Falling With Style {Chris Evans}

twenty

"You're in trouble."
As soon as Mila had walked out of her bathroom in new pajamas and a towel over her head, Ashley made herself known. How long she had been sitting on Mila's bed waiting for her to get out of the bath, Mila had no idea. She hoped that for Ashley's sake, she wasn't waiting for too long considering Mila was in the bath for a long time, staring at the ceiling and seeing details of her bathroom she had never noticed before as she was overthinking every single thing.
"Am I?" Mila asked.
"Why didn't you tell me to pick you up from that hotel?"
"What?" Mila sat at the edge of her bed and looked at Ashley, genuinely confused as to how Ashley knew she needed a ride after the awkward encounter with Chris.
"Sofie texted me saying you left the hotel and Chris couldn't get ahold of you. They wanted to know if you made it back safe or if I picked you up."
Mila was thinking so many ugly things. What did Chris care? He was only romanticizing their friendship in order to feed his "young again" phase, fueling his breakup retaliation.
"I'm sorry, I should have asked you instead of calling a cab. It was dangerous, I know, but I didn't want to talk about what happened," Mila confessed.
Ashley frowned at this. She reached over and rubbed circles on Mila's back and said, "You know you could have just told me that, no questions asked... but you also know that now I'm really curious as to why the whole time you were in the shower, Chris has called you nonstop. I already told Sofie you made it back."
"Thank you," Mila offered an apologetic smile before falling back on the bed. Ashley followed suit.
They both were on their backs, staring at the ceiling above them. Ashley was being patient. Mila was just trying to find the words and to come to terms with it for herself. "I think he used me," was all that she could think of, and even then, there was so much more to it.
Ashley perked up. She was now sitting upright once again and looking down at Mila who was still laying there, blankly staring up at the ceiling. "What? Isn't it the other way around? People like us use celebrities?"
Mila shrugged. Ashley had so many questions. She knew Mila would answer them eventually, but she couldn't help but think the worst. When she saw a few tears silently fall from Mila's eyes who blinked them away and down her cheeks, she knew that nothing else needed to be said. Ashley pulled Mila forward and forced her to accept a big bear hug. She squeezed Mila firmly, just enough to feel the weight and comfort of someone being there. It only made Mila sob a little more, yet still lightly.
"I don't care who he is. Famous or not, I will go off on this man," Ashley said sternly.
It actually made Mila giggle even though they both knew Ashley was very serious.
Mila pulled away, rubbed her eyes, used her sleeves to wipe her cheeks, sniffled, and sighed all in that order. She went on to say, "His ex-girlfriend or something? She told this celebrity gossip show that he was using me to cope with their break-up, and to feel young again."
Ashley burst into laughter, "You're joking, right? You actually believe that coming from not only his ex, but a celebrity gossip show?"
Mila blinked as if it was a rhetorical question for her. Of course she was going to believe it, right? It was her fault for putting her heart on the line so soon after her sudden break-up with Vincent, and with a celebrity at that. Obviously it wasn't every day that people chose to get involved with a celebrity, but she should have known it was too good to be true. What did a movie star seven years older than her want to do with her?
"Oh my goodness, you actually are believing it? Mila! Snap out of it! You're just scared! Why else would Chris Evans come to Georgia for a week during your spring break? Why else would he invite you over for these movie marathon dates? Why else would he take you on a beach picnic? Why else would he send you these things when he's across the country? Because he wants to be right there with you along the way," Ashley cried out when Mila's silence answered her previous question.
All Mila could come up with was, "Money is no problem for people like him."
Ashley couldn't help but do the biggest eye roll at this. She said, "Exactly! It has nothing to do with money! If he was using you to get over his ex and feel young again, he would have gone public with you two a long time ago. Sorry, but if it really had anything to do with money and publicity, he wouldn't have privately rented Wild Adventures and he wouldn't have secretly sent you the bear and wine and he definitely wouldn't be laying low in his hotel room for a damn movie marathon! Those are things you both enjoy. He's in it for you!"
