At exactly a quarter to six, there was a knock on the front door. Rachel’s mother had already left for her date with Norm, and Harrison was out with friends, but Emma was home and raced to the door to open it.

“You must be Emma. I’m Adiel, is your sister here?” His deep and somewhat smoky voice gave her the shivers. She’d never noticed that about his voice before. What was wrong with her? She needed to dial it down and stop letting her mind run away on her. Adiel certainly wasn’t thinking of her that way. He’d made it clear enough that he thought she was too young for him. Too young in general. But she could go with him and have fun and be his friend and employee. Safer that way anyway. She didn’t want to risk jeopardizing her job. And if they were to date and then break up, it could be awkward, and uncomfortable. So, having processed all that, Rachel walked into the kitchen to meet Adiel and go have fun.

“You look great. Are you ready to go?”

“I’m ready.” She followed him out to his car and had to admit the compliment pleased her. She’d taken great care with what she chose to wear, discarding several options until she finally settled on a pretty pink cashmere sweater and her favorite dressy jeans.

They chatted easily as they drove and Adiel told her about some of the films that were at the festival. He knew one of the filmmakers and was hoping he’d have a chance to catch up with him and say hello.

The festival was held at an old theater that had been recently renovated and now had ten different screens. There was a long line of food trucks and also regular movie concession snacks like popcorn and candy. The first movie they wanted to see started at 7:30 so they had time to eat first. They checked out the various food trucks and Rachel decided to go with Mexican and chose a pulled pork taco while Adiel got an order of steak on a stick from the Korean Barbecue truck.

They managed to save room for popcorn though and each got a small buttered bag to bring into the movie. They watched two films, and they were both excellent. After the second one, they walked around for a bit. The filmmakers were mingling with the crowd and answering questions. Adiel finally spotted his friend Paul and walked over to him. Paul finished his conversation and then broke away when he saw Adiel and came over and gave him an enthusiastic hug.

“I heard you were in the area and was hoping you might come by. How’s the show going? You’re filming not too far from here, right?”

Adiel nodded. “About an hour away, in Riston. How’ve you been? Nice job with the film. Rachel and I really enjoyed it.” He introduced Rachel and Paul shook her hand.

“It’s great to meet you.” He looked back at Adiel. “I’ve been good. We’re hoping to lock down distribution on this film soon and then I’m back to L.A. for pre-production on the next project.” Rachel listened with interest as Paul and Adiel discussed the various people they knew and Paul’s upcoming project which sounded exciting as several big names were attached to it. It seemed like the two of them could talk for hours, but there were others waiting to talk to Paul, so they said goodbye and made their way through the crowd and to their car.

They discussed the films on the ride back to Riston and had a lively discussion. They both agreed on one of the films, Paul’s, but had differing opinions on the first, and it was interesting to compare their impressions. Rachel realized that they had similar tastes but sometimes looked at the movies from a different perspective.

When they reached Riston, they were still deep in discussion and as they approached Main Street, Adiel suggested that they go hear some live music.

“I’m not ready to go home yet are you? I love talking about this stuff.”

“I do too. Let’s go to Figs. They always have good bands.”

Adiel found parking on the street just a few doors down from Figs and they went inside. It was busy but not as crowded as it was earlier during the dinner rush. There were two open seats at the bar and Adiel made his way toward them. Rachel ordered a glass of red wine and Adiel a draft beer. The band was between sets, so it was quiet enough to talk and they dove back into their film discussion. Rachel felt like she could talk about movies and TV shows for hours and it was so fun to have someone who understood and shared that same passion. When she’d tried to talk to Cameron or her other friends about movies, the discussion never lasted more than a few minutes.

When the band came back on, it was too hard to hear each other so they sat back, sipped their drinks and enjoyed the music. A little while later, Rachel did a double-take when she saw a couple at a table by the window get up to leave. It was her mother and Norm! She’d forgotten that her mother mentioned that they might go to Figs to hear some music.

She was fascinated by the look on her mother’s face and on Norm’s. It was as if no one else in the world existed except the two of them. Her mother was positively glowing. Rachel was happy for her and looked forward to hearing about the date the next day.

They stayed until the band finished their set, for about forty-five minutes or so, until Rachel was unable to stifle a yawn, and Adiel said he felt bad for keeping her up.

“It’s been a long day, but a busy one and so fun. Thanks so much for inviting me tonight.”

“I’m glad you were able to come.” He smiled as he set some money down for their drinks. “It was a fun night.”

They left and ten minutes later he pulled up in front of her house. All the lights were off meaning everyone was in bed. Rachel checked the time, and it was later than she’d realized, almost midnight.

“Enjoy your day off tomorrow, Rachel.” Adiel sounded warm and friendly. There was no hint of a date vibe at all now. Rachel started to think she had an overactive imagination. She’d just been caught up in the excitement of talking for hours with someone who shared her same interests. She yawned and then sighed. She was exhausted now and ready to fall into bed.

“Thanks, you too. See you bright and early on Monday.”

