Page 51 of Love At First Fright

T he house was empty without Rosemary; even Fig was mourning her absence. The little dog had woken Ellis up at five in the morning, digging into his side, his two front paws pressing into Ellis’s arm.

Rosemary’s side—because it had quickly become Rosemary’s side of the bed—was cold, the pillow undented.

She’d flown back to Savannah the previous day, after one final day with him.

She’d come to set with Ellis, and when she hadn’t needed to stand by and watch, she’d made use of his dressing room on set for her writing.

The night before, she’d reached a milestone in her draft, and they’d celebrated with an evening trip after they’d wrapped for the day to Dina’s café before it closed.

He’d tried a slice of Black Forest gateau and for some reason he couldn’t place, Ellis was reminded of the first time he’d held Rosemary in the circle of his arms, the sweet floral and vanilla scent of her perfume.

He spent the day working on the garden, planting tulip bulbs and planning out where he’d plant Rosemary’s persimmon tree.

“She’ll come back,” he assured Fig, as he fed her an early dinner.

Even if he missed her, for the first time Ellis felt the loneliness that had clung to him like a spectre for the last decade begin to fade.

He loved her, he had Fig, and he’d already been welcomed into a group chat with Scott and Eric, and they had plans to take Ellis out rowing in mid-January.

Manly hazing, he remembered Rosemary warning him, and smiled.

The car arrived to take Ellis to the Theo Drake Show for his interview just before 4 p.m. On the way there, Ellis considered his plans for Rosemary’s return in the new year.

He’d go and pick her up from the airport, maybe buy her a bouquet of tulips.

He reckoned he’d last about five minutes before he told her he loved her.

A big part of Ellis had desperately wanted to tell Rosemary before she left that he was in love with her.

But after the scene at the bookshop, where they’d been swarmed by the crowds, Rosemary had been so adamant that she couldn’t live like that.

And he’d made sure she hadn’t seen what people had been saying online.

A lot of it was flattering, but some of those trolls…

it made Ellis livid with rage just thinking about what they’d written.

Ellis knew she would have to deal with that shit all the time if they went public.

They’d been existing in this intense bubble, and he figured that Rosemary having some time to spend with her dad would give her the space to consider if she really wanted this with him.

And then, only then, would he confess how much he’d fallen for her. Was still falling for her.

—

Two hours later, Ellis was at the studio and dressed in a slim-cut suit, having just persuaded his makeup artist to take home one of the five flower bouquets that had been left in his dressing room.

Rosemary had an intermittent signal at her family’s farm, but she had sent him a photo of her wearing a hoodie, a tiny ginger kitten asleep in the hood.

Wish you were here, the text said. Break a leg tonight, call me after and tell me how it went. Ellis wished he was there too, maybe next Christmas. He’d love to learn from her dad about flower planting.

Rosemary was seven hours behind him, but she said she’d find a way to watch the Theo Drake Show live as it aired on Saturday evening.

It was the Christmas special, and the whole studio was draped with blue and purple tinsel, the signature colour scheme of the show’s design.

He was ushered by a harried-looking PA into a greenroom, and just as he settled down onto the sofa, waiting to be called out as a guest, his phone rang.

Ellis groaned, spotting Brody’s name on the caller ID.

“Hi, Brody,” he answered.

“Hey dude, how’s it going?” The false cheer in Brody’s tone was not a good sign. He never called Ellis dude unless something was wrong.

“Yeah, fine. Just waiting for them to call me out to chat with Theo.”

“So about that.” Here we go, Ellis thought. “I’m sure you’ve seen the social posts.”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve been busy.”

“I bet you have,” Brody laughed. “It’s all over the internet. Pictures of you and the screenwriter, what’s her name, Rosie?”

“Rosemary,” Ellis ground out. He didn’t like hearing her name in Brody’s mouth.

“Sure, well, what are you planning on saying if Theo asks about your little side piece?”

Ellis took a deep breath, it was now or never. “I’ll say the truth, Brody. That I was never dating Jenna, Rosemary is not my ‘side piece’ but my girlfriend, and that we’re very happy and I would ask that our privacy is respected.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

“I’m afraid that won’t do, Ellis.”