3. Emmett
Cassie just left my trailer and I’ve already received a strongly worded text from Marcy reminding me she is off limits. I text back to remind her that nothing in my contract states I can’t be friends with staff. She doesn’t need to know that I want to spend more time with Cassie.
I’m not looking for anything serious, though, which is exactly what I told Marcy when she asked me last night at the diner after she caught me staring at Cassie one too many times. I couldn’t help myself. I was in a trance with the way her brown waves fell right below her shoulder, bouncing and swaying with every step she took.
Honestly, after last night when she rejected me, I didn’t know if I was going to see her again unless it was at the diner. My friends like to go there occasionally, but I don’t get out much other than that.
During filming, I try to stay home as much as possible. I only have a few key people I hang out with. Everyone else I’ve tried to develop relationships with just ended up using me in the end and got frustrated when I wouldn’t take selfies for their Instagram page.
I like Cassie though. As friends, maybe. She’s easy to talk to, and I enjoy saying things that cause her cheeks to turn the prettiest shade of red. It would be easier to ignore her, or at least calm my flirting, but I can’t help it. When I’m near her, my heart strings tug to be closer, to touch her.
It’ll pass. This feeling of infatuation and attraction is nothing more than a fleeting feeling because she’s new and not someone I’ve known for a while. Our relationship stands free from the pollution of my deep-seated trust issues from childhood.
There’s a knock on my trailer door before it swings open. I’m grateful to have a distraction from my thoughts.
Tyler walks up the stairs, waves, and takes a seat on the couch. He reaches for the remote and turns on the TV. I grab my drink from the counter in the kitchen and join him.
“Did you have someone in here?” Tyler asks.
“Why?” I ask, turning my head to face him.
Momentarily breaking his gaze from the TV, he looks at me. “You just have this look on your face.”
“I don’t have a look on my face.” I look the same as I always do. Sure, I have Cassie on my mind, but that doesn’t have any effect on my facial expressions.
“You’re making that face again,” Tyler says.
I sigh and decide to change the subject.
“First day going okay?”
He nods. “Yep, already met with Marcy and her new assistant. Have you met her? She’s—”
“Mine,” I interrupt, quickly shaking my head. I’m digging myself into a hole.
Tyler’s eyes widen. “Cassie and you? Already? How?”
“Not like that.” Great, now I need to explain. “I met her at the diner last night. She was here right before you came over.” Tyler’s eyes grow wider with every word. “Ugh, not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter. Marcy asked me to give her a tour of the trailer.”
He turns back to face the TV, crossing his right ankle over his left knee. “Hm, okay. We can talk more about this later.”
Not the outcome I wanted from that conversation, but at least it’s tabled for later. Tyler knows I don’t see women often, if at all. I stay to myself. My parents aren’t the best around new people in my life, so I’ve closed myself off from forming any new relationships.
Growing up, they only supported relationships that helped the Davis name. My dad would make sure I wasn’t friends with anyone that wouldn’t strengthen our reputation in Hollywood, even when I was little. It wasn’t enough to just be kind or fun to be around, they also had to be famous or have a lot of money. He argued it would “help my image.” My image doesn’t need help. I do just fine by myself. I tried to hide my friends at first, but that didn’t work. The older I got, the more my “friends” wanted to exploit me and use me for my last name. I suppose that’s what my dad was trying to avoid, but it didn’t help me find genuine friendships until I started working at January Studios.
I met Tyler first but ignored him in the beginning. Trying to keep things professional, I wouldn’t talk to anyone about anything other than work. One day, there was a knock on my door and Tyler was standing on the other side of it with a bag full of food leftover from that day. He said he heard I had an Xbox and he had dinner if I wanted to hang out. That was the start of our friendship. He introduced me to Max and Lane. For the past year, it’s been the five of us, including Marcy. Best friends. Something I never thought I needed until I had it.
They all come over most days, even if I’m not here. It’s the best place for us to get together on set. Tyler has an office but no couch. Max and Lane don’t work out of anywhere… At least, I never see them in an office. They’re either on set, in the wardrobe department, or in my trailer. Come to think of it, they might work out of my trailer the most.
I turn my head back to Tyler. “Are Max and Lane coming over?”
He shrugs. Extremely helpful.
I take my phone out of my pocket. I have an urge to text Cassie, even though I know she’s still on set with Marcy. Since she’s the new production assistant, they included her number in this week’s memo with the schedule.
