Romance: My Italian Prince, Undercover Love: Sweet Romantic Comedy (8 page)

Vanessa took the offered coffee with shaky hands and looked at her friend. How was it possible that she could look as fresh as a daisy
after last night? Kat’s long hair fell in beach waves over her shoulders and she had changed from party-outfit to leggings, a comfy jumper and pashmina scarf thrown around her shoulders. Vanessa herself felt like someone who would blend in perfectly at a homeless shelter for heroin-addicted prostitutes, or actually, she would probably stand out, looking even grimmer than the poor homeless women do.

“Water, please…” Vanessa's voice was as hoarse as if she´d been eating sand.

“Yep, sure, coming up.” Kat jumped up from the couch and came back with a glass of fresh made orange juice. “Here you go.”

Ok, something was up. Vanessa had been waking up from a hard night's partying on Kat’s couch before and never had she been treated like a guest at a five star hotel.

“What’s going on Kat?” She asked as she tried to ignore her unrelenting misery of a headache.

“Nothing”, Kat tweedled.

“What’s that?” Vanessa pointed at the crumbled paper Kat just had pushed under the sofa with her foot.

“What’s what?” Kat said innocently.

Oh no
, Vanessa suddenly remembered. The gossip magazine, the kiosk, her crashing into the newsstand, and making all the magazines land on the wet sidewalk. She
threw herself to the floor and grabbed magazine from beneath Kat´s well-pedicured toes. She shouldn’t had moved that quickly, the room started to spin, and she felt that she was about to faint.
She laid down and closed her eyes.

“Please read it Kat. I can take it. I just can’t sit up and I can’t open my eyes. But apart from that, I’m fine. Just hit me!”

Kat looked concerned but did as she was told and began reading out loud from the article.

Prince dating young and upcoming movie star. A source close to the couple, tells the magazine they're in love and are going to visit European royals in the coming week. Which was the tradition when preparing for a Royal wedding.

A source
, Vanessa thought dryly. She was 100 % sure that source name was Gian-Carlo Brunetti.

“Who’s that movie star anyway? Kat said.

“I have no idea,” Vanessa didn’t recognized her but it probably was someone really rich, famous and gorgeous person Alex had fallen in love with, she thought miserably.

“Hmm, she can’t be that famous if you never heard of her? I mean you could after all take out a doctor's degree in gossip-science by now, if such existed.”

“Surely it doesn’t exist, Vanessa said with self-pity in her voice. “ So you can count that knowledge of mine into all the other failures in my life.”

“Nah, come on Green. It’s very useful knowledge, and you’re
not
a failure. Rather the opposite.”

“You always set your mind to succeed in everything you do and you have a great career awaiting you, you just had a slight sat back with that silly Prince.”

“I am though” Vanessa wasn’t ready to stop feeling sorry for herself. “I never trust anyone, and I had problems with trusting Alex and it led me to do that really stupid detective thing.”

“I know sweetheart, and I’ve tried to help you with that
tiny
issue of yours. However, you never wanted to talk about it.

“I’m sorry Kat” Vanessa gave her friend a hug. “And sorry for throwing that self-help

book about fear of rejection at you.

“That was a bit unthankful I have to say,” Kat said with a smile. “But it was a crappy birthday gift, I admit that.”

“It was, especially since I don’t
have
a fear of rejection,” Vanessa said with ice in her voice.

“Right,” Kat decided not to push the subject any further.

To try to ease things up Kat pointed at a celebrity in the fashion section of the magazine. “Oh, Nicole Kidman, I love her.

“Yeah, I saw her in Cannes, Vanessa mumbled not very interested, to focused on giving her aching head a massage.

“You did not!” Kat squealed with excitement.

“Well, actually I’m not one hundred percent sure it was Nicole to be honest, but it could have been.”

“Duh,” Kat sighed, “Haven’t you met anyone famous over there?”

“No,” Vanessa said and Kat sighed again.

This was what everyone had kept asking her since she got back from France. Aunt Steffie, uncle Marty, mum, even dad had asked about whether Vanessa had met Princess Grace of Monaco. Vanessa was tired of saying;
No, I haven’t met anyone famous,
when the truth was she had met someone
extremely
famous. She knew she’d promised to keep it a secret but Kat was her best friend, telling a best friend didn’t count and why should she keep any promises to Alex anyway? He was after all getting on with his life, first firing her for leaving when he himself was the reason for her not been able to stay with that horrible cocaine party, and now he was dating and preparing to marry some unknown movie star.

“Kat,” Vanessa said, lowering her voice. “If I tell you something, you can’t tell a soul. Not anyone and especially not you mum. I’m serious.

“I promise,” Kat said with her eyes wide. “What is it?”

“I met someone famous.”

“Who? Tell me Vanessa!”

“Michelangelo DeLeo.”

“Mich DeLeo?” Kat sat straight up. “Oh, my god!” You never told me that!”

“I’m telling you now! But I didn’t just meet him…”

Kat was the best to share stuff with. As Vanessa told her about Mitch being Alex best friend and about how he came on to her so she had to defend herself with some karate moves from Kat’s self-protection course, she gasped and put her hand to her mouth and said;
No way
, several times. When Vanessa came to the part when she was observing Mitch, Alex and Brunetti from under a table at the scruffy motel, Kat was so excited she stood jumping up and down on the couch.

“...and I promised not to tell anyone,” Vanessa concluded.

“Well, I won’t blab,” Kat said at once.

