?????Anyone but you????

As I walk into the cafe that I am meeting George and Carmen in, I recognise both of them almost immediately. I am ten minutes earlier than our meeting time, but they're earlier than me. 

"Lina!" George calls, waving me over to the table they are sitting at.

I wave back, walking to them as if I'm a child being called over by her parents.

"Hello, it's so good to meet the two of you," I say as I shake both of their hands and sit down at the table. "Lando has told me so much about you."

"Not too much I hope," George laughs. "Sorry we are so early by the way, we wanted to stop and get some breakfast."

"Yes, George can't function without a warm meal in the morning." Carmen says, patting him on the shoulder.

"I'm exactly the same," I chuckle. "I can't blame you."

~~~~

My pitches for the shoot have gone down a storm so far, Carmen has a similarly creative mind to me, and George is open to every idea that I put forward.

Theo arrives at eleven, allowing us to make definite plans for the shoot, which is happening in two days.

"Everything sounds good to go ahead. I will see the three of you on Friday then." Theo gets up and leaves almost immediately after he finishes explaining our itinerary.

"Goodbye." The three of us try to say at the same time before Theo disappears.

"He was intense," Carmen sighs. "The amount of men I have worked with who are exactly the same is crazy."

I laugh when she says that, "I'm lucky, I work alone. I don't have to deal with people like that."

"People like that are my whole life!" George adds, the three of us laughing together.

"I better be going now, I need to be back at the hotel before lunch so I can get ready to go to the beach for a bit. I will see you two on Friday?"

"Yes, it's been a pleasure to meet you Lina." Carmen says, hugging me.

"We might see you before then, Lando was planning on asking you to come to dinner with us tonight, but don't tell him I told you."

"Oh! Um, yeah. I'll pretend to be surprised." I blush slightly. He was taking to George about me?

"Goodbye you two, see you later." I say, waving goodbye to the couple and leaving the restaurant.

I check my phone as I walk down the street, two new messages from Lando.

————
Lando

Lina
Are you free tonight?

I am
Who's asking?

I am
Do you want to go for dinner with me George and Carmen?

Yeah
Sounds great
I got on quite well with them today

That's great
I look forward to seeing you

What's the dress code?

Monaco casual
So very formal

Great.
I'll have to go out and buy a new dress instead of going to the beach 🥹

I'll come with you
Make a day of it
We can go to the beach too

Aw you're too kind
Only if you don't have anything else to do

————

Every day I wonder where those rumours about Lando come from. It's so hard to see how he is viewed by journalists.

While I walk through the streets of Monaco, I can't help but miss living in a place like this. My home town of Rotterdam is so much more peaceful and beautiful than London, and while it was the best place for me to live while in Uni, I'm not in that period of my life anymore.

I miss the atmosphere of Dutch culture, and the people when I'm in London. I haven't seen some of my friends and family in several years, and I wish I hadn't been away for so long.

My grandparents are too old to come and visit me in London, and the guilt I feel about not seeing them has been building for a while now. The fact I basically flew over them to get here makes me feel even worse.

However for now I need to forget about the guilt, and remember that I have a job to do. I also have obligations that I can't dismiss, so I need to suck it up for a while until I can actually afford to do anything major in terms of my living situation.