31 Don't!

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” her eyes are frightened, but she doesn’t make any movement to leave. “What if we get caught?”

“We won’t,” I promise shaking my head lightly as I lay us both down on the bed. Her arms circle my neck from underneath me. “Johnson’s preparing for tomorrow and Wallace has his crew out in the field. No one will be here for a while.” Moving in slowly, I give her time to move, she doesn’t. Right before our lips connect, I whisper, “No one will know.”

She takes that as her answer because she leans forward pressing her mouth into mine. My hands move so that one’s under her head supporting our weight, the other draws circles on bare-skinned side.

She pulls away to look into my eyes, “Why?”

“Why what?” I give her a look of confusion.

Her cheeks pink before she answers, “Why did you chose me? You could have anyone. Why me?”

The question brings a smile to my lips, “’Cause you’re perfect.”

Without warning, she pulls me down to her and resumes the kiss. I feel her arch her back to press her bare body into mine. My hands move down to her hips and I grind myself closer. I let a noise slip up from my throat causing her to stiffen.

That’s when the least expected thing happens. She pushes on my shoulders and breaks away laughing hysterically.

“I’m so sorry,” she says between breaths putting her arms around her exposed bust. “I just- Oh my God,” the laughing comes back tenfold. She tries to physically stop it by pressing a hand to her mouth. It does little good.

“Cut,” the director yells from beside us. “This is ridiculous, Grace. How many takes are we going to have to go through?”

I sit back on my heels and wrap the blanket around my waist. With sex scenes, although you look completely naked, you’re not. Really damn close, but not completely. All that women wear are ‘pasties’ on their nipples and a larger one over their lower regions. I have what looks kind of like a sock that goes over my boys and main attraction. It’s really uncomfortable; especially so because we’ve only known each other a few days. And let’s not forget that fifty or so people in the room watching.

They like to get nude scenes filmed first in the entire shooting process. I’m not sure the logic behind it, but it sure does cause awkward tension. There are quite a few ‘love making’ moments in this particular movie and they’ve been what we’ve shot from day one. And we only had a few days of running lines prior to.

Once Grace gets over her hysterics, she looks up at me, “I’m so sorry.”

“Am I doing something wrong today? It wasn’t this bad the first few days,” I put my hands to my hips. I really don’t understand. I mean like I said it’s awkward, but we got through it before. I thought it would be better today since we took the time to get to know each other last night after we were released from set.

“No,” she rushes to explain, “it’s just now that we’ve hung out it’s like kissing my brother. All I can think about is when you were telling me how Becca reacted to the marriage license. I can actually see her face.”

In retrospect, it was funny.

I smile at her, but try to be stern, “If we get this done in time, we can get out of here early. And you know that Topher’s coming in tonight.”

“I know,” she holds up her hands. “I know. Okay, let’s do this,” she looks over to the director, “I’m ready.”

Lucy, the director, sighs heavily before returning to her seat and motion for us to get in position.

The second assistant camera runs onto the set with the clapboard and shouts, “Scene thirty-six B, take seven,” before noisily shutting the clapstick.

As he runs off, Lucy loudly whispers, “Action.”

The scene starts over and thankfully Grace doesn’t interrupt again. Of course, like with any scene, it’s shot over and over from different angles. There’s nothing like spending all day in bed with a virtual stranger and having people tell you how to move or where to put your hand. It’s a very odd feeling and quite tiring.

Turns out, we spend 13 hours and 12 minutes recording today. It’s not a record by a long shot, but at the end of the day, I’m ready to actually lie down.

Standing from the bed, one of the wardrobe assistants drapes a robe around my shoulders while Grace gets one placed around her as well.

“Galloway, Ashton, come over here for a second,” Lucy calls us over to her where she’s sitting with the Producer and the Production Manager. When we stop in front of them, she says, “Alright, we’re apparently ahead of schedule. Rick says that you guys can have the day off tomorrow.”

Rick, the Production Manager, nods before adding, “If you guys keep carrying on so well, we’ll probably finishing filming ahead of time. That would be great for budget reasons.”

The Producer, Jerry, cuts in, “We’ll be looking over the scenes you guys shot the last couple days to see if we need to redo anything, but we won’t need you guys back until Monday morning.”

