London became their playground.
As he walked beside her, sometimes drinking in everything she said, sometimes lost in thought, she noticed that he wasn't absorbing the city as much as he was learning it. It was like he was trying to piece together a new language for the first time. The city unfolded for him, each place falling seamlessly into the next like a piece of music. He didn't just want to see it; he wanted to understand it.
The first day started with the British Museum. Teo was already in his element, but when they reached the Roman exhibit, he came alive. Whispering in her ear so that only she could hear him, he put on the deep voice he'd used in one of his Julius Caesar videos, question the legitimacy of every Roman artefact and muttering about stolen property. He had her laughing so hard she drew too much attention, and they had to duck behind a display of disapproving marble faces before a curious tour group realised who she was.
In the afternoon, they just walked, Regents Park and then Primrose Hill. In the pale winter light, the city of London spread out before them as they reached the crest of the hill, the towering skyscrapers of Square Mile dominating the skyline. The park had been a lot to do with why Aurelia had chosen this neighbourhood when she'd bought the flat; London wasn't the pokiest city by any means, but there was something nice about open spaces.
When they parted, there was no question as to whether they would continue the next day. They visited the markets, Portobello, then Borough, strolling without any urgency. They talked constantly, questions and small truths flying between them like the conversation was a tennis match. Teo told her about NIDA, the drama school he'd attended in Sydney, how he'd scraped through the auditions, the three years following, until the constant rejections and ego of the industry made him back away and find his own niche. She admitted to him that she felt like she was pretending sometimes, that her success hadn't silenced the voice telling her she'd wandered into somebody else's life by mistake. He didn't argue with her, or tell her she was wrong, he just nodded, giving her space to speak her truth.
When the conversation turned to family, he was animated, happy. His family obviously meant a lot to him, especially his father, who, he told her, sometimes had whole conversations using just his hands. He'd taught Teo that history was a living, changing thing, not just something to be left in books. He told the story of how his mother, Sidonie, had fallen in love with his father on a trip to Australia, and never returned to France again, "although she still complains that it's too hot and the food is terrible."
Aurelia told him about Clovelly, the tiny village in Devon she had grown up in, the sometimes overpowering smell of the sea and about slipping down the cobbled streets when it was icy in winter. She found herself telling him about the house that still held her father's absence like it was a second occupant, and why it was painful to go back. She spoke about her mother, Elowyn, that she'd been a dancer on the West End, and still insisted on working, even though Aurelia had offered to support her.
She had been anxious about the first time a member of the public would recognise her whilst out with Teo, worried that the show would be brought up and bring reality crashing back in. However, she needn't have been.
A woman slightly older than them hesitated outside a café when Aurelia lifted her sunglasses to peer at the menu.
"I'm so sorry, but are you-?"
Aurelia smiled warily at her. Having Teo beside her, somebody who could strike up a conversation with a rock, made it easier to ignore her awkwardness, but there was always a chance somebody might not be kind. The woman bit her bottom lip, sounding oddly choked,
"I loved Tiffany. When my Granny died I-" She broke off, shaking her head quickly, "Thank you, for playing her so well." She walked away before Aurelia could thank her. It was over in seconds, but Teo had observed the exchange with quiet curiosity.
"Does that ever get a bit strange?" He asked later. Aurelia considered it,
"Sometimes, but not when its like that. If people come up to me screaming, it never usually leads to something good, but she was nice. It means a lot, when people tell me I've done something that meant something. Like, maybe I'm doing this right, after all? I sometimes wonder if Tiffany- and the other characters I've played, make people feel less alone… and that's nice."
That gentle smile again,
"It is."
That evening, they stood on Westminster Bridge, taking in the enormity of the illuminated Palace of Westminster. London flocked around them in the sound of the steady traffic, the voices of pedestrians as they passed, and the sound of the Thames slapping against the underside of the bridge.
Teo leaned his arms over the side, staring straight ahead .
"I totally understand now why people fall in love with this place."
