My Leading Man | Timothée Chalamet

chapter sixteen

It was Friday, and we were shooting a brief scene at this little coffee shop that was letting us use it from eleven to three, their slowest time of day. I showed up, pleased to find both Timothée and Syd there on time. Tim was talking with Evan, and he was wearing a navy blue ball cap with his dark curls sticking out underneath. I allowed myself one second of admiration before turning away and starting work.

"Hey, Violet," Ava walked over to me. I glanced up at Timothée before I could stop myself, and found him looking over at us at the sound of Ava's voice. He stopped talking to Evan, paused, and smiled at me. It felt like the first real smile he'd given me in a while and I instantly felt unworthy. My heart squeezed at the memory of my cutting him off two nights ago, when he tried to ask me something but I ignored it and left with Max. Something about Max bothered him, and it was cruel of me to leave Tim behind for him. I smiled shyly back and turned to Ava, who was asking me a question about our lighting situation for the day.

The prep work flew by, and soon we were filming, which was also going successfully. It felt like a breath of fresh air compared to our last two days of production.

I'd grown more accustomed to watching Syd and Tim flirt on camera, but not so much off-camera. I watched them as I called "cut" and announced a take five, and saw Syd almost immediately start talking to him, animatedly telling him some story or joke that I wasn't a part of. I felt my teeth grit together and turned away. I slouched in my chair, took a quick scroll through Instagram, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I glanced up and saw Timothée standing right in front of me.

I caught my breath and he laughed. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, no, it's okay." I smiled at him. "I'm an easy scare." I paused, expecting him to explain his presence. When he didn't, and just sat there watching me, I asked. "So what's up?"

"Oh," he began, his earlier purpose seemingly forgotten. "I just wanted to talk to you," he explained with a shrug. "Feels like we haven't talked in a while," he trailed off, looking at the ground.

"Yeah, it does feel like that," I agreed. "It's only been two days," I laughed, "but it did feel like we went from talking all the time to not at all. How was it hanging out with your friends yesterday?"

"Good! It was good. They're... good." He was looking at the ground again. If I didn't know him better, I'd guess he was nervous and stalling something. Which was weird. He was normally very confident.

"Well that's good-"

"Are you doing anything tonight?" His abrupt exclamation caught me off guard.

"Um," I thought to my future plans. Max was working tonight, and Dayna had a date with her boyfriend, so I was just planning on watching a movie by myself. "No, I guess not. I'm free as a bird." I smiled up at him, and cringed at myself for using that expression. What was I, my grandma Agnes?

He let out a short laugh. "Well, good. I was hoping we could do something." He smiled a closed-mouth smile, and my eyes immediately hooked on his lips. I forced them back up to his eyes.

"Sure, have anything in mind?"

"Uh, dinner? And helping me with lines? Again?" He added this last part with a laugh.

"Yeah, sounds fun!" I answered honestly. It seemed simple, but I did always have a good time with him, especially when it was just the two of us. "What time?"

"Seven? Does that work? I can pick you up."

"Yeah, that'd be great." My chest filled with warmth in happy anticipation for the night. "I'm looking forward to it." He beamed at that and walked away, heading over for a quick makeup retouch before starting filming again.