But I don’t feel that way with Elle.
I haven’t even felt the need to do a line or down a shot.
I just want to drink her in.
She’s looking at me now as if she doesn’t know whether to believe me. She’s magnificent. Her white dress exposes her creamy shoulders, and I want nothing more than to lean over and bite down on that ripe flesh. That face will launch so many crushes and obsessions, and selfishly, I wish I could keep it all for myself. I have a hunch that the more I get of Elle Hart, the more I’ll want. And it doesn’t even freak me out. The opposite.
‘I mean it,’ I tell her now. ‘I wanna get to knowyou. Tell me about yourself. I find you fascinating.’
‘Why?’ She sips her wine, but her eyes don’t leave mine. ‘I’m not terribly interesting. I suspect I’m quite basic, actually.’
I smile at that. ‘You are anything but basic. You went to Cambridge, didn’t you? Don’t sell yourself short.’
We both sit back in our seats as a grumpy server brings our appetiser:soupe de poisson, or fish soup, a local dish that smells fucking amazing.
‘How did you know that?’ She shoots me a suspicious smile.
I’m shameless. ‘Googled you.’
‘Stalker. Yes, I did go to Cambridge.’
‘And… What did you major in?’
‘We don’t really major in the UK—that is, we choose our degree at the outset. Single or Joint Honours. I read English.’
‘Is that not hard? Having to commit so early?’
She considers. ‘Well, A Levels—those are the exams we do in our final two years of secondary school—are really, really intense. People tend to do three, or maximum four A Levels, and you go into great depth on your subjects, so by the time you’ve finished those, you have a fairly good idea of what you want to do at uni.’
‘I see. And how many A Levels did Ellery Hart do?’
She looks down at her bowl of soup. ‘Five.’
’Nerd.’
‘Totally. Full disclosure. I am a complete geek, just in case you had any doubts.’
‘No doubts whatsoever.’
‘But they were all Arts subjects. I was crap at STEM stuff, always have been. And I always wanted to do English at uni.’
‘How did you get into acting?’
‘I was really into it at school. And then in my first year at Cambridge, I got invited into the Footlights.’
‘Sure.’ Even I’ve heard of the Footlights. ‘Emma Thompson was in them, right?’
‘Yes. She was their first female member! Incredible. So I did the Footlights, and did the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival, and just kind of got into it that way. And then, in my final year, the Footlights’ president introduced me to my agent, Richard, and he changed everything. He got me a small part in a movie Tina was making, and then Tina asked me to try for the role of Gracie. She took a massive, massive chance on me. And I’ll never be able to repay her.’
I smile. She has no fucking clue. ‘Tina sounds like a smart woman. And believe me, baby, you’ll repay her a million times over. You owned that movie. It was all you.’
‘That’s kind of you to say.’ She takes a dainty sip of hersoup. ‘Gosh, this is good. And you, child star genius? What should I know about you, that I might not already?’
I’d much rather talk about her. I could watch her and listen to her all night, in that posh British accent with that self-deprecating manner. Unlike everyone else I hang out with, she doesn’t suffer from the affliction of being high on her own publicity.
‘I dunno.’ I shrug. ‘I did my first movie when I was eight; missed a lot of high school, but I got through it somehow, I guess, with tutors and stuff.’
‘That must have been disruptive. Did you go to university?’
