Sliding Doors - 2 (English Version)

Chapter 2

Hero

When I said that doing interviews, albeit online, is exciting because it has a whiff of normality, I don't know what I was thinking.They are boring. Full stop.Both live and online. With Dylan, the first ones we did, they were easy to handle and somewhat fun. Now it's a whole different thing, since it's just the two of us alone and Jo talks to me in monosyllables. I can't even ask her anything in particular, as we are online with journalists and they wouldn't miss the chance to write everywhere that she and I don't get along anymore.

It's two hours until our next interview, it's evening at my place in London and I've just finished dinner, so then I won't have stomach cramps from hunger like I've been having lately.Felix has gone out with some friends of ours, as they are reopening the pubs little by little and spring gives us a sky free of grey clouds now and then.So I have a free house! I have to laugh because I'm just in front of a computer, thinking about when Jo will log on.

We have double interviews to do, the ones that seem like games and that we've done before and I'm curious to see what we'll do now that our relationship is, how should I put it, non-existent? Fragile? Weird? I don't know what to call it honestly.On instinct, I grab my phone from the coffee table and scroll through the contacts on WhatsApp.I could write to her, try to reconnect but I don't even know if she would answer me!

I call her. That's it. I call her on Facetime and that's it.
If she doesn't answer, it doesn't matter. In two hours I'll see her anyway, and at the very least I'll pretend nothing happened.
I click on her contact and the camera lights up on my phone, framing me.

I've fixed my hair with gel, as I'm growing it out again, for a hypothetical After movie, just in case.I'm wearing a black T-shirt and for the occasion I also bought those light circles that influencers often use.
My eyes shine in front of the lens but I like the end result, I even look almost relaxed.

The sound of the call brings me back to reality. Her mobile phone is ringing, but so far no one re-

"Hello!" I exclaim without thinking when Jo appears in front of me.I miss my breath. I can never be friends with this girl, never completely at least.

"Hey... Am I late?" she looks at me worriedly.

"Oh no... it's two hours until the interview..." I smile passing a hand behind my hair and adjusting my phone so I don't have to hold it constantly.

"Ah...okay...good..." We're both embarrassed and the crazy thing is that this is possibly the longest conversation I've had with her in...months?
How quickly things change!

"I wanted to talk to you..." and in a moment I'm worried that he might end the call, tell me to go to hell and never speak to me again...

"O-ok..." she waits for me to say something but I'm lost in her eyes.She has wavy hair and a dark blue V dress. She's fucking beautiful! How can she be so beautiful?Breathe, I must breathe.

'I was thinking that...' I run my hand through my hair again 'Well they're going to interview us in the form of a game and we...' I sigh, not knowing how to continue.

"...And we barely talk to each other?" she completes the speech for me.Some things don't change. Like that of reading our minds and understanding what we want to say in an instant.I nod passing my tongue between my lips. I'll look like a maniac if I keep staring at her like this.But amazingly she smiles at me and I see her settling cross-legged on the sofa.

"Yes, I'm made up and dressed up... but I'm wearing sweatpants!!!" she bursts out laughing "Don't mind that!"

I laugh along with her and for a moment I feel like I've found my fellow adventurer again.She's changed, I can't say how but there's something different about her, or it's me who no longer remembered the feeling of laughing and joking with her.

"I would never have pointed out anything like that to you..." I smile looking down.

"I bet you, on the other hand, you are dressed great, you'll even have shoes..." she smiles looking at me crookedly.

"Gotcha..." I stand up showing her the outfit I'm wearing, fancy shoes included.

"Why Hero? Why?!?" she feigns outrage "Run and change!!!"

We laugh together, incredibly and unexpectedly and I couldn't be happier than this.

"No, all the effort made to change... are you crazy? I'm staying like this now..." I look at her proudly as she shakes her head amused.

"I missed you..." I let out in a whisper.

"I've always been here..." she replies looking straight into the camera of her phone.

"You know what I mean..." I hint a smile without taking my eyes off her.

"Yeah... but we're friends, right?" she sighs "Let's at least try..."

Better than nothing, right?
We remain for endless moments in silence, not knowing what to say or what to add to this statement.
I would like to explain to her that with Khadijia there has never been anything and never crossed my mind, but I would ruin what little I have managed to reconstruct in these last few minutes.

"I mean... what are you up to?" I ask saying the first thing that crosses my mind.

"Shall we start like this?" she smiles "Then I'll ask what's the weather like at your place?"

