Rumor Has It

Part 54

Bradley made sure he was the first one to arrive on set and was relieved they had given him a good assistant who knew what she was doing. She'd even brought an extra printout of the scenes they were going to discuss today for the moment he inevitably lost his.

Much to his surprise, Stefani showed up inside the studio almost alone, without her entire team trailing behind and hovering around her. Only Peter threw a quick glance inside and then backed off leaving everyone in the studio fall back into their own tasks.

The only problem was the fact that he reminded him they weren't on great terms. And she looked so much like how he remembered her back when things were still very new and he barely knew her.

The familiar way she smiled when seeing him and the warm feeling in her green eyes that were so reminiscent of the time they shared together had brought back memories. She was sticking with a look very similar to the one she had worn for their test screening, her hair dark and framing her face in a way she'd wanted it to because it was still different from what she used to wear herself.

Despite his better judgement, the view of her looking almost like a copied and pasted version of their first screen test got his breath stuck in his throat all over again.

Despite the intimate and chaotic situations they'd seen each other in, it was very different when he saw her like this, at work. Everyone's heads turned to her for a quick moment when she came into the room, still wearing sunglasses as if a wave of flashes was going to go off as usual.

Bradley put on his most professional work demeanor and he could see she was doing the same. He held out his arm as he came closer and they exchanged an awkward half hug. Stefani kissed his cheek fleetingly, the way she did it for quick photo ops backstage sometimes. The way she did it because it usually meant the other person couldn't reach her.

"It's good to see you." He said quietly and struggled to let go again because he felt her hand on his waist, too.

"You too." She replied with a small smile and stepped back to take the sunglasses off.

Then it was like moths to a flame, as always. Just like he had predicted it, everyone who recognized her wanted a little piece of her.

He watched the interactions like a hawk without really wanting to. But it seemed important to see who was there to exchange a few words with her, who wanted to only soak up a bit of her presence and who couldn't keep their hands to themselves.

She'd been uncertain and nervous about the table read, everyone around her knew that much. Knew she'd taken prints of the script with her and worked through them when she should've been resting, knew she'd occasionally make assistants and team members read with her to not lose momentum during all those swaps between Gaga, Stefani and Ally.

Since Bradley hadn't been there, it just made sense and she was overprepared as always. He wrote down his notes for her parts during their read and figured there'd have to be a quiet time again when they'd be able to talk them all over.

Maybe in her living room again while the kids played outside.

He'd kept the scenes to go through to a minimum, only wanting to hear each main character speak and see how their voices worked together. They didn't get a minute alone until the table read was over and almost everyone was filing out of the room, either with a phone in their hands or chatting excitedly amongst each other.

"You already sound amazing just dry reading." She said and let herself fall into the chair next to him. "You're good at this. It really shows." She was still holding the notes she'd taken herself. There were so many of them her hand was blue from the cheap pens' wet ink smudging her writing.