Chapter Text
“Stars in Their Eyes? The chemistry between Bridgerton’s Season 3 costars at this today’s press event in Australia sparks rumors. Are they doing some kissing offscreen too?” Thompson peeked out over the top of his phone and raised his eyebrows at Nicola mockingly, before turning to Claudia and busting out laughing. “What do we think Nic? Are you and Newton an item yet? Have you been banging it out offscreen as well, then?”
Nicola rolled her eyes before breaking out into laughter too. She leaned over the edge of the plush lounge chair she was sitting in, in an oddly staged conference room of the hotel where their press event had been held. It had been a long day of interviews where she repeatedly answered the same questions, over and over, so it was nice to be able to decompress like this before the screening event that night.
After a minute of delirious laughter, she straightened up, and through giggles started talking, attempting seriousness. “No but for real, Thompson, you have to stop it with that. I know it’s ridiculous but everyone talking about it so much is making things uncomfy, okay? Antonia, that girl he’s been seeing, is coming to the after party tonight and like, we know this is stupid and it’s just internet weirdos but she might still just feel icky about it.”
Claudia, still laughing, agreed. “I mean I don’t know if ‘icky’ is the word I would have chosen but right. Right. I mean if they could SEE you two together on a normal day- it’s insane. You two are like us. In fact, WE,” she gestured wildly, pointing between herself and Nicola, “have just as strong a chemistry! It’s honestly insulting that people aren’t talking about that more.”
They both threw their heads back laughing again, before Thompson pulled up a TikTok and held it up to Claudia. “It’s probably because they’re so blinded by OUR obvious chemistry. You couldn’t possibly be in love with Nic when we are so in love.”
They were doubled over by this point and Nicola, still laughing, had to shout over them. “Okay, enough now! This is just getting gross.”
After a minute they composed themselves, and Claudia asked, “So have you met her, then? What’s she like?”
“Who?” asked Nicola.
“Antonia! You said she’s coming tonight? What’s she like?”
Nicola smiled and said, “Oh she’s SO nice. Really lovely. I like her a lot.”
“Yeah, sounds like it.” Claudia scoffed.
Nicola widened her eyes at Claudia. “What?”
“Say it. Just say the thing. We both know there’s a thing, don’t we, love?” She smacked Thompson on the stomach with the back of her hand. Thompson grinned and nodded vigorously. “Yes, of course, we both know, so just tell us.”
Nicola’s mouth fell open in feigned shock. “I am genuinely shocked by you two.” She smiled. “She’s honestly so great. We got on great. It was all great. Truly.”
“Oh, well then,” Thompson snickered, “Sounds great.” Claudia laughed.
“Come on now,” Claudia demanded. “Just SAY IT.”
Nicola paused. After a moment she raised one hand, “I’m prefacing this with: I honestly, really, truly did think she was great. She really was so sweet, and friendly, and stunning- like she’s gorgeous.”
“But?” Claudia interrupted.
“And it’s not even a but!” Nicola protested.
“But??” Thompson dragged the word out until it sounded like it had three or four syllables.
“AND,” Nicola continued, eyebrows sharply raised, “and…and she’s just a little… Instagrammy.”
“And there it is,” Claudia clapped her hands together knowingly.
Thompson shook his head, confused. “Wait, Instagrammy? I’m not sure I follow.”
“Because it’s nothing!” Nicola exclaimed, exasperated. “I did say there was nothing, did I not?”
“No, no, but I could see that,” Claudia interjected. “I think I know what you mean. Like overdocumenting the occasion, is that it?”
“EXACTLY!” Nicola leaned forward conspiratorially, bringing her face close to Claudia’s. “Like there’s TRULY nothing wrong, it’s just surprising for him, for Luke, you know? You know how he is. She just, she took like,15 pictures of her cocktail and then she had him take pictures of her. Like a lot.”
“Like how many?” Claudia whispered.
“Like A LOT. Different poses. Different angles. At one point she was like balancing on a chair and having him like lean over a table.”
“No!” Claudia gasped.
“Yes!” Nicola affirmed. “And like, my god, the pictures were absolutely gorgeous. She’s like barely even real looking, they’re like ethereal. I mean she’s a dancer, for fucks sake, and it shows, but you know…” she trailed off.
“Yeah,” Claudia nodded slowly, her face in a scrunched expression of discomfort.
“Well, who’d have thought it?!” Thompson grinned. “Little Lukey’s all grown up and a bonafide Instagram husband!”
“Well I don’t know if I’d go that far at this point…” Nicola hedged.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean I don’t think they’re that serious yet. He’s barely an Instagram boyfriend at this point.”
“I don’t know, Nic.” Thompson angled his head, thinking about it. “They’ve been together, what? A month? Maybe two? Yeah, that’s new, but it’s not nothing. Especially with him, Mr. Monogamy. I bet it’s getting serious.”
Nicola nodded, smiling to cover the confusion she felt at hearing Thompson acknowledge Luke’s relationship like it was something real. Why did it bother her? Why did it feel a little harder to breathe now?
