Someone to Remember

Things for the two actors were moving at a surprisingly fast pace once the real part of filming got started. Every morning would begin the same, with Maya waking up in Tom’s arms and him getting up to make breakfast, and so did every evening, Maya making dinner after much arguing with the British man and then falling asleep in each other’s embrace. The only time their routine was thrown off was when they had to travel outside of London, to Scotland and France, for different scenes the London area wouldn’t be good for.

It felt weird, to Maya, that the weeks were passing so fast and were turning into months. Her and Tom hadn’t really escalated with where their “relationship” stood. In her mind, they were simply friends that occasionally did things that normal friends might not do. They held hands more often, now, and stayed as close to each other as possible on and off the sets. She knew prolonging everything with him wasn’t very helpful, but at least she was getting to know him better as a person.

A smile subconsciously played on her lips as she sat in the foreign French taxi and observed the busy street around her, thinking of all the all fun experiences she’d been able to have thanks to Tom. Maya turned her head from the window to look at the quiet man next to her after she felt his elbow nudge her side.

“What?” she muttered, the smile staying present on her face. Tom smiled warmly back at her and slid his hand gently against her thigh as he took her hand in his.

“Nothing,” he said quietly, gazing over her face. “What are you thinking about?”

“About the past three months and how amazing it’s been to be able to travel around doing something I love with great people.” She laced her fingers with his and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “You know what tomorrow is?” she asked excitedly.

“Tomorrow?” Tom inquired, raising a brow slightly. “November… fifteenth?” She nodded and flashed a giant grin at the man.

“The fifteenth. It’s also my birthday.” His eyes widen at the words and sat there with his mouth slightly agape.

“How come you didn’t tell me before?” he asked, a bit exasperated.

“It never really came up,” she said sheepishly, looking down at her lap at his annoyed tone. He noticed this and softened his gaze upon her.

“It’s fine, but you could’ve said something weeks ago instead of last minute.” They both sighed softly and Maya leaned her head onto his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, staring at the floor of the cab.

“Don’t be,” he replied just as quietly. “We’ll do something fun while we’re still here, okay?” He knew that they would still be in France for at least the next two days, so that gave them the chance to try and do something memorable.

She simply shrugged and sighed again as she rubbed her thumb over his hand idly. Maya felt guilty now for not telling him before, but with work almost everyday and the constant moving around, it had slipped her mind until that morning.

The cab slowed to a stop in front of a small café where the two were told to meet with other cast members for lunch. They got out silently after Tom paid the driver for the fare. When they went inside to the podium where they had to check in for their reservation, Maya let Tom do all the talking to the waiter since she barely spoke a word of the native language. Instead of being seated immediately like they thought they would be, the waiter handed Tom a folded piece of paper. Maya raised a brow at it before looking to Tom to explain.
“He said that a small group of people around our age came in half an hour ago and instructed him to give this to us.” He offered the paper to the puzzled woman and she took it cautiously, carefully unfolding it.

Maya,
We thought we’d let you and Tom have a peaceful little lunch to yourselves today instead of all of us together. Don’t do anything too crazy without us there. ;)
-Liz, Darren and Kristen

“Those little flakes,” she grumbled to herself as she handed the paper back to Tom. “They’re not coming today. Basically, they set us up to be here by ourselves.”

“They did a splendid job, though,” he said to her, pointing to a small table with a rose in the center and an ice bucket with wine in it sitting on the table. The waiter walked them over to the quaint scene and seated them without a word. Maya shifted a bit uncomfortably in her seat, the thought of her friends ditching her so she’d be left alone, with a man that made her stomach get tied in knots, made her uneasy. Tom noticed this and gave her a quizzical look from across the table. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She barely nodded and stared down at her open menu, scanning it for something to eat. His eyes never left her face, however, and he didn’t believe her statement.

“You seem a bit on edge now,” he observed. “If it’s because of what I said in the cab,‒”

“It’s not,” she quickly interrupted. “I’m fine, really.” She looked up at him and gave him her most convincing smile, hoping she could at least get away with that. He seemed to have simply grunted in response and looked down at his own menu. Maya felt the guilt churning in her stomach. She hated lying to him and she knew how much it affected him when she wasn’t completely honest.

Before she could say anything to apologize to him, the waiter came back over and had asked, in French, what the two had wanted. Tom replied quickly, the foreign words flowing off his tongue eloquently, and looked over to Maya. She blinked and looked between her menu and the waiter.

“Salade, s’il vous plaît?” she attempted, a slightly puzzled look on her face. She could hear Tom try to stifle a laugh and shot him a playful glare. He raised his hands in defense as the waitor took the menus and left them to themselves. “What?” she demanded.

“Nothing! I just thought that was kind of cute. You trying to speak the language, and all. I swear, with some practice and lessons, I think you could be a natural speaker.” The smile on his face was so genuine that she couldn’t possibly be upset with him.

“Hm, whatever,” she mumbled with an eye roll, which cause Tom to laugh again. The two sat and waited patiently for their food, making small talk about the movie and the different sets they had been to over the past two months.

“What are you going to do when we finish within the next week?” she asked him, propping her head in her hands.

