What If It's All A RomCom? - Ted Nivison x Reader

Chapter 5: You're Going To Be Trouble

"I'm a fucking idiot."
"What?" Tanner frowns again. "You're not an idiot."
"I'm an absolute fucking idiot."
"Why?"
"Tanner?"
"Yeah?
"Did the garbage get taken out today?"
"Yeah."
"The garbage was her clothes."
"...OH..."

Joe places both of his hands over his face and moves his finger up into his hair to pull at it with another groan, a frustrated smile and a chuckle leaving him. I honestly felt pretty guilty, even if I had nothing to do with this. Maybe if I hadn't been the first to turn in for the night, I would've been able to offer to put the bag in my room.
"How many outfits we talkin'?" Ted asks, placing his hands on his shoulders.
"Like...10? I think?" Joe answers, shaking his head and swallowing thickly, making an audible 'gulp' noise. "I don't know man--I'm just--I'm overwhelmed. I'm fucking sorry."
"No no, it's okay, we can fix this.." Ted speaks to Joe in a comforting tone, holding his hands out with his palms pointed to the ground. "We're literally 5 minutes away from the city, we can get new clothes, right?" Ted asks, turning his wrists in a little shrug.
"I'm not letting either of you front any of those costs." Joe replied, shaking his head.
"Oh, they don't have to." Tanner chimes in, looking at Joe. "I got an emergency credit card literally for when something like this was gonna happen."
"Emergency credit card?" I repeated, furrowing my brows again.
"Yeah, it's got a little under a thousand in it right now." Tanner explained, reaching into his back pocket to pull out his worn leather wallet. "I signed up for it a couple weeks ago just in case we needed it. My instructor recommended it."

Joe and I look at each other and I smile at him. I see a sense of relief wash over his body, but he's still a little reluctant.
"Tanner, I--I don't want to spend a thousand of your money because of my fuck up."
"See, that's the best part: It's technically not my money. It's the school's." Tanner smiled, pointing at Joe. "As long as it's related to this film and I can prove it was an emergency, they cover it."
Joe gives a humorous smirk and shrugs. "OK that's different, I'm OK spending your school's money." He chuckles, getting a laugh from Tanner.

After informing everyone to stop the search, the 4 of us have a talk and agree to split up for the day. Tanner and Joe will stay here and take the time to get some of the last solo shots with the extras done and over with, and Ted and I will head out in his Tacoma once again to go outfit shopping. In reality, Joe could've been the one to go with me, but he lied about wanting to watch Tanner be a director. I know he was lying because he winked at me as Ted was busy putting a long sleeved brown shirt on. It was meant to be a little chilly today anyways.
As soon as we stepped out, it was just Ted and I once again.

After pulling out of the driveway, we're once again on the road to head into the city. It's a Friday, so the roads are a bit more packed than usual. At one point we even ran into some traffic, which caused Ted and I to start an out of the blue conversation detailing interesting facts about each other. I had told him a few interesting things about myself, but boy did I feel boring compared to him. He told me all about some of the things he had done for YouTube content, like his trips to the Rainforest Café and Margaritaville with Eddy, his 400mg Nerd Rope incident, when he watched all the barbie movies, all of It. Anything I said, he'd immediately upstage me.
But the one thing; the one thing that surprised me about him the most was...
"Your whole name is Theodore?"

I turn my head to look at Ted as he kept his eyes on the road, or more like on the still SUV at the red light in front of us. "Theodore Nivison.."
"Junior, too. I'm the sequel." Ted grins, glancing at me for a moment. "I almost introduced myself to you as 'Theo', actually, but I figured Tanner had already told you about me."
"Oh yeah, that would've made you sound even more like a prick."
"Well, see, I had this idea that I needed to be charming, but now I see you're a fucking wench, so.."
"Wench!?" I start laughing, tilting my head back. This mother fucker. He does not need to be this funny. He can't be handsome and funny. It isn't fair. "You're a fucking tool, Theodore"
"Oh I hate hearing my full name in your voice." Ted cringes playfully. "Don't do that."
"I'm gonna start calling you Theodore now."
"Please, don't. I'll take 'Theo' and 'Teddy', those are fine."
"I thought you didn't like Teddy?" I make my voice sound a little higher and lean my arm against the storage compartment between us, batting my eyelashes at Ted. He turns his head to look at me and say something, but he pauses. Our faces are close again and I think I see him blush for a moment, but he rolls his eyes and turns his head away to look out the front window again.
"I don't mind it from you."
"Awe, Theodore! You do care!"