Proposal

It was a sunny day in Lestington town, London. Seeing a cloudless sky during the autumn was a rare treat, especially on weekends. I could be walking around the park with a warm cinnamon roll in my hand right now, but alas, I had a shoot today.

After I waited for a bit, my manager arrived in the car. Entering it, I was welcomed by the familiar lemony scent of a car diffuser and a radio host talking about this morning’s traffic. I greeted Cole as I took off my coat and settled into my seat.

“Hey, Cole. Rare sunny day today, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s why we have to go to a shoot.”

The director wanted to shoot on a sunny day, which was why we had to go on a shoot, even though we finalized our contract three days ago.

“So how did your Oktoberfest go?”

“It was great, the drink was great, the food was great. The ride though... I think they need to do some maintenance.”

“That’s just typical for festival rides, really...”

We were headed to film for Tracker. It was a cop drama series about a team of police solving seemingly unrelated series of crimes that led to a string of conspiracies. Although the peak of its popularity was long over, the series still gained decent retention among the general watchers and fans alike.

The producer, Antony Margot, wanted me to take a role as a minor criminal who got tricked into committing a huge crime in place of the mastermind. The pay was great for such a minor role, perhaps because of how tight the schedule was.

Apparently, the actress who used to play this role got hospitalized mid-production due to her chronic illness; it seemed like she wouldn’t recover in time, so the production made a decision to replace the actress as well as retook the entire scene.

As I was watching the changing urban scenery, I spotted Cole’s wife, Emily Sawyer.

“Isn’t that your wife to the left?” I pointed to her. Cole took a glance in the direction I pointed.

“Yes, it is.”

Emily was carrying bags of groceries. I felt bad that she had to carry all those heavy-looking bags, all while having to deal with a rowdy bus ride home, so I wanted to help her out a little.

“Why don’t you drop her off at home first?”

“We might be late.”

“Come on, it’s just a slight detour. Besides, if I were you, I would’ve picked her up, doesn’t matter if I was on the job or not.”

Cole didn’t say a word and pulled up next to her. Emily recognized the car, and she walked up and opened the car door.

“I thought you were taking Rachel to a shoot?”

“Yeah, but she insisted I pick you up.” Cole pointed towards me with his thumb.

“Hi, aunty!” I waved

“Hey, Rachel! Heading out for a shoot?” Emily entered the car, closing the door behind her. Her voice softened compared to when she talked to Cole.

Emily was like a second mom to me. Even though Cole tried not to get his family involved with his job, she wound up taking care of me from time to time anyway. Perhaps because we were blood-related, she thought of it as taking care of her niece instead of it being a job.

“Yeah, it’s for the new season of Tracker. I only appear in one episode, though. So don’t start a new series, hoping to see me there.”

“That’s okay. I’ll just watch that one episode then. Just being able to see you on the screen is already good enough for me. So, any plan after Tracker?”

“Right now, no.” I shook my head. “There’s no interesting job lately, so I’m gonna lay low until something interesting comes by.”

But that was merely a half-truth. The other reason was that I didn’t want a job that required me to go too far. I wanted to get closer to Lena, and going away for a shoot would make it harder to do so.

“I see. Oh, right, you went to Oktoberfest last night, right? How was it?”

“It was fun. I went with a friend of mine, and there was plenty to drink, plenty to eat.”

“Is it anyone I know?”

“No, we met at the reunion, and we kinda hit it off. So I invited her.”

“That’s nice. I’m glad you found a friend you can have fun with.”

Emily was one of the people who knew I had trouble making friends my age. I’ve always felt guilty when I made her worry, so hearing her say that made me strangely proud.

“Yeah...”

Friends. That was the relationship Lena and I had right now. Although it was better than strangers, I wanted more between us.

“I wanted to be more than that, though...” I said in a low voice, hoping my voice would be drowned out by the radio, but the song ended abruptly, so there was nothing that covered what I’d said.

Emily turned in my direction while Cole looked at me through the rear-view mirror. I pretended that I didn’t say anything, and they looked away from me.

“So, it was a date night then?” Emily asked, after a long pause. Perhaps she was contemplating whether it was an appropriate question or not.

Now that the cats were out of the bag, I might as well tell them about it.

“Maybe... I have no clue if she thought it was a date.”

“Did you wear a disguise?” Cole interjected.

