Behind The Scenes

Chapter 6 (Parte Two): Unexpected Call

"We're screwed, Matthew, totally screwed!" Aly tapped on the Shane's car's dashboard, which both of them used to get out of there with a minimum of discretion. It didn't exactly work out, however, the paparazzi were the least of their concerns at the moment.

"If only you hadn't opened your big mouth-" Matthew was going to say, but Aly interrupted.

"Really? Are you really coming with that one right now?" She nearly screamed, angry. Matthew took a deep breath.

"Alright, alright." He said, low. "It would have happened anyway. You only sped up the process."

Aly glared at him, too tired to say anything, then got back to looking outside. Matthew took a sip of his coffee in his thermos.

"Can we talk about something else?" Aly asked, after a minute of silence, and Matthew only nodded. "What's with the sexual tension between Luke and Lexi?" Alyssa asked, and Crawford chuckled, shaking his head.

"It's hard not to notice, right?" he rhetorically asked, and kept on talking. "It's a long story. Some years ago-"

"-In 2006, I'm guessing" Alyssa completed, and Matthew laughed.

"Well, that was the year I came to live here in the US, and I shared an apartment with Luke. It was also when I saw Lexi for the first time in a few years, in a bar, and we all became really good friends. At the time I worked as a bartender to support myself in the city, and she lived in a sorority." Matthew seemed amused telling the story, which made Aly let out the slightest smile and feel a little calmer. "She invited me to one of their parties, and told me to bring some friends. And I took Luke".

"I already see where this is going." Aly said, laughing. "Luke went crazy for her, but she never gave him a chance, just like now."

Crawford laughed.

"Missed by a mile. Well, actually... I don't really know what happened, because each one of them tells me a different story. And I was too busy having fun."

"Now, tell me something new."

"Shut up and listen." He smirked. "Well, Luke's story is that both of them were drunk as fuck, and ended up in bed. Only in the next day, she woke up wrapped in his sheets, naked, he tried hugging her and she ran off. Said they didn't do anything, because she couldn't remember." Matthew finished, laughing aloud.

"You're kidding!" Alyssa also laughed.

"To this day she is sure of the theory that she woke up naked by accident and that they never had anything. You can ask her later."

"And he never accepts that." The actress concluded.

"Almost nine years later, and we're still stuck on that page. So you see how they're full of maturity and things don't change a bit." Crawford added, smiling.

And then the two of them stopped in front of the studio's gates, and the whole good moment seemed to go down the drain. It was time.

***

"PREGNANT? PREG-NANT?"

Dave yelled, as soon as Matthew and Alyssa entered the room. He looked like he slept less than two minutes. The dark circles under his eyes were huge, his clothes were wrinkled and his hair was tousled. Besides him, the two writers of the series, a producer, two men Alyssa recognized as directors from the TV channel, in addition to their publicists, managers and lawyers, and an older man with an unfriendly face had their eyes fixed on them. The girl took a deep breath, remembering that if she didn't oxygenate her brain that very moment, things would only get worse.