"M-Mom," I said, startled, the bag with my dress in it slipping out of my hands, and falling to the floor with a plop. "What are you doing here?"
She turned toward me at the sound of my voice, her brows furrowing in confusion, then suspicion as she took in my appearance. "Where are you coming from, dressed like that?"
"Work," I lied quickly, snatching up my bag, and holding it to my chest so the contents inside weren't visible. "I told you I was working an overnight. I just got out. My scrubs got dirty so I changed."
"Well, I was just going to drop off some food," she told me, and I noticed she was holding two paper bags in her hands.
"When I wasn't home?"
"I have your spare key."
"Mom."
"What?" she responded, narrowing her eyes at my tone. "I can't bring you food?"
"You can't just let yourself into my apartment without my permission!"
"Why not? I'm your mother."
I grit my teeth. "It's my apartment."
"Do I not let you come home whenever you want without making you knock? And let you go in even when no one is home?"
I faltered a bit. "That's different."
"How?" she challenged. "I wasn't even going to bother you, Maisie. I was going to put the food away and leave. Why are you always like this?"
My mind raced. Was my apartment clean? I knew my fridge didn't have anything healthy in it. If she went in, she'd definitely say have something to say. I didn't want to deal with it right now, not when I was hungover, and only had minutes to get ready for work. "I gave you that key to hold onto in case I lost something, not for you to come over whenever you want. You need to tell me in advance."
"Why? Are you hiding something?" she questioned, her lips twisting to the side.
My stomach churned, the hallway suddenly feeling ten times smaller. "No... I just want you to respect my privacy. That's it."
"Your brother doesn't care if I stop by, so why are you so upset by it?"
"He should be bothered by it," I pushed back, feeling my palms start to get sweaty. "We're adults, Mom. I shouldn't need to explain why I want privacy."
"Well, I'm sorry for worrying about you and wanting to bring you food. Next time I'll make sure to schedule an appointment with you."
A twinge of guilt bit at me, but I shoved it aside, biting down on the inside of my cheek. "Mom, I don't have time for this conversation. I need to get to work."
"You just came from work," she said, her voice taking on a tone of skepticism.
"I..." I trailed off, scrambling to think of a lie, quickly. "I told you I was working a double," I continued, remembering our previous conversation. "The overnight was only my first shift. I came to shower before I go back."
She didn't reply immediately, gaze scrutinizing me, like she knew I was lying. "Fine," she said after a moment. "But at least let me in to put the food I brought you away."
I really didn't want to let her do that, but figured it was better than coming up with more excuses on why she couldn't. I brushed past her, unlocked my door, and swung it open, waiting for her to go inside before closing it. I did a cursory glance around my kitchen, making sure nothing incriminating was left out, glad I'd busied myself with cleaning before I'd left with Theo. Hopefully, she wouldn't inspect the rest of my apartment, though.
My mom went straight to the fridge, opening it, and putting her hands on her lips. "Really, Maisie?"
"What?" I asked, searching for somewhere to stash my bag with my dress, my pulse quickening again. Nothing could be in my fridge that would lead me to be discovered, but I felt on edge. I eventually settled on shoving the bag under the side table by my couch.
"This is all junk. Don't tell me this is all you eat."
"It's not. I just haven't been grocery shopping," I lied. "That's what's left since I don't eat it very often."
She made a noncommittal response, reaching into the bags she brought, and retrieving multiple containers of food, stacking them into my fridge. "You spilled something in here. Let me clean it. Where are your cleaning supplies?"
"Mom, I have to get ready for work, I'll deal with it later," I said.
"I'm not stopping you from getting ready."
I glanced at the time showing on my microwave. I had maybe ten minutes to get ready if I wanted to be on time. Sighing inwardly, I went under my sink and grabbed my cleaning supplies, bringing them over to her. "Fine. Here. I need to shower."
"Do what you need to."
I hurried into my bedroom to get a change of clothing before hopping into the shower and cleaning myself at record speed, my heart hammering in my chest, and my mind playing worst-case scenarios of my mom snooping around as I did so. I barely let my conditioner sit before washing it out and then shutting off the water, giving myself a quick towel dry before slipping into a pair of jeans, hating the feeling of my still-wet legs against the fabric. With no time to do make-up, I brushed my teeth, and then my hair, looking completely exhausted and worn out still, but at least clean.
