Epilogue
20 years later…
*Lilly Collins as Drew
~ Drew hated to fly. She also hated the crowds of sticky, sweaty people. Hated being high in the air in a pressurized cabin with no way out. She didn't want to die in a plane crash. There was nothing romantic and mysterious about that.
"Last time I go to Paris on one of mother's orders." she told herself.
She was happy to have flown first class however. It entitled her to a nicer waiting rooms. The people were cleaner and less noisy. It was worth the extra money for that luxury.
She re-did her make up and styled her too short hair in the bathroom mirror before her flight. Who knows? She might meet someone on the trip. Stranger things had happened in the world. Her own parents met on a first class flight from Sydney to LA. Ten hours together with just the two of them talking. Her father's long time friends had fallen asleep on the trip and left her parents alone.
Drew had always loved hearing that story as a child. Loved the way her mother described how handsome her father was. That he had dressed for the flight in a full on suit. Something no one did anymore.
She wished she hadn't had to check all her bags. Especially the one with her flat iron. Her hair just didn't want to behave today. It didn't help that the stupid stylist just kept cutting and cutting. She had given Drew bangs and cut her luxurious dark hard so short, small cowlicks were rebelling and curling outward.
Still, she did resemble Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday". There was no denying that. She smiled back at her reflection with pleasure. She had always liked the way she looked. All through her childhood and teen years, her looks had been her best feature. Something people noticed about her right away. It gave her an edge in life that most people didn't.
Her modeling contract at sixteen only cemented that fact.
She carefully applied bright red lipstick to her full lips. Thank God she had her mother's natural good looks and her father's hight and slender frame. Wouldn't it be awful if it were the other way around? Never mind modeling, how hard would life be if she were an ugly woman?
Drew shook her head at the idea. Her wispy locks falling carelessly and gracefully around her face.
'Just like Audrey.' she thought happily. She even had the right sort of eyebrows and face. Maybe she should talk to her agent about playing Audrey Hepburn in a movie. That was the next thing for her. Acting.
But no action movies or anything with special effects. She wanted romantic comedies or serious dramas where she was the lead, not just the bond girl type. She would start off with feel good romance, and then the right role would find her in some historical drama. The role she was born to play.
As long as there was no nudity. Drew felt there was no point to all the skin showing in films now. She wasn't going to be one of those actresses who flashed her boobs just to win an oscar.
'I'll have to remember that when I'm interviewed after my oscar win.' she told herself. 'Wait, who should I take with me to the ceremony and after parties?'
She mentally scrolled through a list of leading men.
'Well, it won't matter. Everyone will be looking at me anyway. Drew Daniels. The actress with integrity.' she smiled at the idea.
She had decide long ago that she would drop the name Castus in favor of her grandmothers last name. It wasn't catchy enough for a serious career. Darcy had agreed with her when she announced that she would be going as Drew Daniels for her professional career.
The reaction at home was not pleasant.
Her cell phone dinged with a text message. That special ding assigned to family only. Her most calls went strait to voice mail, but family had to enter a special code to even get her phone to ring.
She hated answering phones. It was such a low class thing to be enslaved to. To be disturbed by a vulgar ringing phone. Some stranger calling. Her agent or worse, some boyfriend who she didn't even really like.
Drew checked her caller ID. It was Daniel. Her older brother never called anyone. He liked to text people on his little smart phone and expected them to text back instantly.
She rolled her eyes again. How old school was texting? No one texted anymore.
'In Paris. Getting a Cab. See you at home.' it said.
It might as well have been an old fashioned morse code like the ones from the Titanic.
She felt her face smile at the idea. She should do a remake of that old movie "Titanic". It has already been decades since it was out. It was time for a modern update.
She heard the boarding call for her flight.
She hated flying.
She smoothed out her blue shift travel dress. Almost exactly like the one Audrey Hepburn wore in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and left her reflection for another time.
~ The first class people were already boarding when she left the bathroom. She slung her high end leather purse across her arm and walked fearlessly to the gate.
That was how Drew Daniels did things. She didn't wait to be polite. Waving at other people to go ahead. She was young, rich and soon to be very famous.
