Chapter 60

"This is definitely a good morning,"

Stefania watched as Danielle got her make up touched up on set. A couple of weeks had passed since she was last on set and first saw Caterina and luckily, in those two weeks, things had started to ease up at Royal Central. Everyone could see the difference in Stefania. She wasn't as hidden away in her room, she was cooking and eating more and the smile on her face was almost always there.

Danielle had made sure that this scene had no physical aspects with Caterina at all so it wouldn't be awkward or difficult to watch. Caterina hadn't arrived on set yet and the thought had crossed both Stefania and Danielle's minds that maybe they should have given her a bit of a heads up. But it was too late now as she entered and made her way onto the set. Stefania was stood to the side near the monitors so if you weren't looking over there, you probably wouldn't see her which worked out well a bit.

They began to shoot the scene after a quick briefing from the director, with Stefania smiling from the side as she watched her love work. She'd done a few things on set herself before but nothing as big as this. They finished shooting from one angle and had a little break as they set up for the next take. Danielle looked over at Stefania and stuck her tongue out at her but Stefania just blew a kiss back. Danielle laughed as she caught it and pressed it to her cheek.

"What are you doing?" Caterina laughed a little awkwardly as she looked at Danielle then followed her eye line to Stefania. "Oh. I didn't realise that she was with you today,"

"Sorry. I probably should have let you know,"

"No, no. It's fine," Caterina waved her hand in dismissal. "Just kind of wish we were doing a sad scene now. Or an angry one. Aha," Danielle felt very awkward as she stood there and looked over at Stefania who could clearly tell that her being there was a small problem. She pointed to the exit and held up a thumbs up as she decided it would be best for her to go back to the trailer and wait in there for Danielle. It's not fair on Caterina. And to be completely honest, she still wasn't sure how she felt about the situation.

Stefania strolled out to the trailers, humming a tune. It was a relatively nice day out and she looked around to see if there was a bench or something she could sit on instead of staying in Danielle's trailer but all she could really see were lines of trailers and cars so she continued her way. Then she realised that Danielle's trailer was locked and she most certainly did not have the key.

Stefania stood in front of the door, trying to make as decision on what she should do and opted to just sitting on the steps. At least she had her phone. About twenty minutes later, as Stefania was watching a dance video, a human sized shadow covered her and she looked up.

"Luc- Caterina, sorry. Hey. Where's Danielle?"

"She's shooting still. They had to change something last minute and didn't need me anymore," Caterina replied as she leant against the trailer and looked down at Stefania. "Uh, how are you?" Stefania wasn't really sure what Caterina wanted. There was already a very odd tension in the air.

"I'm good but you know we don't have to-"

"No, I know. I know," Caterina nodded her head slowly. "I didn't forget about you," She said after a few seconds of silence. "I tried to. But I couldn't,"

"I'm sorry," Stefania said as she looked down at the ground and tapped her foot against the step.

"You still tap your foot when you're nervous," Stefania looked up at Caterina, slightly shocked that she even remembered such a small detail about her. And the fact that she now knew she was nervous didn't really help. "Like I said. I tried to forget but I couldn't,"

"When did you change your name?" Stefania asked. "I really thought you'd just disappeared off the face of the earth, you know,"

"When I was eighteen. Three days after I turned eighteen actually. I had a lot going on and when my mother remarried, I changed my last name as well so thought a whole clean slate was needed. Which it was,"

"Someone told me that you weren't okay,"

"No. I wasn't," Caterina crouched down against the trailer and played with her fingers.

"Sit here," Stefania said, moving over on the steps and tapping the space next to her.

"Why are you sitting here?" Caterina asked as she moved next to Stefania.

"Danielle has the key," She replied. "I told her about us, by the way. I kind of had to because I couldn't really think about anything else,"

"I get that, I get that," Caterina nodded. "I'm glad you're doing well. I hear you're teaching at Royal Central and uh, Danielle is... great,"

"Yeah, working at Royal Central. It's just starting to ease up with exams and everything," Stefania nodded her head. "Danielle's amazing, yeah," She wasn't really sure if she wanted to talk about Danielle especially as Caterina had a crush on her and tried to make advancements. It was a very weird situation. "I have a question,"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I tried to find you online but I mean, with your different name and all, I couldn't find you. Did you ever try to find me?"

"Yeah. It didn't take long at all but I couldn't bring myself to reach out to you. Part of me was scared. Very scared,"

"Of me?" Stefania laughed softly, pressing a hand to her chest.

"Of the thought of reaching out and you telling me that you're seeing someone else," Caterina replied. "It made me feel kind of sick because I couldn't ever picture myself with anyone else and that's ridiculous, right? How many years ago was that? Was us?" Caterina was starting to get a little worked up as she spoke and Stefania could sense it, holding her breath slightly. "I would think about you every day. Hoping that I would turn a corner and for some reason, you'd be there. Hear a knock on the door and even though I know it's a delivery, I still hope that it's you on the other side,"

"Still? Or is this past tense?" Stefania asked warily.

"I- Past tense? I don't know," Caterina sighed. "I would still think it but not as much, and then suddenly, I was about to meet my co-workers girlfriend and it's you. Kind of my worst idea if anything,"

"I'm sorry," Stefania whispered.

"Ah, it's fine," Caterina waved her hand about sarcastically. "Not like you're the love of my life or anything,"

"Caterina-"

"Even that. I've been Caterina for longer than I can remember being Lucinda but all I want is for you to call me Luc again. Crazy, right? This is crazy, right?" Caterina stood up and looked up at the sky, her fists clenched tightly. "All the things I've wanted to say to you for years, Stefania, for years," Stefania stood up to be more level with Caterina and tried her best to keep her cool, deciding to just let Caterina say what she needed to say. "You know when you watch movies or programmes and there is usually this great love and they'll yet at each other in the middle of the street about how much they feel about one another and they'll confess everything. You know what I mean?"

"Uh, yeah,"

"I have dreamt about this moment. But with us. I have dreamt about yelling at you about how you consumed my entire life. And I don't even mean day dreaming or writing about it, I mean that when I would go to sleep. You were there. You were always there, Stefania. Whether I wanted you to be or not,"

"I don't know what you want me to say here," Stefania said, letting her shoulders drop.

"No, no. You don't need to say anything because you're meant to do what they do in the movies. You ramble on and you ramble on and your words get all caught up because you feel so breathless around this person," Caterina took a step towards Stefania, her eyes wide as all of these pent out emotions rushed out of her. "And then you get to kiss them because neither of you can contain it anymore,"

"I'm not kissing you, Caterina," Stefania said, though she didn't move. She couldn't say that she thought about Caterina nearly as much as she had about her, but there was still this deep longing. Maybe she felt guilty for how she treated her all those years ago. Maybe she was her great love.  Caterina paused in front of Stefania, eyes glowing as small and ragged breaths escaped from her lips.

"Fine. I'll do it myself,"

THE END

A/N: Nah I'm joking ;)