Playing Pretend

Questions game

“Evan, since I don’t know how long I’ll be here,” said Chloe taking a bite of her pizza, “and we haven’t seen each other in years, let’s play 20 questions to get to know each other again.”

“That sounds reasonable, you want to start or shall I?” asked Evan.

“I’ll start,” said Chloe putting down her pizza on the coffee table and turning towards Evan on the couch. “So I already know how you met Erica, but how did you get into acting?”

“That’s easy, so when I was in my sophomore year, my friends dared me to audition for the lead in the school play. Well the joke was on them because it seemed I had a talent for theatre, so when opening night came there was a young talent scout in the audience courtesy of my theatre teacher and one thing lead to another and I got discovered. My turn, what were you going to college for?”

“I wanted to become a teacher actually; and not the typical kindergarten teacher but actually a middle school teacher. I find that middle schoolers are the ones who need the supporting figure of a teacher to help mold them for life. Elementary teachers still teach kids while high school teachers teach young adults but middle school can be precious years too. That is the time they are finding themselves and start growing up before they hit high school and have to look to the future immediately.”

“I’m going to venture to guess that you had a middle school teacher help you somehow?” asked Evan.

“Hey no fair, you already asked a question. I’ll let it slide this time, but yes, my middle school teacher was like a second mom to me,” said Chloe. “My turn, so what do you like about Erica?”

“Wow getting personal, good thing I’m used to interviews.”

“But this isn’t an interview, this is just two friends trying to get to know each other again,” said Chloe.

“Good point, well I guess I like how she compliments me. She is everything I’m not so it just works,” said Evan.

“Sounds more like you were ‘complimenting’ wine and food, not describing why you like Erica.”

Evan chuckled, “You’re right, that did come out wrong. I guess I love that she is perfect where I’m not and so when we’re together we are a perfect whole.”

“That still doesn’t make any sense. Love isn’t perfect,” said Chloe starting to look away and space out.

“It can be,” said Evan quietly. “Anyway, since I asked two, you can have the next question.”

Chloe turned back to Evan and thought about it, “Why don’t you want to stay married to me?”

Evan groaned. “Chloe, don’t do this.”

“What? What am I doing? I just asked you a question,” said Chloe.

“That’s just it, it’s the question; you know we’ve become different people, and this marriage wasn’t even supposed to be real. It was a game for us, nothing about it was real,” said Evan.

Chloe looked at Evan, tears forming in her eyes, “So you never really wanted to marry me? You didn’t love me?”

Evan looked at her and frowned, he didn’t like that she was getting upset and it hurt him that he was the one that upset her, “That’s not what I meant, Chloe, back when we were younger and immature, maybe at one time I did want to marry you, but we grew apart and became different people.” Evan watched her turn her head away. He knew this was not what she wanted to hear, and he almost wished he didn’t have to say it.  “But I did love you, Chloe.”

Chloe looked back at Evan to search his eyes to see if he was lying to make her feel better. “I never changed Evan, only you did.” Chloe got up and started to head towards her room. Turning around she looked Evan, “I loved you too, Evan, and that never changed either.” Chloe went into her room silently, not waiting for an answer from Evan. She cried into her pillow trying to shush the noise until she finally fell asleep.

Evan didn’t know what to make of what Chloe said. He knew she was right, even in the short time they spent together he knew that she was the same feisty honest girl, now young woman, he knew back when they were younger. It was him that was different, the hardness of Hollywood coming out and taking over himself.

He was pretty sure she also said that she still loved him, which made him feel elated even though he knew he shouldn’t. Was he falling back in love with his wife? No, he wasn’t, or was it shouldn’t? He was so confused. He just need to clear his head some, and working out always helped with that, so Evan picked up their leftovers from lunch and decided to go workout for a bit.

* * *

Evan finished his workout and cleaned up but Chloe still hadn’t emerged from the room. It was boring to be stuck in the apartment, so he knew she would enjoy leaving and going out for a bit. It was almost sun set and he knew the perfect place to go.

“Chloe, why don’t we go out for a bit? I want to show you something,” said Evan at her door.

“Okay, I’ll be right out,” replied Chloe. Chloe didn’t take long to come out of her room. “Okay, I’m ready, where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise,” said Evan smiling.

Luckily they were able to sneak out of the building easily without the press noticing. It didn’t long to get to where they were going. “Evan, this is beautiful,” said Chloe looking out at the view. They were up in the hills overlooking the city. The sun was setting just beyond it making the city glow.

Evan patted the hood of the car, “come sit with me.” Chloe obliged sitting next time and just staring out to the sun. “I’m sorry Chloe; I didn’t mean to upset you I just… I don’t know,” said Evan.

Chloe leaned her head on Evan’s shoulder, still looking out at the sunset, “I understand Evan, we moved on, let’s just be friends, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Evan putting his arm around Chloe. They continued to watch the sunset go down until it was dark. “So what do you want to do now?” asked Evan.

“I could really go for some Chinese and a good movie,” said Chloe.

Evan laughed, “I have a ton of money and we could go do whatever we want and you just want Chinese and a movie?”

Chloe scowled at him, “Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you have to flaunt it. I’m a simple girl; I like to do simple things. Don’t you ever wish you could slow down your life and go back to when things were simpler?”

“Yeah, I do, I just never have anybody that wants to do it with me,” said Evan.

“Sounds like you need new friends. What about Erica? Why doesn’t she slow down with you?” asked Chloe.

“She likes to slow down but it’s never simple. Slowing down for her is going for a massage or a romantic dinner somewhere fancy,” said Evan.

“Oh, well that’s nice too, but I was thinking more of takeout and a rented movie,” said Chloe.

“That sounds like a good plan to me,” said Evan. They got back in the car and headed back to the penthouse and ordered Chinese while Chloe found a movie on the TV.

“So what are we watching?” asked Evan sitting down next to Chloe with the food.

“Lord of the Rings marathon,” said Chloe looking at him with a goofy grin.

“Lord of the Rings? Really? I would have thought you would have chosen some chick flick,” said Evan.

“Nah, Lord of the Rings is more exciting, plus, with it being a marathon, we don’t have to find another movie after ends.”

“Good point and good idea.” Evan and Chloe enjoyed sitting quietly watching the movie and eating their Chinese. It was halfway through the second movie that Chloe fell asleep against Evan. Evan slowly and gently moved Chloe back to her room so she could sleep, contemplating whether to lay with her or not, deciding it was best to just leave her alone. They hadn’t finished their game but there was always another day.