Page 67 of Take the Lead
And when she drops by with a suitcase of dresses for me to try on, I’m so thankful I did. Among the selection is a silk skater-style dress with a teal and navy animal print that fits me like a glove. I feel unbelievably sexy in it.
Aleksis tells me I look gorgeous. And he looks so hot in his midnight blue suit with a plain white T-shirtunderneath that it takes my breath away. I don’t know how I didn’t see how attractive he is when Lucy first pointed it out.
It doesn’t take Sofiya long to notice something has changed between the two of us. Probably because neither of us can wipe the smiles off our faces. Within minutes of being in the flat, she correctly concludes, ‘You’re not faking this any more, are you?’
My heart pounds while I wonder if she’s going to be okay with it.
‘I’m not even going to ask what gave it away, but you’re right,’ Aleksis confesses. ‘We’ve decided to do this properly.’
‘That’s fantastic,’ she exclaims, and I could cry with relief. ‘To be honest, I’m surprised it took you so long. You’re so well suited.’
Yet again her magnanimity amazes me.
‘We know that now,’ Aleksis says with a radiant smile that makes me glow inside.
His phone pings to let him know our car from Channel 6 has arrived. It will take us to a meeting point near the cinema where we’ll join up with the other contestants, so we can travel to the venue in a convoy and arrive all together. Shane thinks this is the best way to guarantee us some column inches in the newspapers.
The plan is to synchronise our exits from the cars and stand together on the red carpet to give us more pulling power. Then once we’re inside, we’ve been told we can do what we like.
I text Lucy while we’re in the car. The last couple of days have been such a whirlwind I haven’t even had achance to fill her in on the developments with Aleksis. She’s going to go nuts.
‘Sorry I’ve been quiet. It’s been crazy trying to fit everything in. Good crazy though. Something exciting may have happened …’
‘With Aleksis?’ she guesses immediately.
‘Yes, with Aleksis.’ I can’t help smiling. ‘We may have slept together last night.’
‘Shriek! Is he your boyfriend now?’
‘No! It’s way too soon to put a label on it.’ Not that I’d mind. ‘We’ve literally hooked up once. Well, twice if you count this morning too. It was really good though and I really like him.’
‘Full details when I see you after the show tomorrow please! Is Aleksis coming to the pub too?’
I promise her we’ll both be there, then look over at him to check he’s still real. He smiles back in a way that makes my heart do a little dance.
Our simultaneous arrival at the cinema does get the attention of the paparazzi, as Shane had hoped, and the cameras flash as we converge on the red carpet. I don’t know if he does it on purpose, but Merle positions himself next to me, putting his arm round my waist below Aleksis’s arm round my shoulders as we pose for photos. It makes me uncomfortable, but I can hardly shake him off with so many eyes on us.
When one of the actresses from the film arrives, our little group is moved along and guided inside to the cinema’s bar area, where we’re offered champagne cocktails. I spot Kimberley Ross in a smart white trouser suit and recogniseseveral other famous faces from TV shows. Everyone looks impossibly glamorous, which makes me even more grateful for Sofiya’s dress.
It’s hard to ignore Merle as he air-kisses his way round the room like a pro, so I’m relieved when the screening finally starts and I can lose myself in the film for a couple of hours. Thankfully, it’s much easier to stay out of his way at the after-party, because it’s in the cavernous lobby of the hotel next door.
There are hundreds of guests, waiters wandering through the crowd with magnums of champagne, and acrobats dangling from the ceiling. Several bars line the perimeter and there’s an impressive selection of canapés on offer, but the highlight for me is a chocolate fountain the size of a swimming pool. My five-year-old self would have been beside herself.
It’s attracted quite a crowd, but I squeeze in with Aleksis and we help ourselves to a skewer of juicy strawberries. He pulls out his phone so he can take a picture of us dunking our fruit for Instagram. But while he’s trying to get the shot, chocolate drips off his skewer, leaving a long, sticky trail across his T-shirt.
I can’t help laughing. ‘I’m surprised that wasn’t me, for once.’
He tries to wipe it off with his finger, but the smear gets even longer. ‘I’d better find the loos,’ he says, rolling his eyes.
And it’s while I’m waiting outside for him that I scroll through the latest headlines on my phone and see the love triangle stories that have started popping up onlineanalysing our body language in the red carpet pictures of me sandwiched between Alexis and Merle.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ I mutter as I click on some of the links. One has even gone so far as to suggest I’m still in love with Merle and just pretending to be with Aleksis to gain popularity on the show. If that were still true, it would have had me analysing every move we’ve made to see what gave us away.
‘What’s up?’ Aleksis asks when he emerges from the gents and clocks the look on my face. I hand him my phone and his reaction is much the same as mine when he spots Merle’s arm round me in the photos.
‘What the hell is he playing at?’ He sounds exasperated. ‘He must have known how that would look.’
‘It did feel deliberate,’ I agree.
