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“Of course she does,” Zoe says, stepping between Celia and Eli, breaking their eye contact. “Just think about it. You two would have a lot of fun traveling the world together.”
“Amber,” Celia growls. “Quit trying to make Jackson feel like he needs to go with me. I can take care of myself.”
There’s a pause. Celia’s forgotten one of her lines. Instead of yelling cut, I watch as Ansen motions for everyone to continue.
“What if I want to go with you?” Eli asks, pushing off the door frame.
Zoe and Celia both whip their heads in Eli’s direction. It’s Celia that speaks first.
“I can’t ask you to do that. I plan on being gone for a while, and you have a business to run. Some people,” she starts, turning her attention to Zoe, “have jobs and responsibilities. They can’t up and leave on short notice.”
Celia and Zoe are staring each other down as Eli makes his way farther into the room. “The gym runs itself. I don’t have to be there every day. That’s what I have managers for. What about your job?”
“I quit yesterday.”
That’s Zoe’s cue to exit. She pushes past Eli, closing the door behind her, leaving Celia and Eli to wrap up the scene. One of the most important ones in the entire movie. It sets the tone for the entire film.
“Want to tell me what’s going on, Jessa?”
“Nothing’s going on.” You can clearly tell Celia is hiding something from him.
“Well, even though I know you’re lying to me, I’d still like to come with you. If that’s okay.”
Celia seems to think it over. She’s nailing this scene. From her facial expression to the tone of her voice, she’s selling it perfectly.
So is Eli as he casually looks over his shoulder at the closed door. Uncertainty washing over his face. His smile fading as he waits for Celia to answer him.
“Sure. We leave for New York Monday morning. I’ll text you the flight number.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to be that easy,” Eli says as he takes a step toward Celia. “I thought I would need to convince you how much fun we could have together if you let me come.”
Celia takes a step back, matching Eli’s movements. Biting down on her bottom lip, she appears suddenly nervous about her situation.
“What’s going on in that big, beautiful brain of yours, Jessa? I can see you’re thinking hard about something right now. Or are you thinking about something hard?” Eli wiggles his eyebrows, and I have to cover my mouth to hold back the laugh that threatens to escape.
Celia lets hers out at she swats him in the chest.
My chest. Grrr.
Taking his hand, Celia pulls Eli through an open door. You can clearly see a bed in the room. As she pushes the door shut, Eli grabs her hips and leans in slowly.
“Cut!” Ansen yells.
No one makes a move. The stage falls silent. We’re all waiting for him to say the three little words we’ve worked so hard to achieve the last five months.
“That’s a wrap,” he announces after a few beats.
Cheering erupts around the room. People are hugging each other. Some are clapping as Ansen takes a bow. Celia is bouncing up and down, her fake boobs barely moving in the tight shirt they strapped her into this morning.
And Eli. He’s standing in the middle of the set, smiling, while he stares at me across the room.
Last night, as we sat down for a late dinner, it finally hit me that things were going to change for us. We wouldn’t be working together anymore. Today was the last day we would ride to the studio together.
He has to move out of his house this weekend and his on-set trailer this afternoon.
Which begs the questions … where is he going?
Before he started filmingChasing Fate, he was living in a tiny little month-to-month apartment. He gave it up when the studio offered him the beach house during filming. Which means, he has nowhere to go.
