He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Chapter Two: Normal is the New Black

For someone who was madly, deeply in love with him, I remained surprisingly composed around Theo Hayes. 

Whenever I imagined meeting him in my head, I envisioned a lot of hyperventilating and unintelligible words, but the most I had done so far was imply I might be a stalker, which for me was pretty good.

It must have had something to do with his personality. He was just so sweet and down-to-earth.

That wasn't a complete surprise, though.

In the twenty-four years he had been acting, I couldn't recall a single person saying something bad about him.

He was pretty much Hollywood's it guy and walking around with him that night I could tell why. He was a movie star that didn't act like one.

Despite being one of the biggest names in Hollywood, he carried himself like he worked an everyday nine to five job and lived in a two story brick house. Throughout our entire conversation, he never once looked down on me, even when I really expected him to.

Not when I told him about living in a run-down house in Kansas or having to work two jobs to help my mom pay for my college education.

He listened intently and even added his own stories, telling me about having to rough it as a waiter by day and car velvet by night while trying to get his big break as an actor. It only humbled him more in my eyes, especially because he always sounded so grateful for the opportunities those jobs allowed him to get.

And, if his 'I'm a regular guy' shtick wasn't convincing enough already, it also helped that he looked the part of a normal guy.

His regular outfit of blue jeans, a white-t-shirt and black bomber jacket, made him blend in seamless with the few other people walking the trail that night. If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed he was just a normal, handsome, loner that lived in my town, rather then the mega-superstar I knew him to be.

"So,  I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not in New Jersey just to save random people's dogs," I said as we walked the dark streets of Glendale, back towards my apartment.

We had finished the trail in record time, too caught up in our conversation to realize that we had made it back to our starting point in the trail and were going around for another lap. The sky had gone pitch black by then and the streets were mostly empty, as everyone else was tucked inside for the night.

The thought of walking all the way back home by myself in the dark wasn't an exciting one for me, but I'd had no intention of asking Theo to walk home with me. The only reason he had stayed this long was because we both needed to walk our dogs, but that was finished and now it was time for me to hightail it home. Surprisingly enough, Theo didn't even question coming along with me for the walk. He just continued to walk with me away from the trail and back towards the regular streets.

"Well, it's not my day job, but it does take up a larger chunk of my time then you'd expect."

"Really?" I asked, as we both chuckled. 

Theo shook his head.

"No, I'm actually in town shooting a movie."

"In New Jersey!" I gasped as my eyebrows shoot into the air. "I thought all movies were shoot in California or New York. You know, all the big, fancy places."

"They are sometimes, but it's cheaper to shoot in lower profile places like this."

"Excuse me. New Jersey is not low profile."

Theo smiled as I feigned insult.

"Of course not. It's just easier to shoot here, because you don't get a lot of tourists or high profile events. Everyone's very...normal here."