A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 89

Chris was worried that Becs wouldn't come back out of embarrassment, but a couple of minutes later she did, seemingly fine.
'You okay?' He asked, as she sat down next to him.
'Of course.' Becs said with a smile.
'Okay, next question.' Scotty said. 'Weirdest crush - Becs, you go first.'
'I think I've embarrassed myself enough for a while.' Becs said. 'Let someone else go first.'
Scotty nudged Carly.
'I know he was really weird, but I had a huge crush on Jim Carrey from The Mask when I was a kid.' Carly said. 'Scotty?'
'I liked the guy from Ghostbusters - the nerdy scientist guy, I think his name was Spengler.' Scotty said.
They both looked expectantly at Becs.
'Oh come on, those are depressingly normal.' She said. 'I thought you said weirdest crush. Surely you must have something better than that? I can't be the only one with seriously weird crushes.'
'Crushes? Plural?' Scotty asked eagerly.
'Two - one when I was a teenager, and one now.' Becs admitted.
'And how weird are we talking?'
'Weird.' She said with emphasis.
'Okay, I might have a weirder one than Jim Carrey.' Carly said cautiously.
'I might have one too.' Scotty admitted. 'It's...um...really weird.'
Becs grinned at them. 'That's more like it - go on then Scotty, freak us out.'
'Okay, well you know the movie Silence of the Lambs?' He began.
'Yes...'
'You know Hannibal Lecter?'
'Yes...'
'Well, him.'
'Hang on, are we talking about the actor Anthony Hopkins? Or the character?' Becs asked.
'The character.' Scotty admitted. 'I know it's weird, but when I was younger I found him oddly attractive.'
'Whoa, Scotty. That's really twisted.' Becs said with a grin.
'Yeah, I know.' Scotty laughed.
'Well, I don't feel so bad about mine now.' Carly said. 'Do you know the show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air?' She asked Becs.
'Of course, everyone knows that show.'
'As a teenager I had a bit of a thing for Uncle Phil.' Carly said.
'Uncle Phil?' Scotty teased. 'Uncle Phil? I had no idea that you liked them big and middle aged, Carly! Was it the love handles that did it?'
'Shut up Scotty, he was sweet. At least I wasn't fantasising about a serial killer!'
Becs laughed. 'Okay, those ones are much better.'
'So come on Becs, let's hear your weird ones.' Scotty said.
'Okay. Well, when I was in my teens I had a bit of a thing for authority figures.' She began. 'Did either of you watch Star Trek The Next Generation?'
'Not regularly, but I know who most people are.' Scotty said.
'Well, I had a huge crush on Captain Picard.'
'The old guy?' Scotty shrieked with glee. 'What was he, like a hundred?'
'No, he wasn't a hundred! He was probably in his late fifties or early sixties.' Becs replied.
'But that's still like fifty years older than you were!'
'Yeah, I know. I told you it was weird.'
'Okay, so that was your teenage one, what about now?'
Becs hesitated. 'This one's kind of embarrassing.'
'More embarrassing than the senior citizen?'
'Different embarrassing.'
'Go on.' Scotty urged.
'Don't laugh, but it's an animated character.' Becs admitted, blushing a little.
'A cartoon character?' Scotty laughed. 'You as a grown woman seriously have a crush on a cartoon character?'
'Yes.'
'You had a crush on Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid.' Chris reminded Scotty.
'Yeah, when I was eight!'
'So, who is it?' Scotty asked Becs.
'It's Kristoff from Frozen.' She admitted, blushing slightly.
'The reindeer guy?'
'Yes.'
'So what is it about him?' Scotty cackled, 'You like the way he's drawn?'
Before Becs could answer, Scotty laughed again. 'Whoa, now I'm seeing your love of Disney movies in a whole new light.' He teased. 'Is it all animated characters? Do you have a thing for Mickey Mouse too?'
Becs laughed. 'No, I don't have a thing for Mickey Mouse!' She said. 'Or any other animated character, before you start suggesting other ones.'
'Oh man, that's just the best.' Scotty said, wiping his eyes. 'I've got to tweet this.'
'No names!' Carly said quickly.
'Yeah, yeah.' Scott replied.
'So...Kristoff, eh?' Chris said, and she turned, facing him.
'Yeah, don't judge me.' Becs laughed. 'He's just very sweet and kind of cute.'
You're very sweet yourself.
'But what about you?' Becs added. 'You were very quiet during that conversation. You must have had some deeply embarrassing childhood crushes too.'
'I don't think so.' He said. 'I had a real thing for Sandra Bullock-'
'Yeah, you and half the male population.' Becs interrupted. 'She's a very attractive woman. That's not embarrassing at all. You must have someone worse than that.'
'Sorry.' He said with a smile.
'Well, I'm very disappointed in you Christopher.' She said mock-seriously, making him laugh.
