After a sleepless night full of worry and overthinking, the bright sun rays gave Luna the perfect excuse to carry on with her nocturnal journey. She usually wasn’t overcome with high levels of anxiety but this was her first appearance in a movie for a while – at least her first after it happened. People will be judging again, she thought to herself. She loved the bright side of it though; the spotlight, the cheers, the praise, she was a Leo after all. Luna kept reassuring herself, trying to convince herself that she was happy to be back, that she missed everybody however yet again something felt empty. Someone was missing from her life and every time she thought she knew who it was, the thought would just vanish. As if her subconscious was trying to communicate to her that they weren’t worth the memory, but her desire stated otherwise.
Her phone started to vibrate causing her to roll over to the other side of her bed and pick it up. Mama would kill me if she saw the phone charging on the bed overnight. She smiled appreciatively at the memories of her mother and her overprotectiveness whenever she read random articles about phones blowing up. She unlocked her phone and started reading a text from her best friend, Florence. The only to be heard was Luna’s nails tapping against the screen as she replied to the text, a giggle following after.
“I just hurt my ankle, fucking Romeo here just dropped me during the Pas de Deux. I need to go have lunch, come with?”
“It’s literally 8 am in the morning. Lunch?”
“Ok, we’ll add an extra egg or two just pleaseeee meet me at Carluccio’s. Bye bitchass.”
“Bye, asswipe.”
Locusta, walked in. In other words, Luna’s godmother. God, she would do anything for that woman. She’s seen her go through everything and she still stuck around. Locusta was her mother’s good friend. They studied together and helped release tension within the family since the trouble Luna’s biological dad and introduced her mother to Victus, her stepfather who she will be eternally grateful for. Once Luna got out of bed, she walked over to Locusta and hugged her.
“Good morning!”
“Good morning, my dear. You’ve slept well, I hope?”
Luna laughed at the assumption. “You have no idea.” She said from the bathroom as she washed her face with ice cold water. She gasped the moment it hit her face, not expecting herself to be caught off guard. “Blue Velvet’s premiere is tonight and I have so much to do, I’m just so nervous Locusta.” She walked out of the bathroom, this time a worrisome look on her face. Her godmother beckoned her to sit next to her. She put her hands in Luna’s, looking straight at her with reassuring eyes.
“You’ll be fine tonight, you’ve succeeded before, there’s no doubt you’ll succeed again. I promise you. Your parents will be there, Florence will be there, Cassius, Camille, me even! I mean, I cancelled on a patient tonight for you for god’s sake!” She lightly smacked Luna’s head, causing her to laugh and rub her scalp.
“You’ve got all the support you’ll need.” Luna nodded and sighed, standing up a different person whilst shaking her head, trying to get any negative thought within her mind, out. “Florence wants me to come to lunch, I better go get ready.”
“Lunch? But it’s 8:30?”
“Beats me, Locusta. Beats me.”
After lunch, Florence practically dragged Luna back home to get ready. There, they were greeted by her hair and makeup crew. Despite loving the way it always turned out, Luna absolutely hated the process of sitting down for two hours, waiting. Therefore, she usually invited several of her friends to entertain her during the process. She attempted to invite her older brother, Cingerix, but he seemed to dread the idea more than she did.
She greeted the head of the styling crew, Francesco, with two kisses on the cheek. “Mi Amor, Luna! How much I’ve missed you! Quick, quick sit down. We’re running out of time!” He looked at her through the mirror as he played around with her hair, contemplating the best match for her sultry red dress.
“Big Hollywood curls?”
“Always.”
He raised his shoulders up in excitement and snapped for his crew to get to work.
Here we go. Luna sighed to herself as she leaned back into the chair headrest.
Two hours later, Lorenzo walks in looking dapper in a customized tuxedo. She could hear the screaming fans as the door opened and closed. She wasn’t surprised as he was Lorenzo Romano, the world’s most famed and loved movie director. She could see Florence’s jaw drop once he approached Luna, causing her to softly giggle at her starstruck friend.
“Ahhh, Luna! Looking as beautiful as Cleopatra tonight.”
Luna winced at the ancient Egyptian queen’s name. A dark thought conquered her mind, dark memories she had longed to forget. She tried to focus on what it was but once she did, yet again, it vanished. Francesco laughed as he applied hairspray, covering the Italian woman’s face. “Hopefully, you’ll find someone tonight who could be your Mark Antony.” He slightly nudged her with his elbow, raising his eyebrows at the same time.
Luna laughed. “And what if Mark Antony had someone else?” Rolling her eyes at the thought of someone as hedonistic as Antony to stay with one woman forever. That wasn’t the only reason though, it was a feeling.
There really was no way Antony would cheat on her.
Florence puffed. “What are you kidding?” She stood up and lifted the train of her dress. “He killed himself for the woman, if that’s not love, then what is?” She walked over to the bar, pouring a large glass of vodka.
