They were interrupted by the beeping of her phone. Her eyes widened in panic. „No... are you sh*tting me??"
She turned around and grabbed it to confirm her terrible suspicion. „It's already 6 o'clock?? We need to get up! We have to be on set in one hour!"
She extinguished their cigarette and put everything back into the satchel. „I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about the time." She paused and took a deep breath to gather her thoughts.
He slowly ran his hand across her back to comfort her. „It's alright, no need to apologize, I didn't check the time either."
„Alright, so how do we do this... I need to take a shower, I need to feed Lola and I need to take her out for a quick walk at least before we head to work. And most of all I need to NOT look high and like I hadn't slept all night when I sit down in that make up chair."
„I can help you out if you want? There's not enough time for me to go home anyway. At least your shirt spares me the full ‚walk of shame' vibes."
Despite the sudden stress and tension of the situation, she had to laugh. „True. Alright then, why don't you go ahead and shower first while I feed Lola and pack our stuff for the day, then she can have breakfast while I shower and then we take a walk around the block."
„Sounds awesome, let's do it!"
Barely twenty minutes later they were out on the street, strolling through her neighborhood and taking in the early morning sun. She was wearing a baseball cap, oversize sunglasses and a tight tank top, a hoodie was wrapped around her hips. She looked exactly like any celebrity who did not want to get noticed or recognized would look like, which made her even more conspicuous. But here it probably did not matter, she lived here, everybody knew her here, and if not, they would at least know Lola. The old dog seemed tolerant but somehow puzzled that he was still here, walking with her and her mom.
„You youngsters are so lucky. I mean, look at you! You look fresh as morning, as if nothing happened. Me on the other hand, once I take off those sunglasses..."
„I'm sure it's not that bad."
„Oh, you'll see! When I was your age, I could party for days on end, no problem, but wait until you're thirty, or God forbid, fourty!"
He grinned. „Come on, that's not that old neither."
„Not old enough apparently to know that it's a stupid idea to smoke weed just before going to work. I didn't even rehearse my lines properly. I'm gonna be so f-ed up today..."
As they were walking, he wanted to take her hand, not sure why, he just had the urge to touch her, stay close to her. But he didn't dare. Just because she slept with him behind closed doors didn't mean she also fancied holding hands in public, parading him in front of her neighbors. Certainly this was not that kind of relationship.
But to his surprise, as Lola started sniffing a streetlamp and took her sweet time doing her business, she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. He was startled, at first, then he hugged her back and held her close, calmly stroking her back and ever so slightly rocking her in his arms. „It'll be okay", he whispered, „You're gonna be alright. You're Rita Castillo!"
She listened to his heartbeat for a while, it calmed her down. Then she lifted her head to look at him. „I was thinking... it might be best if we didn't speak of this to anyone at work."
„Uhm, yeah, sure. Definitely, I wasn't going to put it on a poster."
„Not that I don't want people to know or that I'm embarrassed or anything like that, absolutely not, please don't think that!", she looked at him with pleading eyes, „It's just, affairs on set, especially among actors, have a certain aftertaste in the business. And I don't want this for myself, but most of all, actually, I don't want this for you. You're just starting out, you're still so young and you're way too talented to walk away from this job with that sort of reputation. Such gossip travels fast."
He took a deep breath and nodded. Lola was pushing her mom impatiently with her nose, she was done. As they turned back to walk home, he didn't dare to ask, but eventually did so anyway. „Do you regret it?"
She instantly shook her head. „I don't. Not that it happened, but that I let it happen. If that makes sense? I am disappointed in myself. As the more experienced colleague, it should have been my job to guide, support and protect you. But I didn't. I failed you."
„Lana, please, don't say that! That's nonsense."
„It's true! I exploited you, I led you on. I made you take the risk."
„No! You did none of that. Maybe you were flirting, yes, so what, so was I! I wanted you. I wanted this. I never would have dared to even dream of it, but I was fascinated by you, by your talent, your aura, your energy, your beautiful heart and soul, by your looks as well, of course, from the very first time I met you. I thought about you a lot. I can assure you, we didn't do anything I haven't been imagining before, one way or the other. If that helps?"
By now they had reached her driveway, his car was parked next to hers. She opened the back door and let Lola jump in the back seat, then she turned to look at him. She smiled and made a finishing gesture with her hands. „It's okay. It's done. Let's just not talk about it anymore."
He ran his hand over his face, then nodded.
„Alright then, perfectly on time!", she checked her watch, then reached for his cheek with a sweet and gentle gesture, „I'll see you in 1949?"
She took a long look at him as if she wanted to frame this moment in her memory. He didn't respond. Instead he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. For a split second he was expecting a slap in the face after the talk they'd just had, but she instantly kissed him back, longingly, holding him tight, not wanting to let go. They both knew that as soon as they got into their cars, this sweet bubble they had been in for the past hours would burst. This dream would turn back into reality.
Was it really over? Was that all there was to it? He was not ready yet to say goodbye to this night, to them, he was still processing everything that had happened between them. And he had no idea how he was supposed to be able to focus on filming today...