Slowly but surely, Tom was getting tired.
He had been standing right at the barrier near the red carpet for the Lawrence Olivier Awards nearly 3 hours now, and he was counting down the last minutes before the show was supposed to finally start. It was his first time doing this up to this point - most of his job was to write articles from the comfort of either his flat or the office. However, since their usual correspondent was down with a case of food poisoning, he was chosen as the one to replace him. And so he now stood,a microphone connected to a recorder in his hand, with a camera pinned to his collar, allowing him to videotape every interview he managed to squeeze in. He had already managed to talk to a few higher profile stars like Sophie Rundle and Hayley Atwell, the interviews flowing pretty smoothly even with his lack of experience. He could already hear the rumble of the crowd grow louder and louder as another star moved along the red carpet. He craned his neck, noticing who was approaching, feeling his hand jitter from excitement.
It was Gemma Arterton, his number one celebrity crush ever since he saw her play Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace. He had followed her career pretty closely since, even writing a positive review of one of her more recent works - Gemma Bovery (the fact she was involved in a sex scene making the viewing even better). Right now, she was approaching him - her black dress giving him a very good view of her spectacular cleavage and big, full breasts. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the interview and trying to ignore the feeling of his cock getting hard in his pants. He smiled, looking at her as she suddenly caught him in her eye, returning a glowing smile of her own.
"Hello, Miss Arterton!" Tom shouted as she moved in closer, pushing his microphone a bit closer to her lips. "How are you doing today?."
"Very fine, thank you." She replied, a warm smile decorating her lips. "And good evening to you too."
"To you too as well." He spoke, feeling his hands sweat, voice wobbling a little. Here she was, the woman of his dreams, just inches away and looking like a Greek goddess. "Excited?"
"Oh, for sure. So glad to be here." She replied, her voice smooth and warm. "Thrilled, actually. I've always loved being invited here, always nice to meet all those lovely, talented people. And I'm very proud to be representing Hampstead and "A View From the Bridge". We've all poured our hearts out to make that play special and let's hope the Society has seen that as well."
"Of course. And you do look dashing, by the way. Quite the wonderful outfit you have there." Tom spoke before even thinking, biting on his tongue right after he spoke. She didn't seem to mind, though.
"Oh thank you, you're looking quite good yourself." She replied, giving him a little twirl. "And yes it's quite alright. Just a dress, but I'm very happy with it."
"Aren't you worried it might... malfunction? It's quite... daring, to say the least." Tom spoke, a wide smile decorating his face as Gemma laughed. He noted to himself how he relaxed more and more, entranced by Gemma's energy.
"Oh, it will be fine. And if it happens, it happens. But there is a lot of tape involved, I can tell you, so fingers crossed it holds." She replied, Tom leaning in a bit more. Unseen to him, Gemma's gaze shifted down before returning back up, a visible smirk decorating her face.
"The necklace is very beautiful as well." Tom continued, not noticing the shift. "There's something written on it..." he spoke, leaning forward even more, trying to decipher the writing as Gemma held the necklace. He squinted, however the writing was so small and flowery he couldn't decipher it. "...I can't read that, sorry."
"Ah, no matter." Gemma replied, waving her hand. "It's poetry, if anything. Might be even complete nonsense."
"No problem, moving back to a more serious topic, how do you think did the play challenge or change you as an actor?" Tom spoke, finally thinking with his brain instead of with his cock.
"I'd say it had a big impact on me. It's one of the classics where people come in with set expectations, but the beautiful thing was we set out with a mission of sorts..." She spoke, letting her hand run through her hair and Tom listened, entranced. ".. to show we can take a classic work like that and we can update it in a way that still makes it relevant. We worked hard, all of the cast and all of the crew, and I really hope this gets recognized, but that remains to be seen." She finished, right as another woman came up to her, whispering something into her ear.
"Oh, sorry, I have to go now." Gemma spoke, her tone apologetic. "It was very lovely to meet you."
"Lovely to meet you too, thank you so much for your time. Have a wonderful evening." He spoke as she walked away, waving him a goodbye. He looked on, watching her walk away as he suddenly felt his phone buzz in his trouser pocket. He quickly pulled it out, noticing it was his boss - Suzy Stone.
"Hello?" He spoke, shouting over the crowd.
