𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒. 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙩

Broken air conditioning

It was warm. Freakishly so. And as if that wasn't enough, the air conditioning on set had decided to break. So right now, everyone was just sitting around, fanning themselves with makeshift fans or pressing cold water bottles to their foreheads. Even leaving the building wasn't an option because the temperature difference was a whopping 2 degrees and it did NOTHING to cool off an overheated body. Cole's mood was rapidly dropping towards zero. The day had started out great, with them getting through the scheduled scenes rather fast, even with a few one takes here and there. But then the fucking air conditioning had decided to act up and after 30 minutes of trying to power through there had been a collective agreement that it wouldn't do any good for the movie if they kept filming while sweating their asses off. Never mind that they had a rather narrow range of clothing as their characters spent 99 % of their time in a hospital.

He sat down in a chair next to the cooler that inhabited the water bottles and grabbed one to swap it with the one he had been pressing to his face for the last 30 minutes.

"I really hope they fix that shit soon." Haley, who was sitting opposite him, her feet propped up on the chair next to her, said. "It's like a 100 degrees, in here."

Cole just nodded in agreement. This disgusting heat was messing with his brain and to be honest considering the mood he was in, he'd better keep his mouth shut. Haley grabbed for her phone and rolled her eyes.

"I hate him." she grumbled.

"Who?" Cole asked, raising an eyebrow. He had known Haley for like a week, but he was thoroughly convinced that she wasn't able to dislike, let alone hate someone.

"Brett. My fiancée." she huffed.

"I doubt that."

She rolled her eyes again. "Okay, maybe I don't hate him, but he just sent me the temperature in L. A. and it's 18 degrees."

"Okay, well maybe you don't have to be as drastic as hating him for that, but the silent treatment is very effective."

Haley crooked an eyebrow. "Really? Does your girlfriend use it a lot?"

"No, but that's because she is an actual angel and somehow endures me and my weirdness."

"An actual angle huh?" a voice behind them said.

Cole nearly fell of his chair in surprise. Did he really hear her voice or was the heat just getting to him? He swiveled around in his chair, blinking twice, just in case he was seeing things. But no, she was really standing there.

"Lili" he jumped up from his chair and wanted to hug her but stopped a few inches in front of her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm all sweaty. You probably don't want that."

She scoffed. "As if I cared."

With that she took a step, closed the gap between them and kissed him. Everything went quiet for a second and Cole felt his lips turn up into a smile. It had been barely two days since he'd seen her, but damn, he'd already missed this. Her lips on his, her arms coming up to loop around his neck.

They pulled away a few lingering moments later and he smiled at her.

"How did you get here? And when?"

She laughed. "I conspired with Justin. Well, at least to get on set. The rest was completely me missing you and wanting to spend some time with you."

He chuckled and pecked her lips again.

They turned around towards the table where Haley had already gotten up, almost bouncing towards them.

"Hi, I'm Haley. It's so good to finally meet you Lili" she said cheerfully and enveloped Lili in a rather suffocating hug. Lili froze for a moment surprised by Haley's immediate warmth and openness, but then returned the hug.

"It's great to meet you too Haley." she responded and then looked around in the room. "Is there a reason its like a 100 degrees in here?"

"Yeah, the air conditioning broke like 2 hours ago" Cole said, waving his hand lazily towards the funnel above them.

"But we have makeshift paper fans" Haley said and handed one over to Lili.

...

It was almost 10 p. m. when they were finally finished for the day. By now, everyone was far too tired to do anything, so they grabbed some take out, ordered an Uber and made their way back to the apartment building that housed the sublets the production had rented for the actors. Haley wished them a good night as she entered hers on the second floor and they climbed up the remaining stairs to the third floor.

Lili looked around when they stepped inside, a small but gentle smile on her lips.

"It's cute" she said.

"It does its job." Cole shrugged while he put down her luggage. "It's not like I'm here a lot anyway. Basically, just to sleep."

She laughed and followed him to the kitchen, where they unpacked the take out and then collapsed down on the couch, devouring the food and leaving the containers at the small coffee table, because frankly, they were both to lazy to get up again.

It didn't take long for sleep to take over both of them, the low mummer of some Netflix Original they just put on for the heck of it, lulling them in. It almost felt like after a long day on set in Vancouver.

"Cole?" Lili mumbled, stifling a yawn.

"Mhm?" he murmured, his face buried into her hair.

"I missed this."

"Me too. So, fucking much."

...

Cole woke due to the sunlight creeping into the living room the next morning. He blinked against the brightness, then closed his eyes again. Whatever time it was, it was definitely too early and except for his stiff neck, he felt way to warm and comfortable to move an inch. Shooting would only start later in the day and they were scheduled for a night shoot, so it was probably a good idea to get as much sleep as he could.

But just when he was about to doze off again, he felt Lili stir awake next to him. He opened his eyes and saw her stretching her arms over her head, as sleepy smile on her face.

"Morning." she muttered.

"Morning." he responded, gently stroking her ribcage with his thumb.

"What time is it?" she asked, blinking against the sunlight and then turning her neck left and right to make it crack.

Cole shrugged and shifted a little to grab his phone from the head rest above them.

"9." he mumbled. "Damn its later than I thought. Want to go for breakfast?"

"Sounds good" Lili mumbled and buried her face into his chest. "Although I'd rather stay here with you all day."

"Believe me. Me too."

...

The weekend flew buy and before they knew it, it was Memorial Day. They had opted to drive outside New Orleans, into the swamp lands. After wandering around for a while they'd sat down by a little water body, Cole leaning against a tree, Lili leaning against him.

"I don't want you to leave tomorrow already." Cole huffed, pulling her even closer.

"I don't want to leave either, but you know... work and shit."

He chuckled. "Yeah, but... It's just that its going to be an eternity until I see you again afterwards."

"Barley a month."

"An eternity. Like I said."