"Bolton is organizing an attack, Nakata Hidetoshi passes the ball... Nakata is observing, Bolton values this attack..." In the box, the large-screen TV was broadcasting the football match outside. Sitting on the sofa, Adrian stared wide-eyed and unblinking at the ga.
"Nakata passes to Okocha, Okocha tries to break through... The ball is intercepted! Makelele’s tackle was very clean... Chelsea’s counterattack!" The comntator on the TV erupted with enthusiasm, "Their speed is incredibly fast, the ball is passed to Duff on the left wing, Duff is driving the ball along the sideline!"
Adrian’s breathing grew faster, and his hands resting on his knees couldn’t help but clench into fists, his throat continuously moving up and down.
"Duff crosses... It’s a low diagonal pass, who’s in the middle to et it? Drogba! Drogba! He got the ball!" The comntator grew increasingly passionate, "Drogba facing Jaskelainen... One-on-one!!!"
In the footage, the player with the ball had already burst into the penalty area, Adrian’s body suddenly tensed up, as if he had reached a critical point!
"He shoots! The ball slips under Jaskelainen! GOAL!!!! Drogba scores!!!" As the comntator shouted, Adrian sat up straight, his trembling hands pressing downwards, and he couldn’t help but exclaim with excitent.
After a mont of this, Adrian exhaled a long breath, his whole body relaxing as he slumped back down, while the TV comntator continued: "Chelsea struck with a thunderous counterattack to score a goal, expanding their lead once again, the upcoming matches will fully enter the Blue Army’s rhythm, Bolton still has no hope of turning things around..."
Then, Little Emma, who had been bowing her head, finally raised her head, her face a little ssy but flushed, seemingly not quite satisfied yet, swallowing until everything was down before she teasingly said, "A bit more than usual, it seems you really like this, right, Ed?"
Her eyes were watery, along with the things on her face, and the tip of her tongue occasionally licking the corners of her mouth, prompting Adrian to feel a bit of an uncontrollable urge again.
Noticing this, the little devil imdiately smiled wide, sticking out her tongue and playfully bowed her head and raised it again: "Want to go another round?"
"Maybe I should pull you outside and use binoculars to watch the live scene, then have you squat below." Adrian snorted after taking a deep breath.
As expected, Little Emma imdiately teased with a wink: "You can try right now, can’t you?"
Of course, that was out of the question, with so many caras below you never know when one might zoom up, plus the angle of the railings outside can’t guarantee there are no blind spots, and there’s no partition in between the walkways, it’s stimulating but the chance of being discovered is quite high.
After tidying up and basically sorting everything out, the match had almost reached its end, Bolton already unable to make a coback, while Chelsea secured the league championship early with a 3-0 victory.
"Alright, stay in the car and wait for , I’ll go congratulate them and be back soon." Adrian said while touching Little Emma’s cheek.
"Can’t I go with you?" Little Emma tilted her head and asked, deliberately putting on a displeased look.
"Oh, of course, as long as you’re not worried about those big-mouthed players spilling the beans, or bumping into reporters in the hallway." Adrian replied with a playful smile.
Little Emma imdiately snorted, then as if sothing ca to mind, squinted her eyes: "Speaking of which, it’s the first ti you’ve co to London so early, there’s still a few days until my birthday."
"What, I can’t co over early?" Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"No, but you also said that when a routine changes, there’s definitely a reason for it." Little Emma chuckled, crossing her arms in front of her chest, "Is it because of... that Evanna Lynch?"
"Oh?" Adrian showed a puzzled expression, genuinely looking confused, "What does this have to do with Evanna?"
"Don’t play dumb with , Ed!" Little Emma rudely waved her hand, "You personally chose her to play Luna Lovegood, that explains a lot, don’t take for a fool!"
Then she showed an unreserved look of disdain: "I haven’t interfered with you doing those things, so why so tense?"
"I just..." Adrian rolled his eyes, "Evanna passed through layers of selection, and during that ti I never paid much attention, only giving an opinion at the end, how can that determine I’m interested in her? If that’s the case, can it also be said that I’m interested in your friend, Rachel Harwood?"
The Harry Potter crew’s open casting for the role of Luna Lovegood had recently concluded, with the final decision being, on Adrian’s recomndation, Evanna Lynch from Ireland got the part, so it’s no surprise Little Emma would ask such a question. Frankly, Adrian didn’t have any particular intention and chose Evanna because among the entire Harry Potter series, except for Little Emma, most of the young actors differ from the original cast.
From Harry to Ron to the Weasley twins to Draco, all different, interesting for a while but not so much in the long run. So when the role of Luna was about to be cast publicly, Adrian was pondering if that little Irish girl would apply, and if she did, he could bring her into the crew to keep Little Emma company, thus adding so interest to the series in his eyes.