This was a huge shock. Getting a day off every now and then is great, but get two off in a row is almost unheard of. We actually get a weekend. Lucky for me, my husband will be in town.

“Really?” Grace asks sounding not-quite-sure.

“Yes,” Lucy confirms then smiles. “Now leave before we change our minds.”

That’s all it takes, my costar and I make our way off set to our trailers.

“Is Topher in for the whole weekend?” my female counterpart asks as we walk through the studio.

Nodding, I put my hands in the pockets of my robe, “Yea, I’m really excited.”

“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?”

“Since I left New York a couple weeks ago,” I shrug trying to act cool about it. I’m a little nervous on the inside, if I’m honest, “It’s the longest we’ve spent apart since we met.”

“That’s so sweet,” she coos, placing her hands over her heart. “Do you have anything planned while he’s here?”

“No,” I chuckle, “didn’t really think I had enough time to plan anything.”

We both laugh as I reach out to open the studio door that leads to our trailers. Holding the door open, I look at her to pass me before turning to walk out the same.

“I’m thinking about calling Tony to see if he wants to come down. Maybe we can all grab dinner tomorrow or something,” she offers as we round the last corner.

“I’ll have to ask,” lifting my shoulder before letting it drop. “I’m sure he’ll be-”

“Who this ‘he’ you speak of?” a smile creeps onto my face as I hear the voice.

Looking up I confirm its owner is, in fact, my husband. Here he is, in all his glory, leaning against the door of my trailer with his arms folding over his chest. I should have expected something like this.

“Hello, love,” I walk up to him and plant my lips against his without hesitation. In return, he wraps his arms around me, holding me close to him. “I thought we were meeting at Riel’s.”

“I decided to come get you,” his smile is genuine; no trace of the teasing smirk that usually lines his lips.

“So you’re the Topher Ashton?” I hear Grace ask from behind me.

Toph moves me to his side to look at her, “That’s me.”

“You’re even more attractive in person,” she confesses with a nod.

He chuckles, but I save him from say anything by interrupting, “Chris this is Grace Galloway.”

He offers his hand, “Nice to meet you, Grace.”

She shakes it with a flirty smile, “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Oi, put that smirk away,” I point at her as they release their handshake. “Off limits.”

“I know,” she sighs with exaggerated disappointment. “I guess I have Tony anyway.” She perks up again with a little wave, “I’m going to put on clothes now. Nice to meet you, Topher. Call me tomorrow, Day.”

After saying goodbye, we make our way into my trailer. Automatically, I take my robe off to hang it up on the hook they have near my door. It’s when I’m pealing the ‘sock’ off that I realize he must understand the kind of day I had. He’s been acting longer than I have, I’m sure he’s worn one once or twice.

Oddly, even though I know it’s my job and I know he’s done the same thing before and there was no actual sex acts going on, I feel like I’ve cheated on him. It’s like I don’t want him to know what I’ve done all day. What if he would have walked in the studio a few minutes before we came out? I know it’s something I wouldn’t want to see him doing.

“Uncomfortable, aren’t they?” he nods to my groin and quirks an eyebrow from the seat he’s taken on the couch.

I feel my cheeks heat up, like I’m ashamed to be caught, “Yea.”

He must have sensed my reluctance (like he always does) because he stands and moves over to me, “What’s wrong?”

And it’s like I’m not practically naked when I put my head on his shoulder and wrap my arms around his waist, “I feel bad.”

“For what?” he laughs as he holds me close.

Sighing deeply, I let my arms drop, “I know it’s all in the job, but I don’t like the thought of you doing it. It upsets me that you could have walked in the studio while we were filming.”

“You didn’t actually cheat on me. You know that, right?” my husband moves my face to look into his eyes. “I’m not mad. And it’s a closed set. I couldn’t have come on if I wanted to.”

“I know,” I reassure him by nodding. I step back to pull the modesty pouch off and pull on my boxers, “It just feels wrong, you know?”

“Don’t worry about it, babe,” he shakes his head and sits back on the couch, crossing one foot over his other knee. “It’s part of the job. I still love you more than life itself.”

