‘Butt out,’ he said and pushed her out of the way. ‘I’m talking to Jess. As I was saying, Jess, yes, I have learnt to move on, which is why I’m looking forward to coming back and picking up where we left off.’
Alisha nudged him out of the way again. ‘Woo-oo. Flirt alert. Is something going on here that I don’t know about?’
‘None of your business,’ said JJ.
‘Jess?’ asked Alisha.
‘I . . . nn . . .’
Alisha grinned. ‘I get it, Miss UK. Just don’t go breaking his heart.’
‘As if,’ I said. So Tom wasn’t interested, but maybe JJ was. Suddenly my future had just got a whole lot brighter.
After they’d gone, I took a hamper of food from Gran’s out for Eddie. He was curled up in a blanket, asleep in his usual doorway.
‘Happy New Year, Eddie,’ I said quietly, as I put the box down next to him so that he’d find it when he woke up ‘I wish I could do more.’
To his far left, I noticed there were a couple of paparazzi hanging about. No sign of Bridget. She hadn’t been seen in days. She’d got her story and moved on, leaving me with a dull ache when I thought of her, but a lesson well and truly learned, and that is that not everyone who befriends you is your friend.
As I made my way back to Porchester Park, I remembered that Dad had asked me to drop an envelope into an apartment on the first floor. I went back inside, collected it from his office, made my way across the reception to the lift where I pressed the button for the first floor. The lift appeared seconds later and the doors opened.
‘Just a sec,’ said a voice behind me. I turned to see the most divine apparition had pressed the hold button. I felt as if my heart had stopped, as well as the lift. This boy wasn’t handsome. He wasn’t cute. He was one hundred percent beautiful. Tall and blond with an amazing jawline, high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes.
‘Hi, I’m Alexei,’ he said in the sexiest of foreign accents. ‘You must be Jess.’
‘Umf,’ I said.
‘I was hoping to bump into you,’ the boy continued. ‘My father told me that Mr Hall had a daughter and a son. I’ve been away at school many years but now I am to go to classes here. I don’t know many people so I hope we can become friends. Forgive me being forward, but, how else I make friends?’
I gave him my best smile. ‘Yeah sure,’ I said, trying to sound casual. Inside, I felt like I’d had a shot of adrenaline and could do cartwheels across the hall. Ding dong merrily on high, in heaven the bells are ringing, I thought as I got out a scrap of paper and wrote my phone number and email address on it for him.
A new year, a new chapter, new possibilities!
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Paparazzi Princess Page 13