A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 91

A/N: There you go, second half as promised. xx
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Chris sat down on the bed next to Becs.
'I love the opening of this.' She said as Grandma Tala told the children her story. 'In fact, I love everything about this film. I think it's going to become my favourite Disney ever - it's sweet, it's funny, the songs are amazing. And the way that Moana ends up saving the world herself. If Disney had a fault in the past it was that the princess was always the victim, waiting around helplessly for some big strong man to save her. But they seem to have moved past that recently with this and Frozen.'
He grinned at her.
I love that she gets so passionate about things.
'Sorry.' She said. 'I don't mean to lecture you.'
'No, it's great that you're so into it.'
He stole a glance at her.
It's so nice having her here, just spending time together.
She seems really relaxed tonight. I wonder if she'll let her guard down enough to hug me?
He leaned back against the pillows and put his arm out, offering a hug. The gesture was enough, he didn't need to say anything.
Becs looked at him and hesitated.
She doesn't want to. You've pushed too far.
He was just lowering his arm when she shuffled over and snuggled into him, resting her cheek against his chest.
That feels wonderful.
He wrapped his arm around her and started to absent-mindedly play with her hair.
'That feels nice.' She said softly, and looking down, he could see that she'd closed her eyes and was smiling.
'Does it?'
'Mmm. Reminds me of being a little girl. I used to lay my head in my mum's lap when we were watching tv, and she'd stroke my hair like that. It's very soothing, I might fall asleep.'
'Well if you do, try not to snore too loudly.' He joked. 'I want to watch Moana.'
Becs laughed.
For a while they watched the film in silence, Chris continuing to play with her hair. It was rare to have her as relaxed and open as this, and he didn't want to ruin the moment, but he needed to ask.
'Becs?' He asked quietly.
'Mmm?'
'The photo Scotty showed you earlier-' He began.
'Yes.' She interrupted. 'Yes, that was Justin.'
Shit.
'I'm sorry, I never told Scotty about him, or why you moved over here. I hope it didn't upset you.'
'It's okay.' She said. 'It was just a shock, seeing his face when I didn't expect it.'
'You looked very happy.'
'Yeah? Well, I wasn't. We'd broken up by then and that was the period when I was pretending to be fine.'
'Oh.'
She sighed. 'But, you know, it's getting better all the time - whether that's because I'm getting over him or just because I haven't seen him for so long...' She shrugged.
'But everyone has their horrible breakup stories, don't they? I mean, you must have some...'
'Not really.' He replied.
'None?'
'Well, I've had breakups, obviously, but none of them were really that bad. I'm on good terms with all my exes - I bump into most of them every now and then and we'll hug and have a catch up.'
'How is that possible, even for someone as nice as you?' Becs asked.
Chris just shrugged. 'It's the truth.'
'So, none of them ended badly? It was all mutual and no feelings were hurt? That seems a little unlikely.'
He paused, unsure how much to say - he'd trained himself very carefully over years of media interviews not to talk about past relationships beyond a superficial level. He was happy to say what great people they were, or how much fun they had, but he'd never to go into detail, or talk about the problems in the relationship or why it ended.
'Would you rather we talked about something else?' Becs asked after his silence went on for more than a few beats.
'It's just not something I really talk about. You know, why past relationships ended or what was wrong with them. It's just, being so in the public eye, if I talked about them all the time, at some point that information would get out there - someone would accidentally say the wrong thing. And that could be really hurtful for the other person involved.'
Please don't be offended.
'I can understand that.' Becs said. 'We can change the subject.'
'It's not that I don't trust you.' He said hurriedly.
'I know. I wasn't thinking that.' She said kindly, and then gave a small laugh. 'I guess we finally found something that you're more guarded about than I am.'
He laughed at her unexpected response. 'I guess.'
She turned her attention back to the movie and sniggered. 'I love this bit: 'whatever just happened, blame it on the pig' Grandma Tala has the best sense of humour.'
She hadn't gotten cross or offended, she'd just gently steered the conversation away to make him more comfortable.
You trust her. You really trust her. She won't share it with anyone.
'They didn't always end well...' He began.
She lifted her head and looked at him. 'You don't have to-'
'I want to.' He said. 'I trust you not to say anything.'