Unexpectedly, this move was perceived as sothing else... But on the other hand, Evanna does have so charm, although she has one awful downside: she isn’t very photogenic. aning, she looks great on dynamic video, but in static photos, unless the makeup, lighting, and shooting angle are spot on, she looks quite peculiar.
Well, this isn’t the ti to discuss this, but clearly, Little Emma wasn’t planning to let it go.
"Are you not interested in Rachel?" she imdiately countered with a mischievous smile, "Do you think that’s possible?"
Adrian simply rolled his eyes, deciding not to talk more about it with her, to which the little devil stuck out her tongue, suddenly exclaiming in surprise: "Hey, Ed, you’ve grown a beard?"
"Um... yes, how does it look?" Adrian asked after touching his neatly grood stubble on his chin.
"It looks... not bad," turning a few half-circles in front of him, Little Emma solemnly nodded, "It adds a slightly rugged taste, it’d be better if it were deeper, why did you decide to grow a beard?"
"Because..." Adrian thought for a mont, then confessed, "This year I’m acting in a film, as the male lead, not the director, and the character has a goatee, so I need to grow one to make my appearance closer to the role."
Little Emma blinked her eyes, seemingly not processing it, but the next second she jumped up with her mouth wide open: "Oh God, so that announcent on April Fool’s Day wasn’t a joke, you really are going to play Iron Man Tony Stark!"
She scread, with disbelief in her eyes, and a hint of jealousy and reluctance. Her reaction clearly showed that the folks at Marvel and Universal are adept at exploiting every opportunity, everyone knows what day April 1st is, so on this day they wasted no ti releasing the news that the onscreen Iron Man movie in preparation would feature AC dia’s chairman Adrian Cowell as the lead. Additionally, the once Adrian’s secretary and now ABC’s vice president, Ms. Charlize Theron would play the female lead in the film.
Quite the explosive news, right? But anyone with a bit of rationality could tell it was... fake news, as a big corporation’s head how could he have ti to act in films. Even if Adrian being in it might be possible due to his well-known director identity, Charlize being in it seed utterly improbable, even though she indeed was Adrian’s secretary once.
Besides, this kind of news being announced on April 1st should clearly be the kind that people laugh at and move on. However, the truth is that countless people believed it and tried to confirm the news in various ways—sending emails or making phone calls to Marvel, Universal, Adrian, or Charlize’s office, while also discussing it enthusiastically online. Should we say Aricans are naive? Or just bored with nothing better to do? Even if the dia helped fan the flas, it’s still too much...
Therefore, this news released on April Fools’ Day caused quite a stir, even though Marvel and Universal announced it’s an April Fools’ joke—of course, they didn’t directly deny it; they ended the drama with a "Happy April Fools’ Day," leaving room for a turnaround. Anyway, after being stirred up, people continued to discuss Adrian playing Iron Man and the entire possible cast, such as—
"If Adrian Cowell plays Iron Man, then Claude Ronris could play the villain who almost controls Stark Industries and gets his hands on the Iron Man suit."
"What a joke, they are pretty close, they’re best friends, Ronris would never play that guy, why not play Colonel Rhodes?"
"Because Colonel Rhodes is Black, you idiot."
"But I rember in so parallel universe he’s White?"
"Might as well let Murdoch play the villain, rumor has it his relationship with the Miracle Director isn’t great."
"To be honest, I really hope Ms. Theron can play Pepper Potts, she’s so beautiful, capable, and charismatic, she’s the perfect choice."
"Wake up, bro, she’s already that Playboy’s."
Such discussions popped up endlessly on forums, and so dia followed up with reports, so the Iron Man movie effortlessly got a whole lot of attention. Although Adrian wasn’t too happy since he previously requested that the dia and public shouldn’t know he was starring until filming was complete, Marvel and Universal’s actions didn’t technically cross that line, so he tacitly accepted it.
The only sowhat unexpected point was that Charlize’s past was thoroughly dug up by so dia, from learning ballet to injuring her knee and having to quit, then studying for several years and joining the then-young AC dia as Adrian’s assistant secretary, then moving to ABC and working her way up from planning departnt chief to her current position.
So parts of this had already been revealed in the last exclusive interview, but it was the first ti it was reported, and these were details the dia were keen on—about her ti by Adrian’s side. So even maliciously claid that she’s the real Miracle Girl, rising from an ordinary person to beco a vice president at one of the five major broadcast companies in Arica.
They thought they were praising her, but hidden barbs were abundant in that report, along with company gossip that only circulated internally appearing in the dia. These folks were sowhat restrained with Adrian but said quite a lot about Charlize. Adrian once asked Charlize if she wanted him to give a warning, but Charlize said it was no big deal since she’s used to it.