“Yeah, maybe!” She chirped. “I mean, like I said, she really was so nice. You lot will meet her tonight and then you can tell me what you think.” She chuckled. “And she’s quite sweet so if he turns out to be her Instagram husband, that certainly wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
But why did it feel like the very worst thing? An impossible thing? She shook her head as she stood up, trying to physically remove these confusing, uncomfortable feelings. He was her friend. They were friends.
As if to save her from the potential awkwardness of her further spinning out into what, jealousy maybe? But was that it?, a young man in a suit opened the door, speaking over his shoulder to several jumpsuit clad men behind him. He startled at the sight of the three of them.
“Oh my apologies! I thought you were done with the room. We were just coming to flip it, er, to move the furniture.”
Nicola smiled warmly at him, more grateful to him than he would know. “Flip away, gentlemen! We should’ve been off ages ago. We have to get ready for tonight.”
Claudia and Thompson groaned in unison as they dragged themselves up off the couch they had been sprawled across. “Come on, off we go,” Nicola clapped like a schoolteacher.
Claudia looped her arm through Nicola’s and Thompson followed behind as they strolled down the hallway to the elevator. She spoke to him over Nicola’s head. “Thompson, I think you and I are set to arrive at the same time tonight. When are we to be there?”
“I’m set for 6:00, but I’m pretty sure we’re not in the same wave. I think I’m first with maybe Simone? And I’m not sure who else. And then you’re next with Johnny, and Golda, maybe. Check with Lauren.”
Claudia pulled her phone out of her back pocket and started to text Lauren, the Netflix staffer running the event there, only to realize that Lauren had just resent them all the itinerary. “Oh you’re right! Fuck yeah!” She cheered as they stepped into the elevator, absentmindedly pressing the top button, for the floor the were all staying on. “I don’t even have to be ready until 6:45! My hair and makeup doesn’t come until 4! Guess who gets to lay in bed and watch an episode of Somebody Feed Phil after the shower.”
She was still doing a strange celebratory dance as the elevator doors opened on their floor. A security guard positioned just outside the doors eyed her curiously. Claudia glared back at him unseriously. “It’s about my true love, Phil Rosenthal, Ed, and frankly, you wouldn’t understand.” She whisked past him towards her room. “Byyyeee” she called in a sing songy voice. Nicola repeated it back to her. Thompson smiled and raised a hand in a silent wave and turned down the hall too. Nicola turned the other way to head to her room.
Alone with her thoughts, she started spiraling almost immediately. What the fuck was going on with her? Was she just tired, maybe, from this crazy day? Had all the interviews about their spicy scenes just put her in a weird headspace? Fully aside from the fact that they were, in fact, very good friends, she was a professional. This was her job. She had been acting for decades at this point, since she was a child. She knew how this worked.
Not a minute after she closed her door, someone was knocking. One knock, then three, then two. Luke. Anxiety ridden as he was, he had come up with the knock their first season, to let her know it was him knocking on her trailer door when he wanted to run lines. As if they didn’t have cell phones.
She opened the door and he walked right in comfortably. He had come from the gym and was wearing gym shorts and a tank, sweat through in a deep V. A bead of sweat was working its way down his neck towards his collarbone and Nicola suddenly, shockingly, had the strangest urge to lick it off him. Professionally, of course. She shook her head for the second time that night. What the fuck was going on with her?
“Nic! Hi! So I’m just a bit, you know, I’m panicking a bit about tonight, you know, and I thought it might make sense for us to like, you know, have some stories at the ready that we could tell together on the red carpet tonight.” He was pacing a little, gripping a water bottle with both hands. He turned and looked down at her so earnestly, searching, like she knew all the answers, and then broke into a sheepish smile. He looked down, “This is ridiculous, right? I’m overthinking it.” He laughed, a big, warm laugh.
“Okay, I know!” He laughed again as he said it, like she had already said something to tease him, when all she had done was look at him. Why did that familiarity suddenly make her so happy?
“Geez, Newton, could you chill out for maybe just one second?” she joked. “I haven’t got a word in yet! You come in here, all sweaty, stinking up the place, and you go straight into panic mode without even letting me speak!”
He laughed and tapped his fingers on the water bottle. “Yeah, alright.” He grinned at her, and the muscles in his shoulders and chest visibly loosened under her gaze. She could feel his whole mood shift. “No, you’re right, you’re right Nic.” He shuffled his feet. “I don’t know why I’m still getting like this. We’ve done so many of these press events now. It’s just,” he held his hands up and pretended to take a bunch of pictures, staring at her with raised eyebrows the whole time as if to say, you understand why this is stressful to me, right? “You know?”, he shrugged.
Nicola giggled and nodded. “I know.” And then suddenly the way he was smiling down at her was doing something to her that she didn’t like. It was too warm. Too trusting. It felt too big to have someone, let alone Luke, be looking at her like that. He needed to leave.
She forced a big, silly grin. “First, get the hell out of here and take a shower. You’re going to get sweat all over this nice room. I’ll text you when I’m showered and ready and you can come in here while my hair and makeup is here and we can choose which stories we’ll talk about and all that. Okay?”
