Chapter Text
Tom's mind raced for a moment, he had to try and remember where he knew that face from. Was it from a movie set, a premiere or even a meet and greet, he just couldn't remember. But yet it seemed so familiar. So using some cunning and pretending to be scouring the coffee shop for something to get another glimpse of the woman sitting alone staring at a laptop screen, several sheets and folders out in front of her. Her glasses slid down her nose slightly, they were the design many people were going for these days, Tom included, large and thicker framed, the "nerd" ones. His eyes widened as he thought of it. He knew a girl, years before, who had those glasses and was called a "nerd". It suddenly came back to him, the dark hair which never seemed to be straight or wavy, just a messy combination of the two, her blue eyes and her almost tick-like chewing of her bottom lip.
He knew he could seem mad, but he had to check, he walked over and looked at her, her too engrossed in her work to realise there was someone next to her for a moment. But finally, she did seem to realise there was someone there. 'Sorry, am I blocking...?'
'Alexianna?' the woman frowned at him, confirming that it was her name and she was wondering how he knew it. 'I don't know if you remember me...'
'Thomas, Tom.' She seemed to realise.
Tom smiled brightly. 'Yes, how are you?'
'Good, yeah, hi, sorry.' She smiled as she shook her head slightly. 'Sorry, I am in my own world. Hi, how are you, I have not seen you in...'
'Fifteen years.' Tom answered, she frowned at the realisation that he seemed to know the answer off the top of his head like that. 'I thought of it to myself as I walked over, hoping it was you and that I was not about to make an absolute tit of myself to some random woman.'
'No, you guessed right. Yeah, wow, fifteen years, really? It's been a long time, how are you, how are your sisters, your mum?'
'Great, everyone is great, Emma and Sarah are both happily married now, Sarah has a little girl, Mum is great, small health scare a while back, but you know her.'
'It will take a lot more than that to get your mum, she was always so incredible, I was always jealous of you guys, I wish she had been my mum, she was so brilliant.'
'She still is, until you put a foot out of line.' Tom laughed.
'All the reason to behave then, wasn't it?' Alexianna smiled. 'She was always a great role model, I was thinking about her a lot recently, she was always so incredibly strong.'
'Yes, she has been. What about you? How are you these days?'
'Good, busy. I went back to school recently, so I am busier than I thought possible, but good.'
'Great, what are you studying?'
'Public relations.'
'Really?' Tom's brows rose, 'Well you know, I know a few people in that field, if you have any questions, I am sure they would answer you.'
'I wouldn't want to impose.'
'Please, tell you what, I have a meeting today with my publicist, give me your number and I will get him to contact you, he is a great personal friend of mine too.'
Alexianna looked at him warily for a moment. 'I'm...honestly Tom, I don't want to impose.'
'What was it you used to say, the worst he can say is no?' Tom grinned.
Alexianna gave the smallest attempt at a smile at that before nodded. 'Something like that.' she took a piece of paper and scribbled her email address on it. 'A compromise.' she stated as she handed it over. 'I am not one for giving out my number.'
Tom chuckled, 'You might need to get over that in PR.'
'I am not a P.R.O. yet, and I don't plan on a public role for myself, but if I do decide to, until I am, I will remain as cautious.' she shrugged.
'If I was to try and contact you, can I use this too?' Tom probed gently.
Alexianna bit her lips together, thinking about what he was asking before nodding. 'Yeah, sure. If you think of a reason. Just...please don't give it to anyone, other than you PR friend, please.'
Tom frowned slightly but nodded. 'I promise.'
'Tell your mum and sisters I say hi when you see them, if you remember to, of course, I won't be offended if it slips your mind.' She began to tidy away her paperwork. 'It was great to see you, Tom, I was so delighted for you when I started seeing you on posters, you're incredible at your work.' she smiled politely.
'You've seen my work?' Tom's eye lit up.
'Yes, Loki, Sharpe, Adam and Laing anyway. I have a few others on the Sky box I plan to watch soon, and I have the Kong DVD, but I am sort of stuck for time recently, so I will get around to it, but you are great, I cannot commend you enough, you are.'
'Thank you.' Tom blushed. 'You can take some credit, you are the one who suggested I look into acting.'
'Yes,' Alexianna smiled, recalling the memory from years before of her suggesting to a young and somewhat lost Tom of how to use his emotions in acting rather than holding them in. 'I have a lot to answer for.' She half laughed.
Tom beamed brightly. 'I cannot thank you enough, you gave me this life.' Alexianna's eyes began to fill with tears, 'Are you alright?'
'Yes,' She shook her head and wiped her eyes. 'Yes, I am. I just...I need to go somewhere.' She grabbed her bag. 'It was great to see you, Tom.'
'You too, do you come to London often now?'
