"Mum, I already told you. We didn't kiss!"
"Adele, if you did there is nothing wrong with it, you know? You've known each other your whole lives and..."
"Mum, for the millionth time: Mason and I didn't kiss! I was just smelling his neck!"
"Ok, ok. No need to get that angry" Elizabeth said over the phone.
"How am I supposed to not get angry when no one believes me? Not you, not Jourdan, definitely not the press..." Adele said.
"This will pass, don't worry. It has always been the same. And with all these daily trends online, people will have forgotten about you and Mason in a week. His fans may even start a new gossip if they see him following another girl on Instagram."
"Yeah, that's true" she sighed.
"Addie..." Jourdan said after knocking on her room's door. "There is someone who wants to see you."
"I gotta go, mum. Call you later."
"Ok. Love you sweetheart."
"Love you too" Adele said before hanging up. "Who is it?"
"Mason. He wants to talk with you."
"Of course he does" she said before walking into their living room. "Hello."
"Addie, hi. How are you?"
"Well... you know. The whole country and part of the world believes we were making out after your mother's birthday party, and my best friend and my own mother didn't believe me when I explained to them that we weren't."
"Hey, I do believe you" Jourdan said.
"Yeah, but because you saw me crying after I explained everything ten times."
"You cried?" Mason said, getting up from the sofa and moving to where Adele was standing, stopping himself when he was about to... Touch her face?
"I did, but you know me. I usually cry when I get frustrated" she shrugged. "Anyway, how are you? What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to apologize. All this mess is because of me, because of my fame. You've always wanted a quiet life, you don't deserve this."
"Thank you" Adele smiled. "Have you spoken with your agency, tho? What are we supposed to do?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. The best thing to do is to let things cool down. People will move into the next piece of gossip and leave us alone."
"That's what my mum said..."
"And mine" Mason chuckled. "They've been through this, they know what they are talking about. And so does my agency. So we should keep calm and..."
"Guys..." Jourdan said. "I think you may want to see this."
"Are those... paparazzis?" Adele said when she joined Jourdan and looked out the window.
"Fuck, they followed me" Mason said, joining them.
"They what?"
"They were waiting outside my place, but I thought I had lost them on my way here" he said. "I am so sorry, Addie. This is all my fault."
"What are we going to do now? Call the police?" she asked.
"That won't do anything, they are just standing in the street" Jourdan said.
"So then what?"
"I'll leave and distract them, take them back to my place" he said.
"But now they know where I live, Mase. What if they camp outside or follow me everywhere?" Adele said.
"Then you will call me and my agency will take care of it. I promise you it will be fine."
But it wasn't fine.
For the following couple of weeks and every time Adele left the house, she was welcomed by paparazzis shouting at her and asking her about Mason, the photos being online just a couple of hours later. At one point, they even followed her while she was on her daily run to the park.
Things weren't cooling down as everyone had told her, and it was exhausting.
"That's it, I'm leaving" she said after her latest encounter with the photographers.
"Leave? Where?" Jourdan asked.
"New York with my brother. No one will bother me there."
━━━━━━❃━━━━━━
"Welcome, sis!"
"Hello, Luca. Would you mind giving me a hand with my suitcase?"
"Yes, of course. How was the flight?" he asked.
"Long. And can you believe that the paps followed me to the airport?" Adele said, letting herself fall on the sofa.
"That's what happens when you make out with Mason Mount and get caught."
"We didn't make out" she replied, throwing a pillow at her little brother.
"That's what you say. But those photos..."
"Those photos are taken out of context. And can we please talk about something else? I've come here to disconnect from all that drama."
"Sure" Luca said, sitting next to her. "What are your plans?"
"Just relax and mind my own business. I won't be bothering you and... Wait, where is your other half?" Aka, Alex, Mason's little brother. Like the best friends he and Luca were, they had decided to move to New York to continue with their studies, and they had obviously had to live together.
"On a date. We'll see how long it takes him this time to fuck it up" Luca chuckled.
"Jealous?" Adele asked.
"I'm not interested in dating" he replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
"That's not what I meant." She had always suspected that Luca had feelings for Alex that went beyond friendship, but the few times she had asked him about it, he had always denied it.
"I'm not jealous. Of any kind. So stop trying to turn my life into a fanfic and put that energy into something else."
"I will, don't worry."
And for the next month, Adele managed to do it. To put her energy somewhere that wasn't the paparazzis and everyone thinking that she and Mason were finally dating. She would go out for a run in the mornings, visit a new coffee shop every day, visit museums, go for walks and take photos of everything, spend the day at campus with Luca and Alex, join them at a couple of parties... She even went on a date!
Everything seemed to be going well, until that one morning.
"Mason!" Luca said when he opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"Got a job in the city and decided to come pay my little brother and his twin a visit" he smiled. "Hello, Addie."
"Hi" she said.
"How are you?"
"Good, good. And I'm sorry, but I have go. I have a pottery lesson in an hour and I want to grab something to eat first."
"Could we... Could we meet for lunch? Maybe dinner?" Mason asked. "I would like to have a chat with you. Alone."
"Yeah, sure" she replied.
That night, they met at a small restaurant around the corner, one of Luca and Alex's favourites. Usually it was packed with people, but that day it was almost empty except for a group of girls and another couple sitting next to them.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Adele asked him.
"I wanted to apologize."
"What for?"
"Ruining your life?" Mason chuckled.
"You didn't ruin anything, Mase."
"You ran away, Addie."
"Yeah, but..."
"You were being harassed, and it was all because of me."
"Mase, hey" Adele said, reaching for his hand and giving it a little squeeze. "It's fine. I'm fine. I actually needed this break from London and everything back home, they did me a favour."
"Really?"
"Really" she smiled. "So stop blaming yourself, ok?"
"Ok" he said, smiling back.
After that, they spent the rest of their evening catching up on what they had been doing, and as they left, Adele noticed that the girls who were sitting not far from them were checking out Mason. And she didn't blame them. That night he looked more handsome than usual, and she may or may have not checked him out too as he left to go to the bathroom.
But what had made her feel uneasy, was what had happened while they were at the door waiting for another couple to walk into the restaurant. She could swear she had heard one of the girls saying her name and Mason's.
Could they have recognized them?