KISS ME

CHAPTER 1 - CHEMISTRY

Camila was exhausted, she had been in the recording studio all day and now she had to do a Zoom meeting with James and Kay about the music for the movie. She was on overload. She had a quick shower, keeping an eye on the time, then slipped into sweats and sat down in front of her computer. She was looking forward to seeing their smiling faces pop up but James was looking decidedly downcast when his face appeared.

"Hi honey, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm good, James, but you look like shit."

"Well, we got some bad news this morning. Nick has been in a skiing accident, broken everything by the sound of things, and he's pulled out of the movie."

"Oh no, poor Nick! Is he going to be ok?"

"As far as I know, yes, but I'll let you know what else comes through."

"So we need to start looking for a replacement?"

"Well, actually, I had someone else in mind for the role to start with, he wasn't available at the time, but he is interested now, so we've made the offer, and he's accepted."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Camila was trying to work out what would happen if there were delays. She had a tour coming up before the film's release, she was on a tight schedule. "Is it anyone I would know?"

"Oh yes, you'll know of him, in fact I think you toured with him back in the day."

She started to get a sick feeling in her belly.

"Who is it?"

"Shawn Mendes."

She tried not to show any emotion. "He's not an actor."

"No, but he's been taking classes, he's been planning a move into acting, and he's done a few little things, he tested well this afternoon."

"Wow, that moved fast," she said. Shawn. Her love interest in the film was Shawn.

"Shawn is a good friend of mine, I've been looking for a vehicle for him for some time. I did speak to him about this originally but he wasn't interested, thankfully I've managed to change his mind. I think you two will look beautiful together, so hopefully the chemistry test will prove that."

"So it's subject to a chemistry test?" she asked hopefully.

"Look, to be honest, it will have to be pretty bad for us to not move forward with Shawn, I just don't see it being a problem." Well, James, you might rethink that when you see us together. "Do you?"

"No, of course not, I hear he's lovely, I don't really remember him much, we were just kids at the time."

They discussed the logistics and then ended the call. Camila sat frozen in her seat. She felt sick. What are you so worried about Camila? It was so long ago, as you said to James, you were just kids! He probably won't even remember, and if he does he'll just laugh it off, and so will you. But she could still see his face that day, the look of horror, and she knew she hadn't imagined him avoiding her ever since. Well, they were meeting in London at the studio in three days, so he wouldn't be able to avoid her any more.

***

Shawn paced the floor at the hotel. She was here, somewhere in this hotel, in her room just like him. He had flown in from Toronto, she from LA, so thankfully there had been no chance of them bumping into each other at the airport. He was too nervous to leave the room in case he saw her here though. He had asked to have his own car service, and James said that was fine as Camila had asked for the same thing. Shawn wondered why that smarted. His friends would laugh if they could see how nervous he was about a girl he crushed over at sixteen.