Heart of Stone

Chapter Eighteen: Picture Perfect

ADORABLE PHOTO OF TEDDY STONE AND LUCIA BRUNO GETTING COSY IN ROME

Each gossip site had run with a similar story, and the tweets from fans revealed a mixture of adoration and hatred. I'd never heard of Lucia Bruno, but apparently she was a big deal on Instagram. Naturally, I headed there next.

She popped up as the first result as soon as I typed in Lucia, her profile boasting an impressive 5 million followers. The latest photo was the same one I'd seen on Twitter, captioned with a heart emoji. Teddy had commented underneath, also with a heart emoji.

Glancing across the aisle at him, I cleared my throat. No response. I stuck out my leg and nudged his knee with my foot. His expressionless eyes fell on me, brow furrowing when I rotated my phone to show him the photo.

"Tell you later," he said, his voice barely above a murmur.

I reopened the group chat and, without overthinking it, responded to Becca.

Me: Hope he's not involved with her... Screws up my plan to dish the dirt on Lacey

Gabby: Maybe switch your efforts onto Lucia?

Becca: Or we position him as a cheating whore... which he is?

My mind wandered back to the NDA, and various scenarios presented themselves. Had Helen known about Lucia and wanted to silence me? Had Becca signed one but kept it to herself out of embarrassment from rushing into it?

If Teddy had offered it as a pre-requisite to spending the night together, Becca may well have put pen to paper, thinking only of her fantasy fulfilment and no other potential consequences. It would explain why she was so passionate about me exposing him. Otherwise, what stopped Becca from selling her story to the highest bidder now Teddy had been exposed as potentially being in a relationship?

When the pilot announced our descent, I signed off the chat and looked back across the aisle. Teddy hadn't moved, still staring out of the window, his jaw flexing as he chewed his gum.

Becca was right; what did he have to be sad about?

*

We'd secured another top floor in our Athens hotel, and my room enjoyed a private balcony overlooking the city's rooftops. Late in the evening in March, the air carried a slight chill, but it was the knock on my door that pulled me back into the warmth of the room.

"I brought food." Teddy held up a brown paper bag when I opened the door.

"In that case, come in."

He kicked off his shoes and hopped up onto the bed, crossing his legs. For a fleeting moment, I found myself staring at the hot guy on my sheets, wondering how I'd ended up here. Then I remembered he was famous, and the scenario became even more outrageous.

"Let me just wash my hands," I said.

When I emerged from the bathroom afterwards, Teddy had laid out a spread of food on my duvet. No prizes for guessing why we were having the feast in my room, then.

"Sorry about earlier," he said. "Bad day."

"Want to talk?"

"Yeah. Once I've eaten and feel more human."

"Sure. One sec..." I retreated into the bathroom, unsure whether my distraction at seeing Teddy on my bed had made me forget to turn off the water.

I hadn't. The sink was silent, not a drip falling from the tap.

"Sorry. Couldn't remember if I turned it off." I shut the bathroom door to serve as a reminder to Future Sophia that I'd already checked the tap.

Teddy smiled and shuffled across so I could join him on the mattress. We tucked into the food, and he told me about his final Rome interview. Apparently the magazine had wanted to ask another question that wasn't pre-agreed, but they'd discussed it with Helen off the record rather than springing it on Teddy, which won them brownie points and an exclusive.