Gabe stared down at his phone and it took everything he had not to send her a message apologizing again for frightening her. Almost getting knocked out by her in the parking lot had been bad enough; he didn’t want her to think he was a stalker, too.

He walked the last couple of blocks to the hotel that the cast and crew were staying at and waved to a couple of the crew members that were sitting at the bar. He rode the elevator up to his floor while going over some of his lines for his scenes for tomorrow. The rewrite notice had been scary, especially after everything Aaron, his manager, had told him. He remembered the conversation they’d had in Aaron’s second floor office in the management building in LA.

“Gabe, it doesn’t look good,” Aaron had said solemnly as he handed Gabe the updated script from the studio. “This type of overhaul is usually not a good sign.” Aaron plopped down in his seat across from Gabe. He knew Aaron had just as much riding on this project as he did. The success of a big project like Stargazer would be a major break for them both. Aaron would get bigger clients, and he would be seeing more roles. He had flipped through the script.

“These are a lot of changes,” he said. “Now we’re ending up in a desolate ocean planet?”

“Looks that way. The good thing is that there are no notes about your performance. The studio loves you! So even if this bombs, there’s a chance they might still try to find something else for you.”

“Maybe. I guess it’s good that I kept my registration spot for school,” Gabe mumbled.

“It’s not the end of the world, Gabe. Keep doing what you’ve been doing and people will want to work with you. Now, you head out tomorrow morning. Ann has your tickets. Someone from the shoot will pick you up from the airport and take you to your hotel. I’ll be out there a bit later to check in on you.”

Gabe hadn’t been able to sleep that entire night waiting for the morning flight. He’d been a leg-tapping bundle of nerves during the taxi ride from the airport. This was supposed to be his big break—not that he’d even been on this path a little over a year ago. It was crazy to think he was going to be an actor in a major movie. When the random guy approached him when he was working at the electronics store, Gabe thought it was just a pick-up line. He’d been reluctant to call the number on the back of the card, although he had Googled the company and it looked legit.

Cautiously, telling pretty much everyone he knew where he was going, he went to the address they gave him and, lo and behold, there was a whole room full of casting people and he hadn’t had to take off his clothes. Getting up and performing in front of the room full of people had been a strange feeling. He’d acted in a few school plays and had done a few community productions when his mom put him up to it, but this was different.

During those, he always played the Ducky from Sixteen Candles character. Best friend to the girl that gets trampled on. It probably had to do with the fact that he was less than 5’6” and skinny as a rail during most of high school.

Between a growth spurt that pushed him over six feet and serious time spent in the gym during the summer between high school and college, he was transformed. Gabe hadn’t wanted to go off to college as the same bean pole he was in high school. During that time, his mom went out of her mind trying to feed and clothe him. He figured she was probably elated that he was going to be his college’s problem when it came to food that fall.

Newly muscled and much taller, Gabe felt like an imposter for most of his freshman year. The change in attitude when it came to girls was probably his biggest mind-fuck. Girls who would have never given him the time of day, except to maybe ask to borrow a pen, were suddenly all over him. It was insane!

He’d had his fun for a while, but realized that these girls never would have given him a second glance if he didn’t look like he did now. Gabe pulled back from the social scene a bit and focused on studying. The physical transformation had worked, but maybe it wasn’t everything he wanted. Then the summer before senior year, he’d been picked out by that casting director and it all snowballed from there.

His mom wasn’t exactly happy about him taking a year off from school to work on the film, but she knew what an opportunity it was for him. Things like that didn’t fall into your lap every day. The compromise had been to take one year off, see where it went, and then reassess.

Staring out the window of the taxi that first night as it rolled through the nearly desolate shore town had reflected the bleakness his film career had turned into. Every building they passed was dark until he finally spotted a lone restaurant with the lights on. They were stopped at a light that seemed to go on forever when he spied a girl through the large glass windows of the place. She was sitting at the bar biting on a pen. It looked like she was pushing up glasses she wasn’t wearing and he laughed at how intently she was studying.

Her dark, riotous curls were piled on top of her head and he wanted to see more of her. The taxi pulled away as the light finally turned green, but he turned back to get another glance at the restaurant beauty. The hotel wasn’t that far from the restaurant, so he decided to drop his bags and walk the few blocks back to it. Some of the nerves about the filming crept back as the cold wind whipped around him. He pushed his hands into his pockets and his worries to the back of his mind and hustled toward the warm, welcoming light of the diner.

The moment he stepped into that restaurant and she popped into view, his anxiety began to melt away. He’d watched her move around the place all night and she calmed him for some reason. Maybe it was the methodical way she moved or the easy smile she had for everyone, but he knew he’d need a lot more of that to get through this.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, bringing Gabe back to the present. He stepped out and headed to his cozy suite. He flopped down onto the hotel bed and stared up at the ceiling, marveling at how much his life had changed over the last year. His time with her had made his day. Even if this movie crashed and burned, he had a feeling that meeting her would make it all worthwhile.

When he’d first talked her at the restaurant, she’d taken his breath away. Up close, she was even more beautiful than she had been through that window. Her deep brown hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. Wisps had escaped and were curling around her face, caressing her neck, and they made it hard to concentrate on what she was saying.

He’d been glad that the studio’s driver hadn’t been at the airport to pick him up and that he’d decided to take a taxi to get to the hotel early. Checking out the landscape of the town, it could certainly double as a desolate alien planet. It was almost completely deserted and the overcast conditions lent an eerie feel to it.

Gabe pulled the script out of his bag and began to go over his lines for tomorrow. He wanted to make sure that if this was his last big-screen project, at least it would be a good one. After going over the lines until his eyes crossed, he fell back on his bed and saw the message light blinking on his phone.

He opened it and couldn’t contain the huge smile that spread across his face. It was from Alex.

A: Wanted to check in and make sure that your nose was OK. Again, I’m so incredibly sorry about that.

Gabe grabbed his nose between his fingers and gave it a shake. Honesty, he’d forgotten all about the punch. He sat up to check it in the mirror on the closet and noted that it didn’t even look swollen. He might have a slight bruise, but no other damage was apparent. He had to sit through hair and makeup anyway tomorrow, so it was no problem.

He decided to have a bit of fun with her.

G: It’s looking really bad. They might have to cancel shooting tomorrow.

A: OMG, no! I’m so sorry. I can’t believe it. It didn’t look so bad in the parking lot. Did you put ice on it? A bag of peas or something? Is there anything I can do? I’m so sorry!

G: You could always come by tomorrow and bring me some. It would help.

A: Sure, whatever you need. Just let me know I’ll pick it up and bring it to you.

Gabe couldn’t help but chuckle at her obvious concern, but he felt bad for putting her through it. Deciding to put her out of her misery, he text back.

G: Just kidding! It’s completely fine. A little bit of bruising, but you can barely tell and I’ll be sitting in makeup tomorrow afternoon anyway, so it will probably be gone by then.

A: You’re the worst! How could you do that to me? I was freaking out over here thinking I’d just ruined your whole movie.

G: :P I’m definitely the worst. But that doesn’t mean I still don’t want you to come by tomorrow. I don’t have shooting until 2pm, so I’m free in the morning. How do you feel about breakfast?

A: Breakfast would work, how about we have it my place? I promised my roommate pancakes, so she will kill me if I skip out on her.

G: Works for me.

A warm flush of anticipation rushed over him as the location pin message popped up on his phone.

G: Got the location. What time in the morning?

A: Does 9 work for you?

G: Perfect, see you then!

A: Can’t wait :D