Mila's stare was still blank and Ashley was trying her hardest not to laugh from how painfully, hysterically obvious it all was to her as the third party. She nearly lost it when Mila shook her head and said, "I'd rather just not get mixed up in all that."
Her response was dry and she was hardly trying. Ashley wanted to scream that her best friend was going through this and only making herself feel worse. She only let out a groan. As she stood up from the bed, she said, "You're only saying that because you know I'm right!"
With that, she left Mila with a blown kiss from the door way before closing the door behind her. Mila now curled up in her bed under the covers. She reached over and powered her phone off completely before sinking into her many pillows. With only the light sound of the air conditioning in the background, she fell asleep for a midday nap.
By the time he had heard back from her, Chris was back at his California home. He was sat in his spacious living room, decorated with all his movie props that he had taken home, all his accolades, and all his memorabilia. As adorned as it was, it still felt so empty.
He was cradled by a leather recliner with his legs propped up on a glass coffee table. In his lap, a script was open to a certain page that he had trailed off from reading. Now he was looking at anything and everything but the script. While his eyes wandered, his mind was fixed on one particular person.
Mila had just texted him back saying she ended up napping for the entire time he spent on the flight and navigating back to his house. He always wondered how her sleep schedule survived her frequent naps of varying lengths.
Instead of replying to her text, he didn't hesitate to call her for what felt like the millionth time. He only hoped that this time she would actually answer.
A sigh of relief actually escaped when he heard her say, "Hi."
His chest was heavy. Ever since she left the hotel in Valdosta, he had been replaying the look on her face over and over. She looked actually disgusted by him. She looked hurt. He felt so foolish that he didn't come up with something to say at that moment when it all happened. Even now, he was fumbling.
"Um, hi, we should probably talk."
"Sure," was all that she said.
Mila wasn't going out of her way to be dry in this conversation. She genuinely had no idea what to say or where to start. She didn't know what to expect. Was he going to confess that she was apart of his elaborate plan all this time? Would he deny it and string her along for longer?
"Absolutely none of it is true."
His demeanor had changed. He swallowed the lump in his throat, a foreign feeling to him of being nervous. Now, he was much more firm. He wanted to get his point across so clearly that Mila had no choice but to believe him. He needed her to.
He went on to say, "Mila, I can't describe what you've done to me. I can't begin to tell you that I would never do any of this for anyone else. It is so easy to impress people, but with you, I've never tried so hard to keep someone so entertained because everything about us feels so sincere. It feels how it should when there are no cameras and a million questions involved."
There was silence on the other side of the line. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She could be ignoring him, thinking he's full of it, or she could really be taking in every word and relying on that last ounce of hope that was reminding her of all the fun they had together when there was nothing public involved.
The truth was that she was hearing exactly what she needed to hear, aside from the confirmation from Ashley earlier that day. It was both reassuring and relieving that the words sounded like, to her, it was coming from his heart.
Chris was still talking while she remained silent. He said, "I have an interview tomorrow and with your permission, I'd love to put these rumors to rest."
She paused for a moment, imagining what he could possibly say to even try combatting all the instigating press. "What can you even say?" She asked.
Her voice was like music to his ears. He had been waiting to hear more of it for hours. He finally had his fix and he was so busy thinking about her smooth voice even though it was still a little sad, he nearly forgot to answer her.
"You leave that to me. Do you trust me?"
Chris couldn't see it, but he was now making her smile all the way in Georgia from where he was sitting across the country. He was even smirking to himself, thinking of different cute things he could say at tomorrow's interview to let everyone know the truth.
"I do," she said, verbally confirming her trust in him just as she did a few days ago when he first showed her off for all to see.
"Then you don't need to worry about a single thing," he reassured her. It sent a warm feeling through her body knowing that Chris took care of things.
That was the end of that topic. For the next hour or so, they caught up with each other even though they had just seen each other that morning. They always found something to talk about and it never felt forced. It always seemed to come so naturally with the two of them, and both were determined to keep it that way for as long as they could no matter what may be thrown at them along the way.