She laid her head back against his chest and he continued stroking her hair.
'Sometimes they just fizzled out. It can be hard to keep a relationship going when you're busy filming for months at a time and you can't see each other as often as you'd like. That's what happened with Jess; we were together a long time - five years, and at the time I really thought she was the one, that I was in love with her. We were both young - in our mid-twenties by the end, but we'd talked about getting married and having kids, and I know that everyone thought that it was just a matter of time.'
'But then both of our acting careers took off, and we ended up spending more and more time apart, and it kind of just...fizzled out. I think we both avoided facing it for a long time, but one day she just sat me down and said 'this isn't working anymore.'
'That must have been sad.' Becs said.
She reached over and squeezed his hand comfortingly, and he threaded his fingers through hers.
'It was, but nowhere near as sad as it should have been.' He said. 'And that's when I realised that I wasn't in love with her, that she wasn't the one, because it shouldn't be that easy to get over the love of your life.'
Becs gave his hand another squeeze.
'She got married a while ago and she's got a kid now - she's really happy.' He added.
'That's good.' She said.
'And after Jess, I didn't want anything serious for a while, so there were a couple of years of casual relationships. Not that I was sleeping around or anything.' He added hastily. 'Just having fun and keeping things light.'
Becs snorted. 'Yeah, I can't really imagine you jumping from bed to bed, breaking hearts.'
'No. Then I met Minka and things got...complicated.'
'Complicated how?'
'We had a...volatile relationship - as attracted as we were to each other, it didn't bring out the best in either of us. We argued a lot. My friends didn't really like her and my family never really clicked with her either, and that should have been enough of a clue for me to know that it wasn't a good idea.'
'Well, sometimes it can be hard to see things objectively when you're in a relationship - once you break up you see things differently.' Becs said.
'Yeah, well I wasn't even that smart.' He said. 'The first time we dated for about a year, and once it was over, everyone was like 'she was so bad for you'. And I could see it, I really could, but then about six months later we ran into each other and ended up giving it another try. That time it lasted six months and I told myself that it was definitely over.'
'We both dated other people, but eventually she got back in touch, wanting to patch things up. And I knew, I knew, that it was a stupid idea, but I still did it. That time and lots of other times - she'd get back in touch, we'd get back together, we'd fight, we'd break up.' He shook his head. 'I didn't seem to be able to say 'no' to her.'
'Yeah, well, we've all had those kind of on-again, off-again relationships.' Becs said. 'How long did it last?'
'About six or seven years.'
'That long?' Becs asked, sounding slightly shocked.
'But for most of that time, we weren't together. And the last time was years ago.' He clarified.
I don't want her thinking I've still got a thing for Minka.
'And then there have been people that I've dated a few times and not wanted to see anymore. Sometimes it was mutual, sometimes it wasn't, but even the ones who were upset about it at the time, if I saw them now we'd be friendly.'
'God, that's just so disgustingly well-adjusted of you.' Becs joked. 'Some of my exes, I'd rather throw something at, than hug and catch up with.'
Chris snorted. 'Not sure it's well-adjusted so much as depressing.'
'Depressing?'
'Well, I didn't stay on such good terms with them all because I'm some kind of great guy. I was just never that bothered about breaking up with any of them. I was never upset enough to fall out with them. I'm sure if I'd loved someone it would've been different.'
'Well, falling in love and getting your heart broken is nothing to aspire to, believe me.' She said sadly. 'Your way might be better.'
'It's not what I want though.' He said.
I want you.
'I know, I know, you want the lightning strike. You want to meet someone and just know they're 'the one'. Hearts and flowers and happily ever after, and all that nonsense.' She joked.
'You're such a cynic.' He said affectionately.
'Well, you never know, maybe you're right and I'm wrong.' Becs said. 'Maybe one day you'll have the lightning strike, maybe you just haven't met the right girl yet.'
But I have.
He paused. Now just didn't seem like the right time to say it though, after the discussions about exes. But he was going to say something, and soon.
'I guess I'll have to wait and see.' He said.

A/N: I really enjoyed writing this chapter  - hope you enjoyed reading it as much! xx