Foreign

Chapter 48

I'm on the lawn getting some work done when Lizzie texts me. I let her know where I am.

"Hero and Jack went to a bar in town, you know, guys stuff," she shrugs as she sits down.

"He missed you two so much so I bet he's happy to see you!"

"He was happy to see us, yeah but he is not happy, Charlotte."

I look at the grass and play with it.

"He is hurting."

"He's not. He hates me. I don't know what happened but he's so angry all the time. He won't even look at me. He's the one who cheated and now.. Did he talk to you?"

"Yeah, he did but it's not my place to tell you what's been going on in his head. I don't know the full story yet and I also think you need to talk to him. You guys need to sort this out."

"Lizzie..."

"Okay, okay, I'll shut up for now but just think about it okay? Oh, he said yes to lunch tomorrow."

I am not looking forward to having lunch with Hero but I want to please Jack and Lizzie.

"Come on, I'll show you around some more. Josh is on set now, maybe we can take a look!"

I show Lizzie around and introduce her to Diego, Brody and Isabella. I show her the trailers and the set.

"This is so cool!" she says. "An actual film set! I can't wait to start working too!" I take a peak inside and they've just finished a scene. Greg is talking to Josh about some changes when we walk in.

"Well, well, the whole gang is here," Melany says.

Lizzie looks at me and rolls her eyes.

"Can't say I'm happy to see you, Mel."

I start laughing and take Lizzie to Greg and Josh.

"Hi, how's it going today?" I ask.

"Pretty good actually, we'll be able to shoot every scene on the call sheet today," Greg says.

"Good, happy to hear that! I wanted to introduce you to my friend Lizzie, she's studying Set Design."

"Lizzie, this is Greg and that's Josh."

"I've heard so much about you, I'm happy to finally meet you!" Josh gives her a perfect smile and I can feel her melting beside me.

"It's nice to meet you too," she answers. "I hear we have dinner together?"

We talk for a few minutes but then they have to go back to work. Lizzie and I stay around to watch the next few takes before we go back outside.

"Damn, Josh is so good! But Melany isn't great."

I laugh.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too. I'm sure she's just getting jobs because she's so pretty."

"Oh, well, in a few years she won't be able to get any jobs and no one will talk about her," Lizzie says and we both start laughing. It does feel good to gossip about Melany.

After Hero and Jack return, Lizzie wants to go to their hotel to take a nap and a shower.

"See you at seven," Lizzie smiles and she gives me a hug.

Hero and I watch them drive away.

"I hear we have lunch tomorrow?" I ask Hero.

"Yeah."

"Okay, cool."

"I'm doing this for them, not for you. We're not friends." He snaps.

I stare at him in disbelief but he just turns around and walks away. Lunch will be such a disaster. I need to distract myself. As happy as I am with Josh, I still think about Hero when I'm alone. I walk back to my room and sit on my balcony with a glass of wine and my laptop. I need to email everyone some call sheets and details for the next few days. I concentrate on my work and try to forget the look in Hero's eyes. If he hates me now, he'll definitely hate me tonight if I have dinner with his friends and my new boyfriend. But then again, they were my friends first.

Ten minutes before seven, Josh knocks on my door. I take one last look in the mirror and open it. He's wearing a bright blue polo shirt which matches his eyes. He looks nervous.

"I want them to like me, you know," he says.

"I'm sure they'll love you!" I smile and give him a kiss.

"It's just.. they're Hero's friends too."

"Yeah but they haven't always liked Hero. He was such a jerk when he first moved in. They only became friends because Hero and I started this.. thing."

"Are you sure?"

Yeah! Hero wasn't even around much at first. He had his own friends and had a different girl over every night."

"Okay." He gives me a smile back and I take his hand. I can feel his pulse racing as we walk downstairs to meet Lizzie and Jack at the bar.