Passion's Instinct

Twenty Six

Hayden

"Hayden, will you take Sawyer to school this morning before you go film?" Natalie called up the stairs that morning as she slipped on her shoes. "I'm going to be late if I don't leave now."

"Sure," I said back, running down the stairs to meet her. "Leaving so soon?"

She sighed, standing up from where she sat on the step and turning towards me. "Yes. They called me in early this morning."

I forced a smile even though deep inside, I was upset. But I wouldn't let her know that.

Natalie set her hands on my chest and kissed me. "Bye. I'll see you later." On her way out the door, I called, "I love you." "I love you too!" she called back, opening the car door and climbing in the driver's seat. As she drove away and I got a view of the seats in the back through the windows, I looked and Sawyer's seat and thought, we're gonna need another one of those soon.

***********************************

Once I had dropped Sawyer off at school that morning (which wasn't particularly an easy thing to do), I drove to the set of a new movie I was filming, called Jumper, and walked inside.

I saw a younger woman standing there, and at first when she turned to look at me, I thought she was a human Barbie. Double-take, she just looked fake.

"Hello, it's so nice to meet you," she said, coming over and shaking my hand. "You must be Hayden."

Who was this girl? I'd seen my wife wake up in the morning with her hair messy and no makeup on, but this girl... she was a walking Barbie. Even the way she talked was fake.

She sounded like a high-school snob.

"Uh... yes, I'm Hayden Christensen," I said, offering my best smile.

"Hi," she said, smiling. "I'm Rachel Bilson. It's so nice to meet you."