When I burst out of the bathroom and saw my mom still busy with the fridge, I relaxed marginally, glancing toward my bookshelf where I kept all my author copies. I made it a rule to only display one of each translation so as to not draw attention to the fact I owned so many copies of the same book. Now, though, I regretted even doing that. Why would I collect translations I couldn't even read? Would it be noticeable if she walked by? Should I take them down after?
I couldn't even feel comfortable in my own apartment.
"Mom, I really have to go now," I said, grabbing my keys from where I'd placed them on the counter, jingling them to get her attention. "Are you all set?"
She closed the fridge, letting out a long sigh. "Since you're rushing me, I guess I am."
"You can come back another day," I promised. "Just give me some warning."
"Where are your scrubs?" she asked, eyeing my outfit of jeans with a floral blouse tucked in questioningly.
I faked a laugh but cursed myself inwardly. "Oops, good catch. Let me grab them."
"You're the only person I know who wears an outfit to work just to have to change," she said, clicking her tongue.
"I like to keep them clean," I called back as I entered my room again, grabbing a string backpack, and shoving one of the sets of scrubs I bought as a decoy into it before returning back to the kitchen. "And I have errands to run after."
"No lunch?" she asked as we walked toward the door.
"I'll order something."
"You shouldn't waste your money like that."
I checked the time on my phone. I needed to leave right now. I opened the door, nodding for her to go first. "Mom, I'm doing a double. I don't want any extra work."
"Alright, alright." She waited for me to close and lock the door before going in to give me a kiss on my forehead. "I'll see you later. In the meantime, can you please e-mail me the names of the schools you chose? I've been waiting for it.'
Shit. I'd forgotten about that. Now I had to think of even more lies. "Yeah. Okay."
Seemingly satisfied, she smiled for the first time since her arrival. "Okay. Love you. Talk to you later. I can't wait to see where you want to take your career next."
I paused, watching her walk down the hall, my chest tightening as her words lingered in my mind. The next step of my career. "Mom, I have a question."
She stopped, turning back to me. "What's that?"
"What if I don't want to be a nurse anymore?"
"Then hurry to finish school so you can become a doctor."
"What if I want to change career paths entirely?" I hedged.
Her expression turned stern. "To what?"
My heart skipped a beat. "I... I don't know. I was just thinking it's a lot of work to be a nurse."
"Every job is hard, Maisie. If you're looking for an easy one, you won't find it. Don't waste your time like that."
"But I just don't feel like it's right for me sometimes."
Her jaw tightened, arms folded over her chest. "And what do you think is right for you? Don't tell me that you want to go back to writing books, Maisie."
"No," I said immediately, my muscles tensing. "Not that. Something else."
"You don't even know what?" she replied, heaving a hard breath of air. "You need to keep yourself motivated so you don't feel like this. You have a great job, Maisie. People work hard to get it. Be proud of yourself and stick with it."
"Yeah, you're right," I said, forcing a smile onto my face, even though my chest felt hollow. "I don't know what I was thinking."
She stared at me for a moment more. "Make sure to e-mail me those schools."
"I will."
I waited until her footsteps disappeared before slowly making my way out of my apartment building, anxiety wrapped around my chest like a boa constrictor. I didn't know what I was thinking, asking that. Her response would never change. My family wasn't like Theo's, or Rowan's. She'd never come around if I told her now. But...I still had my original plan. My movie would be successful, it would prove my worth, and my mom would have no choice but to accept this was a viable career.
The thought didn't make me feel better, though, and I drove to the production studio in silence, trying to fight off the anxiety, and failing. I parked, my heart sinking as I realized I was late, and got out of my car, rushing in, unsure of what stage I was supposed to get to. The main office was more crowded than usual, and I pushed my way through, trying to pull up the schedule on my phone.
"Maisie!" The sound of my name being called made me twist my head, and to my relief, I saw Aliyah coming toward me, waving her hand. "Hey! Zara is looking for you."
"I can't remember what stage we're at today," I told her.
"Did you miss the e-mail from last night? They wanted Theo and Sienna to re-shoot one of the scenes from last week because Marco wanted to change the dialogue. So, we're still at stage 10. They've moved the location shooting to tomorrow."
