Beware, the drama llama lurks. Thank you so much for the reviews guys. You are wonderful =D

Chapter 15

E's POV:

The next few days I spent doing some work while Tom was on set. I had a bunch of emails to attend to, menus to plan, and event coordinators to get in touch with. I also had to get in touch with some magazines who wanted an interview and publishing companies who wanted to discuss the possibility of a cook book. I also had to handle trying to work out advertising and designing the website. I honestly have no idea what I was doing. I was on video chat with my mom freaking out.

"I have no idea how I'm going to handle all of this. I don't know how to design a website so I need to hire someone for that. And the whole publishing and magazine thing? What the hell do I do for that?"

"Eleanor hunny, you need to calm down. Maybe you need someone to help you." Her voice had a calming effect on me.

"Like who? Who exactly helps with that kind of stuff? An assistant or what?" I was still flustered.

"You need a publicist suga!" Babette called.

I scoffed. "What? Publicists are only for famous people and shit."

"Not exclusively darling."

I looked up to see Tom walk in. He looked so rugged with his disheveled hair and his beard. He wore a blue plaid button up shirt and the top 3 buttons were undone. He looked incredibly sexy. He came around and hugged me from behind.

"How was your day darling?" He asked and gave me a quick kiss.

"Trying to figure all this stuff out." I gestured over all my papers that were strewn across large kitchen island.

"Hiiiiii Toooommmm!" My mom and Babette called from my Macbook Pro.

Tom smiled. "Hello ladies."

"Oh my god! How is it possible that you're real?" Babette started fanning herself.

"What's that sound?" I asked.

Tom looked around. "What sound?"

"Oh, I think it's the sound of my panties hitting the floor." I quipped.

My mom and Babette roared with laughter. Tom blushed violently and walked out of view of the camera to hide his face in his hands. The red reached all the way to his neck.

"Aw he blushes! I love a man who blushes!" Babette squealed while my mom was in hysterics.

"Alright guys I'm going to go take care of him and get this other stuff taken care of."

"Oh take care of him huh?" My mom winked at me.

"Oh my god! Bye guys!" I laughed. I disconnected the call cutting off their whooping and hollering.

"Sorry baby." I giggled.

Tom was slowly turning back to his normal color, his cheeks still pink.

"It's quite alright darling. Your mum doesn't seem to be too old fashioned about this type of thing."

"Tom, we're adults who have been dating for several months and I'm living with you for two weeks. It's kind of a given that we're going to be, you know..." I slipped into my best Babette impression. "...knocking boots."

Tom chuckled as he sat next to me and looked over the papers. "You know, I really do think you need a publicist. With all of these places contacting you..." he licked his lips. "...and us being together, it would help you out a lot."

I thought about it for a minute. "Yeah I guess you're right. How do you go about hiring one? Is their like a special store where you can shop for them? Can I have a Luke? Or is he a limited edition?"

Tom threw his head back and laughed, his tongue in between his teeth. "I'm quite positive Luke is one of a kind..." I nodded in agreement "...but I'll help you out with finding someone." He turned my computer towards him and brought up my internet window where I had twitter open.

"Oh dear..." his faced dropped as he read.

My curiosity had gotten the best of me as I had been reading some of the comments on our pictures and some messages people had been sending me. Some people were really nice saying that I was pretty, how they liked my hair, how Tom looked happy with me, and how we were cute together. Some were debating on if we were just friends or together, who I was and where we met. Mostly everyone insisted that we were 'just friends' their reasoning being that I don't look like Tom's type. Needless to say I giggled at that. Unfortunately there were also quite a few comments that were very abrasive. Some saying 'omg she looks like a slut' or 'what is the ugly bitch doing with him?' There were even a few people saying that they hoped I would get into a car wreck or something. I knew when Tom and I started dating it would happen sooner or later, but there's only so much you can do to prepare yourself for such things. I would be lying if I said that I was unbothered by the comments. For someone to wish harm upon you without even knowing you and for such a silly reason hurt a little. But I had decided just to ignore the comments and questions for now, I'm sure much to Luke's relief. Now the idea of a someone to help me with all of this nonsense sounded better and better.

"E, I'm so sorry about this." Tom rubbed his fingers through his hair.

