Falling In

“Where do you wanna eat?” was probably only the tenth sentence that he had said all day. It kind of made me antsy at how awkward it had been. Sure, we were walking around together. But we weren’t exactly talking.

“Anywhere,” I mumbled as I fiddled with my camera.

He let out an aggravated sigh as he stopped abruptly, making me bump into his chest. “Okay, I cannot stand the awkwardness. Are we okay?” he asked me as he steadied me on my feet.

“Are we?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. You’re not talking to me,” he sighed.

“You’re not either,” I frowned.

“Are you mad?”

“Are you?”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “Wait, I’m asking you and you’re throwing my questions back at me,” he huffed.

I looked around, and caught sight of the place. “How about Hard Rock?” I asked him.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said as he started walking. I followed suit as he walked up the stairs and opened the door for me. I mumbled a thank you and the lady up front led us to a table. I just stared at the menu, looking for something appetizing. A few minutes later, a waitress came to take our orders, but I couldn’t make up my mind.

“I’ll have the Grille Hawaiian Chicken. And what will you have, Stells?” he asked. I bit my lip, silently telling him that I couldn’t make up my mind. I forgot that he probably forgot how to read me. “She’ll have the Grilled Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon,” he told the younger female. “And we’ll both just have water for drinks, thanks,” he told her and she took both our menus.

I furrowed my eyebrows at him. “Out of the entire menu, how did you know that I couldn’t make my mind up?” I blurted.

“Easy. You’re vegetarian. You don’t eat burgers,” he explained.

“You still remember that?” I asked. He just shrugged at me. He started a conversation about what we thought about the entire park and the rides. He asked me about how the other park was and asked for a comparison as he took down notes. For a second, I forgot that I was with Ethan Versace. Just for a second.

“We’ll write the article tonight so we can send it over to Uncle Pat,” he said nodding. I just agreed and we didn’t discuss it any further because our food had arrived.

“That was good,” I told him, leaning back on my seat satiated.

“Tell me about it,” he grumbled himself. “Do you want some dessert?” he asked me.

“Do you want me to explode?” I asked him.

“Touché,” he laughed. Our server had dropped the check on our table, but my reflexes were too slow – enabling Ethan to get to it first and slap down his plastic.

“Ethan Jay,” I scolded.

“Stella Grace,” he mocked.

“Leave me alone,” I huffed. He shook his head at me as he gave the woman our payment, and once she came back we had gotten up to go back home. “Thank you,” I told him.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled down at my five-foot-four frame.



We got home and went our separate ways to our own rooms to get cleaned up. As I finished my shower and was lounging on my bed working on the article, my phone rang making me scrambling towards it.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Stella?”

“Speaking,” I said.

“This is Patrick,” the voice said.

“OH hello.”

“Are you with Ethan?”

“He’s actually in his room, is there anything you need?”

“Yes, there is. I actually got replacements to do the amusement parks for you,” he informed me.

“Huh?”

“You’re done with the two parks that you guys did. I just need your articles on it, and you’re done,” he said.

“So, I get to go home?” I asked part saddened and part happy about the news.

“Not exactly,” he said. “Victoria’s Secret begged me to let you do the photo shoot in St. Petersburg,” he said.

“Oh. Yeah, sure,” I told him. “And Ethan?”

“I’ll give him my call myself so I could inform him of his new assignment,” he said. “Thanks for your understanding.”

“Of course,” I smiled, forgetting that he couldn’t see me.

“Okay, go get some rest now. They need you in St. Petersburg by 9 PM.”

“Sounds good, goodnight,” I said before hanging up.

I got off my bed and walked towards the door and cross the hall towards Ethan’s room, and knocked.

“Yeah?” he shouted out.

I opened the door seeing him on the phone, as he looked up at me.

“Patrick said we’re done with our assignment,” I informed him. “I have another assignment in the morning and he said he’d call you for your new assignment, I guess,” I said.

“Oh okay,” he nodded at me. “Huh what? No. It’s just-,” he said to the phone and looked up at me with wide eyes. “I’ll call you back bro,” he hurriedly said as he hung up. I raised an eyebrow at him. “That was your brother,” he informed.

“Okay? You didn’t have to hang up on him.”

“He doesn’t exactly know that we’re here together,” he said.

“We’re not here together. We just ended up working together,” I shrugged.

“More than 24 hours had passed. He would trip if I told him now,” he said shaking his head.

“I haven’t told Deegan either, I’m pretty sure that boy would trip as well,” I smirked. “Well, go and get back on the phone with your boyfriend,” I scoffed as I walked out of his room after I heard him yell a ‘hey!’.

My phone once again rang, and I ran for it. “Hello?” I asked, catching my breath.

“Hi,” my best friend said hesitantly. “Why do you sound like you just ran a marathon?” he asked me.

“I was outside when you called,” I told him as I got back on my bed.

“Oh,” he said. “Facetime me,” he said. I rolled my eyes as I turned it on and came face to face with my bestfriend.

“What did you think I was doing, Deegan?” I laughed.

“Nothing,” he chuckled. “You’re in Florida alone, missy. What do you think I’d think when you’re panting on the receiver?”

“Dirty minded,” I mumbled.

“How’s your work slash vacation?” he asked

“Peachy,” I mumbled.

“You don’t sound too pleased,” he laughed.

“Leave. Me. Alone,” I enunciated. “How’s it back home? How’s avalanche?” I asked, referring to my Siberian Husky.

