Tour Stop, Excerpt & Giveaway: Audrey by Sean-Paul Thomas

“Don’t say that. Jesus. You were brilliant up there. And you barely look a day over twenty-nine.” Joe said with a reassuring grin. Audrey’s eyes widened and she smiled with delight at the compliment.

“Well the dim lighting out here in this dark alleyway is fantastic, yes?” she teased. “It hides all of my lovely wrinkles and skin imperfections.”

“Okay,” Joe said rolling his eyes. “Maybe thirty-five then when you were outside earlier in the natural light,” Joe said, teasing her back, trying his best to flirt with her now, but it had been such a long time since he’d played the flirting game with anyone, that he didn’t even know if he was doing it right anymore. They both chuckled at his words and Audrey even slapped him lightly on the arm. Joe took it as a pretty good sign that she enjoyed his rusty flirting banter, even if she was only humouring him. He was just about to ask her something else. Something a little bit deeper and meaningful. That was when the festival host suddenly appeared through the fire escape, desperately searching for Audrey. Joe realised instantly that he was coming to steal her away even before he gave Joe a quick dismissive look.

“Miss Beart? We need to take some more pictures now. Can you please come back inside?”

Joe had never felt so gutted before in his life. It was like the brick alley walls around him were all crumbling in and there was nothing he could do to stop the imminent disaster. They both hesitated and looked deeply into each other’s eyes like they knew they had so much more to say and ask of the other. At first, the festival host just assumed that Joe was only a starstruck fan and would be dropped by Audrey like a hot piece of coal effective immediately at the host’s mere white-knight presence in front of them. But after a long but comfortable silence, even Joe felt surprised that Audrey was still standing there and hadn’t made her excuses to leave already.

“So…” She finally uttered with that cute and delightful smile of hers, which was directed straight at him once again. “It would appear as if they remembered who I am after all…”

Audrey threw her almost finished cigarette down onto the ground and stamped it out with her shoe.

“I guess it was nice meeting you then… Joseph…”

“Please, just call me Joe”

“Hey, Joe, what do you know?” Audrey replied right back at him with a playful smile and a casual wink.

“You too, Audrey. It was an absolute pleasure,” was all Joe could fire back even though he wanted to say a million and one other things.

There was another fleeting second of hesitation. Joe didn’t want her to go anywhere and he knew she could feel it too, but in the end, he felt utterly powerless to make her stay. Who the hell was he to demand such a thing? In a normal world of boy-meets-girl, this would have been the ideal time to ask for her number or e-mail address or at least add her on bloody Facebook. But Joe did nothing. Not only was he well out of practice on the boy-meets-girl market front, but who the hell was he to ask anything of her? Joe knew he didn’t belong there. He knew he didn’t belong in Audrey’s world at that particular moment in time. He hadn’t yet earned that kind of accolade or respect as an artist. He was a nobody, and she was a somebody. Joe lived in Edinburgh as an ex-con, part-time plumber, and a starving writer and she lived in the vibrant, stunning, and equally chaotic city of Paris, or so he’d read on her IMDB page, deep within the magical film world that Joe hadn’t even begun earning the right of entry into. Plus, it felt even more awkward to him with the festival host still impatiently leering over them, still wondering why on earth Audrey hadn’t made her excuses and left with him yet, but at the same time not wishing to appear verbally rude by enforcing her to come back into the cinema.

“Good luck with the movie, too, and your writing.” Joe finally added, still not taking his eyes away from the middle-aged beauty.

“Merci Beaucoup,” Audrey replied, still gazing right at him before finally turning away and beginning to make her idle move back through the fire exit doors and into the cinema. “See you then,” she continued in a tone that suggested if Joe would only man the hell up and ask her to meet him later that evening for a drink or a late-night coffee so they could chat some more about movies, writing, or whatever the hell other life subjects that came up, then she would absolutely and positively accept his invitation. But Joe didn’t say another damn word, because Joe wasn’t that bold, or charming, or confident. Had he ever been? Yes, perhaps, once upon a time, before five long years of living in a lonely cell had robbed him of some crucial part of his personality and socialising skills to the extent where two minutes conversing with a French film actress convinced him that was two minutes more than what he actually deserved. Then, to the cinema host’s deep frustrations, Audrey suddenly paused at the fire exit door for much longer than he would have liked.

“What are you doing later, Joe?” Audrey asked out of the blue. Joe found himself utterly taken aback by her question, but quickly composed himself with a sharp, cool, and confident response that he would thank himself for in the not too distant future.

“Nothing I can’t get out of. Why, what do you have in mind?”

“Can you show me where to buy some cigarettes around here?”

“Aye. I can do that.” Joe replied, utterly delighted but trying his best to hold it in.

“Good. Why don’t you meet me out front in say… thirty minutes, and I’ll maybe even let you show me around your wonderful city, too, if you’re lucky?” Audrey said, finishing with a wink.

Joe smiled with utter pleasure. He couldn’t quite believe what Audrey had just said, but he went with it all the same.