Now in Italy (1)

It was around ten o’clock that today’s shoot was over. By the director’s estimation, it would take around three weeks to get all the footage he needed.

After I finished changing back into my clothes and had some small talk with my fellow actors, Cole approached me with two drinks in his hand. He gave me a hot cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso that I ordered.

After I arrived in Italy, I've taken a liking to coffee these days, preferring it over the tea I usually drank, probably because it didn’t taste as good back home. I took a sip of my drink, a deep and milky flavor combined with its hotness melted the cold that was forming inside my body.

“So what are we doing next?” Cole asked after a sip of whatever he was drinking.

“I don’t know... Might be a little early, but should we get some lunch?”

“Sure.”

We wandered around the area, figuring out what to eat. Since I wasn’t that hungry, I was particularly picky about what we should get. Cole didn’t seem to mind, probably because he knew that I wasn’t hungry and instead walked around to build up my hunger. As I was doing that, my phone dinged, and I pulled it out.

“Can I meet you?”

It was a message from Lena. Her message got me tilting my head, wondering if she really planned to come all the way to Florence, Italy, to meet me.

I sent her a thumb-up sticker as I sipped on my drink.

“Where do you want to meet?” Another message of hers read, making it sound like she was already in Italy.

I took a photo of where I was and wrote my general location, and sent it to her.

“Who is it?” Cole asked after he noticed that I’d stopped.

“Lena.”

“That girl that you have a crush on?”

I nodded with a shy smile.

“What did she say?”

“She wants to meet up with me.”

“Like, right here in Florence?”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

Cole and I stood by the sidewalk, watching people pass by as we sipped our drinks. By the time I finished my drink, I saw a woman I’d been waiting for amongst the crowd of people.

“Lena!” I called out to her.

Hearing my call, she turned towards me, her face lit up as she walked over.

“You did not come all the way here just to see me,” I said as I pulled her in for a hug.

“My dad wanted to go somewhere for a family trip, so I convinced him to come here.”

“Ah, I see.”

“And um...”

All of a sudden, Lena made her presence small and started fidgeting with her thumb. I was curious about the sudden shift in her demeanor until I noticed that Cole had walked up behind me. I could understand her fear; he looked intimidating after all.

“This is my uncle, Cole Sawyer. He’s also my manager.” I pointed to my uncle, who was standing beside me.

“Oh, I’m... Lena Marshal...” She said with a bow, her voice low. “Am I... interrupting you working?”

“No, I was just finished with it for a day.”

“Ah, I see...” She glanced at Cole for a split second before looking away as she couldn’t handle the pressure of his gaze.

He sighed.

“I’ll go eat something. Call me when you’re done.”

Then put his beanie on my head.

“Wear it.”

And he walked away without hearing my acknowledgement.

I didn’t know why he gave me his beanie; it looked lame and didn’t go well with my outfit, but it did keep me warm, so I decided to keep it on.

Now that my uncle was gone, Lena visibly appeared less worried as she watched him walk away.

“He looks scary, but he’s actually really nice.”

“I believe you, but...”

Words alone couldn’t convince her. So I threw the plan to make Lena and Cole get along to the back burner for the future me to deal with.

As it was only the two of us, we started walking.

“So, when did you come here?”

“Two days ago.”

“And on the third day, you left your parents to meet up with me. They must be sad to know that their daughter left them.”

“I didn’t leave them! I asked them if I could go meet you, and they have no problem with it.”

Her defence only caused me laughter.

“What did you see these past two days?”

Lena recounted what she saw with her parents during her stay in Florence.

“Since we’re here, let's go see other things. Is there anywhere you want to go?”

“I don’t know... I didn’t really plan out this trip. I was here just so I could see you.”

“I didn’t know you could be this impulsive...”

As we turned around the corner, a scooter rental store came into view. Scooter was one of many icons of Italian culture, so it would be a shame not to ride one around Florence now that we were here.

