Primetime Love

Chapter Two: Gibbs

Gibbs was getting pissed. He had been waiting on his cup of coffee for over twenty minutes. Ever since the Navy yard had converted a few old warehouses into film studios, his favorite coffee shop near the yard was always packed in the mornings.

"Oh, come on," he heard a frustrated voice mumble from behind him.

Gibbs turned and found a pretty woman with platinum blonde hair and brown eyes leaning against the counter beside him. She was alternately flipping through a bound stack of papers and checking the time on her smartphone. "This place is always packed since those Hollywood flakes moved to town," he decided to strike up a conversation. "Gibbs," he held out his hand to her.

The woman smirked and shook his hand. "Lia...one of those Hollywood flakes."

Oops. "That accent doesn't sound very Hollywood." He tried to backpedal away from his insult and commented on the southern twang to her voice.

Lia laughed. "I'm from Norfolk originally...nice deflection by the way."

"Local girl made it to Hollywood. Impressive." Okay, now he was flirting. Lia couldn't be but in her late twenties or early thirties but was drop dead gorgeous...and she obviously had a sense of humor because she hadn't slapped him yet.

"You could say that," Lia nodded. "You work at NCIS?" she gestured to the badge that was visible on her belt buckle. "One of your agents is at almost every one of my show's tapings. He's come to a few after show meet and greets as well. He has a real Italian name."

"DiNozzo," Gibbs supplied. That bit of information in no way surprised him. Of course Tony took advantage of a TV show filming at the Navy yard to indulge his love of all things Hollywood. "Yeah, I work for NCIS. I'm his boss."

"He's very flirty," Lia commented as she stuffed what Gibbs now suspected was a scrip into her jean shoulder bag.

That was also not a surprise. What was a surprise was the tiny bit of irrational anger and jealousy that briefly surged through him at the thought of DiNozzo flirting with a woman that he had known for all of five minutes. "That he is. It's a bit of a character flaw. What do you do on your show? You a writer or something?" She seemed way too down to earth to be anyone famous. Not that he would know even if she was. The last sitcom he had paid attention to was Mork & Mindy.

Lia laughed. "I'm a cast member and executive producer."

There was another surprise. Didn't actresses nowadays always travel with a bodyguard, photographers, and a little dog in tow? "Wow. I would not have guessed that. You seem way too sweet to be a celebrity."

"I'm more of a recognizable face than a celebrity," Lia blushed and tucked somPublishe of her hair behind her ear.

The way she downplayed her job was cute and Gibbs found himself blurting out, "I know this might seem kind of forward but do you want to exchange numbers? Maybe go out for a drink later?"

Lia blushed a bit more but smiled and nodded before the two exchanged numbers.

"I usually get off at six. Can I give you a call then?" Gibbs put his phone back into his coat pocket.

"Yeah, we finish rehearsals at five," Lia nodded.

"Come on, LiLi. We gotta wrap up rehearsals today so we can shoot my scenes tomorrow. Badass biker this week, next week a goon who gets killed by Bruce Willis in one punch" A curly haired man around Gibbs age breezed past them carrying two cups of coffee.

Lia laughed. "That was Kim. He is definitely one of those Hollywood flakes."