10. STEVIE
STEVIE
W e curl up together in bed, the sheets a tangled mess around us. I feel light and so happy I’m almost dizzy. I would never say it out loud to Lo, but I think—I know— that was the best sex I’ve ever had.
“Water?” I offer.
Lo nods. “Water would be perfect.”
I reach over to the nightstand to pick up my reusable water bottle and hand it off to her. “I hope it’s okay that it’s mine. I can go fill up a cup for you, too, if you’d prefer that.”
“I mean, we’ve already shared spit at this point,” Lo teases. She sits up in bed, pulling the sheet up over her chest. I like seeing her like this—bare-faced, stripped down. Her perfectly maintained hair has transformed into the sexiest bed head I’ve ever seen.
She accepts the water and takes a sip as I slide back into bed with her. I pick up my phone to check the time—it’s already almost three. I have no idea where the time went or how we got here, but I’m not complaining.
“You have a dog?” Lo asks and then blushes. “Sorry, I wasn’t intentionally looking at your phone screen.”
I smile. She’s cute when she’s nervous. “Yeah, he’s four.
I got him from the shelter when he was a few months old,” I say, and make my phone light up again so she can see the picture better.
“He joins us on out-of-state shoots. I usually just have a friend dog sit him if I’m still in town but busy with something work-related.
Everybody loves him, so it’s not hard to find someone to do it. ”
“He’s cute,” she says. “What’s his name?”
Now it’s my turn to blush. “Mulder.”
She throws her head back and laughs, and I can’t resist smiling too. “That’s cute.”
“I have a tattoo of him, actually.”
“That’s even cuter,” Lo gushes. “I have to see it.”
“Here.” I sit up and turn away from Lo so she can see the tattoo on my shoulder blade. “Can you see it?”
“Yeah, I love it.” She puts her hand up to my skin, gently tracing her fingertips over it. It feels so foreign to be touched like this. I never let things go this far with anyone that the touch is comforting instead of inherently sexual.
I turn back to her and settle back in bed.
“What’s this one?” she asks in a voice just above a whisper. Her fingers lightly trace over my forearm. It’s usually covered by the sleeves of my oversized t-shirts, but it’s plainly exposed right now.
I like the bubble we’re in; it feels like we’re the only two people in the entire world right now. Time isn’t real and work isn’t real. And for just a little longer, I can pretend Lo is just some girl that I know instead of a temporary co-star.
“Just a skull,” I say, and then take her fingers, lightly dragging them over my skin. “Eyes, jaw, parietal. Nothing special,” I added, predicting that would’ve most likely been her next question.
“I like it.”
“None of my tattoos really mean anything—except for the one of Mulder. I just like them.”
She props her head up on her hand. “It’s like something out of a sketchbook or something. It’s cool.”
“You have any tattoos?”
“I think you would’ve seen them by now if I did.” Lo smirks, making me laugh.
I pull her in close, brushing my hand over her bare back. She slowly drops her head down onto my chest, like she’s waiting for me to push her away. When I don’t—I could never imagine—she relaxes her body completely against mine. Her arm hangs over my waist, our feet tangled up under the sheets.
“Just once,” I mumble softly, mostly to remind myself that this can only happen once. It doesn’t make sense for it to continue beyond this; I’m on the road too often, our schedules would never line up. There’s a reason divorces and open relationships are so prominent in Hollywood.
Not that I’m imagining anything long-term would happen between me and Lo. Obviously.
“Just once,” Lo says just as softly.
I can’t tell if she really believes it or if she’s lying, just like I am.
I wake up the next morning with Lo’s naked body still wrapped up in mine. My alarm is blaring next to me, but Lo is entirely unaffected, her eyes still peacefully shut.
I’m tired in a way that makes my body feel like it’s full of sand. My eyes are heavy, and I already know I have under-eye bags without needing to look.
I’ll give myself exactly two more minutes to enjoy the warmth of Lo’s body in the hotel sheets before I have to force myself out of bed. I’m careful not to move, not to even change the pace of my breathing, because I’m worried that’ll somehow wake her up.
