ANCHOR DOWN (Pedro Pascal x OC)

CHAPTER THREE

Warnings: swearing, angst

The next morning Katie entered the building with an eager smile on her face. She imagined this day to be great and fun. If Pedro was indeed such a great person as everyone seemed to think, they would certainly get along.

Before any of the actors would come in, Katie had half an hour for herself to structure the day, make plans and catch up with the last day's progress. Apparently it was going pretty well, but there were some changes necessary on Pedro's costume, which Katie happily decided would be her personal task for today. His chest and shoulders needed some additional measuring and she was more than ready to use the situation for a polite chat.

Pedro came in punctually with a coffee in his hand and music in his ears, his hair tousled from a morning shower, Katie assumed. He looked, quite frankly, cute.

"Good morning," Katie chirped a little too excited when she approached him with her measuring tape, a big smile plastered on her face, "I'm going to take care of the final measuring today."

Pedro looked visibly stunned whilst taking his headphones out of his ears and getting rid of his jacket.

"Good morning. And okay!"

His restrained response showed Katie he probably wasn't a morning person, or he simply didn't like her. But she would try being nice anyway, despite her insecurities.

"So, did you have a good time last night? You all still looked pretty enthusiastic when Melissa and I left the bar." Katie's attempt to make chit-chat was to be smashed to pieces immediately. As she began the measuring, she continued talking in a similar speed as before, as if to shove the mess she'd made yesterday under the rug.

"I'm surprised, Katie," Pedro therefore frowned, and Katie couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. Grace and Peter came over with some freshly fitted clothes and hung them up next to Pedro.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked, hating not being alone with him anymore. Now being surrounded by the others made her extremely nervous.

"Yesterday you acted all cool and distant, so now I'm fairly confused about the sudden change. So tell me- do you want to know my first impression of you?"

Was this a trick question? Katie desperately wanted to know what he thought of her- other people's opinions had always been important to her, or at least she had always been curious. This time though, she was also slightly scared whether his first impression she had left was something she would actually like.

She simply nodded, indicating for him to continue.

"Don't get me wrong, I like emancipated women, but you seem to me like an awfully hurt young woman who in turn makes every man responsible for something someone else did to her. Am I right?"

Katie just stood there with her mouth open, heart racing at a million miles per hour. Bad decision.

"I... I...," she stammered, feeling the blood from her face swiftly disappearing into lower regions of her body, at the same time wishing she could just disappear into thin air.

Pedro continued, quietly, leaning closer to her so the others couldn't listen, "You can't go around treating men like this, sweetheart, just because some relentless asshole has broken your heart. Not every man is like that."

In a millisecond Katie was trying to compensate everything he had said to her, combined with the fact that Grace and Peter were present and the worst part: Pedro being fairly right about everything. Her therapist wouldn't have been able to put it any better.

The lump I her throat was neither going up nor down and hence blocked Katie's breathing and stopped the words coming out of her mouth.

"Excuse me," she muttered quietly, turning away and quickly disappearing in her office. Once she had sat down in her chair with the door shut, tears started cascading down her cheeks. Katie could literally feel her mascara streaming down her face like rain on a window.

That was it- her problem with men. A total stranger had put it in a fucking nutshell and served it on a plate for her to see. While Katie wasn't sure if she could ever walk out there with a straight face, a gentle knock on the door made her jump.

"Not now," she replied, desperately snuffling into a tissue.

"Katie, please. I need to apologise."

Katie needed a moment to realise whose voice it was. Pedro. On one hand she was pleased he made the effort to come see her and apologise, on the other hand she wasn't sure if she wanted him to see her in this state. After a moment of brief thinking, she chose to hear him out.

"Ok, fine. Come in."

His brows were worriedly furrowed when he entered the room and silently closed the door behind him.

"I'm sorry. That was inappropriate and I shouldn't have said those things." His voice sounded genuine and soft and Katie liked it.

"It's fine. I agreed. And to be fair I hate to admit it, but you're right," she sighed, running a hand through her hair and leaning back in her chair with another sigh.

"Still, I feel bad. I don't know you."

"Yeah, you don't, and therefore it scares me that you saw right through me." With another tissue, Katie wiped away the remaining tears from her cheeks along with her smudged mascara.

"You won't believe it, but I'm actually very sensitive for other people's feelings."

Katie let out a quiet chuckle and tried to stabilise her breathing rhythm while Pedro kept standing by the door, watching her.

"Listen, why don't we have lunch together? Just us two. You can get to know me. And maybe you want to talk about..." he made a pause, obviously struggling to find the suitable word, "...that issue. I'm a good listener."

Katie looked up at him, his eyes were warm and gentle observing her face for a reaction.

"I'll think about it, okay? I don't think I'll talk to you about my personal problems, not yet however, but it sounds like a decent thing to do." She bit her lip, still not quite sure if this was a good idea.

"Sure, think it through. I'll wait for you at the new place at the corner at noon. And if you don't want to come, that's fine. But I'd be thrilled if you did." With these words and a lopsided smile, he left her office and closed the door behind him. Katie was left sitting there in silence, considering if she should give it a go. It couldn't get any worse now.