Not A Cliché (Tom Holland)

2. Recap

Not A Cliché

Le château d'éclatant

Los Angeles, 8:39 pm
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Laying on the soft bed and watching some tv while scrolling through his phone, Tom sure was taking a rest after the last day of his three-day photo shoot.

He would be leaving tomorrow afternoon for London after having a meeting with a director for his upcoming movie. Back at London, the reading and filming of the second sequel of 'Chaos Walking' would begin the upcoming Monday.

Apart from his professional engagements, Tom had made the most of being in LA by catching up and having lunch today with his friend, Zendaya.

Before any of you start, let it be clarified that they were not dating. Sure, Tom liked her a lot back when they were introduced, which was when they were a couple of 20-year-olds. He liked her personality and the way she managed her fame. She was down-to-earth, and he admired that about her.

However, you cannot clap with only one hand. Zendaya had never responded to Tom's feelings. Even when Tom, through his gestures, would try to achieve closeness, she would effortlessly slide them away. He had gone for subtle hints at first- from those interviews he had with her to the time he spent with her behind the camera, Tom had done everything in his capacity to express his affection.

And finally, to leave no room for doubt, he confessed to her as well, but she politely declined and asked him to keep their friendship as it was before.

Maybe her refusal was for the sake of professionalism or for proving the press wrong by instilling the fact that two fellow actors can remain friends, or maybe she didn't have any feelings for him at all. Well, whatever the reason may be, he and Zendaya were never getting in any romantic relationship. That was the bottom line.

Tom accepted this. It wasn't as if he was hopelessly in love with her. He could recover from this 'like,' thing. And he indeed had.

After getting rejected by Zendaya, Tom didn't exactly spend his days wailing about the 'Euphoria' star. Instead, it just enabled him to look for a romantic interest that may appear on his "radar".

And so, in the last three years, he had dated Amy Swiss, a world-renowned American model for three months before things fell through. Then he had a fling with Iris Brawford, a British actress with whom he had shot a series of commercials. Then he was involved with Kate Riley, a British-French fashion designer, for whose collection Tom had walked the runway. Like with Iris, it was never serious between Kate and Tom and couldn't go beyond the fashion show, because of Kate primarily working in France.

Stella Laureal, his current girlfriend, was a two-time British Wimbledon champion and an Olympic silver medalist. He had attended her Wimbledon finals with his mother, and that's when he had seen her. Awed with her athletic beauty, he didn't waste any time in pursuing the sports player and finally landed a dinner date with her, initiating their relationship.

Of course, this 5-months-old relationship was kept from the media. None of them wanted excessive attention from their over-excited fans or the paparazzi. They both were at a good point in their careers, and they wanted to keep rising. And the unwanted interest towards their romance would only be a pain in the neck. Both of them had readily agreed for this. Other than their same age, the attitude of keeping their lives private, and their ambitions for their careers attracted them towards each other.

Other than his relationships, Tom's career in Hollywood had really thrived. Apart from his involvement with Marvel (Spider-Man's third instalment, Avengers movie, appearances in some of the other superheroes' movies), he had really taken on some great jobs.