Gus crosses his arms, then spreads his thighs as he leans back on the bench with a sigh. Exactly, what a FAC would do. “I say we find somewhere to stay for the night. Explore the city. Figure out our next move.” He pauses to see if I’m going to protest. When I don’t, he continues. “We can eat copious amounts of carbohydrates, fish and garlic, then share a bottle of wine.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I want my own bottle.”
He laughs. “Deal. Have we got enough money?”
“For wine?”
“For a place to stay.”
“I havesomemoney. It should get us through the night. Only issue is Ionlyhave access to my money through my phone, which is dead (again), so we’ll need to find somewhere to charge it.”
Gus nods, hopping up from the bench and holding his hand out to me to help me up.
“I’ll call my sister. I’m sure she won’t mind throwing some money our way. I’ll keep the reasons vague. She too likes to charge me interest,” he says, with a spark in his eye.
“I don’t want your bloody interest,” I say, giving him a stern look.
He only grins, passing me his phone. “Type your bank details in. I’ll ask her to send it to you since I have no access to my bank right now.”
“Oh, sure.” I take his phone, sniff back the last of my tears and give him a look. “But won’t she find that suspicious?”
He shrugs. “I doubt it. I’ve been in weirder, vaguer situations.”
“You’re not an elaborate scam artist, are you?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
I shake my head, fighting a smile. Once I’ve sorted the details and passed his phone back to him, I say, “Right, shall we go on a hunt for an internet café then?”
He nods. “It’s possible that the taxi guy has already outed me to the press but let’s give it a go, shall we?”
“Nah. Adriana would never disrespect her favourite popstar like that.”
“True.” He holds a hand to his chest, dropping his chin. “She is my one true love.”
I faux gag. “Please tell me you didn’t write that.”
He snorts. “Nah. We’re trained not to do that. It encourages unhinged behaviour from fans.”
“What’s the most unhinged fan experience you’ve had?”
He cringes. “Can’t talk about it.”
“That bad?”
“No. I legallycan’ttalk about it.”
Despite myself, I actually laugh. “Are you serious?”
He nods. “The second most unhinged thing was finding a fan hiding in my closet after a concert, wearing the exact same outfit as my then girlfriend was that evening. Same hair, same clothes, even the same makeup.”
“No! She was going to trick you?”
“I mean… She was a least a foot shorter and didn’t speak English… I know I’m a bit of a fool, but you have to try harder than that.”
“Amazing,” I shake my head. “I applaud her dedication.”
“She moved on to Callum anyway. And now there aretworestraining orders against her.”