She hooked her thumb over her shoulder toward the exit of the main building, and we took off together, making our way back to set. Outside, the grounds were even more crowded, and I furrowed my eyebrows, brushing by a group of extras. "What's going on today?"
"The filming of Hired to Love starts today," she told me. "It's going to be a bit more crowded from here on out."
A man wheeling a green screen nearly ran me over, Aliyah tanking me out of the way at the last second. "I guess we're lucky there are so many shows on hiatus right now...I can't imagine all this plus the daily shows."
"It's a lot, but I'm excited to head to the mountains tomorrow! It'll be nice to get out of the city for a bit."
With everything that'd been going on, it'd practically slipped my mind we'd be driving over to Santa Margarita to film at the mountain range. I needed to pack, too, since we'd be filming there for three days. I took out my phone to set myself an alarm for later to remind myself to pack, not trusting myself enough to remember on my own.
We quietly slipped into the stage building and parted ways, Aliyah to catch up with Sienna, and me to find Zara. She was with Marco when I found her, her gaze flicking to mine briefly as I walked up. "There you are," she said. "I found your latte, but not you."
"My latte?" I asked.
She gestured toward the tables set up in the back of the room that was set up to store personal belongings. "You left it over there."
Confused, I wandered over to the table, seeing an iced mocha latte with my name written on the side, and a sticker over the top with a straw attached to it. It definitely wasn't mine, but I hadn't run into any other Maisie's on set yet. As I stared at it, my phone vibrated in my hand, and I glanced down at it, my heart skipping a beat to see a text from Theo.
That's for you.
I looked around the room, seeing Theo standing with Sienna and Aliyah, gaze on me. He nodded subtly, and I quickly turned away, hating that my stomach somersaulted. How had he even had time to stop by and grab me one? Or had Rowan? Either way, I was grateful. The ibuprofen did little to quell my headache and the caffeine would help. I sent him a quick text saying thanks before pulling the sticker off the top and sticking the straw in.
"Sienna made a good adlib last Friday," Zara told me as I returned to her. "We decided to go with it, but we need to adjust the upcoming scene's dialogue to keep the continuity up. Do you think you can handle that, Maisie?"
My eyes widened. "Me?"
"We have to continue the shoot so we can stay on schedule for tomorrow. I can manage to oversee the filming if you can manage to adjust the script."
"Is that okay?" I asked, glancing at Marco.
Marco nodded. "Of course. I have full faith in you, Maisie."
"I do, too," Zara said, smiling encouragingly. "You've done well this past week. I'll go over it later, too, so don't worry about it too much."
"I'll do it then," I told her, feeling a little excited. "I already have the notes from the adlib in my folder."
"I typed them up in the doc already, too, so just make a new version, and either I'll look at it when you're done, or at the end of the day. Take my laptop over there. You might find more peace in one of the office buildings, too," she said, gesturing to her bag lying by one of the cameras.
I hummed to myself as I grabbed Zara's bag with my free hand, and made my way back out of the stage building, heading over to the closest office building, slipping in, finding an empty room, and signing myself into it. I opened Zara's laptop, typed in the password she had taped to the top of the keyboard, and opened the scripts folder.
Reworking the scripts took most of the day, but I didn't mind, enjoying being alone, and motivated by Zara's faith in me. The latte helped me wake up more and energized me, and my hangover slowly disappeared. By the time Zara came searching for me in the office, the filming had finished. I stayed with Zara as she looked over my changes, even though she told me I could go home for the day. I wanted to make sure I'd done a good job, even if it meant staying here for an hour or two more.
"Perfect," she said decidedly when she finished reading over them, turning around in her chair to face me, smiling. "I knew you could handle it, Maisie."
"Really?"
"Your dialogue is really natural, too," she complimented. "It's really in character, too. You must have studied the script."
I grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, kind of."
"These next few days might be difficult, though. Continuity is hard when you have to rely on nature. But I know you'll manage."
"I'm excited," I said, glad I was actually of use to Zara for once instead of just passively following her around.
She stood from the chair, packing up her laptop, and throwing her bag over the shoulder. "I'm going to give the report to the production team. You can get going. Thanks for staying. I'll walk with you to the main office."
