Early Bird (Erkenci Kus)(Part 2)

8. A surprise party

Can cracks his neck and groans as he settles into one of the editing rooms. They'd managed to recover some of the previous day's shots and video by some miracle, but it was mostly test runs. He was going to try and splice it together and work it all into the finished reel somehow.

He presses play on the first and watches for three seconds, then makes a note, then plays again another three seconds and then pauses. There were quite a few mishaps that he never even caught while filming because his attention wasn't on the work. Not that it mattered, that's what editing was for.

Ten minutes in, Osman fumbles with a sticky label and frowns at it. Can makes a note to delete at 10:03.

"What's with all the bees?" Sanem's voice comes through on the audio and Can looks up. She's waving her hand in front of her face trying to chase the insects away.

"This is orange juice Sanem, it's full of sugar!"

"It's full of sugar!" Sanem mocks JJ and Can snorts, laughing. "Osman, is that stuck? Let me help you." She steps over and pulls off the label, only for it stick to her own fingers.

Can rewinds and watches again, and again. He puts it on a loop and then sits back in the chair. He had more than enough time to finish - for now though, he wanted to watch Sanem being Sanem.

Stay Sweet indeed... Can smiles as he thinks about the slogan of the juice just as it pops up on screen next to Sanem's elbow and his mind wanders through the next few loops.

His phone ringing interrupts his memory of their night in the hammock and the story she told him.

Sanem calling...

"Sanem?" he asks with a grin, pausing the video.

"Mr Can," Sanem whispers. "How are you? How's it going over there? I'm curious about how it turned out, the edit I mean."

"You're curious about the editing?" Here I was hoping you missed me... "That's good," he nods. "And it's actually working out very well, I'm having fun." He looks at the image  paused on her pulling her nose up, then stands, grabbing his empty tea cup. "A lof fun," he adds, leaving the room.

"I'm sure..." Sanem says vacantly, and then clears her throat. "Uhm... You said that you were going to be busy with it all night, and I was just wondering, you know...how long does the editing process usually take?"

"What do you mean?" Can asks, confused.

"How long it will take to edit and then make sure everything is as it should be. How many hours exactly?"

"Oh. Well, it usually depends on the amount of mistakes and usable footage. This specific one won't be finished until tomorrow morning."

"Great!"

"Great?" Can's eyebrows lift at her excited tone. He stops next to a counter with tea and water and leans on it with one elbow. Interesting reaction. "Wait, are you saying that you don't want me to go home?"

"What? No Mr Can, where did I say that? That's where you live, why would I not want you to go there?"

I can think of a reason. "I don't know," Can shrugs and pours some more tea. "Maybe because you're worried about me and Polen being in the same place?" He pauses. "Am I warm?"

"What? No! This has nothing to do with that. I just - I was worried about you because you have to work all night, and then, of course, I find editing interesting... That's the real reason I called, because of the editing and the end result and I want to learn about that part too, you know."