“He’s okay. I’m picking him up from your brother’s place right now,” he said as I heard his car door shut and him knock on the door.

“You left him with my brother?” I huffed.

“Your brother loves him,” he assured me.

“But Jake feeds him like a pig!” I mumbled.

“Your brother is a pig,” he laughed.

“Hey! I heard that!” I heard my brother in the background and saw him converse with somebody on his cell phone.

“Sup bro,” I heard my bestfriend greet my brother.

“Sup,” I heard him mumbled in the background as he continued his conversation with somebody.

“Who’s my brother talking to?” I asked Deegan.

“Don’t know, probably Kyla,” he said as I heard my dog bark. “Avalanche! You wanna talk to mommy?” he asked the dog. “You’re on speaker,” Deegan informed me.

“Avie baby,” I cooed. He answered me with a bark. “I miss you,” I told him. Another bark. “I’ll see you soon, okay baby? Be good to daddy, okay?” I asked. Yes, Deegan was my dog’s daddy. Avalanche was Deegan’s gift to me for my 21st birthday, and the dog’s been quite attached with him because he had it for a couple of months, training it.

“Hey Stellsy. You left this in the car. I think it’s yours. I’m not sure if it’s mine, but I have all my caps for my camera,” he said looking down at the circular thing in his hands before looking up at me. We both looked like deer caught in headlights.

“Stella Grace, who the fuck is that?” Deegan asked.

“Yeah, Stella,” my brother joined him.

I glared at Ethan before I turned my attention back to the camera. “Oh, I didn’t tell you guys? Ethan and I are working together.”

“What?!” both guys practically shouted.

“I’ll talk to you two later. Bye. Love you. Take care of my baby, okay Deegs? Love you! Bye!” I rushed out before hanging up on them. I let out a relieved sigh, as I turned back to Ethan who had his face contorted in confusion.

“Baby?” he asked.

I nodded at him. “Yes, baby,” I told with a small smile. “So, what’s up?” I asked.

“I was assigned for a photo shoot. So, yeah,” he mumbled.

My heart sunk, knowing that this was probably the last night we had together. Hell, it was probably the last time we’d see each other unless somebody gets married or something that crazy. But at the same time, I was relieved that I was going to be far from him. “It’s safer to hate him. It’s safer to keep the distance,” I kept in mind.

“Oh okay. Same here,” I nodded.

“Uhh… Okay, I’ll see you later,” he awkwardly waved and left my room.

I let out a relieved sigh as I laid back on my bed, and took my laptop as I finished up the rest of my report. As I finished, I put my laptop to the side and stared up my dark ceiling, trying to figure out what I should do. Sleeping wasn’t an option, as I was wide awake.

I decided to grab my keys and phone as I inched down the stairs towards my car and yelped the closest Walgreens. I quickly drove over to it and entered the building, quickly grabbing a pint of ice cream and chips before paying for it and driving back to the loft.

I parked the car, grabbing the two bags that I got and walked back into the house carefully as I grabbed a spoon from the kitchen and made my way over to the TV. I searched the movies that had been available in the TV box that was connected to the TV and picked one that looked interesting.

When in Rome.Josh Duhamel was in it. That’s a plus.

I got comfortable as the movie started and started eating my ice cream. My mind wandered with certain scenes in the movie. The woman in the movie seemed to be so busy with her career that she didn’t have time to think about falling in love. I totally get it. Your career will never leave you.

I hissed at the beginning where her ex boyfriend fell in love with somebody like her. He loved the other woman enough to accept that she loved her career, as for the original girl, he left her because of the same reason.

“You seem to be so into the movie,” I heard Ethan say while he descended the stairs.

“It’s a good movie,” I shrugged as I took another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.

“Oh? What’s it about?” he asked as he sat down next to me.

“The girl doesn’t believe in love. She’s more focused on her career and whatnot, so when she goes to her sister’s wedding she picks up the coins from the Fontana di Amore that supposedly if you throw one in, you’ll find your true love,” I explained. “And well, she doesn’t believe in it, because of a bad experience. There are the guys that are following her around because she picked up their coins.”

“What’s Josh Duhamel’s role?” he asked.

“He’s a guy she met in Rome. That night, she was finally going to open up to love but it ended up that he kind of hooked up with another chick. And they kind of ended up dating. And she saw that one poker chip on his table that looked like the one she picked up back in Rome. So now, she’s giving back the coins to the other dudes, somehow like giving back their love. And she kind of admitted to herself that she loved Josh, but she didn’t wanna take away the privilege of having him love her in his own will.”

“Wow. You really paid attention,” he joked.

I shrugged at him. “I totally get the girl for not being too open about love. I mean, if a guy left me because I loved my career and then years later, I find out he’s getting married to somebody that was just like me, yet he decided to accept her and not me?” I scoffed. “Please… Often imitated, but never duplicated honey,” I laughed dryly. “If ever, it just means that he didn’t deserve me in the first place.”

“Would you ever fall in love, Stella Grace?” he asked me.

I glanced at him with a smirk. “No,” I told him.

“Why not?”

“Because loving is like jumping off a helicopter strapped onto your board at the top of Mount Everest and hoping that you’d get down to the base safely. You have to takes risks,” I shrugged as I got up and cleaned up.

“But I you’d take that kind of risk. What’s the difference with love?” Ethan asked his eyebrows furrowed as he followed me into the kitchen as I threw away my garbage.

“Snowboarding’s worth it,” I smirked as I walked up the stairs.