Holding hands, Maya and I walk onto set. Shawn comes over to check on us and raises his eyebrows at us.
"What's this?" Shawn asks.
"They're method acting," Joe says from behind us.
Shawns face lights up.
"Nice work! I'm looking forward to seeing how the scene goes. Great initiative you two," Shawn says with a smile before walking off to get ready.
I turn around to face Joe.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you done filming for the day?" I ask.
"I wanted to come watch you, since you prepared so hard for this," Joe says with a smile.
I smile back at him.
"Someone's gotta make sure you don't screw up," Joe jokes.
I raise my hand to smack him, but then remember my self imposed "touch ban" and drop it again. Joe notices and smirks.
"Harder than you thought it would be huh?" Joe chuckles, a look of triumph on his face.
"Shut up," I say.
Maya pulls my hand.
"We gotta go on," She says to me.
I nod and we make our way to our marks. Maya sits on what is meant to be Robins bed in her room. I am leaning against a dresser.
"Action!" Shawn yells out.
I bite my lip as I look down at my fingers, picking my nails.
"So what are you saying?" I ask quietly, not looking up.
"Kaya..." Robin says.
I look up at Robin and she's staring at me with tears swelling in her eyes, threatening to spill over. I rush over to her and kneel at her feet, my hands resting at her knees.
"We're not making each other happy. We can't support each other the way we need to," Robin says to me, as the tears begin to stream down her face.
I hold her face in my hands and begin to kiss her tears away, making my way over to her lips and we kiss each other passionately for a moment, until Robin pulls away.
"Kaya, I'm trying to break up with you," Robin says sadly.
I lean my forehead against hers.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry," I whisper.
"It's okay. I'm sorry too," She whispers back.
I nod silently.
We stay that way for a moment. Foreheads pressed together, eyes closed. I pull myself away and silently walk out of the room.
"Cut!" Shawn yells.
Robert comes over to me and Maya with tissues. As I wipe away the tears, Shawn comes over.
"That was beautiful guys. Absolutely touching and heartbreaking at the same time. Nice improv with kissing her tears too Charlee, I loved that!" Shawn compliments us and then goes to talk to someone else.
Joe comes over to us.
"You improvised that?" Joe asks.
I nod.
"Wow, technical, yet intuitive. You're amazing," Joe says to me.
"Thank you," I say to Joe, touched by the compliment.
"I think the guy who encouraged you to act deserves some praise too," He says with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah," I roll my eyes.
"How are you feeling after that?" Joe asks me.
I run my hand through my hair.
"Honestly, pretty rough. That was harder emotionally than I realised it would be," I tell him.
Joe nods, understanding.
"Yeah it can be pretty draining. What are your plans today? Do you want some distraction?" Joe asks.
I look down at my fingers and fidget as I think. I do want some distraction and Joe tends to make me laugh, but I don't want to do anything that might upset Gemma and make things harder for Joe.
"You okay?" Joe asks.
I look up at Joe.
"I don't want things to be complicated for you," I say quietly.
A look of recognition flashes across Joes face. He licks his bottom lip and then scratches his head.
"It'll be fine, come on. Let me be there for my friend after her first emotionally charged scene," He says with a smile and kindness in his eyes.
"Okay," I say meekly.
Joe starts to walk away, and then turns around and smiles.
"Come on!" He says, motioning to me.
I never realised how much we used to just grab each other's hands, and drag each other around before now.
* * * *
As Joes car comes to a stop, he reaches for the keys and turns it off. I look around at where he has brought me. There is a footpath leading to the beach, on the left of it is a skatepark with kids on scooters, and some teenagers on bikes and skateboards doing tricks in the bowls and on the rails. On the right of the path is a playground, with a swing set, slide, seesaw and jungle gym. I have no idea what Joe brought me here for. I look over to him.
"What are we doing here?" I ask him suspiciously.
Joe looks at me with a mischievous grin.
"Having fun," He says with a quick lift of his eyebrows, before exiting the car.
I reach for the handle and pull it, it gets stuck, but with another try the door opens and I follow him outside.
He is leaning against the hood of the car, arms crossed and I suspect, surveying our options. I stand next to him, a little awkwardly, and wait to follow his lead. He looks at the playground as two young kids jump off of the swing set.
"Come on," Joe says to me, reaching for my hand before pulling back.
"Sorry, forgot for a minute," He says with a small chuckle.
I follow Joe over to the swings and sit down in one next to him.
"We're gonna play on the playground?" I say to him skeptically.
"Would you rather be at home in your head after that scene?" Joe tilts his head as he asks, already knowing the answer.
I shake my head.
"Bet I can go higher than you," He challenges me before beginning to swing, getting higher and higher.
I accept the challenge and start gaining height on my swing. We're both about as high as you can get without doing a full loop, when the swing set starts to shake violently with each swing we take.
