Page 45 of A Witch in Notting Hill

Willow

Oliver Hadley: fancy a tea?

After weeks apart, all I could do was stare at the text like it might spontaneously combust. We hadn’t spoken since the night of the full moon festival, and I couldn’t tell if these three words were a threat or an olive branch.

Did I fancy a tea?

I supposed the question was more like, could I fancy a tea? Of course I did . I wanted nothing more than to pretend the last few weeks never happened, to slip back into the life I’d only been trying on for size, to make it real and tangible and mine, even if it was only temporary.

But I knew it wasn’t fair, to either of us, so the right thing to do would have been to politely decline, produce the spell, leave London all together, and disappear back into the depths of Hollywood.

But if I was good at doing the right thing, I probably wouldn’t have been in this mess to begin with, so.

.. I entertained the idea of fancying a tea.

I did have to convince a skeptic, after all, and while I wasn’t sure Oliver Hadley could be convinced of a damn thing, he was the only skeptic I knew, so it was worth a shot.

The clock was ticking, and if I didn’t convince someone magic was real before the solstice next week... I shuddered at the thought.

Fortunately, since I hadn’t left the flat much, the paparazzi didn’t have a whole lot to report on.

They continued circulating the photos from that night, along with the story about Kit, both of which Vera was working as hard as she possibly could (considering she didn’t have thumbs) to get taken down.

She kept telling me to stay focused on the spell and she’d stay focused on the media, which made sense, all things considered, but I wasn’t happy about it.

Even less happy when I told her Oliver texted me and she told me we needed to talk.

“What’s going on?” I asked, gently lowering myself onto a barstool next to where she sat on the counter.

“I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to freak out.”

“You know I’m already freaking out, right?”

“Then I might as well rip off the Band-Aid.” She sighed. “I was the one who told the media about Kit.”

“You... what?” I’d heard her perfectly fine, but I needed to hear her again to understand. And maybe even again after that.

“It was right when we got here,” she said. “And we decided we were going to pretend you were seeing him so you wouldn’t have to worry about Oliver and you could focus on the spell and—”

“And you deliberately put me in the center of a scandal?” I asked. “Isn’t your job to do the opposite?”

“I had no idea it was going to become a scandal,” she said.

“Thought it was just a bit of celebrity gossip. I even left the tip anonymously so no one thought it came from a member of your team. And no one had done much of anything with the information at first, anyway, so I didn’t think it was a big deal.

It only became a big deal when they tracked you down and saw you with Oliver.

Which I had nothing to do with, I promise.

I’d never compromise your safety. I just figured it might help you stick to the story and maybe even interest you in—”

“This was all a scheme?” I stood up from the stool, needing distance between us.

Needing something to do with my body. “Be honest, V. Was it to protect me or Oliver at all, or was it just to get me to agree to your stupid romance idea? To play into the rumors and get a movie out of it? Have you forgotten this is the exact argument that landed us here in the first place?”

“It was wrong,” she said. “I made the wrong call. I know that. And I’m sorry, Willow.”

I was silent. I wanted those words to settle. I wanted to feel them. I wanted her to feel them.

“I should have gone back on the story once I realized you and Oliver were getting more serious. But I thought you were being careful, so I didn’t expect any of this .”

“Are you blaming me?”

“Of course not,” she said. “The rumor was my fault in the first place. But you did let your guard down, Willow, which I thought we were going to avoid.”

“God forbid I try to have a normal-person moment for one second.”

“That’s the thing,” she said. “You aren’t a normal person. So if you want to be kissing in the woods, you have to expect the worst.”

“Then maybe I want to actually be a normal person,” I said, without having realized I even had that thought until the words were out of my mouth. It felt like a line. Very It’s not my dream, Dad. It’s yours. But the more it hung in the air between us, the truer it felt.

I didn’t want to always expect the worst. What kind of life was that?

And it wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for my career. I knew how lucky I was to have had the opportunities I’d had, to be in a position where I could choose to take a step back if I wanted to. That wasn’t lost on me.