Adiel had a lazy though somewhat restless Sunday. He hit the gym in the morning and then caught up on reading and writing the rest of the day and going over the scripts for the coming week. More than once, he wondered what Rachel was up to. When he ordered pizza from the restaurant for dinner and settled on the plush black leather sofa to watch a new Netflix show, he couldn’t help but think it would be nice to share the pizza with her and to watch the show together and talk about it after. But as tempted as he was to call and invite her over, it just didn’t feel right.

He knew there were boundaries there that he shouldn’t cross. Because he could say he was inviting her over as a friend, but he wasn’t at all sure if that was true. And she was only twenty-three! That’s what he struggled with the most. Twenty-three, even almost twenty-four was so young. Although she was mature for her age. When he was that young, he was not that mature. He was just drifting along at that age, trying to find his place in the world. Rachel already knew where she wanted to go and had just taken a huge step to get here.

And she was an actress. He’d dated his share of actresses in the past and it had never worked out. So that was three things right there—her age, her job and the biggest thing of all, that she was his employee. He hated to think of the mess it would be if they did date and then it ended. Because of course it would end. It always did. It was hard for him to imagine having a relationship that would last. Where they would be equal partners and enjoy the same things. Though he still hoped that maybe, someday he’d find it. But it was foolish and risky to even consider that anything with Rachel would be more than temporary.

He thought of Lexy. She was a more appropriate age and was nice enough and she wasn’t an actress. She was also just out of a serious relationship so he knew she would want to take things slow, which suited him just fine. Even if nothing serious developed with them, she might be someone fun to spend time with. He grabbed his phone and found her number. Before he could change his mind, he called her and they made plans to go out to the county fair Friday night after work. He’d heard about the fair from Wade and thought it might be a fun, casual thing to do. Plus, he’d never been to a fair before and wondered if it was the way they showed it on TV with jam contests and livestock as well as cheesy games and rides.

Now that he had the date confirmed, he turned his attention back to the drama on Netflix. He was feeling optimistic. Lexy was a very pretty girl. Maybe they’d go to the fair together and there might be more of a spark this time. As long as her ex didn’t show up. But the likelihood of that happening again was slim.

Rachel woke to the smell of freshly made coffee and bacon. Her nose twitched and at first she wondered if she was dreaming. She couldn’t remember the last time her mother had cooked bacon. She eased herself out of bed and padded downstairs to the kitchen where her mother had her hair pulled into a ponytail that made her look ten years younger and was humming to herself as she flipped a batch of blueberry pancakes. She looked up and smiled when she heard Rachel walk into the room.

“Hi honey! Are you hungry? I’m cooking up some bacon and your favorite pancakes.”

“That looks great.” Rachel helped herself to a cup of coffee. “What’s the occasion?”

Her mother laughed. “Nothing. I’m just happy and felt like some blueberry pancakes. And bacon of course.”

“Of course.”

“Grab a plate.”

Rachel did as instructed and her mother slid several pancakes onto it and told her to help herself to the bacon. She piled on a half dozen crispy slices, added a bit of butter to the pancakes and a drizzle of maple syrup.

“I’m surprised the others aren’t up yet,” she said as she sat at the kitchen table.

“I’m sure they’ll be down soon enough. There’s plenty for everyone. I have another plate of pancakes warming in the oven.” Her mother made a plate for herself and joined Rachel at the table.

Rachel smiled. “So…..I saw you last night.”

“You did? Where?” Her mother sounded surprised.

“Adiel and I stopped into Figs to catch the last set. We were sitting at the bar and I didn’t see you until you got up to leave. I didn’t want to interrupt at that point. Did you have fun?”

Her mother’s dreamy smile spoke volumes. “We did. He’s a perfect gentleman. It was so wonderful to catch up with him. He’s led such an interesting life. Traveled all over the world filming movies and shows.”

“I’m glad you had a good time. Do you think you’ll see him again while he’s here?”

Her mother grinned. “We’re going out again tonight. He wants to take me to a film festival in Lewiston. Have you heard of it?”

Rachel laughed. “Yes, that’s where we went last night. You’ll enjoy it.”

Her mother set her coffee cup down and looked at Rachel more closely.

“Who did you go there with?” 

“Adiel, the man I work with.”

“Your boss?” Her mother frowned. “Was it a date?”

“No. Not at all. We’re just friends. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We were hiking in the afternoon and he happened to have an extra ticket and it sounded like a fun thing to do.”

“I see. And was it fun?”

“It was! We had such a good time. We saw two films and talked about them the whole way back. We didn’t agree completely about them but that made it even more fun to discuss.”

Her mother was quiet for a moment and then picked up a piece of bacon and snapped it in half.

“Be careful honey. I don’t want you to get over your head or into something that might be complicated to get out of. It can be sticky to date someone you work with let alone someone you work for.”

Rachel sighed. “I know. It’s not like that though. We’re just friends.” Rachel knew it would be a mistake to take it further than that. As tempting as it was. Besides Adiel had given her no indication that he’d even be interested.