'Hey Becs, are you on Instagram?' Scotty asked, looking up from his phone.
'No, I don't use Instagram.' Becs said.
'Really? I thought everyone did. What about Facebook?'
'No, not at the moment. I'm kind of taking a break from social media.' Becs said, and although her tone was light, Chris could see that she'd tensed up slightly.
'Why?' Scotty asked.
Leave it alone, Scotty!
'Oh, you know, it's not always a positive thing...'
She looked a little uncomfortable, and obviously didn't want to give the real reason about her ex. He tried to catch Scotty's gaze to subtly signal to him to back off, but Scotty didn't look his way.
'Huh.' Scotty said, and then went back to his phone.
Should he say something to her? He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked okay, but-
'Oh, I found you!' Scotty cried, and Chris saw Becs' head jerk up.
No, Scotty!
'Your account hasn't been posted to for nearly a year, but it's still there.' Scotty said. 'You know that all your settings are on 'public'? You should change that - anyone can look at your profile.'
'Oh and look, you've got a memory come up from last Halloween.' Scotty said and placed his phone in Becs' hands.
On the screen was a picture of three costumed people grinning at the camera with their arms around each other and their heads close. Becs was in the middle with black braids, on one side of her was a woman in a butterfly mask, and on the other was a handsome man in a suit.
She looks so happy.
He looked up at her with a smile, about to ask who the people were when he saw the expression on her face. She was just staring at the picture.
'Friends from back home?' Scotty said, maybe mistaking her frozen expression for homesickness.
He looked at the picture again, at the man.
Is that him? The ex that she couldn't stay away from?
'Umm...yeah, kind of.' Becs said, clearing her throat. 'The one in the mask is Viv, she's on holiday over here at the moment. You met her - she came bowling. And...um...the guy is her brother.'
'You all look pretty tight.' Scotty said.
'Yeah, we were.' Becs said wistfully.
He couldn't take his eyes off her face and the way that she was staring at the picture.
Please don't still be in love with him. I don't know what I'd do...
She stared at the picture for a few more moments before pressing the off button and handing it back to Scotty.
'Thanks.' She said with a forced smile.

For the next few minutes, Becs didn't say anything. He kept glancing over, wanting to check that she was okay, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts.
He touched her hand. 'You okay?' He whispered.
'Yeah, fine.' She said, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
'I just thought-'
'So, what do you guys do the day after Thanksgiving?' She interrupted, clearly trying to change the subject.
She doesn't want to talk about it.
'Well, Carly gets up at an obscene hour of the morning to go shopping in the sales like ten million other people.' Scotty said to Becs.
'But are you going this year?' He asked Carly. 'You know, as you're...' He mimed someone being sick.
'Charming as always, Scotty.' Carly said. 'And yes, of course I'm going - Nordstrom has 50% off!'
'Oh, you know what? You should come too, Becs!' She added. 'Me and my friend Caroline make a day of it - we get up at 4am so that we're at the front of the queue when the shop opens.'
Chris smiled at the look of wide-eyed horror that briefly appeared on Becs' face.
'Thank you, that's really kind.' Becs said diplomatically, 'But I'm not really a big fan of shopping, and once you add in the crowds of people who'll be there, it's pretty much my worst nightmare.' She smiled at Carly.
Carly laughed. 'You sure? You can pick up some real bargains.'
'I'm sure. Plus, I'm not at my best first thing in the morning normally, let alone at four am!'
Chris chuckled. 'Yeah, she's not kidding. I once messaged her a little bit early and she threatened to kill me!' He joked.
'I didn't threaten to kill you! Don't exaggerate!' Becs laughed.
'I remember the meme you sent - it was something like: There are two sorts of people: happy morning people and cranky morning people who want to kill the happy morning people.' He teased.
'Harsh.' Scotty laughed.
'In my defence, it was 6am and I'd only gotten to bed about three hours before. Plus it was a joke...kind of.' Becs finished.
Chris laughed at the 'kind of'.
'You don't mind, do you?' Becs asked Carly.
'Of course not.' Carly smiled back.
'Well, I'm going to head up now if I'm getting up at 4am.' Carly said, getting up.
'I think we'll go to bed too.' His mom said, going round the room saying goodnight to everyone with hugs and kisses, including Becs.
'You tolerated that pretty well.' He said to her afterwards.
'Yeah, well, I'm getting used to it.' Becs said with a smile. 'Plus, your mum's really nice.'
He smiled back at her, thinking that she really didn't have any idea how much it meant to him that she liked his family and they liked her.
'Are you ready to go up as well?' He asked her.
'I'm not really sleepy yet.' She said.
'Ah, okay, we can stay down here then. Or...'
Should he suggest it?
'Or we could go crash in my room and watch a movie - there's a tv up there.'
She thought for a moment, and he was just about to add 'we don't have to', when she said 'Can we watch Moana again?'
He grinned. 'Of course.'