The five times you walked away and the time you stayed...
---
The first time James walked away, Nadine didn't expect to see him ever again. But she did anyways.
It was strange because two days before they shot his music video, she had already decided to give up. There was nothing for her in show business anymore. She had no projects, no endorsements, nothing... That is until she got the offer to star in alam niya ba. Maybe his music was her sign. Or maybe he was her sign.
It was sweltering hot that day. The crew had just wrapped up the shooting and Nadine was inside the tent, packing her belongings into a small backpack. Since it was a last minute casting, she had to bring all her own makeup and clothes, which was quite the hassle. Nadine propped her backpack onto a chair and stuffed her things inside until the seams of the bag threatened to break.
"Hey, I think you dropped this."
Nadine looked up to find James clutching her school notebook. For a moment she was fazed by the beauty of his face. She had spent all day staring at him, for the purpose of the shoot of course, yet she still couldn't believe someone so good looking could exist like that.
"Nadine?"
She coughed and tried to hide the blush on her cheeks, all the while grabbing the notebook from him.
"Salamat ha."
He nodded at her but didn't leave like she expected him to. Instead he stood beside her and watched her zip up her bag.
"So.. are you a student or something?" he asked quietly.
"Oo, second year pa lang," she laughed nervously. "Galing nga ko sa school kaya ayun bitbit ko pa.."
"No, that's really great actually," he commented. "Not a lot of people in this business end up finishing, you know?"
"Thanks." She smiled at him. It kind of surprised her that he was speaking to her now. The entire day, it seemed like he didn't want to speak to her at all. 'Mataray', she had thought. But maybe she was wrong about him.
The two of them ended up talking some more while walking to the parking lot. He thanked her for picking up the gig and she thanked him for choosing her.
"Do you have someone picking you up?" He asked.
"Yeah, JC should be here soon," she replied to him.
"JC?"
"Oh, sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I meant my boyfriend, JC."
"Ah, ok." James stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around. Suddenly he wasn't so sure what he was still doing here waiting with her.
"There he is." Nadine gestured to a white SUV pulling around the curb. She walked towards the car as soon as it parked. For some odd reason she thought James was still behind, following her...
"James, thanks ag-" She turned around only to find him gone. He had already walked away, not even saying a good-bye. So maybe she was right about him.
---
The second time he walked away, he left her for someone else.
After having worked on a couple of projects together, they had developed a friendship. They were 'buddies,' as James coined it. They learned that they had quite a bit in common with each other: similar music taste, similar movie preferences.. She was weird and he was even weirder. She got along with his best friend, Bret, and he was friendly enough to Yassi. They were slowly entering each other's worlds and eventually their friendship grew outside of work. James would sometimes pick her up from her house so they could go to the gym together. And Nadine would sometimes invite him out to eat after a long shooting day. Their friendship shouldn't have worked but it did.