"Tom, it's me, Suzy." She spoke, tone neutral. "Are you still at the awards?"
"Yes, they're moving in now, it's starting soon." He replied, moving away from the barrier as the people started to move either away from the venue or moving inside.
"Good. Get back to the office, we need the footage to go online. Mark is already inside, he'll handle the awards themselves." She spoke, her tone leaving no room for discussion.
"Right. On my way. See you there." He replied, hanging up and starting to move to the Tube station.
It was already dark as Tom exited the office. After leaving the equipment with the guys responsible for video editing, he chatted a moment with Suzy, confirming he'd have time off for the next day as well as the rest of the evening. Soon, he was back in his flat, laying on the sofa with a cold beer in his hand, tired, but satisfied. After polishing off the bottle and taking a long-awaited shower, he crashed onto the bed, falling asleep quickly.
The sound of his phone ringing was the first thing Tom noticed as he stirred awake from his sleep. The sun was already up, peeking through the blinds as he moved himself up to rest on his elbows, squinting and blinking a few times. The phone rang on and on as he quickly grabbed it and swiped at the screen.
"Hello?" He mumbled into the microphone, still not quite awake yet.
"Tom, it's me, Suzy..."
The sound of her voice made his heart stop for a short while. Her phoning in on a day off usually didn't mean much good was about to happen.
"... I know you're supposed to stay home today, but could you please swing by the office as soon as you can? There's something I need to tell you."
"Am I in trouble?" He replied, voice eerily quiet and reserved. "Is it about yesterday, I... I'm..."
"No, not at all... everything is fine, more than fine, actually. Just need to talk to you. Don't worry, you're still with us."
"I'll be there. Give me half an hour." He replied, relief spreading through his body.
"Great, see you then. Bye, Tom!"
"Bye, Suzy."
The ride on the Tube passed by quicker than usual, and soon enough Tom was moving through the main office space. He exchanged a few greetings, noticing some people smirking at him or observing him with quite the amused looks on their faces.He smiled lightly himself as he finally reached Suzy's office. Fortunately for him, she was alone, so after a quick knock he peeked the door.
"Hello. Made it as fast as I could." He spoke, keeping the tone neutral for now.
"Come on in, then." She replied as Tom then moved into the office, the door closing behind him as Suzy pressed the switch to close the blinds.
"So... yesterday, at the awards," she spoke, Tom swearing he could notice her eyes twinkling. "You did a very good job for a first time like that."
"Thank you. I tried." Tom replied. "It was easier than I thought it would be, though I got some good material."
"You did. The traffic on your interviews after we posted them online was quite good..." She spoke, before suddenly grinning. "... but there was one in particular that seems to have struck a chord."
Tom didn't reply, waiting to see if Suzy had anything to add. Instead of continuing, she quickly typed something into her laptop, before turning it so that Tom could see the screen. He recognized the setting immediately - it was just before he interviewed Gemma.
"Just so you know, this has triple the amount of hits than the others. Guess why.." Suzy then spoke, pressing the play button. Tom didn't respond at first, watching the footage. Suddenly, he noticed how the camera moved forward... practically diving right into Gemma's cleavage. Tom could already feel his cheeks heat up from embarrassment, as the camera gave everyone watching a very close-up view of Gemma Arterton's sizable bosom.
"Oh God..." He whispered, covering his mouth with his hands as he noticed Suzy smirking at him. "I... I didn't know..."
"I know, Mark explained it to me already. Now, if I hadn't known this was accidental, you'd be straight on the chopping block." Suzy spoke, her tone again shifting back to neutral. "But, all things considered, the response was... fairly interesting."
"What do you mean?" Tom asked, still embarrassed, but now at least curious.
"Well, I was expecting a full-on catastrophe, fights and all but... people are mostly making fun of it. And I don't blame them, same as I wouldn't blame teenage boys for wanking themselves off looking at it." She continued, now really grinning wide. "However, we had a request come in that concerns you."
Tom didn't respond, opting to just give his best "What is it, then?" face to her. She seemed to pick up on it as she then spoke again.
"Miss Arterton would like to give a full interview to you. In person, face to face, only you and her, no cameras or photoshoots." She spoke, tilting her head to the side. "What do you say?"