We parted ways soon after and I headed to the parking lot, swinging my arms, my keys dangling from my hands as I walked up to my car. Even though it'd been so crowded today, the parking lot was nearly empty now. I climbed into my car, pressing down on the start button, and furrowing my eyebrows as it made a clicking noise, the engine not turning over. Giving it a second, I made a second attempt, groaning as it only clicked again.
"This is not happening," I said to myself, trying the button again.
My headlights flickered, as did one of my overhead lights, but both died out again soon after. I tried turning on the overhead light, but nothing happened. I took a deep breath, leaning my head against my steering wheel. It had to be my battery. I'd must have left my lights on in my rush after arriving this morning.
I picked up my phone, scrolling through my contacts until I found Mom, hovering my finger over the call button. A vague memory of her telling me to get roadside assistance popped into my brain and I immediately closed her contact, knowing that her help would come with a lecture, and another trip to my apartment.
I scrolled through the rest of my contacts, my heart sinking as I realized I didn't really have anyone to ask for help. Levi was too far away. And all my other contacts were Director Ahn, Marco, my agent, my editor, a few other writers I'd met online but rarely chatted with...
I came to Theo's contact, looking around the parking lot to see if his car was anywhere, but not finding it. Had he already gone home already? But... I didn't have many choices. It was either suck it up and ask him, or my mom.
I pressed call.
He answered almost immediately. "Hello?"
Not expecting him to pick up so quickly, it took me a second to respond. "Um, hi. Did you already go home for the day?"
"Yes," came his low voice, sounding even deeper through the phone.
I held in a sigh. "Oh, okay. Never mind. Talk to you later—"
"Maisie," he interjected firmly. "Do you need something?"
"A jump, I think. But you're already home. I'll figure it out."
"I'll come back."
I started to shake my head and then realized he couldn't see me. "No! That's okay! I'll be fine."
"I'm already turning around."
I shrunk down in my seat, feeling embarrassed. "Okay. Thank you. I have cables and stuff in my trunk."
"Be there soon," he responded before hanging up.
Unsure of what to do with myself while waiting for Theo's arrival, I climbed back out of my car, going to my trunk, and taking out the jumper cables. I vaguely knew how to set them up, but decided to let Theo handle it, the warning sticker attached to them describing a shock threat making me a little nervous. I poked at the insulation, wondering how safe it was.
"Hey," a voice said from behind me suddenly, scaring the shit out of me.
I whirled around, my heart in my throat, relaxing only when I saw it was Marco standing there. "Geez," I said, putting a hand over my heart, the stench of alcohol in the air between us. Had he been drinking inside?
He grinned at me, nodding toward the cables. "Need help?"
"No, I have someone coming."
"What's wrong with it?"
"The battery is dead," I told him.
He tapped a finger on his chin, moving closer to me to inspect the cables. "You sure? I can take a look. I know my way around cars."
I stepped out of the way. "I'm pretty sure."
"Do you know anything about cars?" he asked, sounding amused. "Or are you just guessing?"
I plastered a smile on my face as he continued to doubt me. "The headlights flickered and dimmed."
"Sounds like it could be your battery, then," he agreed. "Can you pop your hood?"
I wanted to wait for Theo but felt awkward rejecting Marco's help, so I went around to the driver's seat, bending over to reach down the lever to open the hood. As I pushed myself back up, I caught Marco staring at me, and I quickly straightened out, my skin crawling. What was up with him?
"Let's find your battery," he said, putting his hand on my waist to guide me forward.
I jerked away from him, and he frowned at me. "Oh, I know where it is," I told him, pretending like I was just moving to wipe some dirt off the side of my car. "Thanks for offering your help, but my friend will be here in a second."
I tried to rush him, not wanting Marco to know it was Theo coming.
"I suppose I can't help anyway unless I bring my car over here, but me and some of the guys just went for some after-work drinks, so I shouldn't drive," he responded, leaning against my car now, hands in his pockets. "Zara speaks highly of you, you know."
I blinked at the topic change. "That's nice to hear," I said, a bit confused.
"You might actually have a real talent for script supervising," he continued.
My head was craned over my shoulder, hoping Theo wouldn't show up until I got rid of Marco. "Yeah?"
A hand on my shoulder caused my head to whip back around to Marco, not noticing he'd pushed himself off my car and stepped up to me again. "Have you ever considered a career in film? I wouldn't mind having you around more."
