Chapter 60: Photograph
Chapter 60: Photograph
After parting with Sherisa Cody and Brad Pitt, the two did not hurry back. Aniston held Eric’s arm as they strolled along the bustling streets of New York at night.
After exchanging a few aimless words, Aniston still could not help saying, “Eric, I think what you did was a little too much.”
“Hmm?”
“Brad Pitt finally managed to get that role. It wasn’t easy for him either.”
Eric reached out and pinched Aniston’s cheek, drawing a burst of protest from the girl. “Looks like Brad Pitt made his story sound very inspiring. You’ve already developed a good impression of him. In that case, I was even more right to kick him out of the production.”
“I just think he’s not a bad person.” Aniston glared at Eric with puffed cheeks and said what she truly felt, as if daring him to do something about it.
“Do you know Mike Tyson?”
Eric’s change of topic was a little abrupt, but Aniston still nodded. “I know. His divorce case with Robin Givens has been causing a huge stir lately.”
“There’s one thing you definitely don’t know. Some time ago, Brad Pitt had an affair with Robin Givens and was caught by Tyson on the spot inside the room. The reason Tyson wants to divorce Robin Givens is because even after marrying Tyson, she still kept things going with Brad Pitt.”
Aniston’s eyes instantly widened in disbelief. “No way. How come I didn’t know? You must be lying to me.”
“Do I need to lie to you about something like this?” Eric spread his hands.
Aniston asked curiously, “How did you know about this?”
Eric said, “It’s already spread around the circle. It’s just that Brad Pitt is too unknown compared with Tyson, so even some gossip magazines were too lazy to verify his name and only used ‘an unknown male actor’ instead.”
In Eric’s memory, the matter of Brad Pitt being caught in bed was something Tyson personally admitted in an interview many years later, after going through a series of scandals, bankruptcy, imprisonment, and reaching a point where he no longer cared about saving face.
Eric suddenly thought of something very interesting. Aniston and Brad Pitt were definitely incompatible. One came with a built-in cheating-catching skill, while the other was unlucky enough to always be caught cheating. He was caught by Tyson, caught by Aniston, and later, when he was about to marry Jolie, he fooled around a little with a female assistant and was tragically caught on the spot again, which even delayed the wedding for a time.
“So,” Eric patted Aniston’s head with a solemn, earnest expression, “you can know a person’s face but not their heart. It’s best to stay far away from someone like that.”
Aniston nodded, then raised her head and looked at Eric resentfully. “Right. You can know a person’s face but not their heart. Who knows how many women you’ve provoked behind my back? You gathered a whole bunch of actresses at your house for a party, and that even made it into the newspapers. And there was that shirt too… Don’t even try to argue!”
“All right, Jenny.” Eric quickly pulled Aniston into his arms. “I’m guilty. I repent.”
“You’re a bastard.” Aniston punched Eric’s chest a few times.
Eric quickly nodded. “Yes, yes, yes.”
After throwing a small tantrum for a while, Aniston quieted down. She pressed her face against Eric’s chest, listening to her boyfriend’s heartbeat. The two quietly embraced each other, forming a warm scene on the crowded street.
A passing photographer thought the picture looked very heartwarming and could not help pressing the shutter, capturing the moment on film. However, neither Eric nor Aniston noticed this small detail.
As Christmas drew near, the photographer developed the photo he had taken. In the picture, the girl wore a short white trench coat and quietly wrapped her arms around her boyfriend’s waist, leaning against his chest. The boy in the black trench coat held the girl tightly, his chin resting on her smooth blond hair. One black, one white; one cold, one warm. Amid the blurred stream of pedestrians, the two seemed to be standing on a quiet little island, looking beautiful and romantic against the bright city backdrop.
Satisfied with the photo, the photographer mailed it to a newspaper in New York. As a result, the two people in the photo were quickly recognized by the newspaper’s editors. The editor, with a very sharp professional instinct, directly submitted the photo to the editor-in-chief’s office.
The next day, the photograph of young miracle director Eric Williams embracing his girlfriend on a New York street appeared on the front page of the newspaper. However, the accompanying article was extremely gossipy, taking up more than half the page to describe how Eric had put aside the film he was preparing and resolutely rushed to New York in order to find the girlfriend who was his true love, only for the two to miraculously meet on the streets of New York and fall into each other’s arms.