'I live here now.'
'Really, that's great, we'll have to catch up, sometime when you are not busy.'
'Maybe, yeah. Bye Tom.'
'Goodbye Lexi.' she froze as he said that name, the look on her face something he could not read. 'Sorry, old habit.'
'It's fine, bye.' she did not look at him again as she rushed out the door, leaving Tom standing in the coffee shop, confused. Looking down, he realised she had left her laptop charger behind, so he unplugged it and rushed outside, looking left and right but not seeing any sign of Alexianna anywhere. But he did not concern himself too greatly, he had her email and that was enough to contact her and offer to return her charger to her, so he put it in his own satchel and decided to continue walking to RADA for his rehearsals for Hamlet.
*
'I'm sorry, what?' Luke looked at Tom his disbelief.
'One email, Luke, seriously, just to see if there is anything you can help her with.' Tom pleaded.
'Look, I am not going to give away trade secrets to some girl that convinced you into bed with her.' Luke stated.
Tom's jaw clenched. 'I've never slept with Lexi, she is an old family friend, nothing more.'
Luke noted the visible change in his client/friend's demeanour. 'Okay, well, that's a bit different, but still.'
'She is studying public relations and was clearly stressing over definitions, seriously, that's all.'
'Tom, if you cannot get the definitions, how are you supposed to do the job?'
'Please Luke, just see if she can be helped, at least save her time if she is not made for it.'
'You want me to tell someone whether they are cut out for this or not?'
'You own your own firm, you are someone she would here this from regardless.' Luke was forced to concede that that was indeed true. 'Just one email, see what it is that she is struggling with.'
'Can I ask why? Why this girl, what is the history?'
'None, there is no history, she and Emma were friends, her mother moved away and we all lost touch.'
'How long ago?'
'I have not seen her in about fifteen years.'
Luke stared at him in shock. 'Fifteen years? Are you serious? Tom, what is going on here?'
'Look, please just...' Luke kept looking at him. 'Alexianna never had it easy, her dad left when she was small and her mother was always less than pleasant, she always worked hard at everything and she deserves to get ahead in something in her life. The way she was today, it's obvious, she is still fighting uphill. I want to help if I can. This would help her, get her a career, set her up.'
Luke thought for a moment. 'Sure, yeah, help someone help themselves rather than do everything for them and not let them look after themselves, I understand that.' he took the email address. 'I'll put her in my contacts and get to it after this.'
'Thank you.' Tom smiled gratefully.
'Alright, but if she's useless, I cannot be nice about it, I will have to be honest.'
'Lexi used always say "I can be nice or I can be honest, which do you want",' Tom recalled fondly.
'Wait, this is THE Lexi?'
'Yes.'
'The one that got you into acting?'
'The one and the same.'
'Well, that explains the want to help her.'
'She is the reason I am me.' Tom smiled.
'Yeah, yeah, I get it, I...hmm.'
'What?'
'Her name is in our system.' Luke explained. 'She has applied here for an internship.'
'Really?' Tom rushed around to the other side of the desk. 'Yeah, that's her, Alexianna Hughes, aged thirty-one, well, I guess it was only about thirteen years then, not fifteen.'
'Jesus you really are terrible at maths.' Luke commented. 'Yes, she is applying bottom rung, she has a cover letter here.' He clicked on it. 'I let Elizabeth in HR deal with applications, these are only the ten finalists for the position, so she cannot be totally useless.' Luke commented, scanning the lines of writing in front of him. 'She has a serious mark against her though.'
'What is it?'
'She has not been working for nearly ten years, why is that do you know?'
'I don't.' Tom frowned, 'She was working when she was only fourteen in a sandwich company after school and weekends, she had two jobs when she was doing her A-Levels, she is not lazy.'
'Burn out maybe?' Luke suggested. 'Did she have any issues health wise, physical or otherwise?'
Tom knew what he was asking, did she have depression or any other such issue. 'She got panic attacks as a kid, she grew out of them though by the time I stopped seeing her around, the last thirteen years, I have no idea.'
'Well she would have been hired already if there were no blanks in the CV, she has a near perfect recommendation from the course head, her work is great and she seems to have good references, but the gap is something of note.'
'I can see if there's an explanation for that?' Tom suggested.
'Tom, this is business, don't get emotionally involved.' Luke warned. 'She is clearly hard working and because she is the something to you, I will help her on that level if she needs it, but on this,' He pointed to the screen in front of him, 'This is business and I have to think of what is best for Prosper first, not what I want.'
Tom inhaled deeply, 'I understand.'
'Good, I will allow Elizabeth do the interviews and see where that goes from there.'
'Thank you, I appreciate it, Luke.'
'I will drop her an email later and see if I can assist her in any way.' Luke promised.