On Set

6

"You know, I would get these, but I think the airport would destroy them."

"Those are nice. Peaceful." Chris commented holding one of them for me. They were paintings of the stars with some constellations.

"Yeah, I almost got an astronomy minor. So it would be fun in my apartment."

"Whoa what?! Did you get a different minor?"

"Got one of them in political science. Yeah you're hanging out with a real nerd."

"An impressive nerd. What's the other?"

"Thanks. And math surprisingly." I felt a little uncomfortable, since I tried not to sound like I was bragging about myself. It's questions like these that leave me awkwardly dangling between humility and bragging.

"How did you have time for all those classes?"

"Well, I got my minor in math in high school, so it wasn't to hard in college."

"Damn."

"Yeah, I know. It's a little sad, I had no life."

"It's not sad, it's kind of amazing." Chris complimented making me go a little red. I wanted to turn away and shrink.

"Thanks Chris, but I can't decide if I'm going to kick myself over not getting these paintings."

"Where are you going to put them?"

"In my kitchen. You know what, I don't think I need these."

"Why you've got Einstein already up there?" Chris said joking. I hit him lightly on the arm and laughed.

"No I've got Émilie du Châtelet" I retorted going along with his joke.

"Who?"

"Oh never mind. You haven't heard of her have you?"

"Nope."

"Well, that's your homework tonight." I told him and we walked out of the store together.

"I never went to college. I just really stayed with acting." Chris mentioned to me. I really liked learning new things about him. Even little things.

"What would you have majored in?"

"Art, maybe."

"Wow, what kind do you like to do?" I asked a little shocked at his answer.

"I used to draw a lot, do sketches. I really just wanted to be a Disney animator."

"That's so cool. It's hard to think that if you said a simple word like no or yes, that your world would be entirely different."

"Yeah it kind of is." Chris agreed sticking his hands in his pockets he gave me a thoughtful smile, which I returned. As we passed a clothing store one manikin caught my eye. I paused and took a longer look at the dress on it. It was red, a color I don't have a lot of. It had sleeves that came off the shoulder. The neckline was gorgeous, it was a cross between a v-line and a sweetheart neckline. The top of the dress seemed tight, but the skirt flared out a bit. I looked really pretty, but I didn't know where I would wear it to.

"Do you want to go look at that dress?" Chris asked noticing me staring at it.

"I umm–no. It's not–I don't know." I messily replied. I slowly started to walk away from the store.

"Hey can we go in this store?" Chris suddenly asked and I glanced up at him and followed him at his quick pace into the store. He pushed me further to the back of the store.

"Okay, I don't want to freak you out, but we need to go back to your car." He told me. There was urgency in his voice and he put his sunglasses back on. His nervousness was making me nervous. I wasn't quite sure what was happening.

"What's wrong?" I quickly asked worried. I searched around the store and outside through the windows. I saw someone with a camera walking around the streets looking for something, someone.

"Is he...?" I questioned Chris pointing out the man with the camera.

"Yeah, keep your head down and lets quickly walk back to the car."

"Yeah, yeah okay." I agreed following his lead. I could see him move his hand up to touch my back, but he quickly moved his hand.

"You going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I just–don't really know how to handle or think about this."

"Don't think to much into it then." Chris offered. He looked at me and I took a deep breath and walked out the door like I own the building, just with my head down.