Someone to Remember

When she finally rose from her spot, she turned out all the lights in the main room and headed off to her bed, clutching the envelope to her chest tightly. She flung herself onto the bed and quickly got cozy. Opening the thick envelope made her nerves spike up again. As she withdrew the bulky script, a loose leaf paper also fell onto her lap. Curiously, she read that first, beaming at the familiar scrawl.

I took the honor of highlighting your parts for you before making my way over. Hope you can be ready within the next few days. I’d love to see what you have to offer.
Good luck.
Tom

The grin on her face couldn’t be suppressed. He had already done so much by simply telling her about this sudden opening, and now he went out of his way to try and help her further, almost as if he wanted her to be the one to get the role. She forced herself to push the note aside and faced the lengthy packet in front of her. Flipping through the first few pages, she found a list of characters for the film. Her part was highlighted: Amelia Payne, lead actress. Right above hers was what she assumed was the role Tom would be auditioning for: Christopher Daniels, lead actor. She flipped throughout the rest of the pages, skimming briefly because she knew she wasn’t going to begin memorizing at this late an hour. After about fifteen minutes of that, she reached the end and yawned. She carefully put all the papers back in the envelope and set it on her nightstand. Within a few minutes, the exhausted yet excited woman fell into a deep slumber and found herself dreaming of the handsome man she had officially met earlier that day.

The days leading up to Maya’s audition flew by faster than she had expected. The morning of it, she woke up later than usual, partially due to her not having to work. She completed her average morning routine, except this day, she traded in her khakis and polo for a sophisticated black pencil skirt with a sleeveless, powder blue blouse. She always dressed more professionally for her auditions because she knew from past experiences how crucial it was to look her part and to seem ready. A braided bun also replaced the pony tail she sported every day. As she mumbled her lines to herself, she prepared a meager meal to wake herself up with. Link let out a loud sound, demanding his own nutrition. She rolled her eyes and quickly filled his bowl up with his crunchy bits of food and resumed her memorization process.

A gentle buzz from her skirt pocket momentarily shocked her as her phone’s alarm reminded her to think about leaving soon. She surely didn’t want to be late for this important day ahead of her. Quickly, she scooped up her purse and the script, just to keep herself refreshed on the plotline, and headed out of her apartment. With a brisk goodbye to Link, she left.

After being in a cab for twenty minutes or so, she arrived at the audition location. She walked gracefully into the building and easily found the room Tom had told her to go to. Being five minutes early, Maya took advantage of the time left to wait by reading over a handful of her lines to herself. Too soon, though, her name was called to come in. Normally, her nerves never spiked over an audition, but today was different. She not only had to prove to herself that she was worthy of the role, but also to a panel of top-ranked producers, writers and the director, and to Tom. She didn’t want him to think of her as a joke or that she lied to him just to be able to spend time with him; she wanted to make him proud.

Straightening up and taking a deep breath, she walked in to face her critics. As hard as she tried to stay composed, she couldn’t stop the child-like grin that spread on her face when she saw Tom, standing right next to the director. He reciprocated the smile and his eyes seemed to travel over her figure. Maya blushed lightly and thought he might have just been surprised to not see her in her work or lazy attire.

The director then greeted her and thanked her for coming to the audition. Maya nodded and replied in the most polite manner she could. Once introductions we over, she was instructed to read a part from the script in character with Tom. That was when it finally hit her on why he was there.

He moved as swiftly as ever toward her, holding his own copy of the script in his hands. Maya set her purse down on the floor next to her and flipped open her script to the page she was instructed to read from. Once Tom was next to her, he whispered quietly to her.

“Good to see you, Maya.”

She wanted to say something back to him, but the words wouldn’t form and all she managed to do was grin up at him and nod.

“Now,” they heard the director say. “This scene is about halfway through the film. Amelia, you’re just now finding the strength to tell Christopher, your friend for almost six years, that you’ve developed immense feelings for him, and you’re extremely frightened of how he’ll react about it. Christopher, you’re taken aback at first and you feel the need to question her to make sure she’s telling you the truth, but then as she starts to leave, you confess your own feelings for her as well and convince her to stay. Alright, you both got that?”

Both Tom and Maya nodded at the panel in front of them. Maya glanced down at her script just for a refresher and when she looked up, Tom’s eyes were staring intensely down at her.

“Ready?” he mumbled to her. She, again, nodded and took a deep breath before the director called for action.