She brushed past a business man in a blue suit. Her boarding pass handed lazily to the attendant. They wouldn't stop her. She belonged here, and they knew it.
Her mind registered the business man's nice suit before she entered first class seating. Very well tailored on a very confidant body. She was a little intrigued. Stories of how her parents met coming back to her.
She looked back for a second at the man in the blue suit. He was older than her, but not too old. Thirty maybe. He looked annoyed that she had walked past him.
'Good.' she thought and turned back to her seat.
She pretended to look through her purse as the man in the blue suit walked past her. Their bodies almost touching.
He was handsome. But not overly so. More like ruggedly good looking. She worked with male models all the time, so she was used to good looking people. All of the models were very pretty to look at, but they were vapid, stupid and only cared about sex. She was sick of pretty boys with no brains. Drew wanted a man.
"Miss. You dropped these." the man in the blue suit said.
Drew pretended only a vague interest in him and saw he was holding her sun glasses.
"Oh." she said lazily. "How kind."
She took her sun glasses from him and looked away.
He looked awkward for a moment. Just standing there.
She decided to have mercy on him.
"Would you be a lamb and get us some campaign before take off? I hate to fly and it would be nice to have someone to talk to." she said easily.
She took a quick look at his hands. No wedding ring or tan line on his finger. He was too well dressed for a married man anyway.
He looked relived to be given a job. A chance to sit with her and talk to her during the flight. She was making it easy for him.
"I'm not sure they'll serve us yet." he said stupidly.
'How worthless are you?' she thought angrily. But her pretty face didn't show a crack of disappointment.
"It would be so nice if you could do that. I'm sure they would let you, just this once." she said hopefully. She gave him her best, most content smile.
He grinned back and she saw his face darken to a shade of red. She had won.
"Let me see what I can do." he said gently.
~ His name was Oliver Andrews. He was a freelance investment banker and he knew she was a model just by looking at her.
Drew pretended, as she always did, that she was stupid when it came to money.
"Now, what does an investment banker do?" she asked with a painful amount of fake interest.
"Oh, we tell people how to invest their money." he said.
"Stocks?" she asked.
"Yes, exactly." he said helpfully.
"Hopefully not in that Wild Fox group. I mean, people lost millions in that scheme. It seems to me, that basic stock trading is a lose-lose investment. I've found it's much more profitable to place capital in less risky ventures. Reputable investors will give you slow return on things, but I've never lost a dime this way. Quick money is for the greedy and it's always best to treat it like gambling. You're far more apt to lose as you are to win."
Oliver's face fell slightly.
"I thought you were a model." he said.
"Oh I am." Drew said happily. "I made over two million my first year of work and I was only sixteen. I think it was smart to place all that money in a trust until I was twenty one. Because I was a minor, I didn't have to pay taxes till I took it out. I mean, when you're a working model, trust me, you don't have to pay for anything anyway. Vogue even put me up in an apartment in Manhattan for a year, for free!" she laughed. "I even had a charge account! It was nuts. No, my lawyers and accounts shield me from all those stock schemes. They are way too old fashioned to jump on some stupid speculation. They know about inflated profits and misleading share holders. But I'm sure that's something you wouldn't do just to get your… what is it fifteen percent?"
"Ten." he said coldly.
"Ten?" she look embarrassed for him. "Well, maybe if you keep pushing those penny stocks, you can get a better rate. Just don't go to prison for it."
She smiled sweetly at him.
Oliver Andrews, freelance investment banker, leaned away from her. He looked slightly embarrassed.
Drew shrugged, kicked off her simple black flats and opened her French copy of Vogue. She was in one of the ads for Dior this month. Her face, wearing clean make-up and floating in water like a mermaid somehow advertising highly over priced fragrance.
Oliver Andrews, was ignoring her, which was just as well. He talked to her like she was stupid. Just because she was pretty, didn't mean she wasn't smart. But she made him pay for his mistake. Even though she had been a pretty girl all her life, didn't mean she was a stupid girl. Her newly minted bachelors degree in economics from NYU proved that.
'He jut wants a some fling anyway.' she told herself. 'Best not to waste your time on him.'
Still. It would be nice to have a real boyfriend to bring home to meet the family.