“I’m not exactly sure yet,” he admitted. “We’ll have to do some press with premieres and interviews, for sure. But after that, I think I’ll probably take some time to myself and relax at home.” He looked up at her from his own hands with a small twinkle in his eyes. “Maybe we can go on vacation somewhere.” Maya gawked at him with wide eyes, not believing the words that had just come from gentleman’s mouth.

“Like, together?” she murmured. She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. This kind of seems too good to be true.” A small smile tugged on her lips as her eyes met his.

“We can just go as friends,” he added quickly, reaching a hand across the table to hers. “I don’t want that to scare you off. I think it’d just be easier, don’t you?”

She placed a hand down onto his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “No worries, I understand. Where did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking we could fly out to the States and stop in Chicago.” His smile had spread into a wide grin when her eyes brightened at the mention of her hometown.

“Really?” Her thoughts immediately went to her mother, father and sister who still resided in the city of her youth. She missed them so much and was originally planning on visiting them for Christmas because of her busy schedule. “That’d be perfect,” she said to him softly. He nodded with that giant grin on his face and slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers smoothly.

“Consider it a late birthday present,” he laughed. Maya rolled her eyes again and tried to subdue the growing heat in her face. The simple gesture Tom had just done managed to fluster her, as he always did, and she looked down to avert his holding gaze. It was then that the waiter came back with their meals. Tom had ordered a dish that looked like some kind of crab cake with a variety of vegetables. Her salad didn’t even compare in size to what he ordered. She felt dumb now for ordering something so small, and she knew she’d be hungry within two hours of eating it.

They ate in a comfortable silence for ten minutes, and when Maya had finished, she excused herself to run to the restroom. On her way in, she passed a table that seemed a bit suspicious. Maybe it was her imagination, but out of the entire French restaurant, it was the only table besides her’s and Tom’s that was speaking English. She glanced at the trio that were sitting casually at the table with small salads like her’s in front of them and gasped at the sight.

“Darren? Liz? Kristen?” her voice hissed as the heads quickly cursed and ducked their heads. “Too late to hide from me now, jerks!” They all waved their hands at her and shushed her frantically.

“Quiet, you!” Darren whispered to her. “Tom’ll see us, too, if you don’t keep your voice down!” Kristen quickly yanked Maya down to sit with them and hid her face when Tom’s head peered around for a moment. They all sighed in relief when he looked away; all but Maya.

“What’re you doing here?” she whispered angrily to the group. “I thought you couldn’t make it?” They all simultaneously rolled their eyes at her question and shook their heads, as if in disappointment.

“We did that on purpose,” Liz explained to her quietly, her short, curly blonde hair bobbing as she looked back to Tom. “We wanted to be spies and see how the date was going.”

“It’s not a date!” Maya nearly shouted defensively, which resulted in her being hushed again. “Well, it’s not.”

“Please,” Darren said, leaning his head in a bit. “It’s not a date like I’m not a flamboyant gay man.” Kristen and Liz laughed quietly as Maya hit her forehead. “Seriously, we all know it is. Even Tom probably thinks it is.”

Maya looked over to the man, sitting by himself and finishing up the last of his vegetables on his plate, and shook her head slightly.

“No, we were just talking about the movie and stuff,” she said to the group, looking down at the table cloth.

“Yeah, but we saw what you didn’t,” Kristen piped in. Maya raised a brow at her and tilted her head in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“The way he was looking at you, the way he held onto your hand,” Liz started. “It’s obvious the man has feelings for you. Maybe it’s an American thing to ignore the signs, but you’ve got to realize that they’re there.” Maya felt a blush rush into her cheeks and she looked away again, over to Tom. She kind of guessed that he might have been coming onto her, but she had always pushed it out of her mind.

“I have noticed,” she said quietly, her eyes staying glued to Tom. “But I never said anything about it.” Darren groaned loudly.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked with irritation in his voice. “It’s so simple! Do you like him, or not? That’s all you have to consider and then act upon it!”

“Alright, Darren, I get it!” she growled at the man from across the table. “Just let me make my own decisions by myself instead of meddling.”

She rose from her seat and proceeded to the bathroom like she had intended. After a few minutes, she emerged and hurried back to the table to Tom, who she had left waiting for what seemed like forever.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” she said to him, guilt evident in her eyes. “I got a bit distracted with something.” He shook his head quickly and smiled forgivingly at her.

“That’s alright. I got to finish my meal while you were gone.” There wasn’t any hint of anger in his voice or eyes, so Maya nodded and relaxed in her seat. “Ready to go? I paid already for the food.”

“Thank you,” she responded, rising from her seat again. “Yes, let’s go.” He nodded and rose with her, carefully looping his arm around her waist. Maya looked back over to the table of her co-workers. They all sheepishly waved at her and mouthed an apology her way as she passed. She sighed and continued walking, leaning into Tom’s side the whole time. In the back of her mind, she knew they were right, but when would be a good time to even bring something like that up with Tom? When we get back to London, she thought. Yes, that would be fine then. For now, she focused on simply having a good time with him and moved her thoughts to what he could possibly be planning for her birthday.