Love Of My Life

16

This grabs the attention of everyone .

"What? Since when do you have a thing for Lucy?" Joe asks. They all give me wide eyes. "I mean I can't say I'm surprised,"

"Since we met I guess," I answer vaguely. "It's a work in progress. Let me get back to you on that,"

"Don't worry Gwil. If Ben, Aria, Rami, and Lucy go on a double date we can go as a third couple," Joe says to his friend. 

"I'll take that deal," Gwilym responds. They're ridiculous.

I must say I'm incredibly happy with all these people I've met. We grew insanely close in a short amount of time. During rehearsals especially we bonded a lot. Literally the first day we all met each other it was an instant connection. I remember we all took a group picture with Brian and Roger, and Ben and Joe hit it off right away. It was just different than any other acting experience I've been in. I know that I'll be friends with these guys for a long long time. 

...

Brian

"Why the hell was Bryan not here today?" Jim Beach asks me as we walk to our cars, with Roger, at the end of filming.

"I wish I knew," I respond. I find it highly inconsiderate on his behalf that he could not even grace us with a phone call saying he was not showing up. An hour after he was supposed to show up Aria decided to take over. As executive producer she is his right hand man so I knew she could handle it professionally. Mentally is what I worry about. 

"He was fine at the start of filming," Roger points out. 

"This whole project has been messy. Part of me just wants it over with," Jim says. I sigh. We finally find a director willing to take on this project after ten years, give or take, and suddenly he has an attitude and doesn't show up. 

"I want it over with because of all the drama. There's no need for it," I say, referring to the drama our own crew is starting. "I remember Bryan talking about family health problems? But he never followed up on that," 

I vaguely remember Bryan mentioning that someone in his family is struggling with health and he needs to be there for him or her, but he never actually confirmed that with anyone. It was more or less a comment. Whether that's why he's not here I don't know, but something's been incredibly off with him lately. I'm starting to get nervous we made the wrong choice with director. 

"What was up with his whole spiel with Aria the other day?" Jim asks. 

We reach our cars, which are parked next to each other, but we stand outside continuing our conversation.

I shake my head. "He's under the impression that Aria is going to distract Ben and that she's making production look bad because she's dating one of the actors. It looks like Ben is with her only to get the role,"

"Which is not true," Roger adds.

"He told you that?" Jim asks.

I nod. "He apologized for his outburst to Roger and I the other day. He didn't apologize to her or Ben though, which doesn't quite make sense," I say, realizing how virtually nothing makes sense. 

"He's consumed with image and once word gets out about Ben and Ari then a lot will change," Roger explains. "Tabloids and paparazzi will be all over it, looking for anything they can feed off of. It'll be a nightmare,"

"I wish it wasn't like that," I say. I think back to her last relationships and how she got ripped apart for them. Everyone judges who she is with. They didn't last long for other reasons, but the spotlight constantly on them didn't help.

"Can we stop that from happening?" Jim asks. 

I put my hands in my pockets, while Roger crosses his arms. 

"We could ask them to keep it quiet but I don't want to strain them," I answer. "It's also none of our business and quite frankly I don't want Bryan getting that satisfaction of us trying to cover it up,"

"They're good kids. Nothing bad will happen," Roger says. 

I fear that though. Of course we know that they aren't bad kids. But the truth of the matter is the paparazzi likes to manipulate the public into thinking otherwise. They bring drama to where there is none and Aria is a victim of this. She keeps her private life very private and this drives interviewers and them crazy, so made up stories get leaked. It's hard to watch. I just hope that her relationship between her and Ben does them more good than harm.

I worry about her. I do consider Aria a daughter to me. Freddie really wanted to have a child and when life was finally in his favor, he did with a mutual friend of his before he met Jim. After Freddie was diagnosed, Aria's mother left and Freddie asked me to take care of her for after he passed. Of course I agreed. She was one of the things that kept me strong in my hardest times. 

We still don't know where Aria's mother is. She never reaches out. She might not even be alive for all we know. Aria used to ask but she hasn't made the effort to bring her up in years. The woman, Valerie, was a friend of Freddie's but she freaked out when she found out about Freddie's diagnosis. She up and left the next day and left a note saying how it was 'too hard for her'. 

Freddie was indifferent about it. He had his beautiful little girl that he was raising. Jim Hutton helped too. Aria called him "papa" when she was younger. However, Freddie asked me to take care of her instead of Jim, for various reasons. I think they had talked it over previously. Jim wasn't upset with it, but I let him come over all the time and made sure he was still in her life because he did genuinely love Aria. It was a shame when he passed. 

She hasn't had the easiest life but she's made the best of it. She opens up to me and Roger, but I know heres always going to be that part of her that will only open up to that one person. I just hope Ben is the right person.

I get a good feeling he is.