We Are Dreamers

Entry Nineteen: Florence Pugh (pt 2)

~Years Later~

"Y/n, you have a phone call."

My head picked up at the sound of my name being called as a sense of reality hit me and brought me out of my own little world. I stood there, leaning on my boss's desk, while we passed photos back and forth to each other. I had just gotten back from my trip in Scotland, taking photos for a low-budget film, and my boss demanded to see the pictures the second I was back in L.A.

"Can it wait?" I ask, refusing to take my eyes off of the photo in my hand currently. "I like this one..." I say absentmindedly to my boss.

I didn't see it, but my assistant was shifting awkwardly, holding the phone in her hand. I didn't need an assistant, but my boss urged it while I was away, so my work in the US didn't go unattended. I must say, it was a smart idea. And thankfully she was a close friend and colleague so it worked in both of our favors.

"Um...I don't think you'll want to miss this call."

I nod at something my boss says as I stand up straight and turn to look at my long-time friend, Hanna. She started the same time I did three years ago, and we have been each other's support system since we got high one night and told each other every little thing about the other. It was history from there on out. Her blue eyes shined under the fluorescent lights, and I knew whoever was on the other end of that phone call would change everything.

"Alright," my hand reached out for the cell phone, it was meant as a work phone but I made it my personal phone so I didn't have to have two phones to keep up with. I placed the phone to my ear while looking back down to the photos that were still scattered along the desk. "Hello?"

"Loralei?"

When I tell you my heart stopped beating for more than a millisecond, I wish I was exaggerating. Only one person called me that. Only one person would ever call me that, and even if the name didn't ring any bells, then the damned voice would. Even after all these years, her voice was the same, just slightly deeper and even raspier. It was all those cigarettes she smoked. I tried to get her to stop when she started, but it was always a battle I'd lose. My hand lifted from the photo I was resting it on as I looked at the wall ahead of me, as my gaze softened and my heart finally started to work again.

"Rory...it's been a while."

"No shit! Where have you been?"

I chuckle, "Still a potty mouth, I see." She laughs at this, and it fills my chest with so much warmth that I don't know what to do with it. "I actually just got back from Scotland, doing some photography for a film."

"Yeah and she's doing some kick ass work!" My boss adds in the background. I shoot him a glare, and he just shrugs at me. I can hear the caller chuckle in my ear.

"I have no doubt about that." she says. A blush creeps up my cheeks as I turn from him to leave his office.

I wait till I'm out of ear shot, closing the door to my office, before resuming the phone call.

"Hi Florence."

"Hello love."

I will never get over the way she says that single word, especially when she says it to me. Because it's the tone she uses when talking to me. It's completely different when she uses it on others.

"How are you?"

"I'm doing good. Really good, actually."

"I'm happy to hear that," and I was happy. We may have stopped talking for a while after I left her home that day, giving her my book, but that didn't mean I stopped keeping an eye on her. She's my best friend, after all. So I know about her break up with Zach and all of her movies that she's been in. And yes, I've watched each of them that she's released, not missing a single one.