"We better stop!" I yell out, and begin to slow down.
Joe follows my lead and stops his swing as well, laughing.
"I definitely beat you," I say as I laugh with him.
"No way! We were even at least," Joe shakes his head and laughs.
"Alright I'll give you a tie so you feel better," I roll my eyes and stick out my tongue.
Joe smiles at me, looking at me for a moment. I look back at him and I wonder what he's thinking. I look away when I realise I'm staring and he looks away too. My chest feels heavy.
"What next?" I say weakly.
Joe is looking across from us at the kids at the skate park.
"No... No way," I say shaking my head.
"We don't even have any skateboards or anything, do we?" I ask, eyeing the car.
"We could borrow something," Joe says.
When he takes in the look on my face, he must realise that it's a losing battle and concedes.
"Alright fine. Beach it is," Joe says with a small smile.
He gets up and starts walking towards the beach before I can protest. Stopping once to glance over to make sure I'm following him.
I get up off of the swing and follow him down the footpath towards the beach. Once we get to the sand dunes, Joe leans down and starts taking his shoes off.
"We aren't going swimming are we?" I ask, a little bit worried.
Joe looks at me with his tongue in his cheek, and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"Course not," Joe says smirking.
"Why don't I believe you?" I say with a sigh.
Joe laughs, standing up now his shoes are off.
"I'm just messing with you, I was taking them off to walk through the sand. We should come out for a swim sometime though," He says to me.
"We should," I agree with him as I slip my shoes off too, following him down to the shoreline.
We start walking along the beach, our bare feet squishing in the wet sand as we talk about work and laugh at inside jokes.
"How about when Noah and Millie try to pull pranks?" Joe says laughing.
"Oh my gosh. Millie is so bad at lying and Noah gets so annoyed with her for ruining it," I say laughing so hard there's tears in my eyes.
Joe stops for a moment and squats down to the sand.
"What is it?" I ask him, curious.
Joe stands up and turns around to show me.
"How cool is this shell?" He asks me.
I look at his hand and see a shell with a cool blue pattern on it. I smile at Joes amusement.
"It's beautiful Joe," I say to him.
"You should keep it. My first present for you," Joe says with a cute smile, handing the shell to me and dropping it in my palm.
My heart swells at the gesture, and I look in his eyes as I thank him.
Joe looks away, out at the horizon and notices the sky turning pink and orange as the sun begins to set.
"I didn't realise how long we'd been out," Joe says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
"We should get back,"
I agree with him, and we both walk back to the car in a comfortable silence.
Once we're inside the car, I turn to Joe to speak.
"I'm kind of glad we didn't end up in the skate park," I say with a laugh.
Joe laughs a long with me.
"Well, we did say we'd come back," He says to me, chuckling as he starts the car.
He places his arm on the back of my seat as he turns his head around to reverse. The close proximity making my heart race.
When we get back to the studio so that I can drive my car home, Joe turns to me.
"Are you okay?" Joe asks me.
I nod.
"Yeah, why?" I ask him.
"You were just really quiet on the way back," Joe answers me.
I swallow. I had spent the whole way back stuck in my head, worrying about my feelings for him, our friendship and how I'm going to manage working with him when my feelings intensify every moment I'm around him.
"I'm worried that we're going to stop being friends," I say eventually, deciding that was the safer subject to go with.
Joes face drops and his hand moves forward before stopping and placing it back on his lap.
"I'm going to sort it out Charlee, you don't have to worry about it okay? I'm not going to lose you, you're not going to lose me. I promise," Joe says to me sincerely, his eyes serious.
I sigh with some relief, knowing he'll make an effort to ensure our friendship stays strong and smile weakly at him.
"Okay, I believe you. I was just worried that a complicated consequence would be us not hanging out together," I said, not really looking at his face.
"No, no. That's not what I meant by that at all! Not after everything, no way," Joe says.
"After everything?" I ask, confused.
Joe looks back at me, chewing his lip.
"Don't worry about it. Everything is going to be okay, okay Charlee?" Joe says to me gently.
I nod, and say goodbye to him with a smile. I try my door handle, but again it's stuck and I can't seem to get it open.
"Sorry, it's been playing up lately. Charlie keeps telling me to just get a new car already," Joe laughs.
He leans over me and I lean back as my breath disappears from my lungs. He jiggles the handle a bit until it opens, and looks at me, his face close to mine and his body still leaned over me but not touching at all.
"There," He whispers, looking into my eyes and then down at my lips.
We look at each other for a moment and I know if I don't leave now, I'll do something stupid like kiss him. So, I turn my head and push on the door.
"Thank you!" I say, as he sits back on his seat.
His face looks as bewildered as I feel. I lean down and say goodbye to him. He says a weak goodbye to me back and I shut the door. I watch him drive off, as I place my hand on my pocket and feel the shell he gave me.
That - was definitely a moment, and I know he felt it too.