Since that’s the case, he figured it wasn’t appropriate to ask more, though he was a bit worried.
Back to the topic of Iron Man and April Fools’ Day. Overall, it was an incredibly successful promotion. Countless people on forums sighed, saying, "If only this were real," which was why it was odd Little Emma didn’t know. Yet she had no idea it would actually co true, and without even a call for confirmation, she naturally jumped for joy when she found out.
But the little devil is still a little devil. Not only did she quickly adjust, but her eyes also curved into crescents, and she looked at Adrian with a mischievous grin, "Ha, no wonder you ca over so early this year, is it to hide from the aftermath?"
Adrian was stunned for a mont, then coughed awkwardly, looking at Little Emma with a bit of annoyance and helplessness, while she burst into laughter.
Alright, though he ca to London early for business, like securing the role for Luna and attending the kickoff eting for the latest Harry Potter installnt, in so ways... Little Emma... wasn’t wrong either.
Not all movies can instantly start shooting right after casting; a lot of pre-production takes ti, and actors need ti to get familiar with the script, especially newcor actors like Adrian and Charlize. Although Adrian supervised the scriptwriting and has so acting experience, it’s not like stepping in front of the cara will just effortlessly translate that, so even though the wait won’t be as long, the start ti wasn’t entirely set.
So, the leisurely lifestyle hasn’t changed much—at least in the first few days, even though this matter is supposed to be confidential externally, there are no secrets among won. Just about half a day later, the closest few won all knew that he and Charlize would be starring as the leads in Iron Man.
So for the next period, Adrian was scrutinized by the won with all kinds of thorny, aningful, and sowhat bitter eyes, whether it was Monica, Sophie, Blanchett, Gwyneth, or Nicole, Naomi, all without exception, even Kate and Sarah were like this, only Ivanka was slightly better.
They didn’t say much, just used that kind of look to observe him, occasionally making comnts like "Maybe I could see if there’s a secretary role" or "Being a vase isn’t so bad." At first, it was nothing, but as ti went on, the pressure grew greater, and the more annoying thing was that these won basically did not direct this behavior toward Charlize. Every ti he saw her looking so relaxed, Adrian couldn’t help but want to roll his eyes.
He did explain it to the won, but it still couldn’t change things. Each ti, they’d show an "Oh, is that so" understanding look, but imdiately afterward, the dissatisfaction and resentnt weren’t any less. Even Lily couldn’t help but ask, "What did you do to upset all the moms and aunts, Dad?"
This situation peaked after the April Fools’ Day promotion, no matter how he "taught them a lesson" in bed, how things should be still returned to how they were the next day. Frustrated, Adrian patted his behind and decided to go to London to get so air. He left so abruptly that Little Emma didn’t have ti to react, otherwise, she would have insisted on tagging along.
Setting that aside, after the match ended, Adrian went to the locker room alone to comnd and praise them, promising bonuses, chatted with the Portuguese for a few monts, before leaving. Then, of course, he "punished" Little Emma severely at the hotel, making her scream for an entire night as payback for teasing him that afternoon.
The next day, the news of Chelsea clinching the championship early had spread throughout London and even England, and most sports dia began to lavish praises, a complete contrast to the initial ridicule when the Portuguese first ca to the UK. After all, so far, Mourinho had led Chelsea to win the Premier League for two consecutive years, a stinging slap in the face that would hurt, except for a few stubborn naysayers.
Abra was also filled with envy and jealousy, lanting why he hadn’t recruited him earlier. Of course, he never thought of poaching him to the Spurs. Abra’s intention in buying the team was clear, and given his good relations with Adrian and Murdoch, he frequently appeared in the dia, becoming a topic figure in both Europe and the States, so how could he risk ruining it over this?
After staying in London for two more days, attending the club’s celebrations, and confirming the start ti for Order of the Phoenix, Adrian finally returned to the United States, as the shooting date for Iron Man was set.
"May 15th, just around the Cannes Film Festival’s start, they plan to finish all filming in 2 to 3 months, I estimated that you’ll need about 20 days of leave," Adrian said to Charlize and then added with emphasis, "Of course, provided you’re in great shape."
"Don’t worry," Charlize replied casually, sipping her tea leisurely, "I’m all set."
"Really?" Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"Of course," Charlize raised her chin, displaying a haughty look, "So people were in London for so personal ti, right? While I stayed here getting ready, hoping that soone won’t end up being the burden because of terrible preparation when the ti cos."
"I can vouch for that." Kate huffed heavily next to them, clearly aiming at him and his little lover, even though it was Charlize who made the comnt.
"I can confirm that too," Sarah added with a smile.
"Alright," Adrian grimaced, "Then I look forward to your performance, Charli."
And my surprise. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets on qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)