The last comment makes me look up from the jeans I’m yanking on. Shimmying in the last bits, I walk over to him with a smile and press my lips to his again. Holding them there for just a few second, I pull away and look into his eyes, “I love you too; more than anything.”

-----

The weekend flies by fast; too fast. I don’t get to spend enough time with the love of my life nor does he get to stay any longer than the weekend. Unfortunately for us, he has to do his job too. But we did decide however, that we were going to try and see each other as much as possible. If I have a day off I can fly to New York, but mostly, up until he has to leave to go film his newest project, he’s going to come here as often as he can.

And that’s exactly what we do.

-----

“Ashton?!” my director yells around the studio.

“Yea!” I yell back at the same time my husband looks up and says, “What?”

Patting his face gently, I press my lips to his quickly, “I think she means me, love.”

His face lights up with the realization, “That’s hot.”

“It’s hot that my director wants me and I have to leave?” I arch an eyebrow giving him a strange look.

He chuckles lightly, “No, that they call you by my last name.”

“Mine too now, love. You would think after four months you’d be used to it,” I give him one last kiss before backing away.

“I’ll never get used to it, babe,” he holds out his hand toward me. “It’ll always turn me on.”

“Keep your voice down,” I laugh still backing away. Turning toward the set, I call out once more, “Call when you get back to New York, yea?”

“Always,” he promises as I start to jog the rest the way.

“Are we taking up your time, Ashton? You have better things to do?” Grace giggles as I stop in front of them.

Turns out Grace Galloway, ‘the man stealer,’ has always wanted a gay best friend. Whereas my best mate slot was taken three times over, I still became very good friends with her over the past three months of shooting. She’s not as deceitful as everyone makes her out to be.

“Nothing’s better than you, babe,” I wink at her for effect before the director calls us to attention.

“Alright, I want to try and get this scene done and then you can go home,” she tells us. It sounds kind of suspicious the way she says ‘scene’.

Grace beats me to the punch, “What scene are we filming?”

A smile laces Lucy’s face, “The scene.” She’s been teasing us the entire production. Always talk about ‘the scene’ comes up out of nowhere.

Behind her, there’s an entire desert landscape set up in front of a green screen. This is no small setting. This desert takes up almost the whole studio room. There is literally tons of sand spread everywhere. Small tuffs of grass and brush pop up here and there. If I couldn’t see the camera crew and walls on the far sides, I could easily mistake this for the real place. Of course the air conditioning would have to go and be replaced with heat and stickiness.

“You want to film ‘the scene’?” Grace acts surprised placing her hand over her heart. “How will you torture us in the future?”

“There’s not too much future here,” she tells us with a shrug. “We’re almost done filming. This is it, guys; our very last scene.”

My costar actually makes a pouty face and looks over at me, “We won’t be able to hang out anymore.”

“You can always come visit in New York,” I tell her. “We have an extra room and everything.”

“Good,” she perks back up instantly.

“Alright guys, let’s get this going,” Lucy tells us before sending us off to wardrobe.

-----

With my back against a large boulder and breathing heavily, I look into her eyes from across a clearing, “If we don’t make it out of here, you have to know that I really do love you.”

The noise of battle reigns around us. Little shots of sand fly at us as bullets land near our location.

She shakes her head from behind her own rock hiding place, tears stream down her face, “No, don’t say that. You’re not allowed to say that to me.”

“It’s true,” I shout back. “You have to know-” I take a deep breath and shake my head before starting again, “You have to know that what everyone was saying was lies. I never thought of you as a plaything. I never wanted to share you. From the very start of whatever this is that we have, I wanted it to last. And not just last until we go back home; I wanted it to last forever. Fighting this war means nothing if I can’t go home with you.”

It’s not like we’re trying to hide our location. They know we’re here. The only reason they aren’t advancing is because the other two men that are with us are laying suppressive fire. It’s only the four of us left. The rest of our squad got taken down.

“Don’t!” she screams at me.

We were just supposed to go out for a routine foot patrol through the rundown city. At first I thought it was odd that there was no one around, but it was too late once we figured out why.

