Not Without You [Chris Evans]

4

Chris' POV

I laid in bed with my hands laced behind my head, staring at the ceiling and waiting for my alarm to go off for the day. I wasn't sure why I was awake before my alarm other than I'd went to bed earlier knowing we had to be on set early today for some fight training but I found my thoughts turning back to Ariel again.

I knew that really wasn't her name, but I had absolutely no intention of asking Sadie who she was – one lecture on that was enough. She'd made sure to tell me that any employee of hers was off limits as dating material, and I decided that I'd been alone for too long if that brief chance encounter with her had the ability to give me such a hard-on.

I sighed when my alarm went off and crawled out of bed to get ready for another long day of filming. I went through my morning routine, just drinking a protein shake for breakfast because I didn't feel like making anything and Sadie wasn't here yet. I was glad she'd be back tonight - I'd gotten used to having her around.

My condo felt empty without her - no morning chatter in the kitchen, no female stuff cluttering up my bathroom counter - not even the scent of her perfume lingered in my room since it had been so long since she'd been there. It was nice, having someone to hold at night to keep me calm. The nightmares didn't happen nearly as much as they used to, but it was still more often than I'd like to admit. I knew I wasn't the only one who struggled with them and Sadie stayed with me as much for me as for herself. She'd looked exhausted yesterday by the time we wrapped, but since I hadn't thought I'd be back until today, she was staying with Sebastian for one more night, which was good for her, too.

I drove myself today, not wanting to deal with people yet. Josh was in a good mood when I met up with him. He'd picked me up a coffee from my favorite place near the studio just long enough ago that it was the perfect drinking temperature.

"Thanks, man. What's all on my agenda today?" I asked Josh as we walked to Studio B, quickly finishing my coffee.

"Not much, actually. Only fight training this morning followed by costume and makeup at 8 and shooting from 9 to 6. Lunch is Italian today from the good place. I heard they ordered extra lasagna since they ran out last time."

"Great. I love their lasagna. I'm hoping for cannolis too," I hinted. Josh just snorted and shook his head.

"Yeah man, I know. I already have some being set aside for you. Did you think I forgot how much you love them - even if they aren't allowed on your diet right now?"

"I'll do extra pushups," I promised. "You're the bomb, dude. What did I ever do without you?"

"Your own shopping? I know they're not as good as your Ma's -"

"But they're still pretty freaking good. Next best thing."

"Did Sadie make a decision yet?" Josh asked, knowing I'd talked to her last night after the interviews were over. "The suspense is killing me."

"I hadn't heard anything as of yesterday, so I don't know. I heard some of them even didn't show up."

"Two or three. I wouldn't be surprised if they took one look at the craziness that goes on around here and changed their minds about being interested," he said, making a gesture to the swarm of people getting a set ready.

"I suppose. Did you meet many of them? I saw Sadie brought Ariel with her when she came to the set."

"Ariel?" he asked, his brows drawn in confusion. "Who's Ariel?"

"The redhead," I said, flushing at the nickname I'd given her. "I didn't catch her real name. Tiny little thing with big green eyes?"

"Oh, you mean Megan," Josh said, snapping his fingers. Megan, that was a nice name. I still preferred Ariel, but she probably wouldn't. "I get where you're coming from, though - those eyes, man. Never seen a green like that before. No, she's the only one I met because I had to bring Sadie to the set and interrupted them. I saw a couple of the others, but they were in and out of the trailer pretty quick."

"I guess we'll have to wait and see then," I said with a sigh.

We walked into the Studio and I started getting warmed up while I waited for Sebastian and Anthony Mackie to get here. I was a little ahead of schedule today, so I was already done warming up by the time they showed up.

"Hey man," Mackie said as he came in yawning. "How's it going?"

"Good. Why're you so late today?"

"I'm on time – Stan's the late one. Where the hell is he?"

"Don't know. Haven't seen him yet today," I looked around to see Sebastian's assistant standing next to Josh on the sidelines. "Mark, what did you do with Seb?" I called out to him.

"Poisoned him," he said as I shook my head. He was just as big of smartass as Sebastian, which is probably why they got along so well. Looking up from his phone, he walked over to us so he didn't have to shout across the room. "Sadie grabbed him to meet some girls. Said she needed his opinion."

"So she's narrowed down the field and wants to make sure Seb doesn't hate any of them," I translated.

"Yup. That," Mark said with a smirk. "Better him than me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I said. "You know she's going to want your opinion too because you're gunna have to work with closely whoever it is."

"Bite your tongue, Evans. As long as she isn't incompetent, I'm good. You all know Seb's the picky one, not me," Mark said, putting one hand over his heart in a gesture of sincerity, making us laugh. We all knew that wasn't the truth.

"Pretty sure it's the other way around, Mark," Mackie chuckled. "Nice try."

"So?" I asked Sebastian when he finally stormed into training, looking more Winter Soldier than he had in a long time and people cleared a path for him. "Any luck?"

"Only if I wanted Sadie pissed at me!" he snapped as he ran his hand over his face, disgust being his primary expression. "I have no idea how those fucking whores acted yesterday to get a callback, but today they were just total bitches, trying to hardcore flirt with me in front of Sadie."

"That bad?" I winced, raising my eyebrows. That explained why he was more pissed off than I'd seen in a while. He was one of the mildest people I knew, which I why I found it amazing how believably he played the Soldier - to the point that people would actually be afraid of him. I knew Sebastian was head over heels for Sadie and anyone trying to get in between them would not be in his good graces.

"Just be glad you didn't have to meet them, man." He shuddered and got into position for training, skipping the warmup. "You know they're always worse around you."

"Don't remind me," I groaned. "How many more do you have to meet?"

"Just one. I think Sadie's already made up her mind and just wanted to be sure."

"She's a pretty good judge of character," I said, putting the rubber shield on my arm. "Was this just to eliminate the maybes?"

"I think so. She didn't sound very excited by either of the two I met, so maybe she's saving the best for last?"