“No... But I should’ve.”

He nodded.

“Rune Hunters has been doing well recently. So there might be some paparazzi lurking around.”

“You’re right, uncle.”

I knew what he was trying to say. A scandal could spawn from a photo taken without context; it was better to prevent it from happening rather than to fix it after it got out. Maybe I was being naive because I thought there was nothing to hide from them.

“Say, is it the girl that you went up to after I dropped you off last Friday?”

So aunty wasn’t the only one who was curious about Lena... He was silent this whole time, so I thought he didn’t need to know anything else.

“Yeah.”

“Did you see her, Cole? What did she look like?”

“Blonde hair. Wear glasses. About this high.” He hovered his hand next to his shoulder to show her an inaccurate height.

“She’s not that short, uncle, what the hell!” I hit his seat.

“You are all small compared to me, kid.”

“She sounds cute,” Emily commented. “What does she do?”

“She’s a web developer. She, umm... make a website for some publishing company.”

“Look at you. You really like her, huh?”

Only when she said that did I realize that I was smiling naturally. Talking to someone I could trust about someone I liked was truly fun. I was reminded again of how much I cared about these people.

“Yeah...”

After that, we dropped her off at Cole’s place.

“Good luck at the shoot, Rachel.”

“Thanks, Aunty!” I waved her goodbye before I rolled the window up.

Once I arrived at the set, I greeted production staff as well as my fellow actors. There was still time before the shoot began, so I spent the rest of it catching up with some of the actors I knew. And so our shoot began.

***

It took almost seven hours until we finished filming. At first, the crew estimated that it would take two days for my part to be finished, but due to the combination of good weather and low retakes, the director got all the footage he needed, so he called it done in just one day.

I was about to leave after bidding farewell to the staff, but a voice called out to me.

“Ms. Glintwood!”

My manager and I stopped in our tracks, and I turned to the voice.

“Mr. Margot! Just Rachel is fine.”

It was the series’ producer, Antony Margot. He approached us as we were about to leave the set.

“Got it, Rachel. Can I have a moment with you after this?”

I turned to look at my manager.

“Oh, your manager can come with you, of course!” He corrected after he noticed the implication in his words.

“After this, as in this evening or some other time?”

“This evening, after we wrap things up on our end.”

I turned to my manager, and it seemed there shouldn’t be any problem, so I agreed. I waited for the producer to wrap everything up, and we went to the cafe nearby, of course, Cole went with us.

“I’m sorry this might be a little sudden, but I wanted to catch you before you’re gone. I’ve been so busy lately, and I don’t know when I will be able to set up a meeting with you again,” He said after placing an order of black coffee.

“So what is this about, Mr. Margot?”

All this pleasantry was annoying me, so I forced him to get to the point. He nodded.

“Me and Lucas Wanderson are planning to make a musical romance film. It’s about a barista who wanted to be a musical writer falling in love with a troubled director.”

The waitress placed our drinks on our table. I took a sip of my black coffee; it was bitter and sour. How could he like such a flavor?

“And we want you to become the protagonist.”

“Me? A protagonist?”

After surprising me with the role offering, he gave more info about the movie, including the character, the plot, and most importantly, the soundtrack. My phone buzzed as I was listening to him. I instinctively put my hand over it, and I quickly forgot that it even buzzed.

Antony’s pitch was simple yet interesting, as expected of a senior producer. But what curious me was the timing of his offering.

It would be easy to say that he called out to me since I was already on the set, but that would be too convenient.

“Did you put me in this episode to see how I act?”

“I hope you’re not offended by this, but yes, that was a part of the reason we contacted you.”

It was cunning of him. But I brushed it off since it didn’t do me any harm.

Lucas Wanderson was a big name in the rom-com space. After his big break, Summer with Natalie, shot his career into space, he went on to make more romance movies, with all of them being a hit on release. I heard that he took an indefinite hiatus to find inspiration, and now I was learning that he was making a comeback film and wanted to feature me as one of the main protagonists...

It was a big request, even for an actress of my caliber.

“It’s hard for me to make a decision right now. Can I see the script first?”

“Of course, we’re almost done with the initial draft. We’ll send them through your manager once it’s finished.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention one thing.”

I was about to say my goodbye, but was interrupted by him.

“We’ll be filming this in Italy.”