With my eyes glued to my phone to watch the time tick by, I realize I don’t want it to end. I want these to be the longest minutes of my life in the best possible way.
But, eventually, the clock switches over to 8:42 a.m., and I know I can’t give myself any longer than that. The second I start giving in and letting myself want to explore this further, the more I’m setting myself up for a long list of impossibly shitty outcomes.
I slowly peel myself away from Lo, one body part at a time, and then slip out of bed.
She doesn’t stir, which I don’t mind. It seems easier for her to wake up when I’m already out of bed, so we don’t have to navigate the complexities of realizing we’d slept so close when we have to spend all day together.
I move through my morning routine at a glacial pace, as if moving slower will somehow give me more time with Lo. But by the time I’m out of the shower and dressed, Lo is already awake and has made the bed.
“I’ll go brush my teeth and we can get going,” she says.
“Oh–” I say, caught off-guard. I catch myself immediately before a genuine protest can leave my lips. What the fuck am I on, wanting to spend more time with her? Wanting her to slow down? “Yeah. Based on the group chat, I think everyone’s ready to get coffee.”
“Awesome,” Lo says. She steps up next to me, and I turn to give her space to walk by. For just a moment, the two of us hover there like we’re not sure what to say to each other. But neither of us says anything. The spell is broken, and Lo continues to the bathroom, and I pack up my stuff.
After Lo brushes her teeth, we stand on either end of the room and look at each other. Lo looks down at her clothes. “I guess I can just wear this until we get back to my house? If that’s okay with you? I can wash them, too.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” I say. “You can just give them back when we
“Thanks,” Lo says. She freezes where she’s standing, and we continue to look at each other like we’re not sure what else there is to do or say. You would think we’d never met before last night.
And I guess we didn’t really. This is the very definition of a one-night stand with someone I barely know.
It just feels different with Lo for some reason.
“Okay, let’s go,” I finally say and sling my backpack over one shoulder. There’s no use in drawing out the discomfort; we might as well get the rest of the day moving.
“Ayo!” Andrew waves us over as we step outside. Andrew and the twins are near the van already, ready to go. “Let’s get this bus moving.”
It’s obvious to all three of them at the same time that Lo is wearing my clothes. There might as well be a glowing sign above our heads that says we had sex last night . I ignore Andrew’s eyes on me as I open the passenger side door for Lo and then head around to the driver’s side.
“Alright, coffee and then back to Lo’s,” I say. “Then, Lo and I will go out to this, like, self-reflection meeting—”
“Self-connection,” Lo corrects me.
“Self- connection meeting,” I say. “Then, we’ll film at her house and wrap at some point late tonight when we think we have enough stuff.”
“You don’t want any company visiting the cult? I can be the muscle,” Andrew offers.
“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think we’ll need muscle for this.”
“We have to hang out in Lo’s house all day?” Tanner asks as if that isn’t his job.
“You guys have to get things set up for tonight. Cameras, lighting. We’ll only be gone for a few hours, and then we need to be ready to film once it gets dark.”
“Dude, the house is, like, freakishly haunted,” Sean says.
“Then you’ll get some good footage while you’re setting up, too,” I reply and start up the van.
I pull out of the hotel parking lot and drive us to the closest coffee shop I can map us to.
The sun beats down on me through the windshield, almost making me forget that we’ve been deep in the throes of a paranormal investigation.
So much of my job involves shadows and long overnight shoots that I forget to appreciate the sun when I have it.
I’m still not completely convinced of what’s going on at Lo’s house—everything feels like it can be disproven, like the kind of thing anyone could do with practical effects.
I’m in the kind of business where most people watching the show are going to be trying to poke holes in every story we tell them.
And as much as there are weird things happening at Lo’s house, anyone who has been around the block with paranormal things knows how easy it is to make lights flicker and turn the house into a mess.
I pull the van into the coffee shop parking lot and park. “You already know what I want,” I say to the twins, looking over my shoulder at them.
