Chapter 205: Morning Television Drama
Chapter 205: Morning Television Drama
Half-asleep, Julia vaguely seemed to hear sounds coming from the living room. Hugging her pillow, she rolled over, wanting to continue sleeping, but after turning over, the sounds seemed to become even clearer.
Only after a long while did the woman reluctantly open her eyes.
Faint light filtered through the curtains. She turned on the bedside lamp and glanced at the wristwatch she had adjusted to Venice local time.
It was just after five in the morning.
Throwing off the blanket and climbing out of bed, the woman slipped on her slippers, scratched at her hair, and walked into the living room, only then seeing what was happening.
The lights in the living room were not turned on. The curtains leading to the balcony were tightly shut as well. Only the television flickered dimly while emitting soft sounds.
Elizabeth hugged a throw pillow and sat cross-legged on the sofa. In her hands was a bag of potato chips. She stared fixedly at the television while little crunching sounds continuously came from her mouth.
In the dim lighting, she resembled a little mouse sneaking out in the middle of the night to steal food.
“Liz, what’s wrong with you? Why are you up this early?”
Julia slowly walked over and sat beside Elizabeth, pulling a blanket from the sofa around herself.
After swallowing the snacks in her mouth, Elizabeth lowered her voice and said:
“I... never slept at all. I got insomnia.”
Julia leaned slightly closer and asked in confusion:
“Insomnia? Why?”
Only after saying that did Julia suddenly remember something.
“Wait... could it be because of what I said last night? I was just joking. You didn’t actually take it seriously, did you?”
Elizabeth hesitated a few times before leaning close to Julia’s ear and whispering:
“Julia, do you think that bastard’s been secretly seducing me the whole time?”
Hearing Elizabeth’s words, Julia blinked rapidly several times before suddenly bursting into laughter.
“Liz, you stayed awake the entire night just thinking about... about this sort of thing?”
In the darkness, Elizabeth’s cheeks turned red from Julia’s laughter. Dissatisfied, she scratched at Julia a few times before saying:
“How can you act like this? I’m asking you a very serious question.”
After laughing, Julia was about to reply, but upon seeing Elizabeth’s expression, the corners of her lips lifted again uncontrollably.
“Hey, hey, hey! I-I’m getting angry now!”
Elizabeth pretended she was about to jump up. Julia hurriedly held her down and shook her head.
“Impossible. You simply don’t understand that guy.”
Only after seeing Julia stop laughing did Elizabeth settle down again, though she still unhappily asked after hearing Julia’s answer:
“And you understand him, then?”
“I don’t really understand him either.”
Julia shook her head before immediately adding:
“But there’s one thing I do know.”
“Hm?”
Elizabeth grabbed Julia’s arm.
“Hurry up and say it already. Stop keeping me in suspense.”
Julia stared at Elizabeth’s beautiful face framed by chin-length golden hair. Despite staying awake all night, there was not the slightest trace of fatigue on that youthful face in its early twenties.
“When it comes to women, he’s always very domineering. If he wants a woman, he’d never bother using some kind of seduction tactics. He’s more likely to drag you into a room and pin you directly onto the bed.”
As Julia spoke, she involuntarily recalled that night, remembering how that overbearing man had toyed with her.
For some reason, warmth faintly rose within her heart.
Elizabeth slightly parted her lips before saying:
“He definitely wouldn’t dare treat me like that. Otherwise my father would never let him off.”
“Maybe.”
Julia softly replied in the darkness.
However, deep inside, Julia found Elizabeth’s confidence somewhat naïve.
Given Eric’s current wealth and status, if he really did get this little girl into bed, old Murdoch might even welcome it gladly.
For the News Corporation, which was still developing in the television and film industries, Eric was practically the ideal marriage candidate.
Elizabeth failed to detect the subtle undertone in Julia’s voice and instead asked:
“So that means he’s not interested in me, right?”
“Of course.”
Julia smiled and nodded.
Elizabeth finally let out a sigh of relief, as though the issue she had agonized over all night had finally been lifted from her heart.
Yet a moment later, the woman suddenly muttered unhappily:
“How could he not be interested in me? Am I not pretty enough?”
“Hahahaha...”
Julia immediately burst into laughter again.
Elizabeth also instantly realized the slip of her words. Seeing Julia laughing beside her, she became embarrassed and angry at the same time, stretching out her hands to attack the woman.
“Ah, stop, stop tickling me!”
Julia quickly surrendered. After taking several deep breaths, she continued:
“I suddenly remembered something that guy once said to me.”
Without waiting for Elizabeth to react, Julia continued on her own:
“He said women are troublesome creatures. When you approach them, they mock and insult you. But when you distance yourself from them, they start complaining again. That line fits you perfectly, hehe.”
Seeing Elizabeth looking ready to explode again, Julia hurriedly stopped her.
