It Was Always Meant To Be

He Doesnt Know. | Chapter 1

"Just be happy. I'll see you soon."
"I'll see ya Elena."
"And cut! That was amazing you guys! Phenomenal as always!" Our producer Julie Plec said with tears in her eyes as we wrapped the final Stefan and Elena scene.

"Thanks Jules." Paul responded. Flashing his cute dimpled smile that made me go weak in the knees.

"Yeah. Thanks!" I responded with a cheeky grin; tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear before looking over at Paul with a shy smile. It always amazed me that after six years of working with him I still felt completely shy. I guess it might have something to do with the major crush I've had on him for the past six years. Now I know what you may be thinking. 'But you dated Ian.' I did. But my feelings weren't really real. It was a way to help me get over Paul being married to Torrey at the time. And I also used it as a way to make him a little jealous. But it never seemed to work. Or at least it didn't seem like it. So I decided to end it with Ian cause I was feeling guilty about the whole thing. Anyway, he's dating Phoebe currently and here I am back at square one. Head over heels in love with my best friend and he doesn't even know.

"How about a break huh? Take five everyone!" Julie shouted quickly before walking off set leaving me and Paul alone.

"So Neens." He says; nudging me with his shoulder, a small smile appearing on his lips before parting his lips to speak again

"This isn't gonna be the same without you, you know? Who will I make fun of this crappy writing with?" He says with laugh, waving his script in the air as he scrunched his nose up making a face at the piece of paper.
I laugh at his cute little expression before responding:

"Well there's Candice. I'm sure you guys have a lot of bonding time now." I raise my eyebrows, snickering softly as I reach for a bottle of water looking back at his confused expression.

"Yeah but, Candice isn't you." His face serious; looking back at me. Confusion spreads across my face as I watch him quickly shake his head almost as if he just realized he said something he didn't mean to.

"I mean.. I just mean that.." He quickly tries to take back his words between stutters. I can tell he's suddenly nervous so I give him a small smile and reach a hand out to place it on his arm gently to let him know it was okay.

"Hey, no worries I get it. I'm just teasing." I smile softly; rubbing his arm gently. He smiles back then quickly loses it as he drops his head down looking at the ground before looking back up at me and I can almost see his eyes start to water.

"I'm gonna miss you Nina. A lot." His voice cracks in between the two sentences and by then I almost feel like breaking down along with him.

" I'm gonna miss you too Paul." I say; wrapping my arms around his neck, swallowing the lump in my throat as I feel his arms wrap around my slim waist holding me close against his body in a warm embrace. And just like that I feel at home. Like I'm safe in his arms and nothing can harm me. And I'm praying he never let's go. But he does. And I sigh pulling back as I wipe a single tear rolling down my face.

"Uh Nina there's something-" He's suddenly interrupted by Julie's voice coming back in the room.

"You guys ready to get back on track?!" She asks in a cheerful tone looking between me and Paul. I watch him nod his head as he looks over at me with a small smile before whispering 'Later' then he turns his back to me and walks off back to set leaving me completely confused and questioning what it is he wants to tell me.

xx