What would I even text her? I just saw her an hour ago. Would it be too soon to ask her to spend time together? This is always the time I wish I wasn’t me but someone with the freedom to do things like grab coffee with a pretty girl. If I go anywhere, I’m mobbed by photographers or bombarded by people asking for selfies every five minutes. It’s why I stay home often and only go out in controlled environments, like the diner, where they don’t allow photographers to camp out.
I turn to face Tyler again. “What would you say about coming over tonight?”
He sighs heavily. He hates when I interrupt his show. I can see him roll his eyes before he presses pause on the remote and turns his head to me. “I would say we always fucking come to your apartment. Why are you being weird? Is this because you want to invite Cassie to hang out but you don’t want it to seem like a date?”
Tyler takes the opportunity of our conversation to stand up and walk into the kitchen to grab another snack and a drink.
“Want one?” he asks, lifting the sparkling water in his hand. I nod. He walks back to the couch, hands me the drink, and sits back down. He’s waiting to play the show until I answer him, not wanting to be interrupted again.
“And yes, it’s because of Cassie. She’s just everywhere. All I want is another chance to talk with her, preferably in a non-work environment. Asking her to come to my trailer during a workday doesn”t seem like a good idea. I don”t want to invite her over without others being present because of what happened when we were alone today…” I shake my head, blinking slowly. “I just want her to be comfortable and say yes.”
“Hold up, what happened when you were alone?”
“Nothing.”
Tyler raises his eyebrows, not believing me in the slightest. “Okay, we can talk about it later with the guys. I’ll text Max and Lane. Now, shut up and let me watch my show.” He takes his phone out of his pocket to send a message before pressing play on the remote.
I don’t know how to describe the feeling I had when I was alone with Cassie. It was a mixture of what the fuck am I doing and holy shit, I want this girl. I enjoyed watching her squirm. I didn’t know it at first, but I chase the red overflow on her cheeks. Observing her response to me is enthralling. It’s different.
I’m used to women and fans throwing themselves at me. They don’t respect my boundaries. Every time I leave my apartment and go somewhere normal, I’m always given some girl’s number or asked to take a photo with them. At first I liked it. I felt wanted. That feeling is fleeting though, more than this feeling for Cassie might be.
With others, I didn’t want to get to know them. I most definitely didn’t want to invite them over to my apartment. The last thing I need is some girl selling my underwear on the internet and an article being written about me.
I’m going to text Cassie and see if she wants to come over. Actually… I look at my phone to check the time. She might still be here. I’m going to go find her and ask her in person. It might be harder for her to say no.
I expected it would take me a while to locate her, but I find her grabbing a blueberry muffin from the snack table. The infamous muffins, a famous pastry for all actors and staff here at the studio. Something about the blueberry to crumble ratio. It’s so good.
I walk up next to her to grab one. A breath escapes from her as I lean across her, lightly brushing her chest with my arm.
“Excuse me,” I say, slanting my head to look at her reaction.
She’s glaring at me. I’m off to a good start.
I clear my throat and bite my lip. Why am I nervous? Get it together.
She gives me a small smile and moves away.
“Wait,” I say to her back.
She turns around. Bringing the muffin to her mouth, she looks me in the eye as she takes a bite. Damn, those lips.
“Are you going to just stare at me?” she asks. She places her right hand on her hip, shifting her weight to that side.
I’m still looking at her lips. I trail my eyes up her face until I meet her gaze.
“Come over to my apartment tonight.” I say it remarkably fast.
“Why—” She starts to speak, but I interrupt her.
“My friends, Max, Tyler, and Lane will be over. Um, we can eat pizza.” The words spill out.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” I want to make sure I heard her right.
She nods. “Okay.”
Huh. I don’t know why I thought she was going to say no.
“Okay.” She laughs because at this point I’m just repeating her. I run my right hand through my hair and look at the floor. This is embarrassing.
I peer up to find her looking at me, biting her lip. Again, those damn lips. What I would do to feel my lips against hers.
Shit. I’m staring again.
“Um, I’ll text you my address,” I blurt.
Her brows draw together and her head tilts to the side. Right, she hasn’t explicitly given me her number yet.
“Your number was kind of included in the memo for this week.”
She grimaces and raises and lowers her head in an exaggerated nod.