The relief that washed over his face was palpable. He let his knees loosen slightly and his shoulders slumped over, hand on his heart. “Oh, my god, thank you, Nic.” She didn’t like it, the way he had his hand like that. The way he kind of whispered her name. Or rather, she liked it too much, and she didn’t like that.
He continued, “You’re the best. I really don’t know what I would do without you in all this. You’re just so brilliant at all of this press stuff, and I just can’t…” he was still talking, but she wasn’t paying attention anymore, because he was walking towards her, arms spreading like he might hug her. She couldn’t let that happen. Not today, not with all the weird stuff happening in her head today.
“Umm- excuse me?” She held up a hand and laughed. “Were you about to hug me in that wet t-shirt contest of a sweaty tank? I don’t think so, sir.”
He chuckled nervously and backed away. “Oh yeah, hah, what am I thinking?” He smiled at her again and she looked down to avoid it. “Okay well, I’ll just wait for your text then. I’ll see you, what, around 5?”
“Yeah, probably right around then,” she nodded.
“Okay,” he turned and opened the door, looking back to meet her eyes, but she wouldn’t look up.
“Bye!”
He was closing her door when Thompson popped out into the hallway.
“Luke!” Thompson called, walking towards him. “What are you doing in Nics room? Argh the paps would have a field day, wouldn’t they?” he said with a laugh. “It’d basically be like in the show. You’re caught alone together, so now you have to get married.”
They both laughed, Thompson’s laugh silly and lighthearted, and Newton’s fake and heavy. Why did that make him sad?
Thompson had reached Luke and clapped him on the back in a friendly greeting. Newton stared at Thompson’s hand on his back. He’s not afraid to touch me now, Newton thought glumly.
“But do you have any Advil or something like that?” Thompson asked. “I think I’m getting a migraine or something. I’m dying.”
“No, sorry man,” Luke said.
“Aggh, shit, no worries,” said Thompson, and then turned back down the hall to see if Claudia had any.
Alone again, Luke was quickly deep in his own head. Why hadn’t she hugged him? They had certainly been all sweaty in each other’s presence, more than once. He was sure she had hugged him sweaty before; he often stopped in and talked to her after going on a run when they were shooting. It was bothering him so much, but more than that it was bothering him that he felt like he needed to hug her. He needed to touch her for some reason, and it was stressful and strange. Why was he like this now? Had she sensed it? Had he been too weird today and freaked her out?
All day, he’d felt like something was different. This was the first day of press here, and the first day he’d seen her in person in a couple of weeks. Sure, they had texted and talked, but he hadn’t actually seen her, and seeing her today had been…weird. He wasn’t even sure how to unravel the weirdness in his head. He just felt…too happy? All day he had found himself almost giddy in her presence, and anxious and uncomfortable without her.
He scanned his key card and stepped into his room, closing the door behind him, but he didn’t move past there. He just stood at the entrance to his suite, lost in his own thoughts.
Part of it was that there was definitely something different with her. He knew her so well, and every bit of her was so familiar to him, but today…He had spent literally hours staring into her eyes at this point, with all the scenes they’d filmed together, but today when he met her eyes there was a different energy there. And he felt such a crazy jolt every time it happened, so he kept trying to make it happen.
They had done interview after interview today, wedged onto the same small couch, and all day he had been unable to keep his eyes from her. He watched her as she spoke about Colin and Pen’s slow burn, about breaking furniture, about the carriage scene, and even though she repeated these same answers and stories, he’d been enthralled. He had watched her curiously, hungrily, waiting for the moments when she’d turn her head to look at him and he’d see it- the new light, almost fire in her eyes when she looked at him. He was sure it was there, and it was addicting.
The longer they’d sat there, he became more and more aware of how close they were. Proximity had never been a factor with them. They’d spent so much time together, and been so physically close all season, touching and kissing for the show all the time. And sure, he’d felt things then, but those were the feelings that, as an actor, he knew to disregard. That was his body reacting primitively and his brain getting confused. It happened to people all the time and, yes it was a little awkward, but he knew what to do with that. He knew what that was. Right? But today…
He moved and sat on the edge of his bed, remembering how strangely intense it had felt when she rested her hand on his thigh laughing at a Facebook question from a viewer. He had put his arm around her at one point, more out of habit than anything, but then had needed to pull it back because when she looked at him, he had suddenly felt the urge to move his hand into her hair. He spent the rest of the day with his hands clasped together, nervous to leave them free. And this was when they were being interviewed, filmed, for gods sake.
He had practically bolted from the press room after the last interview. He had run back to his room to change, and then straight to the gym to try to work off this feeling. And he thought he had, but then the second he walked off the elevator on their floor he went straight to her room, needing to see if her eyes were still like that when she looked at him. He had been panicked, like he would die if it turned out that he had just imagined it all. But when she looked at him, there it was again.
Maybe she knew why he was there, and that’s why she wouldn’t hug him? Oh god, that was a mortifying thought. He barely knew why he had been there himself. He groaned, annoyed at himself. Enough, now. Enough of this, whatever this was. He stood and headed to the bathroom to shower, and to hopefully wash away whatever this feeling was that was all over him now.