I offered him another tight smile. "I'm pretty happy writing books."
"Writing isn't always reliable."
"It's been fine so far."
"You know, I fought really hard to be the one to produce your movie," he said, still not dropping his hand from my shoulder. "Some people told me not to. But I saw something special in your script. In you."
Instead of feeling happy with his admittance, I found myself swallowing, wanting to be further from him. Marco was already strange sober—him being drunk just made me uncomfortable. "I, uh, appreciate that, Marco."
"Why do you look so tense?" he asked, voice taking on an accusing tone. "I'm giving you a compliment."
I was saved from having to answer as I heard the crunch of tires on the pavement, making both Marco and me turn toward the noise. Relief washed over me as I used walking toward him as an excuse to escape Marco's grasp. Theo rolled down his window, his gaze piercing past me to Marco, his lips pressed tightly together.
"Theo!" Marco called out to Theo happily despite the look Theo was giving him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help Maisie," Theo told him. "I've got it handled from here."
"Oh, sure, sure," Marco agreed readily, nodding his head. "I know I'll be leaving her in capable hands if you're here."
I made a sarcastic face at that, my back to Marco, and Theo caught it, the corner of his lip twitching slightly, before returning his attention to Marco. He randomly stuck his hand out the window toward me and I stared at it, confused, but then Marco brushed by me, close enough that my shoulder brushed his arm.
"See you later," Theo said, giving Marco's hand a firm shake.
"See you tomorrow! Let me know if you want to drive down together! I have room in my car. Maisie, you too," Marco responded, waving at me. "In case your car isn't working by tomorrow morning. Hit me up."
I thought it would be rude to tell him I'd rather walk, so I kept my mouth shut, giving a him small wave instead.
As Marco started to walk away, Theo pulled his car into the parking spot next to mine, climbing out, and then popping his hood up. "Why are you still here?" he asked me, coming over to me to pick up the jumper cables off my trunk.
I noticed he'd changed from what he'd had on earlier, now wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt, his dark hair flat against his forehead, nearly falling into his eyes. "I was fixing the script with Zara," I told him, trying to subtly put space between me and my car as he carried the cables to the front of it.
He gestured for me to come closer again. "Hold these ends."
"I'm not going to get electrocuted, am I?"
"No." He placed the cables in my hand. "At least, as long as you know what you're doing."
"But I don't!"
My panic caused him to expel a short breath of laughter. "I do, Maisie. You're not going to get electrocuted. Come here. I see you moving away."
I held the two cables in my hand as far away from each other as possible as I moved closer to Theo. He beckoned me closer with his finger until I could smell the scent of his cologne, our thighs almost touching as he bent down over my engine bay.
"See this?" he said, holding up the red cable in his hand. "This red clamp needs to attach to the positive terminal here. It has the plus sign." He leaned back down, attaching the cable as he spoke. "Red is positive. Black is negative."
Still half-expecting to get electrocuted, I watched with my eyes half-scrunched up. "Right."
"Now we're going to do the same thing to the battery on my car. You do it this time."
I really didn't want to, but I sucked it up and attached the cable with his guidance. When I didn't die, I sighed in relief.
This made a brief smirk flicker across his lips. "Now you're going to put that black cable on the negative side. Can you do that for me?"
A little braver this time, I nodded, clamping it down onto the battery.
"Perfect," he praised, making my heart flutter. "Now we need to clamp this negative cord to any metal on your car, but not anything painted. We need to ground the circuit." I watched as he clamped the black cable to a random bolt in the engine bay and then stepped back, attention turning to me. "Easy, right?"
"Easy," I agreed.
"I'm going to turn my car on now."
I found myself backing up again—just to be safe. Theo noticed this and motioned for me to go over to him again as he opened the driver's side door of his car. I did so, smiling sheepishly. "Just being cautious."
Theo sat sideways in the driver's seat, reaching over to start his car.
Nothing exploded.
I relaxed again.
"We'll let it charge for a few minutes," he said.
"Okay."
"Has your car been giving you trouble?"
I shook my head. "No. This is the first time. I might have left a light on."
He frowned. "The battery could just be drained. Or you need a new one. Were you planning on carpooling tomorrow?"
