Diving Deep (UK Crush #2)

Chapter 47

The days fell into a pattern, of going over my copious notes and practicing every morning while Teddy exercised or went up to the music room to write. Once a week, he would drive me to Richard's office for our meeting, and we would tear down another section of the sonata so we could rebuild it, better and stronger, hopefully.

    Sometimes in the afternoons we would sightsee in London, or maybe just stop for lunch somewhere in the city, shopping along the way. Once or twice we got caught flatfooted and the police had to be called to help us out of near riot conditions that developed when we didn't notice crowds gathering outside of shops while we were inside.

    One of these occasions caught the eye of Mitzi on a tabloid show and she renewed her texts to Teddy to bring me in for a media course, and Teddy finally agreed, which was how we ended up at an inconspicuous office building in London one afternoon in late October.

    It didn't go well.

    To begin with, someone named Marshall from the legal department was there, briefcase and all, whom we weren't expecting. And Mitzi was furious that Teddy hadn't brought me in sooner, so she had a huge chip on her very fashionable shoulder. Her blonde bob swished in irritation as she turned to him, hand on her hip, to ask why on earth it was already fucking October?

    "Theo, Jesus, you two have been in the fucking papers and all over the Internet for nearly four months!" Her voice should have made the window panes crack.

    "Mitzi, you're exaggerating," Teddy responded from his chair next to me as he held my hand. "No one even knew her real name until, like, a month ago. And no one's gotten a quote from her saying word one about anything.

    "We haven't been to one official function as a couple, we've hardly been out at all, except to restaurants, so what's the problem?" He smiled at her, the smile that had melted millions of hearts all over the world.

    "Oh, don't waste those dimples on me, Theo, save them for a camera somewhere," she said tiredly. She turned to look at me. I just blinked at her. I didn't think I'd ever met someone so sharp and negative.

    "So do you talk, or what?" She asked, taking a seat across from me.

    "Yes, I talk," I replied evenly. "You haven't asked me anything yet, though," I smiled in what I hoped was a friendly way. "What would you like me to say?"

    "Look, I know that this has been like one huge holiday for you until now," she said. "But dating a mega celebrity like Theo Shelley isn't just fun and games. It's serious business, it's as much responsibility as a job, with a huge list of dos and don'ts, and you have to learn them all if you want to continue to be at his side for all the parties and glamor, do you understand?" She looked at me to make sure her words were coming through. "You don't just get to spend his money and live in his house and hang on his arm and get into the best clubs and that, it's a business, it's like being married to a head of state, am I getting through to you?"

    I blinked at her again. I took a breath to respond, but Teddy got in before me.

    "Hey! You can't talk to her like that! She's not some trollop that I picked up on some street corner! What the fuck, Mitzi." He turned to me.

    "We're leaving, come on."

    I put my hand on his shoulder.

    "Calm down." I looked at him. "I can speak for myself, okay?" I turned to her.

    "First of all, I find it extremely offensive that you'd make these assumptions about me, when you've just met me. You don't know anything about me, and I think it would be prudent for someone in your situation to at least know the 'lay of the land' before making decisions like these.