“But it’s so weird,” Kat added, her brow creased in thought. “I can’t believe it. Why would a big movie star like him, need to push himself on to women? He must have hundreds to choose from every night.”

“I haven’t told you everything yet,” Vanessa said and motioned for Kat to sit down.

Vanessa told her all about the strange conversation she overheard between Brunetti and Mitch, in which it was clear that Brunetti had talked Mitch into behaving like a douchebag to scare her off, as Brunetti didn’t think she was good enough for a Prince.

“That's awful,” Kat is taken a back when she heard how Brunetti had intrigued with Mitch to get rid of Vanessa. “And to manipulate that poor guy, he’s obviously in poor mental health.”

“Oh he IS.” Vanessa couldn’t help herself and so she spilled out the whole story of Mitch’s breakdown as well. “But now he’s in rehab so that’s all good.”

“Yeah,” Kat agreed, “Anyway what was he like?”

“Just bloated and out of shape really, stressed out looking. I hardly spoke to him. Just told him that I forgave him at which he broke down in tears. It was not nice.” Vanessa shrugged at the memory of poor Mitch crying his eyes out on Brunetti's coat.

“He’s not in good shape you know,” Kat said.

“Apparently his latest movie is beset with problems. Its millions over budget and the buzz aren’t good. He’s taken on the role as a producer for the first time, but he’s bitten of more than he can chew.”

“Really?”

“Oh yes” Kat nodded knowledgeable. “Insiders on the set claim the star’s drinking and bad behavior has made him enemies among the crew, No wonder he’s stressed out. “

“Yeah, but still, binge eating all those magic mushrooms in Copenhagen, that was crazy.”

“It was.” Kat nodded and looked out in space as she tried to figure out what caused Mitch to break down.

Vanessa suddenly realized how odd it was that Kat knew all this facts about a movie star.

“Kat, how do you
know
all this stuff?” Have you been reading
my
gossip magazines?” Vanessa said severely. “The same ones you have told me are as bad for me as drugs…”

“Well, I’ve got to do something while my best friend is all depressed and to tell you the truth, I haven’t been very happy for quite some time now, I’m tired of meeting all these poor excuses for men. I want to feel what you did for Alex,” Kat sounded disconsolate.

“If I can’t have that, at least I can read about it in your stupid magz!” She gave a sudden gusty sigh. “Oh, Green, I know it’s weird but I’m envious of you for at least having felt that feeling of being in love.”

“Envious?” Vanessa stared at her, “How can you be envious of me, I had the worst experience ever, I never want to be in love again!”

Now when Vanessa thinks of it Kat had been quite gloomy lately, not at all her shiny self and she could agree with Kat that she didn’t have the best track record when it came to men.

“What about the guy from yesterday, from the bar?”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” Kat groaned. “He was an aspiring actor and all he did was talking about his part as an extra in some commercial, supposedly his big breakthrough…”

“Right,” Vanessa gave her friend a small hug again since it seemed she needed one.

“We’re really messed up aren’t we?” Kat said with a short laugh.

“Definitely. Really messed up.”

“You know what we should do?” Kat suddenly sounded upbeat.

“What?” Vanessa said and already felt suspicious..

“
We
should go to rehab!”

“Rehab? Are you insane? We can’t go to rehab, that's for alcoholics and drug addicts. We’re in perfect health compared to them. They won’t even let us in.” This was the worst idea Kat had ever had Vanessa thought to herself, and Kat had come up with
many
bad ideas.

“Look here,” Kat pulled out her iPad and scribbled frantically on the screen. “This is supposed to be the number one place if you want to find inner peace, and who doesn’t? Everyone I know has been there.”

“Everyone you know?” Vanessa wasn’t convinced. “You mean all your mums rich friends with so called shopping and spending issues?” Which was not even a real issue for them because they had so much money it didn’t matter how much they spent. 

“Well, yes. However, not only them, it’s the A-listers go-to place at the moment. They can treat all kind of disorders.

“First of all, we don’t suffer from any disorders Kat, and second of all, I’ve heard of that place.”

Everyone who’s ever read a gossip magazine had heard of the
Garden of Peace
. It was the place where they wore bracelets and did yoga, where celebrities dried out and then pretended they had just been a little tired.

“Vanessa,” Kat said with a serious voice. “We
do
have issues, and it’s not just a rehab place, it’s a place where you can go to relax. I heard of a friend whose friend was a terrible hoarder. It was ruining her life. She went to the Garden of Peace and they really sorted out her issues.”

“Hmm, is that so...”Vanessa said without much enthusiasm.

“I bet they can fix that heart ache of yours in a snap.” Kat sounded all convinced.

Vanessa still didn’t feel convinced, but she had to admit it sounded quite blissful being away at a retreat, hanging out at the beach and lounging in Kayoba-Hammocks and perhaps even do some yoga exercises.

“Well, I might have a bit of an issue with that part of my life, but other than that I have nothing that needs to be fixed, ok. But no therapy or get to know your inner self-crap because then I'm out.”

“Absolutely not! So it’s settled then,” Kat leaped happily up from the couch. “I’ll do some calls and see when we can go.”

That was another thing that made hanging out with Kat so much fun, she knew everyone. Everyone. There was not a nightclub, restaurant, or premiere she couldn’t get into if she sat her mind to it. Often she wasn’t interested in those kinds of events but a few times she had brought Vanessa to some openings and it had been a lot of fun.