Ray had reached the venue half an hour before Aiden and since then, he had been greeting people he knew and having small talks.
Having a long and illustrious career, Ray knew a lot of people who were attending. Even top executives.
Philips Fraser was one of them that he had known for a few years. Though, he didn't know the man personally.
They would greet each other and talk about movies and Hollywood from time to time.
Philips was just congratulating Ray on the success of [The Black Saint] when the latter had seen Aiden coming through.
"Aiden, you look pretty good. Cameras are going to love you when it starts, especially when you stand up to pick your award."
Ray said as he gave Aiden a small hug.
"Thank you. You look good… too."
Aiden's gaze stayed on Philips as he said that. Besides him, Wade's heartbeat quickened up.
He didn't know what was going to happen now.
Ray noticed Aiden looking towards Philips and just thought that he didn't know who he was. So, he smiled and introduced himself.
"This is Philips Fraser, the president of the American Press association. You must have heard of him. He had been part of the organisation for years and had been a prominent part of the whole industry."
Philips smiled at that introduction and pushed his hands towards Aiden. That smile just looked ugly to Aiden.
"I have been hearing a lot of good things about you. Hollywood always needs creative people like you."
"Thank you."
Aiden said as he shook his hand but in his mind, he was just running down chances of him punching Philips and getting away with it.
In the end, it was just wishful thinking and not something Aiden would do. He had better control on his emotions no matter how much he hated a person.
"When I first watched [The Black Saint], I knew that your performance would get more than one nomination. It was probably the best I have seen in the last few years if I'm talking about negative characters."
Philips praised and his smile was just like an old man who was happy to see young people doing good. Watching him, both Aiden and Wade felt a bit sick.
But they kept it hidden with smiles.
"Does that mean Aiden is going to win tonight?" Ray asked cheekily.
"I can't answer that."
"You can give a hint."
Philips laughed and just shook his head.
"There's no fun in that. Anyway, I will see you at the after party. The nights are going to be long tonight. I hope you will be there. A lot of people especially want to talk to you."
After saying that, Philips left to talk to other people and to make sure that every arrangement was fine.
When he left, Aiden took a sigh of relief.
'I was feeling sick just standing next to him.'
He thought in his mind.
"Philips won't be like that until you have a lot of chances of winning. I feel like you would be the winner tonight."
Ray muttered, looking very sure of it.
"It doesn't matter." Aiden said. "Getting an award, I mean. Do you know Philips well?"
"Uh no. I don't really but it's more like I know him but not at a personal level. Just know that he's an influential old guy who has a fair amount of connections. Even if I don't care a lot, it's still a basic thing to talk nicely and remember names."
Ray felt a bit strange when Aiden said that but he still replied.
"Do you know anything bad about him?"
Wade gave a sharp look towards Aiden when he asked that. But he was only looking at Ray.
"No, I don't. You are acting strange. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm. Anyway, I will see you inside."
Aiden said and avoided the strange looks that Ray was giving in. He walked inside with Wade while Ray kept wondering what had happened to Aiden.
Why was he acting so strange? It was like he was just another person.
But he just dismissed it as Aiden being nervous. After all, that was very rare.
***
The Golden Globes award ceremony was hosted by a famous comedian, Levi Ritchie. He was known as one of the better comedians around and had also hosted the previous award ceremony.
For a lot of the audience, Levi's opening monologue was a major reason for them to watch the show.
It was because he was known to not have any fear of what he was saying and would make jokes on any celebrity no matter how influential he is.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen, I'm your host Levi Ritchie and I'm pretty sure you all know me already. But it's just standard procedure to start the ceremony. Welcome tonight to yet another year of Golden Globes, the self-proclaimed second biggest award show of the world. And by world, I mean America. Like the aliens in our movies, we all think that the world is only America, am I right?"
People laughed hearing that. And in a way, the sentence was extremely true.
Hollywood did have a habit of thinking of itself as the world cinema when there were other prominent industries in the world. Though, Aiden didn't care to think a lot on the topic as the ceremony moved.
For the next 15 minutes, Levi presented his monologue, taking quips at the celebrities present.
From jokes of a certain celebrity buying an award to questioning people for their weird script choices in a humorous way. There was everything that Levi focused on.
Though, maybe the joke that hit Aiden the most was, "You know by statistics, there would be at least one serial killer in the room. But I don't believe in that. We have serial killers, abusers, cheaters and even molesters present here. Allegedly."
A lot of people laughed at the joke while some looked very uncomfortable. Aiden turned towards Philips but the man was laughing with a smile, sitting in one of the front seats.
'That bastard. He has very thick skin.'
Aiden thought and frowned.
The event went ahead like that with a lot of other jokes from the host. Those were at the level where Aiden was sure that it would go viral after the event.
He had to say that Levi didn't fear anyone. At one point, he made a joke about a very prominent director and the allegations of minor grooming on him.
"This year, we had a lot of young actors that did great in movies. A lot of actresses that were underaged made a splendid debut and are here to impress some big directors to move their career forward. Don't worry, Allen Murphy already had his eyes on you all. I mean, your talents."
The director Allen Murphy had looked very offended as his face had just froze but people around him were laughing. He wasn't able to do anything.
Seeing this, Aiden had looked at Wade and whispered.
"Do you think Levi won't have people after him for these jokes? A lot of them look offended."
"I doubt it. People can be petty but the man doesn't care. His jokes have become more sharp as people have gotten sensitive. Once, he was close to getting blacklisted because an executive didn't like him. Then, he produced, wrote and acted in his own series for a streaming platform and got more famous. He had work because he's talented. No one can do anything to him because of his attitude. He doesn't let anyone."
Aiden nodded and after that, awards started being given out. From technical awards to other awards that didn't look a lot important but for filmmakers, those were the most important awards.
In the middle of the show, Aiden's thoughts became more and more jumbled. He was feeling like he should leave but there was no way out.
In the end, he told Wade that he was going to the bathroom to take some personal space to comprehend his thoughts.
Reaching the bathroom, he kept splashing water on himself.
Splash! Splash!
His shirt got a bit soaked but he didn't care.
'What am I going to do now?'
He thought in his mind.
The whole award show was going on in his mind, the sound of claps could still be heard in the bathroom. And he had a feeling that he was going to win.
Although he didn't know for sure that he was going to win it, he just had a feeling.
And his feelings and Instincts were very strong.
'Should I just go on the stage and take the award normally?'
He thought but that idea was not acceptable to him.
He felt more and more conflicted by the minute.
It was then that his phone suddenly rang. He took it out and was surprised to see that it was Ava.
A lot of thoughts went in his mind before he picked it up.
"Hello, Aiden. Are you okay?"
Her voice came from the other side.
