Chapter Nine
By the time Rico dropped Ashleigh back off at her hotel, it was quite late, but neither of them felt like ending the evening just yet, so when Rico suggested going for a drink at the bar next door, Ashleigh readily agreed.
As per his request, she had consumed the majority of the wine over dinner, so she was already feeling rather tipsy and lightheaded, which was no bad thing. It put her in an even better mood and helped her to feel more confident and able to flirt.
They definitely did some more of that, sitting up on a pair of tall bar stools and sipping on posh cocktails of extravagant, bright color.
Rico complained that his pants felt a little tight around the waist after that large meal, and Ashleigh expressed surprise that he wasn’t already bursting out of his shirt considering how tight it was on him, while at the same time glancing him up and down, making it fairly obvious that she found him attractive.
It was all pretty innocent, however, and Rico had been dropping similar little signs all night. At the beginning of the evening, she’d been telling herself this was just two work colleagues going for a bite to eat together, but now she was fairly sure it was a date, and she was totally comfortable with it too, at ease with the situation despite the enormity of it.
“This has been so much fun,” she smiled, looking into his eyes.
“Yes, it has,” Rico readily agreed, dreamily staring back into hers a moment before shaking his head slightly and looking away. He smiled to himself and rubbed the back of his neck a little before speaking. “You know…I’ve never spent an entire evening with a runner before. I don’t normally get to know individual crew members that well. It’s kind of hard when you just spend most of the day either in front of the camera shooting or in your trailer trying to memorize lines, or just getting some rest.”
“That’s understandable. But hey, maybe you should do it more often if you’ve enjoyed yourself so much,” Ashleigh smirked and winked at him.
Rico tossed his head back and laughed, showing her his set of perfect pearly whites.
“Maybe I should… maybe I should…”
Before they knew it, it was past midnight, and they both knew they should probably call it a night. Although they had the day off in the morning, they were both tired from a full day’s filming, and needed to use that rest period to fully recover so they could be fresh for Monday.
Ashleigh could feel herself starting to flag, with the effects of the alcohol, and Rico couldn’t drink anymore anyway with him having to drive.
“I suppose we should go,” he smiled.
“I suppose we should,” she agreed.
He offered her his hand. She happily took it, and he walked her out of the bar and back next door to her hotel.
“Next time, I’ll make sure they put you up somewhere nicer than this place.”
“Next time? How do you know there’ll be a next time?” She looked at him.
“I meant what I said about you. There’s something about you. This won’t be the last time you work in film, this is only the start.”
She felt a little flutter of excitement and hoped he was right.
“That would be amazing. I mean…working in film again and a better hotel.”
He laughed at her small joke, then they stopped just outside the door.
“Do you want me to walk you up to your room?”
“I think I can manage.” She squeezed his hands and turned to face him. “I’m a big girl.”
“You’re a sweet girl,” he smiled and looked into her eyes. “And thank you for a lovely night.”
He glanced down at her lips and for one special, magical moment, she thought he might be about to lean in and kiss her. That wasn’t quite what happened, but the reality was just as good, if not better.
He did lean in, but his head moved to the right of hers and he placed the gentlest, most tender kiss on her cheek.
She felt the soft brush of his lips, and could feel her face tingling and heating up once he pulled away again, a smile breaking out.
“And you’re a sweet guy,” she replied quietly. “A real gentleman. I can see why all the ladies like you.”
He laughed at that, and then slowly let go of her hands. “Perhaps.” He chewed his bottom lip, as if contemplating doing something else, then maybe thought better of it and wandered over to his bike. He turned off the alarm and opened up the back box to take out his helmet.
“I’ll see you very soon, Ashleigh.”
“I hope so. I’ll look out for you on set.”
“And I, you. Sleep well.”
“You too.” She turned and walked to the main step of her hotel, then stopped and looked back over her shoulder, watching him mount the bike and disappear out of sight.
Her heart was pounding, racing as she ran over everything that had happened that night in quick succession, playing it back like her own little movie, still just standing there on the steps of her hotel in a daze.
She already missed him.