So Much More

Beautiful Goodbye

She managed to dodged Jamie for the rest of the weekend. It wasn't a hard task seeing as he was busy with his girls and they shot scenes day and night just to make it in time to wrap their shoot in France. She holed out in Emily's room until it came time for Emily to go home. Then she saw more of her coworkers who she hadn't spent as much time with because she had been so consumed with Jamie.

Shailene, Hellen and Caroline accepted her into their little group without question. They joked about her being drunk in love and she laughed alongside them. What they had said was true anyway. She was just grateful they hadn't been angry enough to condemn her. She vowed never to let herself be too crazy over a man again to neglect her friendships.

Extremely, she even avoided flying back to the States on the studio's jet just to make sure she wouldn't be in a small confined space with him. She had Elena booked her a commercial flight, telling the studio that she had an emergency to take care of so she took an earlier flight.

When they got back to Los Angeles, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't have to purposely find ways to avoid him since she would be staying in her own house. Whenever they were in the vicinity of others, she became cordial yet distant towards him. But he was hell-bent on talking to her privately. She rejected his calls, whenever he'd sought her out on set she practically ran in the other direction and she'd to hide away in her mom's house when he decided to stalk her home. She didn't understand why he was being so persistent.

She had asked Stella about it and her sister had answered with "He's a good man, Daks. Even though he couldn't reciprocate your feelings, he is still a gentleman and he didn't like how things ended between you two. You did promise that the both of you would stay as friends."

She'd shaken her head. "And I want to be. Don't get me wrong, I want to be friends with him. But the wounds are still fresh. Why can't he leave it well enough alone?"

Stella gave her a sympathetic smile and gave her a side hug. "Because that's not the kind of man he is."

Coincidentally her last scene on the Flightless Nation set included him. The director had thought it would be a poetic to shoot the last scene of the movie on the last few days on set; a lavish party where Jameson Stinson – Samuel's father played by Colin Firth – would be caught by the police for his corruption. Peyton was determined to be at the party to see the fall of the Stinson family and she disguised herself as a cocktail waitress. As the commotion started with the police handcuffing Jameson, Peyton would offer Samuel a drink from her tray of champagne. It was a wonderful scene but that would entail a close proximity between herself and Jamie.

They had been shooting the scene for three days and at the end, she could feel a weight was finally lifted off her shoulder. As she sighed in relief, she forgot that she was on a mission to avoid Jamie. The whole day had been filled with awkward silences and tension. Some of the cast and crews had noticed their distance but were wise enough not to ask directly.

"Can we talk?" He said, blocking her way as she stood up from the couch.

She looked away, schooled her expression into one of pure boredom. "What could we possibly talk about?"

He gave her a look full of disbelief. "How about the fact that you hid from me when we were in France? How about the fact that you booked a flight on your own just to avoid me? How about the fact that you've deliberately dodging me ever since we got back from France? How about–"

"Okay, okay. Geez, I get it. I've been avoiding you. What about it?"

"Why?" he asked simply.

"Why? Because you broke my heart. Am I supposed to act like that didn't happen?"