When You Meet A Man

Can't Handle The Truth

Beck lied awake in bed looking at her computer screen, texting Gina off iMessage. "Do I call him." She asked. "Girl he legit told you to call him didn't he?" Gina responded.

"Yeah."
"So call him."
"What if he don't answer."
"Then he don't answer..."
"Life isn't that simple."
"Bitch, what is simpler? If he don't pick up, then he busy." Gina replied.
"Okay but like that could mean a million things." Beck texted back. "One sec." Beck texted again.

She grabbed her phone, dialed James' phone number and laid her phone on her chest.
It rang a few times before going to a default voicemail box.

"He didn't pick up." Beck texted Gina.
"Okay so he's busy."
"No, what if he didn't ACTUALLY want me to call him."
"He's a grown man Beck, he's not gon tell you to do something if he doesn't mean it."
"Polite people do that."
"I think James is past being 'a polite person.'" Gina responded.
"Idk." Beck texted.
"He does have a family so, it's probably family time or some shit white people do."
"Don't remind me."
"That he's white? Girl you see it every day."
"Omfg Gina no. That he's got a family, like a girlfriend. I'd love his kids to death I'm sure but it's Leslie I can do without."
"Beck, I mean, realistically...he's in love with her obviously. That's why they're together. He's happy in life and that's fine, you need to accept it."
"Could you not ruin my day more?"
"He literally held you to his body today, according to you. I don't want to hear shit about ruining your day. I haven't been touched by a man all year." Gina snapped back in text.
Beck laughed out loud a bit.
"Why you gotta say it like that? Lmfao." Beck replied.
"All I'm saying is, you got you some James today."
"No, I got me some Reddington today."
"Same difference, you want em both."
"You paint me out to be such a whore." Beck laughs as she types.
"I only speak the truth." Gina sends a text along with a gif from the movie, Moulin Rogue.

Beck smiles, and closes her laptop. She stares at the ceiling of her bedroom for a moment before rolling over on her stomach and getting on her phone to text Gina.
"What if he gave me a wrong number."
"Does this look like middle school, he's 62..."
"Maybe he can see I'm obsessed with him."
"No one marries their celebrity crush, Beck."
"Hayley Bieber."
"Are you a fucking Belieber..."
"No..."
"Ok then." Gina had a habit of trying to snap Beck into reality when she went off in a tangent, but with more attitude.

"It's only 7PM." Beck texts.
"Yeah, he's old. Maybe he's already in bed."
"That's way too early."
"I mean my 67 year old grandma going to bed at 6:30 every day, you don't know."
"James isn't that old."
"Isn't he?"
"You make it sound like he's senial."
"No but he may have an early bed time because you guys film at dumb hours in the morning." Gina replied.
Beck sighed and put her phone on her chest again as she stared at the ceiling until she fell asleep.

The next morning Beck woke up and drove to the studio as she did every day. The sun was shining and it was an early Thursday morning. She played another one of her favorite Billie Holiday songs in the car on the way there, "Crazy in Love."
She parked, and began walking into the studio, AirPods in, continuing her music.
"Like the wind that shakes the bough, he moves me with a smile. The difficult I'll do right now, the impossible will take a little while." She sings to herself as she passes the catering table where the crew is busy setting up breakfast food for everyone & she spots James grabbing a cup of coffee out of the corner of her eye. She continued walking by, not wanting to draw attention. She stopped singing and took her AirPods out and went straight into her trailer.
She closed her trailer door and her heart was pounding. She felt embarrassed for actually calling him last night, knowing he has a missed call from her on his phone. "He knows I called. Obviously he knows. He saw it. Maybe he ignored it." Beck continued to pace a bit in her trailer as her thoughts piled on top of each other.
There was a knock on the door. "Script changes, get 'em memorized!" A voice on the other side shouted. Another knock. Beck opened the door seeing one of the assistants handing her some scene change ups. She thanked him for the new script and closed the door to look them over. She sat on the couch and read through it. Everything for her seemed the same except the end of her scene. She reads,