“So… you really are the famous actor Andrik McLoughlin, am I right?” Airin asks cautiously with a wide smile on her face the very moment that I and Andrik found him lodging just by one bench around the Powerscourt Centre. Right at the moment that we separated ways with Sam, Andrik himself drove silently to the shopping mall, and when we saw Airin, he was so like a gentleman that he greeted Airin with a kiss at the back of her hand that I could swear caused her to flush so badly.
Airin threw a look at me since we met here that she’ll ask all of her questions later, and she’ll answer mine as well. Currently, she doesn’t want to destroy the mood of strolling the mall along one famous actor in disguise. I appear much more like a third-party or chaperon for the two of them as they walk side-by-side with me on Airin’s other side.
Andrik smiles at her. “Well, yes. Is it so hard to accept the truth that it is indeed me?”
“Well, I can’t believe that I am walking down the mall along with a hot actor,” Airin fans herself. “Ada here didn’t tell me that she’s friends with countless of famous young actors such as you.”
“Believe me, Miss Connmhaigh,” Andrik replies. “I and Miss Weston only got to know each other today. Though I’ve heard countless of stories about her already from Sam, we aren’t acquainted until few hours ago.”
“So you know that Brión Siadhail is indeed Frenchie?”
“Frenchie?”
“Sam.” Airin speaks Sam’s name casually, without any hint of anger that the man she so trusted and shipped along with me hides his real identity all for the sake of protecting me from getting involved with the media. I don’t know if she had already forgiven Sam about it, but still, it is a good thing to know that she doesn’t take it so seriously. “You know him as Sam other than being Brión Siadhail?”
Andrik thinks of it for a moment before turning to look at Airin again and answers, “You could say that I only know about it right after he retires. Well, you see, I caught him filling up College forms to enter UCD. That’s when I learned that he is indeed the second son of General Beltrami and Baroness Beltrami. I am not mad when I found out about it. I know the risk, and there are countless of actors around the globe using a stage name to protect themselves, their identities, and the people close to them.”
“I don’t know what is much better, though,” Airin comments. “The fact that I figured it through Chitchatted UCD Gossip, or that I have known him all along as Sam but never even thought of that he could also be Brión Siadhail. Believe me, he is very good in disguising that it is so hard to recognize if he is one or the other. The two of you are friends?”
“Yeah. We’ve been friends since we’ve met each other to work together in that movie of The Million Stars Above You. It is actually a waste. He is one great actor who could have made much more movie. Not to mention that he was already offered a movie for Hollywood. But I understand that since he already crossed the boundaries set up by the British aristocracy, taking a work in Hollywood will just pile it all up.” Andrik instantly stops in front of a jewelry store, the MoMuse. He looks up at the sign for a moment before turning his gaze at the jewelries viewed outside. His attention is particularly focus onto that gold fill adjustable bangle with star and gold ball charms.
Airin asks right away, “Something wrong?”
Andrik shakes his head with a smile. “Nothing’s wrong. I just… remember something.”
“Oh, I see,” Airin says as she brushes off the subject with a light laugh, and the three of us started walking again. “By the way, I know this is embarrassing, but rumors has it that you and Katherine Joyner had been in a relationship, is it true?”
I throw a glare at Airin, completely unimpressed on how she leads the conversation. Airin realizes it right away that she stops and raises an eyebrow at me. Few seconds later, with also the silence that Andrik replies to Airin’s question, she finally gives in and mutters, “I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked it.”
Andrik, on the other hand, smiles faintly. “No. It’s fine. It is already normal for me to receive questions like that. Anyway, if Katherine won’t answer about it, then it’s best that I don’t as well.” He then stops walking again and looks at me. “By the way, the real point I am here to come along with you two is to ensure that Miss Weston will have the right dress for tonight. I guess we should start making up with that mission of ours.”
Airin smiles at me with a light clap. “That’s true. We better make sure that when Sam sees you, he’ll certainly have his jaw smacks the floor.”
The three of us continue walking, and as surprising as it is, no one seems to realize that walking along with us is Andrik McLoughlin and that I am the mysterious girl revealed already by the media to be Brión Siadhail/Sam Bryce Beltrami’s childhood sweetheart. Anyhow, there’s also few people around since Powerscourt is one of the classy malls that people will call ‘for the rich ones’. We enter boutique after boutique to find the perfect dress, and it appears that Airin is much more interested in finding a dress for her instead.
Andrik allows me and Airin to have the privacy as girls to look around clothes. He though settles on one of the boutique’s inside cushions to sit down, looking at the ceiling and then to the rows of clothes. The time that I and Airin has as we scurry dress to another, I finally use the opportunity.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“For what?” Airin asks. If I didn’t know her, I’ll certainly assume that she is indeed innocent that she isn’t aware of it. I know too well that she knows what I am apologizing for.