“All right, stop, Liz. Since it’s still not fully bright outside, you should sleep a little more. Otherwise you’ll spend the entire day feeling listless. Mm... I’m going back to bed.”
Elizabeth immediately grabbed Julia, who was trying to stand up.
“No, don’t! You can’t leave me alone here.”
Pulled by Elizabeth, Julia plopped back onto the sofa helplessly.
“Then what exactly do you want to do?”
“How about we go jogging? It’s already getting bright outside anyway.”
Julia immediately shook her head.
“It’s too early right now. There are barely any people on the streets. Who knows what the public safety here is really like? Italy’s the birthplace of the mafia, you know. Maybe while you’re running, someone suddenly throws a sack over your head. Then things will get really bad.”
Although Julia mostly meant it as a joke, Elizabeth still got frightened after imagining certain scenarios.
“Then... let’s watch TV instead. I can’t sleep anyway.”
As she spoke, the woman enthusiastically stuffed the remote control into Julia’s hands.
“All right, all right. You really are like a child.”
Julia accepted the remote with a helpless expression.
At that moment, the television was playing an Italian-language soap opera. Since Julia could not understand it, she began switching channels.
After changing several channels in a row, cheerful canned laughter finally sounded from the television, causing Julia to pause.
After listening to a few lines of dialogue, Elizabeth immediately said:
“It’s one of my family’s TV stations. And it’s a sitcom too. Let’s watch this one. You can understand it.”
Julia also recognized the logo of Fox Broadcasting Company, so she set down the remote.
Onscreen, several protagonists sat inside a coffee shop discussing how the male lead named Ross had mysteriously discovered that his wife was a lesbian.
After several witty lines of dialogue, both Julia and Elizabeth became absorbed in the plot. Immediately afterward, the female lead named Phoebe started making a gesture of pulling bad luck off the depressed-looking Ross’s head, causing both women to burst into loud laughter.
“This is seriously too funny. How come I’ve never heard of this sitcom before?”
Elizabeth said this while slapping her thigh from laughter.
Julia was also laughing, though she quickly realized something and said:
“It should be prime time right now on the East Coast, around eight in the evening. This must be a newly premiered TV series. Otherwise, we definitely would’ve heard of a sitcom this interesting already.”
Elizabeth nodded in agreement.
“Mhm. Let’s remember the title later. I’m definitely going to keep following it.”
As they spoke, the Ross character on television said to his sister Monica:
“I don’t want to be single. I just want to get married again.”
The moment he finished speaking, hurried footsteps sounded. The café door was pushed open, and a bride wearing a wedding dress rushed in.
Everyone stared back and forth between Ross and the bride in astonishment.
Immediately afterward, Chandler enthusiastically waved toward the entrance and shouted:
“I only want one million dollars!”
Naturally, this “wish” did not come true either. Chandler awkwardly waved his hands a few times before sticking out his tongue in embarrassment.
“Hahaha, this is... this is way too funny.”
Elizabeth laughed so hard on the sofa that she nearly doubled over.
When she finally raised her head again, she casually glanced toward Julia beside her, only to see the woman staring blankly in shock.
“Hey, Julia, what’s wrong?”
Elizabeth poked Julia’s waist with her finger.
Julia pointed toward the television screen.
“Look, that... that bride in the wedding dress is Jennifer Aniston.”
Elizabeth did not react immediately. Following Julia’s finger, she looked over and nodded.
“She’s a really pretty girl. So what?”
“You... you still haven’t realized it yet, Liz?”
Julia continued:
“Jennifer Aniston. She’s that guy’s girlfriend. Which means this TV show is the one the media’s been promoting nonstop recently, the one he personally directed.”
Elizabeth’s mouth slowly fell open.
Recalling several scenes from Running Out of Time, she indeed remembered that one scene matched the café set onscreen.
“Friends?”
Julia nodded slightly.
She had always paid close attention to news about Eric, so she already knew the title back when the television series first started being promoted.
Elizabeth and Julia stared at one another for several moments before Elizabeth finally puffed out her cheeks unhappily.
“Why is he everywhere?!”
Julia also tugged at the corner of her lips with a faint smile before recalling:
“Come to think of it... today really does seem to be the premiere date for Friends.”
Because of certain emotions hidden deep in the two women’s hearts, although they occasionally smiled at the jokes afterward, neither laughed as openly as before.
Still, their eyes never once left the television screen.
Even during the commercials inserted between episodes, neither woman moved away.
Only at the end of the second episode—when Rachel, played by Jennifer Aniston, called her bridesmaid friend and “wished” that the friend’s future child with Julia’s ex-fiancé would inherit its parents’ ugly rosacea nose and baldness—did Elizabeth finally speak again:
“This woman’s so bitchy. I don’t like her.”