“Wanna ride a scooter?” I asked.

“Do you know how to ride one?”

“Yeah, I got a driver’s licence ages ago, and they taught me how to ride one when I was in The Great Theory.”

“Didn’t you star in that a year ago...?” Lena mumbled.

We headed inside the shop. After being greeted by the receptionist, I told her that we were here to rent a scooter, and she showed us the available ride. I looked over all the choices, but I wasn’t sure what to choose; they all had different vibes, different colors, but I didn’t prefer one over the other.

“What’s your favorite color?” I asked.

“Um... light blue... I think?”

Dismissing the “I think” part, I pointed to a pastel blue scooter.

After I showed all the necessary licences and wrote some paperwork, the scooter was mine, for a day, at least.

I got on the scooter and felt its handle, trying to familiarize myself with it. I then inserted the key into the ignition, twisted it, and the engine let out a roar. It wasn’t a powerful roar, but it sounded like an announcement of a great journey; if this was a movie, some kind of rock and roll song would play right now before I rode off into the street.

After I put on the helmet, I took down the kickstand and twisted the handle. I was unprepared for the acceleration, so the moment I twisted the handle, I almost let it go, causing it to move towards the wall, almost crashing into it. I avoided looking in Lena’s direction, knowing that her trust in my driving skills had dwindled after she saw a rookie mistake I’d displayed.

“I’m ready now.”

Even after saying that, there was a noticeable pause before she hopped on. She wrapped her arms around my waist, gripped her hands tight, not out of love for me but rather out of fear that I might crash.

With a bit of a hiccup at the start, I drove off. As I was driving around on the streets of Florence, the lessons and experiences I’d learnt from the past slowly returned. After I made a turn on an especially busy street, I finally felt confident in my skill.

“The wind feels great, right?” I asked.

“What?” Was what I assumed Lena had said. The wind was too strong for her words to come clearly.

“I said, the wind feels great, right?” I said this time, raising my voice.

“Yeah!” She finally replied.

Since we had no real destination, I drove wherever the street took us. Through the shopping street, past the market, all over.

“Aren’t you curious about what I've been acting in?”

“What?”

“The movie! Aren’t you curious about the movie I’ve been acting in?”

“I thought you couldn’t talk about it?”

“It’s not like I can’t talk about every small detail of it. I've been itching to talk about it with you because I think you’d like it.”

After working on it for so long, I wanted to boast about it to Lena. The fact that she was a fan of mine was the push that made me take this role, so hearing her excitement would refuel my energy so that I could continue to do my best.

“So, what is it about?”

“Have you heard of a rumor that Lucas Wanderson is making a comeback movie?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of... Are you saying you’re appearing in Lucas Wanderson’s movie?”

The moment she put two and two together, I could hear a shift in her tone of voice now that excitement was introduced.

“So he’s really coming back, I’m so excited! I’ve followed his work for such a long time. To think that you would be appearing on it is such a dream come true.”

I only appeared in Lucas Wanderson’s film because I knew the scale of his work would be massive and the quality would be extraordinary, but to think that Lena was a fan of his work too... I guess I made the right decision to sign that contract.

We rode past the Piazzale Michelangelo, catching the statue of David by a glimpse since both of us had seen him already. As I rode down from the hill, I spotted a familiar street across the river that was a set for my shoot. It was where the character I played worked and where the two protagonists met.

“Hey, that street! We shot lots of scenes there!”

“Where?”

“There–” I raised my arm to point to the street. However, taking one hand off the handle was enough to make the scooter wobble.

“Whoaaah!” Was one of the many weird screams I let out as I was taking back control of the scooter. I was sure that Lena screamed too, but I was too busy trying not to crash, so I didn’t pay attention to her; I refused to believe I was the only one screaming back there.

After I stabilized the scooter, I sighed in relief.

“Please don’t take your hand off the handle again...”

“Got it...”