16. Emmett
I blink my eyes open as the sun hits me just right from the blinds to the right of my bed. My right hand instinctively blocks the direct light while my left hand moves to the previously occupied space on the other side of my bed.
I jerk my head to the left, lifting to rest on my elbow. Cassie is across the room, under my desk, gathering her belongings that were thrown to various areas as last night progressed. Last night, what a night. And now Cassie is trying to sneak out.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
Cassie shuffles out from under the desk and faces me. She’s still wearing one of my shirts while clutching her clothes and various other accessories in her arms.
“You’re not trying to leave, are you?” I ask a different question, since she’s yet to respond to my first.
“I’m…” she starts, averting her gaze and looking at the floor. She drops a sock. She leans over to pick it up, but as she does that, she also drops her bra and a tube of chapstick that must have fallen out of her shorts. “Shit,” she mutters, trying to figure out a way to pick everything up and not drop anything.
“Come back to bed.”
Cassie’s still kneeling on the ground, but her gaze snaps up to mine.
“Please,” I add. I move back the sheets from where she was sleeping, inviting her to come back to me.
Cassie stands up and looks around for where to put all her stuff. Her pile of things, since neither of us expected her to stay the night. She finally settles on the chair in front of my desk, carefully leaning over to set the pile down, ensuring that everything stays put in its place.
She tiptoes back toward the bed, only looking up from the floor at me when she gets close enough to slide under the sheets.
“I won’t bite,” I say, but then my mind flashes to last night and my cheeks flush as I picture my lips on every available surface of her body. “I mean, I won’t bite right now. Maybe later, though.” I smirk.
Cassie rolls her eyes, laying back next to me. She rolls over on her side to face me, wrapping her right arm under her head.
“I wasn’t expecting you to wake up.” Cassie finally speaks to me, although it’s a whisper at best. She’s transfixed on a single thread that’s exposed itself from the edge of the sheet. She’s currently twisting it in between her thumb and pointer finger.
Gently, I place my hand under her chin, lifting it up to meet my gaze. “I wasn’t expecting you to leave without saying goodbye.” Cassie looks back down before returning her eyes to me. My thumb softly glides across her jaw as I wait for her to reply.
She bites her lip, and her eyebrows furrow. “I didn’t want to assume that you wanted me to stay. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect after last night.”
This girl. Have I not clarified that I’m infatuated with her? That last night was weeks in the making for me?
“I don’t want you to leave,” I say, pressing my lips against hers in a single kiss. “Isn’t it obvious that I like you, Cassie?” I press another kiss to her lips before letting her say something back. I lean back on my pillow, mocking her position.
“It’s… complicated?” Her left shoulder lifts in a shrug, her eyebrows following the same direction.
It is complicated. “No one has to know, if that’s what you’re worried about. I hope you know I wouldn’t tell anyone and risk anything with your job. I’ve been trying to be careful.”
“Flirting with me in public is being careful?” Cassie counters.
“Would you rather I ignored you?” I ask. Cassie lets out a small laugh, which I’m grateful for, because it helps lighten the conversation.
“I don’t think you could do that, even if you tried.”
“You’re right. Sure, it’s complicated, but I do like you. And I think you like me too?” I ask. She nods, tucking her left hand under her head and snuggling more into the pillow. “Then I don’t think it’s a complication between us. It’s things around us that make it complicated.”
We both sigh, showing that we share similar thoughts about the ”no dating” rule and our forbidden romance.
“There is a way to avoid the complication,” Cassie says, and my eyes widen with curiosity.
“Go on…”
“We could do this—” she takes her left hand out from under her head and points from me back to her, “in secret.”
“In secret,” I repeat, thinking. It could work. I want it to work. We’ve already been public about our friendship, so it’s not odd to see us together at the studio.
“I mean, we don’t have to. I was just thinking out loud,” Cassie quickly says since I’m clearly taking too long to respond.
“You should know I don’t casually date. If we continue this,” I gesture between us, parroting what she did, “you’re mine. No one else’s.”
“I’m… yours.” My eyes widen, and I furrow my brow at her lack of confidence. “You’re insufferable. I’m yours, okay? Yours, no one else’s, secretly,” she adds, grinning at her response.
“I like when you’re extra sassy.” I extend my left arm and start sliding it under her arm and head, encouraging her to nest herself closer to me, which she does.
Just as I”m about to kiss her, the jarring sound of a phone ringing breaks the silence, pulling us back to reality. “I think that’s yours,” I whisper in her ear. She groans and boy, do I feel that way too.
Cassie rolls over, plants her feet on the ground, and walks over to the chair where her pile of things still sits. Miraculously, nothing has fallen over. She digs to find her phone, which was at the bottom of the pile. Everything is now back on the floor, surrounding the bottom of the chair. This time, she doesn’t bother picking it up.