"It's not your fault babe. I expected this sooner or later. It's just best to ignore it for now." I gave him a reassuring kiss.

Tom nodded after I pulled away and managed a small smile. He called Luke and asked him if he could help me out. An hour later Luke had given me 3 different people who wanted to work with me and set up interviews with them within the next few days.

"Have I ever mentioned that I love Luke?" I said.

"As long as he doesn't replace me." Tom snaked his hands around my waist.

I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him closer. "No one could ever replace you." I whispered before kissing him. We quickly forgot about about everything as he took me upstairs where we spent the rest of the night knocking boots.

A few days had past and my time in London was coming to an end. I had hired a publicist who lived in LA. We have talked over Skype quite a few times and we got along very well. I had a good feeling about Nancy. She had dealt with famous chefs before (yes, apparently I was becoming rather well known) and she was acquainted with Luke. This was great since they would be seeing a lot of each other. She had already set up interviews with some publications for when I got back to LA and I was incredibly excited, but I was sad to be leaving London. It had grown on me and I felt at home here, but I would be missing Tom most of all. We decided that I would come back to London in December for the London Premiere of War Horse. It would be our first official event as a couple and I just couldn't wait. Luke and Nancy advised us to watch ourselves in public since people were catching on to our 'friendship'. If people were to ask us about our relationship, we were to answer that we were just good friends. Tom and I were reluctant when Luke first suggested it, but agreed that it was for the best. Tom and I would be spending about 2 months apart until he would visit me in LA. I was excited because that meant we could spend Halloween together. Halloween was a big deal for me and I would be throwing a huge party. I also wanted to ask him to visit me in New York for Thanksgiving with my family, but I was nervous to ask him for some reason.

We were lying in bed after making love kissing and whispering sweet things to each other when my phone rang. It was my mom. Why would she be calling me this late? It was 1am and my flight left at 3pm tomorrow. She knew the time difference. I picked up my phone, but couldn't bring myself to answer it. I just stared at it and had a horrible feeling.

"E? Are you okay?" Tom sat up and moved closer to me.

"Something's wrong." I could barely hear myself. I took a deep breath and got a hold of myself. "Mom?"

"Hey sweetie..." Something was very wrong. My mom was quiet. She was rarely quiet.

"Mom?" For some reason that was all I could say.

"Sweetie...um..." her voice was trembling. "...he got out."

My stomach dropped and I felt like I was going to pass out.

"H-how?" I was shaking all over.

"He was released on parole..."

"Oh my god..." I could feel tears starting to swell up. My breaths becoming more rapid.

"E..." Tom placed his hand on my back which made me jump. I forgot he was there.

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't know where you moved, and I warned everyone he might try to talk to. You still have that restraining order and he can't travel outside New York without clearing it." My mom was trying to comfort me now. It made me feel a little better, but I was still rattled. Shit, I hadn't told Tom about it yet. Everything was so great I didn't want it to think about it.

"Okay, yeah you're right. Can I call you back later?"

"You haven't told Tom yet have you?" How did she always know?

"No not yet. I need to do that now." I was slowly starting to calm down. I needed to keep it together.

"Okay red, good luck. I love you."

"Thanks, I love you too." I hung up and turned to Tom.

He looked so worried with those big kind eyes. "E, is everything okay?"

"Yes and no."

He didn't say anything and waited for me to continue.

"You know the other night when your friend were asking about my past relationships?"

"Yes, that would be hard to forget darling." He managed a small smile which instantly made me feel better.

"And remember what I said about Noah?"

"Yes, you said he wasn't the person you thought he was."

I nodded.

"There's more to that huh?"

I nodded again.

"It's not good is it?"

Nodded yet again and straightened up. "Okay well the first 3 years were good, but around the 4th year something happened. I'm not sure what, but he changed. He started to get really mean."

Tom inhaled sharply. He knew where this story would end up.

"For the first six or seven months the verbal abuse just progressively got worse and worse. Then one he came home drunk and got really angry at me for leaving the garage door open. He was screaming and yelling and breaking stuff. All I could do was stand there and wait for him to get tired and go to bed."

"I'm assuming he didn't..." He sounded choked up.

"No, he didn't. Instead he backed me into a corner and slapped me."

Tom winced while anger built up in his eyes.

