Lily polished off her third cup of tea and ground her teeth before sitting back in her chair. The steno pad in front of her was filled with scrawly writing, indicative of the two hours she had passed in the cafe with James Potter.
The actor had gone to the bathroom and Lily had the overwhelming urge to say 'sod it' and grab her bag, leave a bit of money and hightail it out of there before he came back.
The interview was not going well. Actually, that depended on who you asked. Potter seemed to be having a grand time, but Lily was not. In fact, she was having a terrible time, mostly because contrary to popular belief, it turned out James Potter was a giant prat.
"Sorry that took so long, love." The smarmy voice preceded the man, its smoothness grating on Lily's nerves. Potter resumed his seat and ruffled his hair again, a gesture she was quickly beginning to despise. He looked out through his wire-rimmed glasses and smirked at her. "So, where did we leave off?"
"You were talking about the time you spent with the princess of Norway," Lily said sullenly, taking her steno pad and turning to the next page violently. She wanted to cut the interview short. The whole thing had been nothing but Potter talk about how he was the most sought after actor in Britain, how he had been voted Most Beautiful Man two years in a row, how girls often literally fell at his feet, how even royalty loved him.
A waiter brought her another cup of tea and Lily thanked him, ignoring Potter's raised eyebrows.
"That's your fourth cup," he said. "That can't be healthy."
"Never you mind about my health," Lily grumbled, taking a sip.
"Alright, well, as I was saying, the princess of Norway is a lovely person really. Just a sweetheart. And she absolutely adores me. After we met the first time I had thought about calling her once or twice, but always decided not to. I never really had time, you see." He paused in order to smirk at Lily. "You know I am very busy."
"I'm sure," Lily muttered, holding her fourth cup of tea in her left hand and scribbling furiously with her right.
"Here, let me–" James said, reaching out to hold the teacup for her. Lily jerked her hand away, sloshing tea down her side and cursing loudly.
"Oh, bloody hell!" she cried, snatching a fistful of napkins off the table and hurriedly dabbing at her cardigan. "I already changed once today."
"Trying to look good for me, Evans?" Potter asked, grinning crookedly.
Lily glared at him. "Shut it," she growled. "I spilled tea on myself earlier. And now my bloody cardigan's going to stain." With no other options, she peeled the damp, stained sweater off, so she was wearing only the silky, sleeveless green top she had selected earlier. Potter's eyes widened noticeably as he stared at her. They roved over her pale shoulders and dropped unabashedly to her chest, which was more exposed than she liked.
"Anyways," Lily snapped, crossing her arms to hide the view of her chest. Potter looked up at her, a slightly guilty expression clouding his face, like a child who had been caught stealing sweets from the kitchen. He took a moment to regain his composure, sweeping a hand through his hair, which was a jumbled mess of black.
"Right, well what else do you want to know about?" he asked.
"Tell me about the work you did in South Africa last month," Lily said, twirling her pen. This was what she wanted to talk to him about, his thoughts on the real world, not bloody Norwegian princesses.
"Oh, that," Potter said with a look of pointed disinterest. He shrugged. "Not much to it, really. Went down there for a few weeks, helped build a school in a village, played with the kids. They were really sweet. Talked to the locals and made a donation. Although," he shot her a wicked smile, "I did meet a very nice local girl who just fawned over me. She was great, all the things a bloke looks for. Looks, charm, personality–"
Lily had had enough. She made a pathetic attempt to glance at her watch and feign surprise before cutting Potter off mid-sentence, "Oh, I hadn't realized the time, I've got to be getting back to the office!"
"But–" Potter protested, sitting up straight, his eyes meandering back to the neckline of her blouse. "I thought we had the whole three hours–"
"Must have been a mistake," Lily said airily. She had had enough of this berk and wouldn't sit through one more minute of his talking about how much women loved him, professionalism be damned.
"Well can I at least–"
"Here's for all the tea I drank," she said abruptly, pulling out a wad of bills and throwing them on the table. "We'll call if we need anything else."
She slung her bag over her shoulder and hurried out of the cafe, torn between embarrassment that a bloody actor had managed to get her to break her professionalism, and relief to be out of the cafe.