Now the four of us are left. I don’t have any ammo on me and my girl, she’s wounded. A bullet grazed her arm. It’s not deep enough that it can’t be treated, but it’s definitely bad enough that she can’t hold up her weapon.

She’s sobbing at this point. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s hurt, frustrated, or mad at me. But she gets up the strength to point at me with her good arm, “Don’t you say that to me. You can’t say these things and expect me to be okay with it. You can’t say goodbye to me right now!”

“I’m not saying goodbye,” I tell her. “I’m saying that if something happens, you need to know that this wasn’t just a fling. This wasn’t just because I needed to get laid.”

“Sergeant, we need to move. They’ve started advancing,” the soldier, Jackson, next to me informs.

I look over to Avery, the last one of our little group, “Has anyone come over com? Do they know where we are?”

“I haven’t heard anything in a while, Sergeant,” he holds out the phone-like receiver. “I think we’ve run out of juice.”

“The battery’s dead?” my lady shouts looking terrified.

He only nods.

“We really got to go, Sergeant,” Jackson says a little louder.

Looking over, I ask her, “Are you okay to move?”

“I’ll be fine,” but she doesn’t look fine. She looks defeated.

“On three we’ll move to the next set of rocks up there,” I decide pointing to the only spot we could move to. Sometimes, I hate being the one in charge; it’ll be my fault if I lose the rest of my squad. Its bad enough I lost the other five. “One,” I say loudly as we get to our feet in a perched position. “Two,” we get ready to take off. “Thr-”

All at once our head snap up and to the side. Reinforcements have arrived.

“Cut!” Lucy yells over all the background noise. “And I think that’s a wrap!”

Everyone in the studio starts to clap. A smile makes it to my face as I stand up and walk to my costar. Even though we’re both covered in dirt and painted to be disgusting and filthy, we still wrap our arms around each other. After we let go, we shake the hands of the actors they paly Jackson and Avery before moving over to our crew.

Looking over to Grace, our eyes connect and a smirk laces both of our faces. “Lucy?” I ask her quietly.

“Of course,” she nods only a little.

At once, we rush our director, pinning her between us. We make as much bodily contact as we can, wiping our dirt and makeup all over her. She squeals and tries to push us off unsuccessfully, but laughs none-the-less.

When we pull away, she has tears in the corners of her eyes, “I know I’ll see you guys for reshoots and voice overs, but I’m going to miss you.”

We all chuckle a bit, but she’s right. It’s hard working with the same people for about 12 hours almost every day for months then waking up one day to not see them anymore. But it’s been a good time and I’m glad to have the experience.

“We’ll call your managers when we’re ready for the next stuff,” Jerry lets us know, patting us each on the back affectionately. “Probably be about a month or so.”

-----

“I’ll be here for another week,” I tell Grace as we make our way out to our trailers for the last time. “We’ll need to see each other again before I leave.”

“Definitely,” she assures me. “I’m really due for a good shopping trip.” She gives me a cheeky smile before scrunching up her nose, “Gays do that right?”

“You know what else ‘gays’ do?” I ask cocking an eyebrow before stopping in front of my trailer. “We slap haters that insult us.”

We both laugh for a few seconds before waving at each other and ascending into our own little abodes.

It takes half an hour and three washcloths to get all the makeup and dirt off my body in the shower. The entire time I think about all the good times that we had making the movie. I think about the laughs and happiness. It makes me so thankful that I have the job and opportunities that I have. I’ve met the person I’m going to love for the rest of my life, friends that mean the world to me and a career that I adore. Life couldn’t get any better and there’s nothing that take me from this high.

~A/N~

Oh Day, why did you have to go and say that last line. You know that's when people in movies and books jinx themselves! Goodness me! (You were thinking it. I just said it outloud)

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!

I don't usually dedicate chapters to people, but I'm making an exception this week. @ChristopherSnakee is one of my fans who is very dedicated to say the least. He even claims to be my biggest. Either way, he sends me messages that always make me smile and for that I am thankful. Thank you, @ChristopherSnakee for making me smile and voting and commenting. You're so lovely.

Grace on the side!

And the music on the side is 'Lucky' By Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.@MamiMonster See I told you it would get more appropriate!