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Late night, 6th December

The moment Harry got down on his knees, Zoe felt like her life flashed in front of her face- or was there actually a flash? 

"Come on, you need to say yes, then I need to put it on." Harry grabbed Zoe's hand and squeezed her, "They are waiting." 

"Wait, so there are people here, right now, taking photos of us." Zoe caught up to his plan, "Okay, that is pretty shitty of you for not letting me know first. Shouldn't that be somewhere on the contract?"

"Please don't mention that word here," Harry tried to keep a smile on his face, "just go along, please, my leg is getting sour." 

Zoe tried to put on her best show, she nodded, a little screamed, faked crying, and then happily hooped onto Harry as he stood up: 

"Oh, sweetie, it's beautiful!" Zoe shrank on purpose.

Then she whispered into Harry's ear while they were fake hugging:" The ring is too big." 

"I know, grabbed it from the acting department, they are usually big on purpose." Harry also put on his best smile for the camera, "I will get you a better one later." 

The two walked inside the building holding hands, Zoe couldn't wait to ask him:" Is it over yet? Is that it?" 

After getting an affirmative answer, Zoe quickly let go of Harry's hand and took a good at the 'ring'.

"Oh my god, this is so ugly." She couldn't help it at the sight of her fake ruby ring, "Aren't you worried that this would be part of the picture."

"I'm okay to be seen as a man with a bad taste for rings."

"You are an artist."

"I'm just a producer." Harry answered, highlighting the difference, "I don't need to have good taste myself, I need to know how to hire people who have the best taste." 

When they got back to the apartment, Harry explained that Elodie was living next door to him because she had a massive crush on him ever since they met each other on set.

"She called Starlight and offered to sign with us," Harry explained.

"Did you sign her? I don't think so." Zoe didn't remember seeing her photos on the Starlight active member wall. 

"No, of course not. She is good at her job but not that good yet." Harry shook his head.

"But you promised you would sign me if I finished acting in this, self-made show called Your Life." Zoe couldn't find a better word to describe this. 

"Yes, because you are different." Harry tried to show Zoe the comparison. 

Elodie is indeed beautiful, but she is already set in her style- she could play the princess that everyone loves or the queen everyone fears when she gets older. But it would be hard for her to play a poor girl who needed money or a mother who loved making her kid's lunch boxes. 

"I want actors, not a pretty doll that sits on the shell." Harry knew that his words sounded quite rude, but he was just being honest. 

"Ouch, I hope no one says that about me." 

"Elodie came to my apartment one day, drunk, asking for help. I saw that right through her- I have seen things like that quite often. So I didn't even open the door. And I was right. She hired people to come and take our photos-" Harry was adjusting his posture on the new sofa, finding his favorite spot. 

"The moment I opened the door and she pretended to fall on me, someone will click the camera." 

"Is that what you did today? You also hired someone." Zoe was finally on the same pace as Harry and caught up to his plan.

"No, I didn't, but I promise you they are out there, and they took pictures." 

Zoe went to sleep thinking about Theo again- the moment Harry got down on his knee, all Zoe could see was Theo's face. 

She had dreamed about that day for a long time- three years is not a short time for such a young couple to be together. 

She thought the moment Theo had a breakthrough in his career, he would have asked her to marry him and be there with her forever. 

But she would never have that day- and the first time a man asked her to marry him was with this ugly stage prop. 

"Ugh." Zoe couldn't get over the embarrassment she felt when she was on the balcony," I hope I look okay in the pictures." 

Morning, 7th December

"Excuse me!! Why did they use this picture?" 

Zoe was staring at the front page of the biggest entertainment news outlet- The Morning Gossip Squad. 

They used the photo of her in tears, getting into the apartment building!

"This is probably the photo that was inputted into the security system of this area," Harry explained since that seemed to be from the day Zoe first came to his place, crying, not over their breakup. 

"But the engagement photo doesn't look bad," Harry pointed at the photo where both of them had a fake smile, "and you see, they can't even see what the ring actually looked like." 

Zoe didn't want to talk to Harry, she was upset that he didn't want to handle this any other way- couldn't he just talk to Elodie? Just warn her not to be nosy? Or just date her so that she will be happy! 

"Hey, where are you going?" Zoe was leaving the door when Harry stopped her, "You didn't have any breakfast yet, and what do you have to do?" 

"Are you crazy, I am late for classes!" Zoe couldn't believe Harry would ask her that, he was the one who designed her classes.

"I know, but your classes are canceled, sorry, forgot to tell you." Harry topped up his morning coffee, sleeping on the sofa bed last night was rough on his back, "You have another important class to go to, a very practical one." 

"What is it now?" Zoe put down her tote bag and walked back inside.

"We are going to pick you a real ring." Harry winked, "A big one, the kind that will start a whole conversation."