"I wish that's where it stopped." I loathed myself for not leaving right then. "It got worse and worse, the slaps escalated to punches and one night he came home..." I was crying and shaking now, but so was Tom. He reached over and gripped my hands tightly. "He was just so so mad and he just kept punching and punching until I couldn't stand then he started to kick me. I lost track of how many times."

Tom pulled me into his lap and arms and held me tight. He was sniffling softly.

"I eventually blacked out and he left to go to see his friend. Babette and Scarlett came by when I wouldn't answer my phone and found me on the floor."

"Thank God they did." Tom whispered as he started to gently rock me back and forth.

"I was in the hospital for two weeks and I was out cold for 3 days. Nobody was surprised when I told them what happened."

"Darling I can't believe that he could do something like that to you." I couldn't tell if he was more upset or angry.

"It is what it is. He went to prison soon after, but my mom just called me that he just got out on parole."

"Oh my God. E, is it safe for you to go back?"

"It should be-" Tom cut me off

"Because we can move you here if you want, you can even live with me. At least I'll know you're safe."

"Oh Tom, I would love nothing more, but I have a business to run."

"I know, damn why do you have to be so talented?" He joked making me giggle. I didn't want to leave. I had never felt safer than I did then. I knew in his arms no harm would come to me. It broke my heart to remember I was to leave him tomorrow.

I had been back in LA for a week, and busy as all get out. I had met with a rep from the Food Network and Gordon Ramsey's publicist. He wanted to feature my shops on his show about his favorite restaurants. Even though my shops were mostly catering, I had kept a small cafe in the front. I just loved the idea of people being able to to come in, take a breather and have a pastry and some coffee to relax. Gordon was coming by later this week to film and have a fun coffee date with me (as friends of course). I still was in awe of everything that was happening, but decided not to question it and enjoy it. You never know how long it will last, so might as well make the most of it.

Tom was busy promoting his films and finishing The Hollow Crown, so time to talk was scarce. Sometimes the only time we could talk was while I was at work and five minute face time sessions. When we couldn't do that we would send each other long detailed emails about our day. For reasons unknown we had decided to write them in the form of formal letters. I loved being able to talk to Tom and see his handsome face, but something about the letters he wrote me made me love even more. I wasn't too shabby at writing, but he put me to shame. It became a morning ritual for me to wake up and read his letters while drinking my morning cup of coffee.

My dearest Eleanor,

How are you today love? I hope your meeting with the Food Network went well. I'm glad to hear that you and Nancy are getting on. Luke and Ben send their regards. Ben said that he wanted to bother you so I gave him your phone number. Please don't hate me, but I think he rather misses his new friend. I can't wait to see you on Gordon Ramsey's show. Don't be nervous. I know you will do beautifully and will charm anyone who views it. I'm so proud of you and so happy that your career is taking off even more than it already has. My mother and my sister have been hearing quite a lot about you of late. My mum is a bit of a foodie so from reading raving articles and and my constant ramblings you have made quite an impression on them. They have insisted on meeting you when you come to London in December. I know you three will get along magnificently.

I miss you terribly and I'm counting the minutes until I can hold you in my arms once more. I'm so sorry that we haven't been able to communicate through phone calls for I miss your sweet voice. I miss your southern twang when you say things like 'hun' and 'pie', but your voice isn't the only thing I miss. Your soft skin underneath the tips of my fingers. Your red hair being set ablaze in the morning light. Your gleaming grey eyes that are sprinkled with flecks of blue paired with your shining smile that makes you give off a radiant glow. I could go on all day about the things I miss, but I miss your kiss most of all. How you wake me in the morning with those tender loving kisses you plant upon me. I imagine you reading this whilst drinking you daily cup of coffee that gets you through your busy and hectic days. Oh darling, how I envy the cup of coffee that gets to kiss your sleepy lips awake every morning. How you caress the sides of the mug as your mind wanders. How I wish I could replace that mug. You may think it silly of me, but I cannot help it. I could write pages and pages for you darling, but if I do not stop soon you will be late for work. I have tomorrow off and will be spending it at home. So feel free to call me anytime tomorrow for however long. I love you so much and I wish you a wonderful day.

Forever yours,

Tom

October could not get here fast enough.