2025. Cannes

Chapter 3

«Hande, you said that the red carpet is no place to talk, but what do you say if we have dinner together?» Kerem asked her a question as they watched the film and headed for the exit of the hall. «Unless, of course, you still have dinner planned with someone» he added after a pause.

«No, I haven't, so I guess I can accept the invitation» Hande replied, lifting the hem of her dress to go down the stairs while Kerem held her elbow. «But I have to go to a hotel, my dress is not made for a restaurant» she added in an apologetic voice.

«Which hotel are you staying at? I could wait for you in the restaurant there» Kerem suggested.

«It's the Carlton, but I'm not sure we can find seats there.»

«Let's do this: I'll check while you're changing. If there aren't any empty seats, I'll find a restaurant where there are, and I'll text you» Kerem suggested.

«I like your plan» Hande smiled. «I'm taking a car, will you come with me?»

«Go ahead, I'll take a walk» he smiled at her too.

As she drove to the hotel and changed her image, Hande could not stop searching for the answer to what she was doing.

Okay, they had met Kerem after two and a half years of not speaking. Okay, she smiled at him on the carpet and agreed to this photo. But why did she have to ask him about his family? And why did he have to answer exactly so that she could feel how much he missed their relationship.

And most importantly, why was she going to tell him the truth now? Why? After all, they were nobody to each other. As they were no one, they might as well stay no one after this brief meeting and photo shoot.

But now she kept choosing blue, even though she and Kerem would look like a couple who combined their images on purpose. Probably she did that subconsciously just for that reason.

And all this at the same time as her phone seemed to explode from the number of ticks on every possible social media site.

His phone, too, couldn't calm down because of the number of ticks as he strolled along the boardwalk to Hande's hotel, certain that it would take her quite a while to pick out an image for this unplanned dinner.

He couldn't stop thinking about this encounter. And about how nice it felt to hold her again, even if it was only his arm around her waist just to take a photo.

Of course he knew she was in Cannes. It was impossible not to know, given how many times he had been tagged in pictures of her in a blue dress, under which people wrote that blue was his color.

But first of all, he had no idea she was going to the carpet. And moreover, while picking out a blue suit for himself, he never in his life could have imagined that a girl would wear the same color two days in a row.

Contrary to her assumption, he managed to get a table for two at her hotel restaurant.

I'm in. Warned the waiter that the girl would be looking for the table where Kerem Bursin sits, so just ask and they'll show you the way to me.

Once he had sent the girl a message, he could not resist taking a look at the pictures.

It turned out really beautiful. And he couldn't help but marvel at how happy Hande looked. He could only wonder if it was because of him or the fact that she was on the red carpet. Though it seemed to him that she looked much more relaxed on the photo with him.

But what he could say with certainty was that she looked many times happier than on the shots he had seen two years ago, when Hande was at Cannes for the first time.