For you| Pedro Pascal

7. Mother dearest

The past few days were better. It seemed like Jeff was liking our stuff a little more. I knew that it had something to do with us spending every free moment with each other.  Work hasn't felt like work since last week and I'd be lying if I didn't wish the feeling to stay.

"What is going on in that head of yours?" I snap out from my thoughts and straighten myself up in my chair. Luz is looking at me like she's been trying to get my attention for hours. "Just thinking Luz," I say, twirling my thumbs around each other. She starts removing the big rollers from my head. Thank god, I was getting a headache. "You never told me how drinks went. Every time I have a moment alone with you, you sprint off to his trailer. I assume nothing but good things?" Luz asks. I smile with my head still down. "Luz. He's been at my place every night since drinks. On his own account of course. He asks every morning if he can still come back," I tell her.

I look up at her in the mirror and she's smirking. "Luz stop. Don't make this a big thing. Who knows? After working with me, he may get tired of me a lot faster. I'm surprised I haven't scared him off yet," I tell her, rubbing my wrist. "Girl. Why would you scare him off? You're great," Luz says while pulling the hair away from my face, securing pins in the back of my head. My fingers grace over Sam's prints that were still lightly marked on my arm. "Sam showed up the first morning. He was drunk."

Luz takes a step back and looks at me, wide eyed. "Sam went over? What did he want?" She asks I cross my arms and lean back into the chair. "I don't really know. It was seven in the morning and he was drunk. I told him to go and he did," I say, leaving out the other details. "You need to have a long talk with that man. He can't just show up like that," she says.

Quite frankly, she was right. Except she didn't know the whole truth so in a normal breakup, she would make sense. I didn't feel like sharing those details with her though. I'm surprised I even felt confident enough in Pedro for him to know details. "Luz. I just need to keep myself busy. That relationship was good for a while but I knew along time ago that I was done. I only had the nerve to get out of it when he asked me to marry him. Mentally, I was out long before that." She starts fixing my hair again and throwing in some hairspray. "So what are you and salsa caliente doing? Playing house, hooking up, or dating?" She says. I turn red with embarrassment. "Do not call him that Luz. And I don't know what we are doing. Maybe we are just enjoying each other's presence. Plus, if Jeff found out, he would ride that publicity train until the end of the tracks. I'm still annoyed about that front cover and I still see it on the shelves at the store. I just don't want to ruin this," I say, looking down at my hands.

"Ah. So you think there's something to ruin," Luz says. I stand up and grab my dress from the rack. "Luz," I say. She quickly starts picking up her things. "Okay, okay. I'll stop. But Andy, don't let this go because everyone else may think you moved on too fast. This is for you. If he makes you happy, that's great. If he's a great hook up, that's also great. What I'm trying to say is make choices for you, not for anyone else. Especially not for Jeff. You want to keep whatever it is you two are doing a secret, then do that."

***
"So I just wanted to sit in to see how production was moving along. The untitled film I have scheduled is moving further along than planned and I just feel like we should be moving a lot faster. Delays are bound to happen, yes. That doesn't mean we all stop working," Jeff says, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. "Jeff, how did you expect us to not stop working if the set was having issues and had everyone trying to fix the issue? I think they fixed the issue a lot sooner since they had everyone one stop and help. I'm just saying, there are some things we can't work through." I speak up, scrolling through my script on my tablet. Jeff glares at me from across the room. "Hey, if you're okay with the lighting making me look like a carrot with extra bags under my eyes, I'll push through," I finish. He scoffs and turns back around. "Not today Andrea," he says. My head instantly snaps up.