Trying Your Luck // Joel Hokka

XVI

I woke up from the sunlight that was getting through the gap of curtains. It was surprising for Finnish autumn to see a sunny day. I looked around the bedroom and the memories of last night flooded my brain. A smile crept up on my face. The spot beside me was empty, so I got up, but I could locate my dress, so I put on Joel's hoodie that was laying on the armchair in the corner of the room.

I walked out of the bedroom and found Joel sitting by the kitchen table. He was sitting with his back to me, but as he heard the doors open, he instantly turned around and greeted me with a smile.

"Looking fancy there," Joel chuckled and I did some model poses jokingly. I walked up to the blond man and gave him a kiss, "I hope you slept well."

"Would have slept better if it wasn't for the cold space next to me," I complained and sat next to him and took a sip from his coffee.

"Have to get used to sharing my drinks with you once again," Joel sighed.

"Well, you could have been a gentleman and offered me a coffee in the first place."

"We barely have spoken yet," Joel complained.

"Yet I still don't see my own coffee cup," I continued to drink from his mug and he got up to get me a coffee. Joel was wearing only sweatpants and by the looks of it, literally only sweatpants. But I somehow felt sore after last night's activities, so I tried to not think too much of if.

I walked to the living room where I left my bag last night and took out my phone. There were about 15 calls from my agent and I knew that it wasn't a good sign. I called him back and he picked up almost instantly.

"Eleanor, for fuck sake, I have been trying to get hold of you for the past 2 hours!" Eliott complained.

"I was sleeping, I just got back to Finland. Needed some rest," I walked back to the kitchen and sat back by the table.

"Anyway, we have a bit of a situation here," Eliott started and Joel came back with a fresh cup of coffee for me, "The director dropped from your film."

My heart sank, can I get a break!?

"Are you kidding me??" The disappointment in my voice was strong.

"No, but listen. Me and some of the producers have been playing around with this idea... You have directed a few videos and you have been on film sets for a while now. So maybe it is time you direct your first full-length movie?" Eliott's words were brushing past me so fast, that I almost fell from the chair.

"To do what now?" I asked unsurely and I saw Joel look my way as he heard the confusion in my voice.

"You don't have to answer straight away, but you also don't have much time to think. The producers don't want to lose money and tying a new director for the project could be a lot of work, so it would be not only great for your career, but it would also save us some headaches from producers."

"Are they sure?"

"100%, you are a gem, Eleanor," Eliott tried to cheer me up.

"I have to think about this, please give me a day or two."

"Of course, but the sooner the better. Don't forget that in this business time is money," Eliott laughed on the other end of the line.

"That really helped," I mocked.

"I, personally, think that there is not much to think about, but you do you."

"I'll call you when I think about this, I need to... need to swallow this information."

"Sure, sure. I'll be waiting."

I put my phone on the table and looked into the coffee mug as if trying to find an answer there.