“Hi, Annie.” She answers the phone with a smile, walking over to sit back on the edge of the bed.
As she talks, I sit up and move to sit behind her, leaning to kiss her neck. Distracting her. Taunting her. Torturing her. I know it’s working because Cassie keeps fidgeting and glancing back at me while still trying to remain engaged in the conversation with her sister.
“Annie, I need to go. I’ll call you later and we can chat about this.” She pauses. “Yeah. No, I will not tell Emmett you said hello.” I pinch her side. She whips her head back to me and glares. “Because Anns. Yes, I know him.” A pause. “It’s complicated.” She glances back at me again. I wink at her. “Love you too. Mhm, okay, fine, if I see him I’ll let him know your thoughts on his last movie. Great. Bye.” She takes the phone away from her ear and presses the end call button.
“Emmett…” she drawls. She sets her phone on the end table before turning toward me.
She surprises me by pushing me back on the bed, pinning my arms with her hands. She then crawls close enough to throw her left leg over me, straddling me.
“Cassie.”
She leans over and captures the end of her name with her mouth, giving herself to me again.
For the next hour, we lazily roll around in bed, pleasuring and giving in to each other. It’s somehow different from last night. After last night, I knew we broke the barrier she had up. I know she can trust me because I have shown her time and time again that I have her best interests at heart. I would never betray her like past guys did. Acting not being my true passion helps, but it doesn’t make her feelings any less valid.
She’s used to being used, and stepped on, for others to cheat their way into roles. I don’t blame her for putting up such a large front and not originally trusting my intentions with wanting to explore things with her. She made that clear from our first interaction in the diner when I asked her to sit with me.
Slowly, over the past month, we’ve become closer. A single hang out turned into smaller texts, which turned into occasional phone calls, and every step has led us here. It led us to the moment where we both admitted to each other that we like one another and that we were going to try to secretly be exclusive.
I don’t know how it’s going to go, or what our future looks like, but I don’t want to ruin today by thinking about that.
I want to live in the present. In this moment, with her.
After our morning fondle, we quickly get ready because it’s only Tuesday and we both have to be at the studio.
Cassie leaves first, and I leave 10 minutes later. I figured staggering our arrival is a good idea, otherwise we might have to come up with some excuse, and I don’t have the energy for that. Not just because of my time with Cassie, but because I don’t want to lie if I can avoid it.
Ed is waiting for me on the stairs of my trailer as I approach.
“Hi, Ed,” I shout.
He looks up from his clipboard and smiles. He walks down the stairs to meet me.
“Emmett! I was hoping you had a few minutes to chat through something.” He looks at his clipboard again, flipping through the first few pages. He never looks back up but continues walking with me up the stairs of the trailer.
“Yeah, sure, Ed.”
I open the trailer door, walking through first. Ed follows me inside and stands by the entrance, not moving to take a seat. It looks like he won’t be staying for long, so I wonder what he needs to talk about. I know we only have two months left of filming. I sit on a kitchen stool, waiting for him to finish flipping through the pages. If I interrupted him, he’d start mumbling something back to me in response, but more than likely it wouldn’t be the topic he wanted to talk about because his focus was currently on whatever he’s looking at.
So instead of doing that, I wait and finally he sighs and drops the clipboard by his leg.
“Have you decided what you’re doing after this film, Emmett? I have been told you haven’t signed any contracts,” Ed says. There is no sign of judgment in his tone, just a pure question that leads me to believe he’s curious to know the answer. Ed is more like a mentor to me than anyone I’ve had in this career, so he’s been a part of some of my conversations with my agent since I trust him.
I haven’t had a conversation with my agent in months.
“Um.” I fidget with a napkin that was left on the counter, keeping my eyes down. “I’m not sure.” I peek up at Ed to find him still just looking at me.
“Well, you know we stop filming in two months. As of now, I have nothing else lined up at the studio that I know of.” Ed would have helped me land a role in whatever movie was filming here next. It’s sort of an unspoken deal between us, since Marcy and the guys work here.
But he has nothing else lined up. It gives me an idea, but I don’t know if it’s a ridiculous idea. I have been writing more and I have a great start on a script that I started recently. I wonder, do I have what it takes to finish the script and get it produced? Could I actually stop acting? Would my friends still like me when I’m not an actor?
Of course they would.
I hope.
Still, I wonder. I’ve had this newfound sense of purpose for writing and it feels right. It’s always felt too difficult and out of reach, but now… now it feels meant to be. It’s kind of like Cassie. A few weeks ago, I was just a guy trying to get a girl’s attention in a diner in the middle of the night. Today, we are exclusive and I’ve been writing more than I ever have.