Anyone with even a little intelligence understood that the photograph was real, but the story was definitely fabricated. However, the reporter who wrote the article had a good command of words, so most people still read it with great interest, and the newspaper’s sales even rose slightly because of it.
Eric, who had been surrounded by all kinds of news lately, suddenly disappeared from Los Angeles and appeared in New York, once again drawing the paparazzi’s attention. They did not believe Eric had run to New York to seek some true love, so Eric once again became the paparazzi’s target.
The matter of inviting Al Pacino to play the male lead had already been settled. Therefore, in order to avoid the paparazzi’s harassment, Eric basically stayed inside Aniston’s Manhattan apartment without going out. This time, the paparazzi seemed determined to wait him out, patiently staying outside the apartment building and waiting for Eric to appear.
Aniston naturally became another target of their pursuit. To avoid unnecessary trouble, under Eric’s insistence, Aniston no longer took the bus or taxis to and from the set. Instead, she bought a secondhand car. The girl still did not let Eric pay a single cent.
After several days of intense filming, everyone in Aniston’s television production crew finally welcomed a two-week Christmas and New Year holiday.
At Aniston’s home, the girl picked up that newspaper for who knew how many times and read the article again. Her expression carried both annoyance and pleasure as she complained to her boyfriend, who was sitting by the window typing on a typewriter. “It’s all your fault. Now wherever we go, there’s a group of paparazzi following us. Otherwise, I could have taken you around New York properly.”
Eric finished typing a line, turned around, and smiled. “Why do I feel like your eyes are full of happiness? The reporter who wrote that article is really a genius. Just from one photograph, he managed to make up a New York love story.”
“Eric, did you contact that newspaper?”
Eric nodded. “The photo was taken by an amateur photography enthusiast on the street by chance. He originally planned to submit it to the newspaper’s photography collection event, but the reviewing editor had sharp eyes and recognized us.” As Eric spoke, he took out an envelope and handed it to Aniston. “This is the negative. I bought it for one thousand dollars. But it was worth it. This photo really is beautiful and has a lot of collectible value.”
Aniston took the envelope, carefully took out the negative and looked at it, then gently put it back.
“One more thing, Jenny. Although the article in that newspaper was nonsense, it made me think of a very good script. Here, take a look. It’s adapted from the ‘true events’ between the two of us. How about you play the female lead?”
Aniston placed the negative inside a photo album and put it away before walking to her boyfriend’s side. She took the stack of manuscript pages he handed her and started reading. After finishing, Aniston put down the script and wrinkled her little nose. “Aside from the coincidental meeting at the end, this has nothing to do with us at all.”
Eric spread his hands and argued sophistically, “Art goes through multiple rounds of reprocessing. So, what do you think? Will you act in it?”
Aniston hesitated for a moment, but still shook her head. “The female lead is older than me, and I don’t want to act in a movie you direct.”
Eric did not continue persuading her. As for these little insistences of Aniston’s, he had gradually learned to let them be.
Christmas soon arrived. In Eric’s previous life, he did not have any deep impression of this Western holiday. When he was young, Christmas had not yet become popular in the East. By the time foreign holidays became fashionable, he had already entered middle age and could no longer chase after them like young people.
Kapoor had already returned to Los Angeles, and Al Pacino had his own life. After that day, Eric did not meet Al again, but the two discussed the Pretty Woman script by phone every day. Therefore, only he and Aniston spent Christmas together, which made Aniston quite satisfied. The two decorated the apartment together, chose a Christmas tree together, and prepared the turkey they bought together. On Christmas Eve, they did not go out either, simply leaning quietly against each other on the sofa and watching videotapes late into the night.
After Christmas, Eric had no choice but to return to Los Angeles. It was true that Pretty Woman would not begin filming until after the holiday, but as the director, he had a lot of work to do in advance.
Although Aniston was very reluctant, she still had no choice but to drive her boyfriend to the airport. She kept watching until the plane disappeared into the sky before reluctantly returning to her apartment.