A Fighting Chance (Tom Holland AU) [2]

Three

"Hi, beeg!" I smiled as I opened the door to our apartment. Beth had a wide grin on her face.

"Little!" I  hugged her tightly, ushering her inside. I knew that the day the cast was released was during her spring break, so I invited her to come to visit for a bit, along with Daya and Ali. I wanted to be with her when she found out about it. 

Thursday night, the day before the announcement, Tom and I thought it would be nice to invite everyone over for a movie night. "Now, I don't know about you guys, but I believe it's been a long time since we've had a proper Tri Pi Mamma Mia! viewing." I caught a disappointed glance from Tom at my suggestion, but we had talked previously and I told him I'd suggest it because it was something we had done regularly and I wanted tonight to seem like nothing was out of the ordinary.

"It has. What if we made it a double feature with the sequel?" Beth's suggestion got a cheer from Ali, and I could see Tom silently sigh. As Ali put the movie on, I kissed his cheek. 

"I promise this'll be the last time. Plus, I need some practice with the songs." I kept my voice quiet enough so only he would hear, and he nodded gently.

"Okay, darling." Once we were all watching, Tom's sour mood immediately changed. I guess Mamma Mia! really does that to a person.

As required with a Mamma Mia! viewing party, we were all singing along. Thankfully, no one commented on how I was only singing Sophie's lines. Tom smiled and pulled me close during Sky and Sophie's song "Lay All Your Love On Me," pressing a few slow and steamy kisses to my neck. 

"No, you two. You are not doing that while we're here." Ali teased, and Tom chuckled. 

"This is our apartment. If anything, I get to stop you two from doing it in our guest room again." Zendaya chuckled as Ali blushed in response to Tom's statement.

"Fine." Her voice was soft, and it caused us all to laugh as we turned back to the film.

Once we finished both movies and decided to call it a night, Tom and I were getting ready for bed when I froze in the mirror. "I don't think I can do this, Tom."

"Title of your sex tape." He chuckled, but when he looked at me, his smile suddenly faded. "Hey, no. Darling, you're going to do amazing." He took my hands and gently pulled me from the mirror so I was looking deep into his brown eyes.

"I can't do this." My voice was a soft whisper as tears filled my eyes, and he shook his head.

"Grace, you are going to do amazing as Sophie. When we were all singing the songs just now, you sounded incredible." He let go of one of my hands to push some hair away from my face and tuck it behind my ear before gently and sweetly cupping my cheek. "And soon the whole world is going to know just how lucky I am to be marrying the incredible triple threat you are."

"What if nobody likes the idea of it being me?" A tear slipped down my cheek, and he used his thumb to brush it away.

"Grace, you're one of the biggest young actresses right now. The whole world loves you, and they will be thrilled to see you on that list." He squeezed the hand he was still holding, and I took a deep breath. "Are you in that place where if we keep talking about it, it's going to make you feel worse?"

"Yes." He sighed, pulling me out of the bathroom and onto our bed.

"Well then, what would you like to talk about?" He pulled me into his arms as we sat down.

"Anything." I gave him a gentle smile as I rested my head on his shoulder. 

Our conversation covered a wide range of topics before we fell asleep, but I couldn't help but think about how happy I was to be in a place where my partner knew exactly how I was feeling before I even mentioned it.

Tom was definitely the best part of my life, and I couldn't wait to actually marry the man of my dreams.

The next morning, as I was preparing some of my famous waffles, I noticed that I had gotten a text saying that the announcement was happening in an hour on a live stream from some NBC executives. I managed to get Tom and Steph's attention, silently letting them know that we only had an hour without tipping off Beth, Ali, and Zendaya. 

That was the longest hour of my life. I spent the majority of it with my lip pulled in between my teeth, seated at the kitchen island within an arm's reach of Tom. At certain points during that hour, I would need to hold his hand or have physical contact with him to calm me down.

"Hey, apparently there's a live stream from NBC about an announcement they're making in about five minutes. You guys wanna watch it?" Ali looked up from her phone to see if we were interested, and I was so relieved that she was the one who brought it up.

"I think we should. Here, let me grab my laptop, and we can hook it up to the TV so we can all see it and not crowd around it." Steph shot me a smile as she went to where her bag was. Tom squeezed my hand as everyone made their way to the couch.

Once it started, I bit my lip and held my breath. After a short intro, I could see the casting director I had been working with smile widely. "We here at NBC are so excited to announce that our next live televised musical will be Mamma Mia!." Everyone in the apartment cheered, and I could feel Tom rubbing my arm as the cast members were announced. That was another thing he did that often helped calm me down. "And finally, our lovely leading ladies, Donna and Sophie, will be played by Emily Blunt and Grace Chance, respectively."

I was soon faced with three wide sets of eyes. "Surprise." I chuckled softly, biting my lip softly.

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