“But that’s the thing, it wasn’t an act of love, it was an act of shame and defeat. Something you don’t hear much of from Mark Antony, according to Cicero.”
Florence gave her best friend a weird look. She had never seen her get so defensive on the subject of history in her life. Luna frowned at herself, thinking the same thing.
“Alright, alright! We’re not here for history class. Luna, I believe we have a movie premiere to attend to?” She held out his arm for her. “I hope you don’t mind, but I want Florence to come with me.”
Lorenzo looked at Luna with shock. “Why would I mind? A friend of yours is a friend of mine!” He embraced Florence with a tight embrace, she squealed at being held by her favourite director.
“Alright, off we go!”
**
The sounds of cheers and screams took over Luna’s mind. This was the first time in years she’s been greeted like this and the sound seemed to travel through her blood like adrenaline. Every time she heard her name being called out, her energy level increased drastically. It really was a matter of being in the moment. Lorenzo patted her cheek and led her to the red carpet, where he allowed the spotlight to shine on her, he thought she deserved it the most. She basked in their cheers and waved, twirling around to reveal the low cut details on her dress that revealed her back, very similar to the one she wore in the movie, but this time – it was red.
“Antony! Antony!” The cameramen began to call out to someone behind her. She frowned and turned around, finding Antony Moretti with his wife on his arm and his twins, Helios and Selene. His wife looked beautiful, tall and proud. Athena had long blonde hair, accompanied by a dark set of green eyes that had the power to kill. She looked around a little younger than Antony but not too many years though, around 26-30 which surprised her as she was well aware of the scandals he’d been involved in with younger women. She gracefully waved at the fans and stopped for an interview. Luna caught herself staring again until she found his daughter point at her with excitement. Antony looked up and found Luna, he grinned as he held Selene’s hand and approached her. They seemed like a family of strictly getting to the point as Selene immediately hugged her waist. Luna laughed and kneeled down.
“Hi! How are you?”
“I’m good! I-I love your movies so much!” The girl barely said through excitement.
“Aw, thank you, darling! Do you want to take a picture?” Selene nodded almost immediately. As she began to pull out her phone, Antony interrupted by offering his.
“Here, take it on mine. She can access the picture better that way.” Luna looked up at him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion as Antony laughed. “Just take it, I’m not going to do anything with it.” She took the phone from him and took a picture of her and Selene, her arms were tightly wrapped around Luna’s neck as they both smiled widely for the camera. She gave the phone back to Antony and hugged Selene one more time.
Luna got up and began straightening out her dress. She caught a glimpse of Antony’s lustful gaze brushing over her body as he subtly licked his lips. Luna was about to speak until she found his wife by his side. She was smiling yet her eyes carried a coldness in them. A look that Luna found familiar. Antony cleared his throat as he looked between the two women.
“Shall we?”
As they walked away, she caught Antony glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Luna shook her head and turned around, catching Florence looking at her with a “I fucking saw that” look. Luna shrugged at her and made her way on the carpet, flicking her long dark hair as she stopped and posed for the flashing cameras.
**
Luna sat at the theatre after she greeted her parents and brother. Looking around, waiting for the film to start, she felt someone sit next to her the moment the lights were dimmed. She turned her head to find Antony staring at her, a smirk that she’d never seen before but knew all too well. Not knowing what to say, all she could do was to stare back. His eyes were dark and calculating, taking in every feature and analyzing them bit by bit.
“You… look so familiar.” She cocked her head to the side, trying to remember who he was to her, other than a CEO of a multinational company. “Do I know you?”
He chuckled. “Well, it would be pretty embarrassing on your behalf if you didn’t. You’re signed under my company.”
“No, no. It’s not that. It’s like we’ve met before. Like I should know you and the fact that I don’t is not right.” He placed his hand on hers, lightly caressing her arm with his knuckles. The normal Luna, the sane Luna would’ve been freaked out and called for security. But, Antony brought an odd feeling of sentiment, a feeling of home that she hasn’t felt for years. “Well then, if that’s the case, why don’t we bring those memories back, hm?”
She turned to him. “What?”
“I said, why don’t we go over to the back?”
She laughed with disbelief. “Are you being fucking serious? A) you’re married and B) I know who you are and the endless amount of scandals you’ve been in, I don’t want that. Thank you though.”
“I meant it cause the screen is too close.” He laughed as she started to blush. “O-oh, I knew that obviously. Just testing, haha.”
“The screens too close, therefore the light would shine on me feeling you up.” Her head snapped towards him, rolling her eyes at him as she tried to hold back a smile.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?”
“No, my eyes just voluntarily decided to take a tour to the back of my head and back.” He raised his eyebrows at her response, a hint of amusement and fire within his eyes. “Quick tongue, you got there.”
“Yeah, well, people seem to love it, so.”
“Oh, I definitely will.”
