Juliette felt it instantly—that sudden shift when a name turns into a story.
Mateo: It happened, Late Afternoon last week.
At the Elite Modeling Studio on Via Amedei 8, Claudio stood on the second floor, in Atelier 8, lit by a soft blue spotlight. Wearing L’ Home Invisible © speedo briefs. He was posing. Controlled. Composed. Ready to be photographed.
Then—chaos.
What culminated. In a street level entrance, a hunted man forced his way past security. A killer on the run, police closing on him. The killer made it to the 2nd floor. Crashing through the heavy canvas doors into the studio 8. I think he wasn’t looking for Claudio.
“Is he okay?” Juliette’s now frantic desperate voice cut through the confusion over the phone.
“Yes, yes—he’s fine!”
“He’s just met his “breath of death,” Matteo said, feeling urgency rise. Asking. Juliette, he added, “Can you write a story on this “memento mori encounter? I know someone in Elle who is interested in this glow story. I told Claudio—don’t speak to any press or TV until I’ve spoken with you first.”
“I’ll call him now. I’m in Milan next week.”
Juliette dialed Claudio herself. It went straight to voicemail.
Your publicist Matteo just called. I’m late leaving for Rome. We talk next week in Milan. Don’t speak to any media. Love, Juliette.
She hung up. Timing was everything now. Thinking let the story unravel itself.
She grabs her Bottega Venetta suitcase as her phone pings: Lyft driver is in front. Sliding into the Subaru, placing my suitcase on the passenger side. On the way to London’s Heathrow Airport, my psychologist mind is at work. The subject. Claudio and Amanda’s drifting relationship. Past the causes of their love’s erosion, they now float on separate islands, echoing the destiny of “Atlantis & the Pillars of Heracles” (Platonic myth).
Claudio, who allowed me to speak with his psychologist, Signora Dr. Sara Mirabelli in Milan—her office door bears the sign: “Our wounds are often doorways to the best and most”—is distancing himself from Amanda and clearly benefiting cognitively. Looking out the car window, I feel a rising panic as traffic crawls past; I’m afraid I’ll miss my flight. Soon, arriving at Heathrow, Terminal Gatwick 3, hurriedly I roll my Bottega Veneta suitcase, glancing nervously at the departures board.
Lucky me—my flight to Rome is delayed 30 minutes. Relaxed now, I am looking around and notice in the newsstand the Sun’s front page: “If Business Charlatan Trump Retires Today, 80,367 Lawsuits Await.” I joke to myself: maybe ChatGPT needs 10 AI Prozac pills—diagnosed with a “maga,” overthink loop malfunction. But honestly, who really knows how many people are and will in the future lineup to sue the U.S. President, or the American Government to reflect Trumps actions? What stage the world will be in?