Harrison has yet to fly in to be on set with Tom. He's not really needed professionally quite yet—as most of what they're doing right now is just blocking scenes and getting used to speaking without scripts and in front of cameras—but Tom finds that he needs his best friend in the same country as him more than ever in this moment. He needs him to be here so that he can judge this girl's character and tell him what he thinks, so that they can talk to each other face-to-face instead of with a five-hour time difference standing in between them.
"She's incredible, Haz," he says quietly over FaceTime the night after his first carpool with (Y/N), "she's funny and charming and has amazing comebacks. She didn't make the ride feel awkward at all, even though it was our first meeting so things were bound to be a little bit awkward, and—"
Tom is interrupted to the spluttering protests of his best-friend's grinning face. "You're telling me that you only met her today? She hasn't been driving you for a week now?"
"Well, yeah, I mean today was the first day of blocking so she didn't have to drive me before," Tom replies with his face falling into a frown. "Why do you sound so surprised?"
"Tom," Harrison laughs out through a shake of his head that comes back grainy through the wi-fi in the hotel room, "you've been going on about her like you've known her all your life. I didn't think some American girl could get you this whipped after just one day."
Tom laughs and rubs the back of his neck at the realization that he can't hide anything from his best-friend, even if they're divided by an ocean and shitty wi-fi.
"I guess she's not just some American girl then."
It's a week full of amazing conversation and witty banter later that Tom brings up the topic of music with (Y/N). The rides so far have been tuned into the local radio station and, while Tom very much enjoys the music that they play, he finds that he wants to learn more about the girl who drives him Monday through Friday. He wants to know her favorite color and her favorite food and what stupid joke makes her laugh like no other; he wants to know how to make her smile and feel real when she feels like everything is turned to static around her. More importantly, Tom wants to become her friend before he will ever dream of becoming her boyfriend—or better yet, her lover—and he has come to form the belief that someone's music taste can say a lot about them.
"So," he begins as he buckles himself into the seat with two coffees made from his hotel room's little coffee maker balanced precariously in one hand, "I have a proposition."
"And what's that?" (Y/N) asks as she takes the coffees from him to place them in the cup-holders sitting between them.
He tries not to think about the way that their hands brush and how soft her skin feels and how much smaller her stature when compared to his. He tries not to take her hand in his and hold it in his lap while he looks over at her with a gaze that he hopes doesn't spell out admiration.
"I'm not complaining about the radio station that you've chosen for us to listen to everyday, but I don't think that it's you." Tom offers her a shy smile as though she's going to reject him outright and tell him to get out of her car.
But she isn't any of these things because she's (Y/N). (Y/N) who drives him to set of her own free will at this point because he knows that the directors would have set something else up if she wanted. (Y/N) who buys him coffee on Monday morning with cream and sugar on the side because she doesn't know what he likes but didn't want to buy a coffee for just herself when she'd be driving him to set. (Y/N) who laughs at all of his corny jokes. (Y/N) who lets him practice his lines and even took the time to memorize the lines of the other characters so that he could practice with her.
Carpool and Playlists (T.H)
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