Night On Set ❁ COLIFER

Chapter 7 ❁ ... great.

❁ I wouldn't even consider this a chapter but it didn't really fit with the next part, soooo... I cut it in two. Next update in a few minutes 😉 ❁ 

Jen's POV

In the following week I call Colin's agent, his manager and Eddy and Adam; a dozen phone calls and three months later, Colin auditions for the role and I'm asked to do a screen test with him in the Disney Studios in Burbank, California. By then we're already wrapping up the first season of the show, and it feels unreal to be on a plane to California when I'm supposed to be flying back home to New York.

But the most surreal thing is seeing him again after nearly four months. I'm almost expecting him to be wearing a pink bunny suit, but when he isn't — for obvious reasons— I also realize it's the first time I see him as Colin O'Donoghue, and not as "pink bunny guy".

His face immediately lights up and he shoots out of his chair when I walk into the room.

"Hi, how are you?"

"Great, thanks," I say. "So you do have regular clothes. I was wondering about that."

His cheeks are bright pink; we shake each other's hand, both smiling nervously. We've talked to each other regularly on the phone over the past few months, but all those hours seem to vanish from the moment we make eye contact. It's like we're meeting for the first time all over again.

My heart is drumming in my chest as I sit down across from Adam and Eddy. It's only when we get ready to do the actual screen test that I come to one conclusion: What on earth am I nervous about?

I already have the role of Emma Swan, and here I am acting like I'm only just auditioning for the first time. But then Colin speaks his first few lines, and I lose myself in the moment.

I can tell it's good. And I don't mean that in a lighthearted way; I mean actually good. Acting with him feels like we're just having a conversation on the floor of gate thirteen, where I was still convinced he didn't know who I was.

The fact that he knows doesn't change anything. And it has taken me until now to realize that. 

By the time we finish up, my chest feels like it has tripled in size. The silence in the room is almost nerve wrecking, but one look at Adam is enough to know.

Instantly, my stomach unclenches and a weight is lifted off my shoulders. When I look at Colin, I realize he was the reason for my nerves. I just wanted him to get the part.

"Okay, well, that was great," Eddy says. "We're going to take another look at the tape, but we'll let you know when we've made a decision."

Adam is still smirking at us in that all-too-obvious way, and I can't get the smile off my face as we walk out of the room. When the door closes behind us, I grab Colin's arm.

"Don't tell anyone I said it, but you got the part."

And he does.

Four days later, he calls me when I'm back in New York.

Three months after that, the guy with the pink bunny suit from gate thirteen joins us in Vancouver to shoot season two.