“Amelia, what’s wrong? You haven’t said much of anything this entire evening.” Hearing Tom’s voice change into his more serious, acting tone, Maya immediately sank into her role, gaining the same kind of seriousness in her voice.

“It’s nothing, Chris, really.”

“No, it’s not. Come on, you know you can tell me whatever’s on your mind.” Tom’s hand reached over to her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. That was when their eyes met and she felt the emotions of her character overwhelm her.

“I can’t. Not this. I’ll ruin everything if I keep talking.” She shook her head lightly and looked down. Tom’s hand brought her face back and she was forced to stare back into those piercing blue eyes.

“Please, Amy, just tell me.” She sighed at his words and closed her eyes, taking another deep breath before blurting out.

“I love you, Chris. Are you happy now? I’m. In. Love. With. You,” the young woman said, emphasizing every word that left her mouth. Tom looked down at her, the shock starting to sink in.

“But, why?” he asked, his brows furrowing slightly. “Why would you love me?”

“Because you’ve always been there,” she started. “You’ve always been the one to cheer me up when no one else could, the one to bring me back up after a rough fall, the one who always managed to stay on my mind, no matter who I was with.” She felt a bit exasperated, pouring everything out and her eyes never once leaving Tom’s face to read her script. She then tossed it down and felt the pain of unrequited love hit her. Tom stared down at her, mouth agape and searching for the words to respond. “Well, say something, Chris.” Her frustration was growing and she felt tears well up in her eyes.

“I.. I don’t.. Amy,” he fumbled. She then turned from him and took a few steps from his frame. She didn’t expect, however, such a tight hold on her wrist to grab her. Maya knew Tom was a good actor, but had never experienced how realistic he made it feel.

“Don’t go,” his cool voice pleaded as he pulled her back to him. “I need you.”

“For what, Chris?” she retorted in a shaky voice, her whole body beginning to tremble slightly in his hold. “What do you need me for?”

“I just need you. Because I love you, too.” She scoffed at his statement, shaking her head to keep from crying.

“Really?” she started a bit sarcastically. “Are you just saying that because you feel bad for me, or because you mean it?” The last part of her sentence came out as a whisper and she bit the inside of her lip while she gazed up at him, not noticing him pulling her closer to close the space between them.

“I mean it,” he whispered back, his eyes searching over her face. At this part in the plot, they would be cued to kiss. Maya definitely didn’t have a problem with this, but she expected the director to call ‘cut’. As she was about to turn her head to ask, Tom’s lips were already upon hers, kissing her gently, but passionately as well. At first she was a bit shocked, but she remembered that she had to stay in character, so she kissed him back with the same intensity he was giving. His hand slip up to cup her cheek carefully. Then, she heard an applause break out, and Tom pulled back from her slowly. She reluctantly opened her eyes to see him staring down at her with a soft gaze in his eyes. Her cheeks flushed to a subtle pink hue and she looked over at the panel in front of them. Some members had a look of awe upon their faces as they all continued to clap.

Tom detached himself from Maya and also looked over to the panel. Maya had quickly glanced back over at him and noticed a slight lack of composure that the man usually held. He seemed as though he was fighting back a grin and also possible nerves. She shook the thought from her head and refocused her attention to the front. They all excused her from the room and asked her to wait in the room she was in earlier.

While she waited, all of the nerves she had felt prior to going in had vanished and now, she felt confident with her performance. After a little more than five minutes, they called her back in. Her eyes wandered across the line of professionals waiting and finally landed on Tom, who was now sitting amongst that panel.

“Miss Rogers,” the director said to her in a sober tone. “Your performance up there was quite magnificent. You truly portrayed the role of Amelia to such a perfect level.” Maya felt her face light up at the list of compliments she was getting from the man. “Most of us thought, at first, once you walked in that there was something different about you that set you apart from our other auditions, and that we’d have to have you try with other actors aspiring for the role of Christopher.” The light feeling of her face slowly faded at that last part. It was good that they liked her, but deep in her heart, she wanted to be able to work with Tom, to continue to show him that she wasn’t a joke.

“And even before you came in, we had other auditions for Amelia Payne that worked with Mr. Hiddleston. None of them even came close to what we all witnessed minutes ago. Right then, we knew that we had our perfect Amy and Chris in front of us.” The director and producers all nodded and smiled warmly at her, some looking also to Tom, who was grinning brightly at Maya.