They did? Aurelia had never been able to understand falling in love with a place. Places were just somewhere you... existed for w while, until the next thing came along. She shrugged, non-committedly ,
"I always kind of felt it was temporary. Like I've been borrowing it for a while."
"Do you want it to be temporary?" His question surprised her- the problem was that nothing had ever felt permanent. Would she even know if something did? She didn't know the answer, and he didn't push.
XXX
"You've not had a proper, British home-cooked meal, have you?" She asked, as they approached the tube station, battered by rush-hour foot traffic. He shot her a nervous look.
"Aurelia, I don't want to offend you, but I have not heard good things about British food."
She swiped at him and he dodged out of the way, laughing.
"Maybe, but I think you'll find my cooking surpasses all expectations."
Back in her flat, she put him out of his misery by presenting him with a series of take-away menus.
XXX
Later, a series of empty take away cartons sat between them on the sofa. For something so new, and undefined, it felt oddly domestic. It had taken hours to eat because they hadn't stopped talking, but now there was only a steady silence. The inevitability that had been between them, that they had both been trying to ignore, was starting to become unavoidable. After Teo had insisted that he be the one to take the cartons out to the bin, he leaned in the doorway, watching her.
"I fly out tomorrow," He said. She looked down at her hands,
"I know."
"Should we walk? And…talk?"
She nodded, feeling the familiar tug in her chest, the sinking feeling that something was ending just as it was beginning.
They ended up at Primrose Hill again, the lights and hum from the city below muffled, yet somehow infinite. The view was beautiful by day, but stunning at night, the glow of the capital reaching up beyond the sky and into the unknown.
They paused underneath one of the lanterns lining the main pathways. Teo took her hand in his, this thumb brushing across her knuckles.
"I've had such a good time," He said, "A really good time."
"So have I." And she had. For the past three days she'd had her phone on silent, putting off the return to reality as long as she possibly could. She'd be in trouble; there were missed calls in the double figures, but the distraction had been worth it.
The distance between them closed a little, instinctively.
"I didn't want to say what I'm about to say before now, in case you thought I was taking advantage," His voice was even, and he wasn't afraid to meet her eyes, "And also because I didn't want to make saying goodbye so much harder."
There it was.
"I've known you for about-" He checked his watch, "Seventy one hours now, and for the last seventy, I've been trying really hard not to kiss you."
Even the breeze in the trees stopped rustling. There was absolute silence. Aurelia stepped even closer, enough so that his arms seemed to act of their own accord, circling around her.
"If its that much effort," She said, softly, "Maybe you should stop trying?"
The world seemed to still, and then shrink inwards, until it was just the two of them surrounded by the circle of light from the lamp. Their noses touched, breathing tangled together with the sound of hearts beating, the slightest brush of lips-
"Oh my god, it's Aurelia Hart!"
They both flinched, and sprang apart as a group of teenage girls, stood a few feet away, clutching each other with excitement.
"Oh my god, its both of you!" They'd recognised Teo too. He rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do.
"Um… hi?"
Aurelia smiled sadly.
She patiently took selfies with the girls, and signed a few autographs, her smile fixed and a little dazed. When they finally waved goodbye, their excited shrieks carrying after them on the wind, she exhaled the breath she had been holding.
Teo's expression was unreadable now. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"I think that was the universe trying to tell us something."
"Yeah," She chewed on her lower lip. Why was the universe always getting involved?
"It's probably for the best," He was saying, "You're here in London and I'm… not."
"And I hate that," She said quietly, allowing a little emotion to break through, "Because I've really liked this."
He put his arm over her shoulder, drawing her back into him, comforting, rather than romantic,
"Me too."
They lingered a little longer, watching the lights of the city, neither wanting to be the first to leave. Finally, however, Teo smiled, bittersweet and sincere,
"Then let's not ruin it. Three days. Perfect ones."
She nodded, swallowing the deep ache behind the upturn of her lips,
"Perfect."
"Can I text you when I land?"
"Please."
They hugged one last time, holding each other for far longer than they should have, and then broke apart. As he walked away, his figure fading into the dark, something inside Aurelia tightened - a small, bright pain, equal in gratitude and loss.
