Until recently.
“We all still would have rallied behind you, Calla. He was still a part of you. Losing him broke you all the same, no matter what the circumstances were.”
After a few more minutes of silence Piper finally spoke up. “Please go talk to Eli.”
At that moment my chest ached to do exactly that. But it wasn’t so simple. “It hurts too much,” I whispered.
“It’ll hurt more if you don’t.”
“Maybe you’ll find that you can’t forgive him,” my mom said. “But you owe it to yourself to try.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The air buzzedwith energy in the large, converted warehouse. Voices trickled over to me as soon as I stepped inside the industrial space, but one in particular stood out from the rest.
It only took me moments to spot him once I scanned the room.
A few cameras were set up, pointing at one of the walls where furniture had been strategically placed to look like an office. Bright lights shone down on a group of people sitting there and talking amongst themselves.
Eli stood over the group, pointing at each of them in turn and explaining something. Headphones rested around his neck and he wore a black t-shirt and jeans. It was warm in here, despite the frigid temperatures outside.
Walking toward the small set, my nerves started to get the best of me. Sure, he had said I could call him any time day or night, but had he actually meant it? Would he really want me disrupting his work day? It had been almost a week since he’d shown up at my doorstep. I had wrestled with my emotions fora while before deciding that my family was right. I had to see him.
Once I was at the edge of the set, I caught the attention of one of the actors. Eli whipped his head around to see what had caused the distraction.
His eyes widened before his face broke out into a huge grin.
I shifted back and forth on my feet, unsure whether I should go to him, or what. He didn’t let me wonder for long. He walked over determinedly, pinning me in place with his gaze.
“You’re here,” he breathed, his gaze sweeping over me, almost as if he didn’t believe I was actually standing there.
“I called your assistant. She gave me the address.”
Eli’s shot a questioning look at a short blonde with a pixie cut, who immediately looked away as if she’d been caught.
“Why didn’t you just call me?” he asked.
“I figured it was my turn to show up unannounced.”
He processed that for a moment before shaking his head and laughing. “I suppose you’re right.”
“So,” I said, offering a subject change. “This is all pretty impressive.”
“Ah, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck and gestured to the modest set. “This is what making an independent movie looks like. Not quite the big sets you see out in LA, but?—”
“It’s better,” I insisted, cutting him off. “More authentic.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” he said.
“Definitely way better than the set we met on.”
He arched an eyebrow before chuckling. “That one had its perks.”
We stared at each other for a few seconds. I had forgotten how much I missed simply looking at him.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said.
“You’re not.” He shook his head. “We were actually just about to wrap up after this scene.”