"Not really," I replied, absentmindedly leaning against the side of his car, the cool metal pressing against my back as my knees bumped into his as he adjusted his position to face me better. "I definitely don't want to go with Marco, and I bet Director Ahn will be going with him."
"What did Marco want earlier?"
"I think he wanted to help me with my car."
Theo rested his arm on his steering wheel, looking up at me. "He's lucky Rowan wasn't with me."
"Why's that?"
"She thinks he's too handsy. And she's right."
"Oh, yeah," I muttered, rocking on the balls of my feet. "I don't think he means anything by it, though."
"Maybe not, but if it makes you uncomfortable, you shouldn't have to put up with it," he said, his voice dropping into a lower tone as his expression darkened.
The anger in his voice caused a feeling of uneasiness to spread through me. It felt so unlike him. "I'd say something if I thought he was crossing the line."
"I'm just saying not to trust anyone," he said, gaze drifting off to look into the distance, his jaw clenched.
The words hung heavy in the air, "Not trusting anyone is a bit..." I trailed off, seeing his serious expression. He really meant it.
He shook his head. "You never know what someone's true intentions toward you are until it's too late."
I folded my arms around my stomach, chewing on my lip. "You don't even trust Rowan?"
His expression softened a bit at the mention of the redhead. "Rowan is the only person I trust aside from my family."
I didn't know why I bothered to ask, because all it did was make jealousy settle in my stomach...but then a pang of realization shot through me as I remembered how upset he'd been when he'd only thought I had feelings for him. It made the jealousy disappear. I never wanted that situation to happen again, especially if I ended up catching real feelings. "It's good you have someone you can trust, at least."
"I can also trust you," he said after a moment, so quiet I almost didn't catch it.
It made my heart rate spike. "You can?"
His gaze still didn't meet mine. "Because I have something on you. Something that you would protect no matter what. You would never risk being exposed just to act against me."
My fingers clenched the fabric of my shirt, disappointment flooding through me, my gaze dropping to the pavement. What was I thinking? That he would genuinely trust me? He barely knew me. Of course it was because he had leverage against me. "Right."
When his hand appeared in my field of vision, settling on my elbow gently, I lifted my head to look at him again. His eyes met mine, seeming to search for something. "It's not because of you, though. I just..."
"I get it," I said, not needing him to finish his sentence. "Don't worry. I don't need you to trust me to be your friend."
"Friend, huh?" he repeated, his hand dropping from my elbow.
I froze. Was that the wrong thing to say? "Um. Partner in crime, then?" I hedged.
He laughed. An actual, full laugh, his hand shooting to his mouth as if to smother it. "And what's our crime?"
"That's yet to be determined," I told him, unable to keep myself from smiling as he grinned up at me.
"I think friend works. Just not on set, right?"
I scratched my neck, a little rueful. "I'm sorry. That was probably rude of me, wasn't it? I just don't want people talking about us."
"I understand," he responded, pushing himself off of his seat, and out of the car.
His actions closed the space between us, his shoulder brushing against my nose, his height feeling even more staggering when he stood this close to me. I fell back a step, trying to fight off the blush that threatened my cheeks. "Maybe I'm being too paranoid, though."
"Seems like we're sinking in the same boat together," he said as he walked over to the driver's side of my car. "Here, try turning on your car now."
I did as he requested, grinning at him as the engine roared to life. "Nice!"
"We can take off the cables now. We need to take them off in the reverse order of the way we put them on."
Theo took control of unhooking the cables and within a minute they were tucked away in my trunk again.
"Thanks for your help," I said, still sitting in my car, looking up at him. "I'm going to go before it dies again."
"You'll make it home," he assured me. "What about tomorrow, though?"
I hesitated. I really didn't want to go with Marco, but maybe I didn't have a choice. I'd wanted to drive myself so I wouldn't get carsick.
"Want to drive with me and Rowan?" he offered. "I'll sit in the back again. I don't mind."
"You sure?"
"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't."
Once again, this was counterproductive to trying to put space between us, but I tried to look at it from a reasonable standpoint. The more time Theo and I spent together, the more natural we would be around each other when we faked being boyfriend and girlfriend.
"Then, thank you, I'd appreciate it," I said.
He nodded. "I'll pick you up in the morning, then."