp she hated so much.

"Ah! Mr. Midland and his crew." A butler opened the door for them. "Welcome. Let me show you around the main house. Then I will take you to your cottage," he spoke with a heavy French accent.
"Wonderful." Travis smiled.
The mansion might have looked like a castle from the outside, but it was completely modern inside. Alice had a bad feeling that they just tore down everything that might have resembled something old fashioned. The house felt gutted out of class. Each wall in a different color, modern art here and there – not necessarily fitting the surroundings, colorful sofas and armchairs scattered all around. Alice just took a deep breath and followed "her crew".
"The dinner will be served at seven, but you can also order it to the cottage," the butler continued as they entered a huge dining area with an enormous glass table in the middle. "The meetings are planned for tomorrow in the conference rooms upstairs." The guy was clearly about to show them the conference rooms, but Jon, seeing how upset Alice was, stopped him.
"If you don't mind, we are quite beaten after the flight." He gave him the Jon Midland smile. "Could you please show us to our . . . cottage?" Jon tried not to smile as 'cottage' did sound quite lame. Just no one wanted to admit it. "I'm sure we will find our way to the conference rooms tomorrow."
"Of course, sir," the butler answered courteously, but Alice could see he wasn't happy about not being able to complete the tour.

* * * * * * * * * *

A golf cart took them to a small house which indeed looked like a real cottage, but again only from the outside. The inside, just like the main house, was modern. Without the colorful sofas though, which Alice noticed with satisfaction. This interior was classier. There was a living room with a kitchen on the ground floor and four bedrooms on the first floor. Alice took the room that was furthest from the rest and lied down on the bed.
"Stop overthinking everything." She tried calming herself down. For some reason she could not stop being pissed, but was not exactly sure what or who she was pissed at. "You're in France, it's beautiful and peaceful here . . . try to enjoy yourself."
Alice stood up taking a deep breath. She washed her face and changed her clothes to put on something lighter. The weather was indeed very nice.
"Work," she said to herself. "This will put me back on track". She went out of the room looking for Travis. She found him and Jon on the terrace sipping on a beer.
"Sorry to disturb you, boys. I see that you are very busy."
"Well, what can you do, Alice?" Travis answered with a smile. "Life can be hard."
"Come, sit with us." Jon offered. "Do you want a beer or wine maybe? The fridge is full."
"No, thank you." Alice tried to sound nice. She felt bad for being such a bitch for the last few hours. "I was actually wanting to ask you, Travis, if you have any work for me. Anything? If I sit here and do nothing, I'm afraid I will not be the best company to be around."
"Well . . ." She could see Travis was trying really hard to think of something. "There are some papers that I need to copy and have them ready for the morning meeting."
"Great!" Alice was on it. "Where do I find them?"
"In my bag, in the blue briefcase!" He shouted as Alice had already gone inside the house and up the stairs. "I will need five copies of each. This is the proposal of Jon's contract that our lawyer has drafted and our requirements," he added when Alice was back with the briefcase.
"Have fun, boys!" She a smiled and started off to the main house.