“Alright, Hotshot. I’ll wait for your text, then,” she says with a wink. A fucking wink. I”m struggling to find the right words. It”s as if they”ve disappeared into thin air. She smiles at me one last time before turning around and walking back to Marcy and Ed, her hips swaying from one side to the other. I can’t take my eyes off of her.
Someone clears their throat behind me.
I whip around to find Max getting a muffin.
“Whatcha’ doing?” He takes a bite, savoring the flavors, and lets out a contented moan. He takes another bite, shoving half of the muffin in his mouth.
“Me?” I point to my chest and look around to see if anyone else is standing by us. Nope, of course not. He just caught me staring at Cassie.
He nods.
“Why are you here and not at my trailer?” I try to change the subject.
Max raises his eyebrows. He moves around me to throw the muffin liner in the trash. We walk together toward the doors to the outside.
“I was on my way and saw you chatting with Cassie. Figured I’d eavesdrop,” he says with a shrug. He’s honest. I’ll give him that.
I give him a pointed look as I hold open the door for him. “I just invited her over tonight and she said yes. Didn’t Tyler text you about our plans?”
“Yeah, he did. I’m curious about you and Cassie, though, but we can save this discussion until we get to the trailer. Lane is also texting our group chat about it. So, you have some explaining to do.”
We reach the stairs to the trailer and I see Lane walking over from the cafeteria. Perfect timing.
“Well, you all are going to be disappointed because there isn’t much to explain,” I say.
“Did you ask him?” Lane asks Max.
Max nods.
We all step into the trailer to find Tyler where I left him, on the couch, watching some vampire show.
“What did she say?” Tyler asks, eyes remaining on the TV.
I shake my head and sigh. “You all are going to be the death of me, I swear.”
Tyler pauses his show, now giving us his full attention. I swear that guy would stay in my trailer all day and get no work done if he could. “So she said…?” He directs his gaze to me, waiting for an answer.
“She said yes, okay? Damn.” I walk into the kitchen, grab a snack, and prepare myself for more questions.
“Sooooo,” Lane says. “Cassie is nice.”
I glare at him.
“I hope you weren’t this grumpy when you were with her earlier,” Max says.
“Don’t you all have anything better to do?” I ask. I make my way over to the couch and sit next to Tyler. Max and Lane are sitting at the barstools in the kitchen, facing toward the living room.
“Nope,” they say unanimously. And because of that, they start laughing. All I can do is laugh with them before I explain what happened.
“I met Cassie last night. I went with Marcy to the diner and Cassie was working there. She was our server.”
Tyler starts to interrupt, but I glare in his direction as I talk over him. “No, I didn’t know they hired her. I saw her today while I was on set. I had to film a scene twice because she distracted me.” Those damn beautiful blue eyes.
“Anyway,” I continue, “Marcy had me give her a tour of my trailer. She ended up staying over for an hour, and that’s it. You all better not be weird tonight.” I look around the room and make eye contact with each of them.
“Shit, Em. I think this is the only time you’ve been obsessed with a girl,” Lane says.
“And you’ve only known her for a day!” Max says.
“Less than a day!” Tyler chimes in.
They all nod and laugh. Why are these guys my friends again?
“I hate you all.” I join in on their laughter. “But for real, I just want to hang out with her tonight and you’re all just there as buffers. Okay?”
“We met her earlier. She’s cool,” Max says. “We ate a snack together. Her, Marce, Lane, Tyler, and myself.”
I wonder if her meeting them earlier and me letting her know they will be at the apartment later added to the reasons she said yes. Does she feel the pull between us like I do? Lane is right. I never obsess over a girl. It’s always the other way around.
I’m not concerned about settling down yet. I’m only 29. I still have time to figure my shit out. When the right girl comes along, that’s when I’ll face my demons. Maybe I’ll have the strength to stand up to my parents, especially my dad. What I wouldn’t give to tell him I don’t want to act anymore and follow in his footsteps. This was never a dream I wanted to chase. I never wanted this.
For now, I’m content. It’s enough. I have a few loyal friends. I have a job that earns me money. It’s a privilege to have even that, and I’m grateful. There’s just a small part of me that wonders what it would be like to wake up in the morning and have someone next to me. To have that person you text when you have exciting news or when you have something dreadful happen to you. Another person who adds to your strength and multiplies it, giving you the confidence to do whatever you want to do. Maybe then I’d have the courage to chase my dream.