It was just that I was missing out on everything else . The lazy days, long walks, pub quizzes, day trips, sitting around a friend’s flat with nowhere to go and no one to see. Kissing a damn boy and not having it plastered all over the internet.

“You don’t mean that,” Vera said, widening her eyes when I didn’t answer right away. “Do you?”

“I don’t know. This was obviously the first time I’ve said it out loud, and it’s a lot to think about. But I don’t want to take it back, I know that much.”

“All because of this guy? Willow—”

“Not because of this guy,” I said, growing increasingly frustrated.

“Because of my inability to even pursue anything with a guy without a camera in my face. Because of my inability to explore my magic or learn a damn thing about myself because I don’t have a minute to breathe back home and this whole part of me has to stay a secret.

I’m missing out on a social life and a personal life. ”

“Let’s not get carried away, here. You have quite the social life.”

“Not with anyone I care about,” I countered. “It’s just parties and galas and appearances and award shows and premieres and shit. When was the last time I just sat in a pub?”

“Do you even like pubs?”

“I love pubs! But I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t had the opportunity to go to one.”

“I’m glad my misfortune is so convenient for you.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” I said. “I just mean the opportunity to not be Willow James for five minutes. To be far from home and to blend in and just exist in a city where I’m not filming or attending some event or getting ready to go to another city.”

The more I talked about it, the more I gained momentum.

The idea was slowly becoming less of an interest and more of a necessity.

I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing. I needed to start prioritizing myself and my magic, and that wasn’t going to happen in Hollywood.

Hell, I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen in LA.

“So, what? You’re just done acting? You don’t have to do a romance, Willow, if that’s what this is about.”

“It’s not about the romance. It’s about me .” Why was it so hard for everyone to see that? “Actors take breaks all the time. Would it really be such a big deal?”

“It would be if you wanted to get back into the industry after you were done being a ‘normal person.’”

“What if I didn’t?”

“Willow, be serious.”

“I am being serious. Maybe I’d like being a normal person.”

“And if you came to your senses and hated it?”

“That would be for me to figure out, wouldn’t it?”

She stared at me, a piercing stare with her green marble eyes, and I stared back, unafraid of whatever she was about to say. It was becoming increasingly apparent a break was definitely in order, and in that case, I did fancy a tea.

What I did not fancy was arguing with Vera about my future. She might have known what was best for me as an actor, but that didn’t mean she knew what was best for me as a person.

“I’m sorry,” she said eventually, shaking her head like she was snapping herself out of whatever mood she was in.

“I know I’m being hard on you. And I know that’s something I have to work on.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last few months.

All I’ve ever known is that life, and I’m projecting that onto you, aren’t I? ”

“I’m sure we’re projecting onto each other.” I sighed, sitting back down.

“Maybe a break for you is good. Maybe that’ll mean a break for me, too.”

“You won’t pick up another client to replace me? I know people in the industry who would kill for you as a manager. I’m sure you could have someone new in a heartbeat.”

“I don’t doubt that,” she said, and winked.

It was unnerving on her cat face no matter how normal it would have been on her human face.

“I haven’t wanted to admit it, but this has been nice for me, too.

Minus the cat thing, obviously. But the time off.

It’s not as boring as I thought it’d be.

Turns out podcasts and audiobooks and walks around the neighborhood aren’t such a bad way to pass the time.

I’m sure I’ll be bored to death before I know it, but for now, it hasn’t been so miserable. ”

It was more of a relief than I could have anticipated to hear her say those words.

And for her to sound like she actually meant them.

Every moment of the last six months had been riddled with an undercurrent of guilt, and to hear Vera say she actually saw value in this experience made me feel slightly less awful for what had happened.

Not a lot, but enough to release my shoulders from my ears for a few minutes.

“And I’m going to make it right with the press,” she said.

“I have a call with our lawyer this afternoon to confirm he’s gotten all major entertainment news outlets to scrub the photos and videos, and I’ve already spread the word about your relationship with Kit being nothing but a rumor.

Seems to have done his career some good in the meantime, but without you even in the city, I doubt he’ll be hanging on to that story. ”