“To be honest,” one of the producers chimed in. “When Tom told all of us about you, how he found you and so on, I think we were a bit skeptical.” The others nodded again. “We thought, ‘A small girl from America, working in a tiny coffee shop? No way.’ But we were proven wrong, Miss Rogers.” She felt a bit hurt at the words, but still had a sense of pride when she knew she’d proven herself.

“I think I speak on behalf of everyone here,” the director quickly interjected. “When I say that you, miss, have earned this part.”

Maya’s hands flew to her mouth as her grin seemed to get as wide as it could, the tears in her eyes coming back a bit. She nodded and thanked everyone of the people there, subtly emphasizing Tom, before picking up her script and purse from the ground.

“You’ll be starting next week, Tuesday, here, eight o’clock on the dot,” one of the panelists said to her. “Congratulations.” Maya simply nodded again and exited the room, jumping up and down once she shut the door behind her.

“Finally,” she muttered to herself, heading out to the lobby of the building.

“Maya, wait!” she heard a man’s voice call after her. It was Tom, jogging up behind her with a grin of his own spread across his face. “You were amazing up there,” he said to her once he reached her side.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

“Really, I was kind of shocked at just how good you were,” he told her. “I didn’t expect you to have such a presence and effect on us.” She blushed bashfully and looked down as the two walked out of the building together.

“I just did what I normally do,” she confessed. “Once I start talking, it’s hard to get me out of character.”

“Well, you’ve got some real natural talent then, Miss Rogers,” he teased. She rolled her eyes at him and stopped at the edge of the sidewalk. He glanced around them, looking for something. “Where’s your car?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, I took a cab,” she replied. “I don’t have a car, and it was too far to walk and I surely wasn’t going to bike in heels.” They both laughed quietly and Tom shook his head.

“If you want, I can give you a ride back,” he offered. “Cabs around here can get a bit crazy.”

“It’s fine, Tom. I’m pretty used to crazy cabs by now,” she said with a reassuring smile. But this didn’t convince him otherwise and he dragged her over to where he had parked earlier.

“No, I insist. Just this once,” he begged. She sighed deeply and caved in. With a triumphant grin, Tom opened the passenger door for her and waited for her to get in. She reluctantly sat down and held her purse in her lap. Once her door was shut, she buckled her seatbelt and played with the corners of her script.

Tom got into the car and smiled over at her before starting the engine. Most of the ride back was silent, aside from the calm, classical music coming from the speakers in the car. It was Tom who eventually broke the silence between them.

“So, tell me a bit about yourself,” he said. “I think I should get to know you since we are co-stars now.” Maya could hear the smile in his voice without even looking at him.

“Well,” she began. “I guess it all comes down to what exactly you want to know.” A teasing smirk crept upon her face as she faced him.

“How about you tell me how you even got into acting in the first place,” he suggested. “Then why you decided to come here to pursue a career.” Maya pursed her lips and nodded.

“Thinking back, I guess it was when I was in my fourth grade play. One of my teachers had recommended me to the drama teacher and when I was up on that stage, I fell in love with the feeling of being there. So, every year after that, I would be in all of my schools’ drama clubs. My friends and I also did sketches of stuff for the internet, but once I went to college, I became way more serious about it. I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in theater and spent the following three years trying to land roles and keep a steady job.” She looked over at the man who was listening intently while staying focused on the road. “After really nothing happened, I wanted to get a fresh start somewhere else, so I moved here. I thought there might’ve been more opportunities here.” He glanced over at her after her long spiel and nodded slowly, a soft grin dancing onto his face.

“So, there is more to the new girl in town,” his gentle voice replied. “She’s not just some girl from a coffee shop after all.” There was a certain gleam in his eyes that had a teasing look to them that made Maya giggle quietly.

“Yes, there is,” she retorted, sticking her tongue out playfully. “But, that’s all you get to know for now.” She nodded to her apartment as he pulled up to the curb carefully. His face fell a bit, but nodded again in understanding.

“Well, I hope I can learn more soon. There’s something about you…” he trailed off, his voice getting lower and his eyes darting away. “I’ll see you at eight next Tuesday,” he said. “And if you need a ride, don’t feel hesitant to call me. I’m serious about the crazy cabs.” Maya rolled her eyes and gently punched his shoulder.

“Don’t you worry about me, mister. I’ll see you then.” She grinned brightly at him and got out of the vehicle. As she turned to close the door, she noticed him shift back into his seat, as if he had leaned after her. Quirking a brow at him, she waved and headed into her complex. He smiled and waved back politely, but still waited in the idle car.