"We can try that... Or do you have any other ideas?" I run a hand through my hair, no longer knowing what to do or say.

"I meant we can also be a bit more relaxed... we're not two strangers..."

"We haven't heard from each other for months basically and we haven't broken up for long..." this thing still burns in my veins and I couldn't move on completely.
Being forcibly at home then made everything worse.
My thoughts constantly went to her and what I could have done differently, but of course the past is the past, you can't go back.

"You're right, let's start from here..." she smiles looking down "I was watching a movie, to answer your question." she turns the camera around and frames a frame where a zombie is walking behind a person running scared.

"Oh well... interesting!" I laugh "A quiet movie..."

"Boring... terribly boring!"

"So I saved you with my call!" I look for confirmation from her that my idea to call her wasn't totally a stupid idea, as well as I'm beginning to think.

"I would have turned it off in a moment, indeed!" she gets up and the image on the display shifts along with her "Off!" she sits back down on the couch smiling.

"I got seasick..." I joke covering my mouth with my hand.

"Oh God sorry!" She exclaims suddenly worried "I should have left the phone on the couch!"

"No, don't worry... I was joking..." I don't know what to do with her anymore, whether to joke or risk exaggerating, even though we're basically talking about nothing.

"Wait... I'll fix the phone here..."
The image becomes clearer and more importantly, it no longer moves constantly.

"Is that better?"she laughs "Definitely..." I lose myself again in her light blue eyes.
 Today they seem even clearer than usual.

"So we just stand here staring at each other for two hours?" she bursts out laughing "Or did you want to tell me something else?"

I look at her taken aback and don't know what to say!The ringing of her doorbell saves me and gives me time to think about something.

"Excuse me, I have to take this..." she gets up and the frame stays turned to her couch with a small table in front of it.

Think Hero, think... What could I say to her? Ask her? Tell her?Tell... nothing! I haven't done anything noteworthy lately.I could ask her how she's spending her days in Los Angeles, if she's seen Anna lately.
 I haven't heard much from her lately either.

"Here I am sorry..." she sits back down followed by a person who sits by her side but I can't make out who it is since she remains out of frame.

"Hi Hero!"

No!No way!
I don't believe it!!!That voice!It can't be!Tell me it's not true!

"Hey... hi..." the words remain choked in my throat, almost as if they don't want to come out."How are you?"

Edward!
The last person I ever thought I'd see now.Perfect!

"Good, you?" he smiles, moving closer to Jo.

What the fuck is he doing in LA again?

"Are you... I mean are you now too..." Well, I can't even formulate a meaningful sentence.Good job, Hero. Really!

"Yeah, I moved to LA for work... you know, now travelling is complicated and being here is easier!"Also because you have Josephine, I would like to add... but I'll shut up!I nod and simply shut up.I even manage to smile at one point, not very naturally but better than nothing.

"Do you always work for Ferragamo?" he asks me, intruding on the conversation between Jo and me.

"Yes... I hope to resume with the fashion shows soon..."

"Eh I know, even at Dior it's all at a standstill for now... I'm looking around to see if I can find any other opportunities elsewhere in the meantime..." he smiles as he leans further into Jo to be framed by her mobile phone...I don't know who asked you anything about your life, but that's okay!

"Yeah..."I'm not very friendly right now, I realise that! But there he is, on a couch next to Josephine and that's exactly where I'd like to be, though of course I can't for a whole host of reasons.

"Hero do you mind if I talk to you later, about the interview?" appears Jo again on the screen "I have a few things to do now..."She looks at me waiting for my reply and my heart goes into a thousand pieces as my brain speculates a thousand reasons why she now wants to end this call. Obviously every reason that seems plausible to me has to do with Edward and some hypothetical emotional involvement of theirs. Obviously.Also because they were dating not so long ago, I would like to remind everyone.
I'm not crazy! I'm clearly jealous and that's different! The fact that I have no reason to be jealous since she has clearly said that she doesn't want to be together with me, is something I won't consider at all now, since the blood is still boiling in my veins.

"Okay..." I manage to say in a sigh.

"See you later!"

The call quickly closes and for a moment Josephine's image remains on the screen, smiling and happy. For a moment I'm happy to see her like this too, but the smile quickly fades on my face when I think that it's probably not me who is responsible for all this, but a certain very tall, very blond, blue-eyed Australian guy.

I sigh and throw myself onto the couch with my eyes closed, waiting for the new round of interview hell to begin again, as it has for the past few days.