It was back to reality, then.
XXX
As soon as she got back to the flat, crawled into bed without undressing, pulling the covers over her head. She didn't have the emotional energy for anything more than bed-rotting, but she did send off a quick text to Lucy.
Can we talk? I'm sad
Two minutes later, her phone started buzzing. She picked up without checking the caller ID.
"Hey girl."
"Where the fuck have you been?" The voice was definitely not Lucy's, but the cigarette-roughened tones of Esme, her agent, "I've been trying to get hold of you since Sunday morning!"
She rubbed her temple with two fingers, eyes dull and unfocussed.
"I'm sorry, I was… taking some downtime."
"Downtime?" She could hear Esme's disgusted expression through the phone, "Downtime? Listen to me, Superstar, you've almost lost out on a shit hot opportunity because of your downtime! Luckily for you, I'm incredible at my job, but if I'm wasting my time then-"
"What's the opportunity, Esme?" She didn't have the resilience for an Esme-rant right now.
Esme stopped her diatribe with a satisfied sound, like a parent who'd just given a naughty child a good scolding. There was the sound of paper rustling, and then the agent cleared her throat.
"So, this one is a bit unorthodox," She began, "They reached out about a year ago, requesting you specifically, but it isn't the usual calibre of project you take on, so we said no. However, the girl they cast instead dropped out back in December, and they came back to us. There's been a bit of back-and-forth, making sure the contract is worth your while, good relocation package etc etc, but I think we've nailed it."
"Relocation package?"
"I'll get to that part," Esme said smugly, "It's a TV series, already looking good to be greenlit for a second season. They want you for the lead. I'm not going to lie to you, Aurelia, this will be a big commitment from you at very, very short notice. They're predicting about a year's worth of worth, potentially more if the second season goes ahead."
"Can you send me the proposal over?"
She heard Esme's ridiculously long nails tapping on a keyboard, and then a notification buzzed in her ear,
"Done. Give me a call when you've finished reading it. As in, read it now. You know what, I'll wait on the line whilst you read it."
Aurelia opened the email. "Dreamtime Protocol" was the working title, a speculative drama rather than sci-fi or fantasy. The premise was interesting to say the least; a covert taskforce investigating a growing phenomenon of shared dreams, synchronised across strangers, cultures and geography. The hook was that the dreams all contained knowledge that none of the dreamers had ever actually learned, following maps that had never been chartered. The leading role, Dr Maeve Lockhart, was a leading neuroscientist, brought in to try and decode the anomaly, only to discover that western science could describe the symptoms the dreamers were having, but not the meaning. She read it through twice. It sounded really good.
"I'm here," She said to Esme, "It sounds great. If it was just the proposal by itself, I'd seriously consider doing it, but I need more details before I can even think about committing."
"Well, most importantly," Her agent began, "Is that this project does come with risk. The Dreamtime is a deeply spiritual concept for the Indigenous Nations, and if its done badly, the PR could be bad. As in, bad bad. The production are shit-hot on this though, which is why its taken so long to get off the ground, but you're going to have to be careful."
This was understandable. There was a lot more accountability these days, especially around racial and cultural issues. A few years back, a rumour had got out that Aurelia was going to be playing a traditionally Japanese character in an anime-based adaption, and the backlash had been immediate. It had been the only time she'd had to issue a proper statement, reassuring people that she had never been considered for the role.
"Second," Esme continued, "Obviously, its another leading role under your belt and stable work, but you'd basically be a no-go zone for any other projects whilst you're filming. It wouldn't work geographically anyway, but I figured you might prefer to keep your mind focussed on one thing anyway? With it being international though, and with the requirements of the role, you'd need to relocate for the duration, like I said. I've negotiated down time for you, but you're going to be away from London for a while."
Aurelia tried to keep up.
"You mentioned indigenous people. Is this a Native American project?"
"What? Oh, no. It's the Aboriginal communities. You'd be filming in Australia. In Sydney."