Y/N
I FEEL REALLY out of place right now, here in a bourgeois restaurant on a private rooftop surrounded by people who easily earn my entire salary in a month. The table is intimate, the sky dark with a mere few stars and the lighting around us dim by candlelight and lanterns.
Opposite me is Anya Taylor Joy, Stomzy and some guy named Rahul. On my side of the table is Tom, Timothee Chalamet and myself. At either end of the table is Zendaya and Florence Pugh.
It's a very strange mix of people to somehow all know Timothee in one way or another.
And there's me, 'producer girl' as Anya previously mentioned to Tom. I had met Zendaya on set and she was always nice to me, I met Timothee when she brought him to our wrap party and for the others, I was the one 'normal' person. I think, I don't really know what Rahul does or how Rahul knows Timothee.
Maybe Rahul doesn't know Timothee at all and he just got dragged along like I did.
I've mentioned before that I don't often get starstruck or care whether celebrities like me or not. Usually, I only have to converse with them for my job. Socially, I am drowning.
Florence is next to me at the end of the table and she is really fucking nice. She tells me she has only been to this restaurant once and that it has one of the best Kingfish Ceviche in London. She also pulled a grimacing face at me when she hinted towards the fact tonight would be really awkward for me given Zendaya was here.
I played along with what she was inferring. Like yes Florence, yes it is very awkward for me. Yes, I am dating Tom, and so in love with him. Therefore his ex girlfriend is definitely a massive threat to me.
She smiled slyly as she took a sip of her red wine, putting it down and leaning across the table towards me.
"I don't get good vibes from her either, don't worry," Florence muttered, laughing as she sat back down into her seat and turned towards Timothee who was tapping his wine glass with his ring to propose a toast.
"I just wanted to thank you all for being here tonight. It's incredible that whilst I am in the UK I can catch up with all of you before showing my love around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the South of France where I spent lots of my childhood. If any of you wish to join us, you are more than welcome," he smiled before raising his glass and taking a sip.
Tom raised his glass gently with the rest of us and took much larger sips than everyone else, which I noticed but nobody else did. I could tell he felt uncomfortable sitting next to the man who had stolen his girlfriend from him. No wonder he was drinking quickly.
Why did he even say yes to coming tonight? Why doesn't he tell Timothee to get fucked and that they aren't friends?
"So Tom, I think the burning question here for all of us is why did we have to find out about your relationship from social media and not from you guys!" Anya grinned across the table, staring at Tom directly.
"I was thinking the same thing big man, why didn't you tell me about your missus when we were golfing the other month?" Stormzy piped up.
This is a surprise to me in two ways. The first being that Tom is friends with Stormzy... Can you imagine them golfing together? I mean they both live in the same suburb but really?
The second thing is that Anya is obviously testing Tom in front of everyone about this relationship, which she knows full well is fake.
"Oh we just knew that working together on Spider-Man could make people uncomfortable or maybe think of us giving special treatment," Tom said politely, laughing off the attacking question.
"But isn't that what you're doing now with Bond? Don't think it goes unnoticed how you suddenly got promoted so quickly after dating," Rahul says swirling his drink around his glass before looking up at me.
Fuck off Rahul, who are you?
"I'm sorry, do you think that's something I wouldn't take offence to? I work ridiculously hard in my career and I don't appreciate hearing that my efforts are rewarded through nepotism," I say calmly back, despite wanting to tear Rahuls head off.
"Why don't we move to something lighter! Like... Uh, how did you guys meet?" Florence interrupts cheerfully, putting her hand on my knee under the table which let me know she had my back.
Thank god someone does.
"Do you want to answer this one?" I smiled at Tom.
"You're much better at telling the story," he smiled back.
"You're an actor, you're more entertaining," I insisted, although he shot me a look as if to say he couldn't pull it off around Zendaya.
"Fine I'll say it. So basically, we met several months ago at a charity event for the Brother Trust. I was in attendance with my previous work and Tom just, you know, took the lead and came straight over to me and told me I looked ravishing and offered to come home with him at the end of the night," I smiled.
"I don't think I was that forward, you're remembering it so wrong. What actually happened was that I told you that I thought you looked beautiful and offered you a dance. Then I had my Uber drop you home because your hotel was near mine," he reiterated, looking at me and holding back a laugh.
Tom knew that I had control in how the 'story' would play, and didn't like the narrative I had created. Of course Tom wouldn't be the type of man to go home with someone after his own charity event but I wanted to tease him and see what would happen.
"Wow Tom, you really went for it head first into the deep end. Well you guys seem really happy together, I'm sorry that your privacy was taken from the two of you," Zendaya smiled.
"I'm just happy we're both working through this together," Tom said turning to me, resting his hand on top of mine over the table. I lifted my fingers up to intertwine with his and smiled back.
"Yeah, together," I responded.