“About hiding the truth.”
She stops digging up for dresses rack per rack. She looks at me with one hand by her hip. “If I don’t forgive you and Sam, I’ll certainly be not here and instead, be there at UCD attending my classes, or meeting up with Peter to tell him how much I hate you and Sam for hiding the truth to the two of us.”
I bite my lower lip.
She smiles softly and moves closer to me. She places her hands on my shoulders and looks at me intently, wanting me to keep an eye contact with her. “Mi Adá, I couldn’t be angry at you about it. I understand at the very moment that I read the message from Chitchatted that Sam, being a son of a baron, he must hide his identity from the media and assume a new identity. Also, he had done that to protect the people he cares about, especially you. I, you’ve been my best friend since the two of us were in elementary. I understand that you keeping the truth about Sam’s identity to me and Peter is because Sam wanted it to be like that. Just imagine what would happen if I know. Perhaps Sam won’t last long until his retirement for the world to know about his secret. I could never hate you.”
I blink rapidly, not realizing that tears are slowly building by the corner of my eyes, blurring my vision. I am so caught up in the moment that I can’t do anything but embrace Airin tightly. My arms wind up around her, and hers around me. I continuously mutter close to her ear, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Ada, I know. It’s all right,” she assures. She pulls away in arm’s length. Her hands heavy onto my shoulders as she looks at me intently. “Just do me one favor, okay?”
I nod right away.
“Sam told me his plan on how to protect you. That you…” she trails off and sighs. “Ever since I’ve known Sam, I could see how he looks at you. It is different, magical. You don’t pay attention to it because all you think about him is that he is your childhood friend and nothing more. You are completely closing yourself from everyone, even from him, Ada. But if you let your heart open up, trust me. I know that he is head-over-heels in love with you. It might be true that the timing might not be perfect at all. But believe me, he is not lying when he asked you to be his girlfriend.”
“I…” I shudder. I can’t help myself to accept it. My brain and heart are screaming two different things that I couldn’t even choose who to listen to. But all throughout of the course of events, now that I think of the past, I tend to understand that Airin’s words are real. “I know.”
“Now.” Airin exhales heavily with a smile. “We must find that perfect dress. We so badly need to.”
------------------------------
At the time that we finally bought everything that will be perfect for tonight according to Airin, and the three of us having lunch at one Italian restaurant in Powerscourt, with Andrik signing all of the expenses under his name, I start to feel uncomfortable. After all, a man that I barely got to know too well is paying for everything. But Andrik assures me later on that Sam promised to him that it will all be in debt of him, and that only makes it much more uncomfortable.
Andrik drives us to Merrion Hotel. He ushers us in and the counter clerk seems to know all too well of everything that without any questions asked, she simply gives Andrik a key to one room. He then leads me and Airin to an elevator, leading us to the upper floors of the Georgian Main House. And then he stops at one of the rooms, using the key to unlock the room, and finally let us in.
The room is completely… wow. It is one spacious suite located on the upper floors of the former No. 22 and No. 23 Upper Merrion Street and are filled with natural daylight; this respective suite though looks over The Merrion’s private landscaped gardens. It features painstakingly restored original rococo plasterwork. The curved, boat-shaped ceiling in the bedroom is adorned with exquisite motifs of flowers and birds. It is furnished with a king-size bed. The sitting room offers a dining room table seating four, and a sitting area with a sofa and two armchairs. It also has a small second room that can be used as an office, gym, dining room, or single bedroom. And damn, it is so luxurious with the additional decorative Georgian fireplaces.
“Wow,” Airin is the one who first commented. “Sam is indeed one rich kid, is he?”
“According to Sam, being part of the British nobility, his family has access to any hotel they so wished. It so happens as well that starting on Monday, at the time that he returns to classes, he’ll be staying here. He’ll be relieved of Roebuck Hall,” Andrik explains.
Both I and Airin spin to face Andrik who remains standing close to the main door.
“Anyway,” Andrik continues, not realizing the question on either mine or Airin’s face. “I guess my job is all done. Sam indeed owes me a debt with this. By the way…” He clears his throat. “I am ordered by Sam that only Miss Weston shall remain here.”
I cross my arms across my chest and ask before Airin could do so, “And why is that?”
Andrik smiles. “Sam won’t try to do anything to you at all. The whole Merrion Hotel is completely safe. People around here won’t dare to disturb you at all. Of course, they won’t cross the line if they are to deal with someone among the British nobility.”
Airin though scurries toward me after she places the bags that contained everything we’ve bought to the sofa. She embraces me tightly. “Call me if something goes wrong. Enjoy dinner, Mi Adá.”
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