“Emmett? You okay?” Ed pulls me out of my thoughts. I nod a few times.
“Yeah, Ed. I am. Let me think about it and I’ll get back to you, okay? I have a few ideas,” I explain, hoping it’s enough for this conversation to end.
“Of course. Just try to let me know by…” He brings his clipboard back up to his face, flipping the first few pages, searching for a date, I can only assume. “Let me know in a few weeks. I want to make sure I’m available if you need me. You know how the end of filming gets.” Ed chuckles.
Yep. The last few weeks of filming are typically our busiest, trying to film any last-minute scenes and saying bye to everyone on set. It’s productive and emotional as hell.
I give Ed a nod and a wave goodbye as he leaves my trailer. While being caught up in my feelings for Cassie, I momentarily forgot about this looming decision about my career. What the fuck do I do? I have enough savings to take a risk and leave this sector of the industry, but what would that mean for my future? Would anyone take a risk on me? What would Cassie think?
Taking my phone out of my back pocket, I open up my messages with Cassie. I decide to text her and ask if she wants to come over for dinner tonight. I need someone to talk to about all of this, and I don’t have anyone else.
I can’t talk to Marcy about it because she’d likely just glare at me and tell me I’m “making a dumb mistake and I’ll regret it.” She would then later regret what she said and be supportive of whatever I do, but she can be a little bitter in the moment, especially on a substantial change like us no longer working together.
Tyler, Lane, and Max would understand, but I don’t know how to explain it. It’s different. I can easily go to them about other issues, like when I disagree with a script or have contracts I need advice on. This is a more intimate issue. It’s personal. And for some reason, Cassie is the only person I want to talk to about it.
Well, I know the reason. I like her. A lot. More than a lot. A metric ton. I like her more than most people and I’ve known her for the shortest amount of time.
I sigh into my palm. I have it bad.
My phone buzzes with a text back from Cassie. She’ll be over around six. That leaves me eight hours until I get to have her alone again. To distract my mind, I spend the next hour reading lines and doom scrolling on my phone.
The door to my trailer swings open. Marcy walks up the stairs. I side-eye her from where I’m sitting.
“What are you doing just sitting there? You’re supposed to be on set.” Marcy glances at her clipboard. No one around here would survive without one. She slides her pointer finger in various directions on the page. “Ah, yes, 10 minutes ago, hence why I’m here.” She looks up from the clipboard, a giant grin plastered on her face.
“You could have radioed me.” I stand up from the stool and push it back under the island. I walk toward her. She turns back toward the door, opens it, and starts walking down the stairs as I follow.
“I could have, but I was getting ready to head off-site and Ed asked me to check on you. He said you two talked and you still haven’t decided what you’re doing after this?” She glances back for a moment to see my reaction, which is why I ensure a neutral reaction. No one needs to see my struggle.
Also, why is everyone so worried about my next contract? My dad, Ed, Marcy, and I’m sure there are a few others that just haven’t bothered me yet. I can make my own damn decisions and I have enough money to be without a job for the next few years if nothing happens immediately with my writing.
“I’m working on it.” I keep it vague, hoping she doesn’t decide to press me for more information.
Thankfully, she doesn’t and just asks me about my week so far while we walk toward the studio. I scroll on my phone while giving her one-word answers, not in the mood for small talk today.
“Hi, Cassie!” Marcy greets and my eyes snap up to find Cassie coming out of the studio door, walking toward us. Marcy embraces Cassie in a hug. I find Cassie’s gaze and raise my eyebrows in question. I wasn’t aware Marcy was a fan of Cassie. I thought she still held some sort of grudge against her.
Cassie’s cheeks flush in response as Marcy steps back from their hug. “Hi, Marcy. I’m excited to get lunch later.”
Marcy turns to me. “I asked Cassie for lunch today to get to know her better. I figure if she’s going to hang around the group more, it would be nice for us to become friends.”
“Carla is joining us too!” Cassie chimes in.
Marcy turns to Cassie. “Oh! Great! Wonderful.” She turns back to me. “Sorry Emmett, ladies’ lunch. I’m sure you’ll be fine with the guys.”
“I have a scene during lunch today. You should know that, Marcy, queen of schedules,” I tease and send Cassie a wink while Marcy is looking at her clipboard to check the schedule.
“Bye ladies!” I wave as I walk through the door to the studio set, the door closing as Marcy asks Cassie what she did last night after work.
I stand by the door momentarily, trying to figure out if I can hear what they are saying, but Ed calls my name from the other side of the room. Since I’m already late, I strut over to see him. I’m hoping today goes by quickly because I have dinner tonight with Cassie and I think we need to define what’s going on between us and the rules for our being exclusive.