January 18th, 2016

"As it turns out, New York is only five hours behind London."

"Hello, Daniel."

"Yes, hello. Five hours behind means that I can call you between the hours of 1pm and two am and not disrupt your sleep. That is, if you wake up at eight and sleep at ten."

"And what if I'm at work?"

"You can tell them you're doing market research again."

"You've thought about this far too much."

"I know. I zoned out of my important meeting this morning to do the math work."

"Oh, that's sweet. I'm more important than your work."

"You're not more important than my work. You're more important to me than my work. Or, at least, for twenty minutes this morning you were."

"I think that's even sweeter."

"That aside, how is the Big Apple?"

"Cold."

"That's all you have to say?"

"I'm shadowing someone on a shoot and it's out in Central Park. Do you know how cold it is?! It's like, minus a hundred out here."

"I'm sure it's not."

"Are you here? Are you freezing your arse off outside? Do you have frostbite on your nose and hypothermia setting in? You, you are not!"

"So dramatic."

"Says the guy who threw red wine on his ex-girlfriend's white dress."

"In my defence, you told me to end it on a dramatic note."

"There we are then. I have a flair for dramatics."

"Other than the weather, is it ok there? Was your flight ok? How's the hotel?"

"It's fine. Flight was good. Hotel I haven't seen yet."

"You haven't seen it yet?"

"We went to the shoot straight from the airport, so I didn't get a chance to drop my luggage at the hotel. From the look of this schedule they've given me, I won't be seeing the suite until tomorrow night."

"I thought you were there to preview clothes."

"I am."

"Why are you on a photoshoot then?"

"Because I'm going to be here for a few days and need to do other things to occupy my time. If I only came here to see clothes, I could be on a flight home tomorrow. Need to make the jet lag worthwhile."

"I suppose. There's an amazing restaurant in Little Italy called Rosario's and if you have time, you should go there. It's a hole in the wall type of place but it makes authentic Italian spaghetti that is to die for."

"How'd you know about that place?"

"My firm has offices in New York. I did a stint there a few years ago."

"Did Arabella come with you?"

"To the fashion capital of the world? Of course she did."

"Ok, first of all Paris is the fashion capital of the world, not New York. Secondly, she only came here for the clothes? It's a good thing you got rid of her."

"How so?"

"Because she should have moved here for you. Not for fashion."

"Weren't you the one saying how hard it is to maintain a relationship when you have to travel? Maybe if you stayed put in one place long enough, your relationships would last longer."

"For the right guy, I would stay put. As of yet, I haven't found someone worthy enough of that."

"But if you did find someone worthy, you'd give up the jet-set lifestyle?"

"To an extent. I mean, I'd have to travel for fashion week and such but jaunts across the Atlantic like this would have to stop."

"Interesting."

"It's called commitment."

"Have you ever had to commit to anything before?"

"Um, a few times, yes."

"Like what?"

"I'm committed to my Game of Thrones obsession. I'm committed to my love for Chris Hemsworth. I'm committed to lusting after the new Louboutins."

"Those are superficial. Don't you have something more substantial to commit yourself to?"

"Substantial? Of course I do."

"Really?"

"Remember how I told you that I run marathons, well that's a commitment."

"Well, you have me stuck there."

"Is that your way of saying 'touché?'"

"Indeed."

"What about you? You're a workaholic. Would you give up your late nights at the office for the right person?"

"I would, yes."

"But you didn't give them up for Arabella, did you?"

"She wasn't The One."

"Weren't you going to propose? Pretty sure that means she was The One."

"She'd be the one I'd settle for. The more I think about it, it was convenient to be with her. She had the right name, the right social standing, my grandmother liked her... on paper, she was exactly what I needed, but in person she wasn't what I wanted."

"I still maintain that you need to date around. Date, not sleep. You clearly don't have the best track record and you're not entirely sure what you want seeing as your usual type have all bombed, so you need to date. C'mon, you know it makes sense."

"You know I can't do that. I have a reputation to protect. I can't do that to my family."

"Prince Harry goes on lots of dates. And he's a Prince. Are you a Prince? DO you have a title?"

"..."

"No, exactly. So, date! It won't kill you and who knows, it might lead you to the person you should be with. You know, The One."

"Have you been speaking to Elias? He tells me the exact same thing."

"He slipped me his number but I haven't rang him. From how you make it sound, he's like the male version of me. Or I'm the female version of him. Either way, I don't want to date the guy me. I want the opposite of that!"

"He gave you his number?"

"Yep."

"I'll kill him. He has to know that you're off limits."

"Whoa, who says I'm off limits?"

"Me!"

"And since when do you get to determine that?"

"I am not getting caught in the middle of a relationship between you two. He's my best friend and you're Crazy Clément. If you two imploded- wait, sorry that's wrong. When you two implode, I'll be piggy in the middle and have to choose between my left arm and my right arm. I happen to like having two arms."

"Crazy Clément? Really, for calling me that,  I should date Elias and watch as it inevitably implodes and you end up losing a bloody arm."

"I'm adding violent tendencies to your growing list of endearing qualities."

"Oh, fuck you and your sarcasm."

"You're just jealous that I do sarcasm better than you."

"Tu es tellement nul."

"..."

"Jealous that I can speak French better than you?"

"No."

"Arrêtede me raconter des salads, Daniel."

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"I said that you suck. Then I told you to stop telling lies. You are so beyond jealous of my grasp of the language of love. Face it."

"It might be the language of love, but it's also the language of arrogant, vain, stuck up, pompous pricks."

"Haha. If that's the case, how come you aren't fluent?"

"I'm going to phone you in the morning at three fifty-two."

"That's a very precise time, Danny Boy. Now, why would you call me at that ungodly hour of the morning?"

"To piss you off."

"Charming, aren't you, Mr Whitaker?"

"Miss Clément, I think you're trying to placate me."

"Is it working?"

"Begrudgingly yes."

"Does that mean my wake up call will be more like eight am instead?"

"I think those terms are acceptable."

"Score."

"Weirdo."

"Duck."

"Crazy Clément."

"Danny Boy."

"Freakazoid."

"Brother of Jesus."

"Sophie."

"Haha, you ran out of nicknames for me, didn't you?"

"Perhaps."

"When I was younger, my parents called me Pug."

"Why?"

"Because, apparently, I looked like a pug when I was a baby."

"..."

"..."

"Haha. Haha. Haha. Haha. Haha. Haha."

"Well, you're just being mean now. I'm hanging up."

"Haha. Haha. Haha. Haha."

"You're still a duck."

"Haha. Haha. Haha."

"And you call me werid."

"Haha. Haha"

"I hope you choke on your laughter."

"Haha."

"Dick."