“Yes, boss,” Tanner responds, saluting me in the process.
Even though I’m sending the twins in to get coffee—as has been tradition since Andrew and I have been able to take on interns, we also cover the cost of their coffees so it’s more of a bit than a method of cruelty—I still get out of the car to stretch.
Lo follows the twins, leaving just me and Andrew at the van.
As soon as Lo walks away, I can simultaneously breathe easier and also wish she were still standing next to me. I’m envisioning the day ahead and the drive up to the ‘cult’ house, and I’m a little nervous. I would just bring Andrew instead, but I don’t want to leave Lo responsible for the twins.
And I also, selfishly, want just a little more time with her, even though I can tell that I’m being weird around her.
I can’t tell if it’s having sex with Lo or telling Lo things about myself that’s making me feel so exposed around her now.
I’m not typically someone who associates feelings with sex, especially something we both agreed would just be a one-off, so I’m guessing it’s the latter.
I’ll fool around, but I never let anyone really get to know me.
Despite the show itself being fake, the story—and heart—behind it never was. I might not be a believer, but it feels almost like it’s written into my family’s bloodline to at least keep an open mind.
“So, how was your night?” Andrew asks, dragging out the syllables as he throws a glance my way. I realize I’ve been staring into the coffee shop, deep in thought about Lo, even though I can’t even see her anymore.
“Good,” I answer, hoping I can play it off effectively. I’m not in the business of kissing and telling, especially when it comes to Lo. I want our night to be our night and no one else’s.
“Right.” Andrew looks at me through his sunglasses. He scratches his beard. “She looks awfully cute in that Wyatt County t-shirt. Which, by the way, you went to Wyatt County High School, didn’t you?”
“Shut up,” I say, throwing a light punch into his arm.
Andrew knows me well enough to know that’s everything he’s getting out of me. “You ready for today? It’s gonna be a big one.”
“Yeah, I think so,” I say. “Same thing we always do. Just another day at work.”
“I don’t know, man. I hate to say it because I don’t really want it to be a ghost, but I think this might be something,” Andrew says. “I know we should take advantage of Lo being away from the house, but I don’t even think we need to set things up for this one. I think we’ll be just fine.”
I think it over, weighing our options. It makes me nervous to not set anything up and not guarantee that we’ll get some good shots—otherwise, it’ll be a waste of an episode—but I’m also worried Lo will see right through it.
She’s smart. Our practical effects are good on camera because we can make them good.
But they won’t hold up to someone in the room who isn’t in on the act.
“Fuck it. Let’s just film and see what we can get. We can edit stuff on the backend if we need to make it more interesting,” I say. “If anything, this episode is more about Lo, anyway. People are watching for her.”
Andrew is quiet for a beat. “Right,” he finally says, his smile thick in his voice.
I turn to look at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” Andrew says, shaking his head. “Nothing at all.”
I brush off his comments, not ready to unpack that I am probably being way more obvious than I thought, and fix my eyes on the coffee shop door.
My phone vibrates, and I pull my phone out of my pocket.
A notification tells me that Lauren Lane just paid me.
Even though the account is nondescript and doesn’t even have a profile picture—just like mine for privacy purposes—I don’t have to check to know what it’s for.
I smile a little bit to myself, shaking my head.
Eventually, Lo comes back with the twins in tow. They’re all carrying coffees, including the hot black coffee I asked for.
“Perfect, thank you,” I say and pull it out of the drink carrier. The twins get into the car along with Andrew, and I turn to look at Lo. “How did you know exactly how much to send me for the room?” I ask.
“I looked up the rates online,” Lo admits.
I laugh a little bit. “I guess this is on me for having a public Venmo profile.”
“ Don’t try to send it back. I can already tell what you’re plotting.”
“I wasn’t,” I lie. I'll absolutely be sending the money back to her later today.
Lo throws me a smile over her shoulder before heading over to the passenger side of the van, leaving me weak in the knees.