The Unkindness of the Paparazzi

by Odette Botha

  “No,” Joshua said.

  “What would you do if someone was watching you without you knowing it?” Jack asked.

  “Let them watch, besides who would do that?” Joshua asked.

  “I don’t know. I am just asking.”

  “Jack have you been watching us?” I asked playfully.

  “No please no, are you mad?” He asked disgusted.

  We just laughed at him. He got up to phone Isabel, clearly disturbed by our conversation.

  Chapter 52

  We had arrived in New York around eleven o clock the morning. New York was absolutely breathtaking. The movies never did it justice. The Upper East Side was in short a different world. You could smell the money and power a mile away.

  The people there were very society orientated and so were their spawn. The kids not even old enough to use alcohol were talking about stocks and bonds. They all had trust funds and the only thing that mattered was the size of it.

  There were girls half my age wearing designer outfits and had as they called it product in their hair. It was definitely different there. Boys no older than sixteen walking with their arms around two or more girls at a time. You could hear them talk it was like they were years older than their actual age. “My father says…”

  It was in one sense probably very lonely in their world and in another way it was the only world that they knew. The elite also did not believe in breakfast they had brunch. The people would dress up and there was no such thing as pancakes and a cup of coffee. It was buffets and bone dry Latte’s.

  If you got caught out wearing a dress by no one you were committing social suicide. It was a world with impossible standards. Or so I thought but these people loved it they thrived on it. The husbands would marry the wives their mothers chose but still have a mistress to ease the pain.

  To tuck your kids in at night wasn’t done, there were nannies for that. You don’t have to clean or cook their was ‘the help’ for that. People driving you around, opening your front door even pushing the button in the elevator for you.

  The only thing these people had to do was wake up look fabulous and attend social meetings. Thinking of it from that aspect made that life almost look fabulous and easy.

  Jack and I were standing outside the apartment building one day, when I said to him. “Do you think it’s a hard life?” Pointing at two teenagers dressed like adults.

  “No I don’t think so; I think it’s pretty fantastic. Everyone wants to be them,” he said dreaming.

  “Yes but what about playing with dolls or sleep over’s with your girlfriends? They are missing out on their childhood.”

  I couldn’t imagine missing out on all the stuff I did as a child.

  “Katie they have everything available at the touch of a button. Parties, drugs, alcohol, designer wear you name it. By the way they do have sleep over’s they call it swarys. Besides, the trust funds and statuses numb the pain of a lost childhood,” he said laughing.

  “I think it’s sad.”

  “No my dear sweetheart the only thing sad about the Upper East Side is if your dad isn’t a Wall Street broker or a property mogul.”

  I could see that he was having fun with me, I also realised I might not adjust to life in New York as I fast as I had hoped.

  The penthouse was fantastic. It had three stories, white marble, aluminium glass finishes. It had big windows for outside walls, we had a full view of New York.

  The fireplace was the biggest I had ever seen. When we got there my boxes were standing in the middle of the lounge, it looked like it was lost in the big open space. “Do you like it Mrs Scott?” Joshua asked looking pleased.

  “You did good Mr Scott,” I said smiling.

  It was breathtaking, the space was going to be a good change to my matchbox in LA. We didn’t have any furniture or cutlery we had to still buy everything.

  We at least got a bed out of a catalogue and Jack arranged for it to be delivered, he had to sleep on a blow up mattress till we could accommodate him with a bed of his own.

  We sat on the floor of this huge penthouse drinking wine one night.

  We had bought Chinese and two bottles of red wine. Jack was telling us about his and Isabel’s plans.

  They had decided to have a long distance romance till the divorce was finalised and then she would join him in New York. She had decided that it would be the perfect location for her flower shop and they would get an apartment of their own.

  Jack and Joshua discussed the fact that Joshua wanted to take a year off from making movies to settle in New York and into our new life.

  I would start on my new novel and it would be about friends lost and to new prospects. Life was fantastic and nothing was missing. I had taken out the stitches in my arm to Joshua’s dismay and I was recovering from the trauma nicely.

  The first morning I woke up in our new place was the best; it was ours we both started fresh in a new place. New beginnings were on the horizon and it gave me hope for the future, although a future in a plastic world like New York might seem difficult but I was willing to do it. I had everything I had ever wished for and more. I had a future with Joshua Edward Scott.