The Unexpected

Trouble

At the sound of the camera, Ben and I turned to see the paparazzi, and more pictures were taken. To this, he looked at me for a moment in a very serious manner, he then let go of my hand, stood up and exited the coffee shop. Ben exchanged a few words with the photographer, but he kept taking more pictures of him, and then me.

I, to be honest, felt quite strange with someone taking pictures of me, and even more without my permission, so I turned around and tried to hide my face from that man. I then heard Ben yelling to the paparazzi until he finally left.

Then, Ben entered and sat down in front of me, grabbed his cup of coffee and drank without saying a word to me, and only looking to the table, furious of what just happened.

After a moment, I decided to ask.

-What was all that?-

-I asked him to leave.- Ben said, quite strong in his words. I could tell he did not want to say another word abut it.

After that, there was an uncomfortable silence. I wanted to talk to him, but I could tell he was very angry at that episode and was hiding information from me. Information that perhaps could end up hurting me.

We finished our breakfasts without saying another word. We left the coffee shop and returned to my place. Without much more to say, he took his things and said goodbye, saying he would call me in the evening.

I was worried about his behavior, but I decided not to say anything about it until he decided to do so.

Once he left, I went to work, but a feeling of uneasiness did not leave my mind throughout the day: it was the first encounter I ever had with a paparazzi and it was not easy. How would the other encounters be? And how should I behave when these things happen? I also knew they would try to find out about my private life, my past, my hobbies and more... And I really hoped I was the exception to the rule, but at the same time, I knew it was highly unlikely they would leave me alone from then on.

The day went on, although I could not work much, as I kept getting distracted by all those thoughts wandering in my mind. After a long time, the day was finally over, and the only thing I could do was running home and took refuge there.

I anxiously waited for Ben's phone call, and when he finally did, our conversation was indeed short. I decided to ask him what was going on, and if he was hiding something from me, but he said he was trying to fix the issue... Whatever that meant. That just worried me even more, and I told him about it, but he said he would take care of everything. I just felt we were not communicating in the same language, as I felt him quite distant from me and our relationship, if there was actually one.

That night I did not sleep well, as I was pretty sure the following day would carry more trouble.

The following morning, I got ready and decided to check my phone before work: there was a flood of text messages and phone calls, both from family and friends, as well as from work and unknown numbers. Somehow I knew this was all related to the pictures that were taken the day before, so I decided to turn my laptop on and searched for Ben on the internet... And there they were: pictures of Ben and me, and the tabloids were fueled with the phrases: "Ben Affleck's newest hookup" and "Ben Affleck's newest lover". That is when I realized what Ben was trying to fix, but was not able to.

I then knew this was the beginning of our problems.