The email came with a golden halo.
Netflix. Global. Direct offer.
> We want to option your story. Not just distribute the film - we're talking a full limited series. Expanded arcs. International team. Bigger reach. Bigger budget.
It should have been the dream.
But it didn't feel like one.
Milk read the proposal three times, then looked up from her phone.
"They want rewrites."
Love raised a brow. "Of what?"
Milk hesitated. "Of... us."
She tossed the phone on the couch, voice brittle.
"They want to reframe the ending. Make it 'less ambiguous.' More universal."
Love crossed her arms, slowly. "Meaning?"
"Meaning they don't want the final kiss. Not outright. They want to 'suggest intimacy' without confirming it. They're worried about pushback in certain markets."
Love stared at her. Then laughed - the sharp, hurt kind.
"So they want our story, just not our truth."
---
Their agent called the next morning, giddy.
"This is huge. It doesn't have to be a compromise. Just... soften a few edges. You'll reach more people this way."
Milk replied flatly, "By becoming palatable."
Love didn't speak.
Not during the call.
Not after it ended.
Just paced the kitchen, jaw tight, until she finally said:
"I'm not going back in the closet for a distribution deal."
And that's when Milk said the wrong thing.
She didn't mean to.
It came out brittle, unfiltered.
"You've never had to come out in the same way."
Silence.
Love turned.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Milk closed her eyes. "I didn't-"
"No," Love interrupted, voice low. "Say it."
And so she did.
"I mean... You were already half-out. With Gun, with the rumors. People speculated, but they liked you. They forgave you."
Love blinked.
"And they didn't forgive you?"
Milk exhaled.
"They never wanted to believe me in the first place. I was always just the stand-in. Until you looked at me like I wasn't."
---
The silence that followed wasn't angry.
It was worse.
It was disappointed.
Love sat down slowly.
"You really think that's what I was doing? Using you to rewrite a narrative?"
"No," Milk said.
"I think I wanted you too much to admit I was scared the whole time."
---
That night, they sat on opposite ends of the same bed.
No script open.
No music.
Just the low hum of a city that would spin whether they made a deal or not.
Finally, Milk whispered, "What if saying yes means losing us?"
Love turned to her, eyes tired but honest. "Then we say no."
A beat passed. "Even if it means less visibility? Less impact?"
Love reached across the sheets.
Took her hand.
"I'd rather be invisible with you than famous without you."
---
The next day, they declined the offer.
Respectfully.
Quietly.
And in doing so, reclaimed what had always been the heart of their story:
That truth is not a marketing strategy.
And love is not a plot device.
YOU ARE READING
The Unscripted
FanfictionMilk and Love are rising stars in the industry, adored as an on-screen couple - but off-camera, their lives are more complicated. Love has a long-time boyfriend, Gun, and Milk has always kept her heart guarded. When the lines between performance an...
