Accepting You

Chapter 76 - Acceptance, the Last Stage of Grief

"Cut!" The director calls. "Let's take a break and go again after the rig is reset."

Lizzie frowns with a big sigh. She knows they are resetting because of her. She needs to give a better delivery of her lines and portray Wanda as Wanda instead of Lizzie. The shot they took works, it's decent, but it's not the best.

The crew unclips Lizzie to allow her to walk off set and get a small break. Benedict walks up to her offering a bottle of water. Lizzie takes it but doesn't make a move to drink out of it.

"What's on your mind?" Benedict asks in a way as to not intrude but still shows his concern.

"I'm just out of it," Lizzie lies. Well, it's not a complete lie; her mind is distracted but that's not the real reason. The real reason is Lily. She couldn't get over what she did to Lily and how hurt she must be. It hurts Lizzie too. She misses Lily so much she felt a blackhole in her heart that couldn't be filled. Sometimes she missed Lily so much she had to cry because that's all she could do.

"Maybe give Lily a call," Benedict suggests, which snaps Lizzie's head up to meet his kind eyes. "She always seems to get your mind off of things."

"Yeah...maybe," Lizzie replies. She hasn't told anyone of their breakup except Scarlett. Based on her expected confusion, Lizzie didn't want to tell anyone because she didn't want to be questioned about it and be pitied for it. Thankfully, Scarlett didn't push too much and left it be for the time being but Lizzie knew she would have to explain sooner or later.

Besides, Lily hasn't made it public and she is grateful of that. Not only is she not ready to tell her close family and friends, she didn't want to deal with the public and paparazzi too. God...she has to tell the twins. Her heart drops at the thought. They love Lily. Lizzie knew the twins were rooting for their relationship and would constantly tease her about being proposed to. Just the night before Lizzie broke things off, they had sent her kissy faces and the wedding emoji.

👰‍♀️

Fuck that emoji. She hated it.

Lizzie is pulled from her thoughts when a little golden retriever barks and yaps happily as it enters the room. He runs in circles for a moment, sniffing the air until he catches something, and dashes right for Lizzie.

The dog barks and climbs up onto Lizzie's leg, getting on its hind legs and scratching on her pants.

Lizzie bends down and allows it to lick her hand. She looks at the dog curiously. Why does it look like Pickle?

"Who's dog is this?" Benedict asks, bending down to let the dog as well.

"One of the writer's?" Lizzie guesses. A lot of the writer's bring their dog to work, but not many of them come on set. There have been some dogs roaming around occasionally, but she hasn't seen a little puppy.

Benedict shrugs. "Whoever it is should be more careful. Leaving a puppy unattended on set could be dangerous."

Lizzie looks around to find the owner but none of the crew members look to be interested in the dog. She looks back down at the golden colored dog as it smiles up at her and its tail wagging about ten miles and hour.

"Oh it has a collar," Lizzie says. She reaches and grabs the name tag. "Let's see who you belong to, little buddy."

Her heart stops and every entire body freezes.

"What's wrong?" Benedict asks, noticing Lizzie's shocked and slightly horrified expression. He looks over and reads the name, "Pickle? That's an odd name to give a dog."

It can't be.

Lizzie looks up and around, searching for the owner.

"It's not silly," Lizzie says, gulping with nervousness and slight defense. "It's a good name. A common name. I know so many dogs named Pickle."