Falling Into You (17 page)

E
ven then,
I
was too wrapped up in a bubble to recognize perfection when I saw it
.
It was only later when I floated away to sleep that I realized that it had been one of those life moments that I would remember forever.

Today was different. I
n all of the moments at breakfast, in the museum, in the street,
with Chris, I’ve been
perfectly happy
without having
to wait until later to figure it all out. It didn’t
even matter if I never saw Chris again. I was going to be
miraculously
, beautifully happy for this one day.
And t
he remembrance of perfection
pales in comparison to
living
in
it.

When he took the phone call from his agent, I thought it was a sign that the day was over, that I would
have to return to reality
.
Instead
,
he
asked
me to
help him with the script
.
I had
to fight not to appear like a total crazed fan
and to make my agreement sound casual
.
But there was no way
I was turning down the chance to spend more time with him
. Not to mention that there was
the possibility of actually getting
my hands on a
real
movie script.

We had taken a cab over to
a stately building on a quiet street on the Upper West Side
.
The building took up almost the entire block, and we had to walk through a winter garden to reach a pair of heavy, imposing gold doors. 

As we walked into the lobby, I gasped
in surprise. It was beautiful—understated and el
egant without being too stuffy. Still,
I recognized the expensive touches everywhere—plush furniture, a gleaming marble floor, an enormous crystal chandelier, and two
uniformed men who greet
Chris by his last name.

“I’ll go up an
d grab the script,” he says.

I’m rendered almost speechless by the opulence of the building
.
“I get it. You’re ashamed of living here.” I laugh and gesture around the lobby, grinning at him.

He’s silent for a minute. “I just…” He clears his throat and finds words. “I just want to get working on the script, and there might be people upstairs that will distract us. Do you mind waiting down here?” He’s searching my face anxiously.

Ok, so it’s me that he’s ashamed of. “Of course not. I’ll just try out one of those.” I point to one of the couches and make my voice as cheerful as possible.

He smiles gratefully.
“
How do you fe
el about Central Park?”

“I don’t know if I really have fee
lings about the park.
But I’m willing to give it a try.”

With a brief touch of my hand, he disappears into the elevator, and
I’m standing
alone in the foyer
.
This confirms it—Chris is rich beyond my wildest imagination.
Despite our first encounter
(the one
where he had passed off his coat and party contribution to me
)
, I
had forgotten that Sampson and shopping and doormen and chauffeured cars were all a part of Chris’s world
.
I stare at the gold leaf again.
D
efinitely not a part of mine.

“Hey.” He’s
breathless and clutching something in his hand
when he emerges
from the elevator a few
minutes
later
. “Ready?”

“Of course.” I sneak a look at the item in his hands, and he laughs at the expression on my face.

“Here,” he says, offering it to me. “You carry it.”

It’s a leaf of papers all bound together, with
The James Ross Project
printed in block letters on the front.
I treat it like it’s a priceless artifact (and the thought of that makes me giggle at the paintings we just saw
and the fact that they’re probably considered priceless as well
).

“What are you laughing at?”

“Absolutely nothing.”

He grabs my other hand and takes it in his
. “Your hands are cold
.
”
He takes off
his gloves and puts them on mine
, balancing the script between us
as he fumbles slightly with
the gloves
.

“It’s okay.
” I
feel
a little breathless myself at the contact.

“We can skip the park if you want,” he suggests.
“We can find someplace else to go.”

“I’m like a polar bear.
I like cold. More importantly,
I need to see this park that people have all these deep feelings about.” I smirk at him, trying to distract myself from the hand-holding.

“Fair enough.”

“Tell me about the movie, about what you’re thinking
about the character
,” I
say
as we reach the outskirts of the park.

When he talks
about the
movie, his entire face lights
up
and I’m captivated by him, by the way in which he’s trying to immerse me into the world
.
The park is beautiful, but I can’t seem to care about trees and plants with him beside me.
He finds
a
n isolated
spot untouched by the dusting of snow from the night before,
and
drags me down
to sit with him
.
He maneuvers so that o
ur legs are touching and
our
arms
are
entwined together. When I give him a curious look, he shrugs his shoulders. “Body heat.”

I wish he wouldn’t sit so close. Red is creeping up my cheeks and I’m afraid he can see inside my head.

He must know that I have developed an absolutely gigantic crush on him.
The only thing I can do is make sure that I don’t throw myself at him
, which is going to be easier said than done
.
I am definitely going to have to stay away from the alcohol at any future parties, just in case he shows up
and I decide that making a total fool of myself sounds like a good idea
.

“So, why is James doing all of this stuff
?” I ask again. He’s described the characters, the set
ting, the plot of the script, but it still doesn’t make sense to me
.

“What do you mean?” He’
s genuinely puzzled.

“I mean, why? Why is this
James
Ross guy
doing all of this stuff for a girl he hardly knows?
What’s the motivation? T
hat’s what you need to figure out. You can do the acting stuff, probably with your eyes closed, if I had to guess. I think you’ll get the part no matter what.
But you don’t
want them to hand you the part.”

“I don’t?” He’s teasing, but I shake my head.

“No! Y
ou want to go out and grab it and makes absolutely sure that there’s no one else that could possibly play the role.
It’ll be easier if you can tell
yourself
about his history, his family
.
History is important. It determines who people are.
Does he have a little sister? Does the girl
that he’s trying to help
remind
him of her? Does he actually want to help her, or is he acting out of some ma
cho need to be the savior
?”

“He’s in love with her,” he says, tracing the letters on the cover of the script.

“But he literally just met her. He doesn’t know anything about her.
He knows two things about her. A. S
he
’s running from an ex-boyfriend. B. The guy has some mafia connections and is
planning on killing her.
Most people would run headfirst in the opposite direction. Even James Ross, who’s really just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She’s not a CIA assignment,
she’s
just some random girl that gets caught in the crosshairs.
”

“He feels a need to protect people. He’s dedicated to his job, and this is an extension of that. Maybe?”

“But
y
ou said that his boss wants to fi
re him if he tries to help her. If
his job is the only thing in the world that he really cares about
, then it doesn’t make sense
.
He would just pass the case off to someone else at the CIA and check up on her. He’s willing to risk everything for this girl, which is absolutely insane.”

“I told you, he’s in love with her,” Chris says again, arms crossed.

I throw up my hands.
“
He c
an’t just fall in love with her after one meeting. They’ve hardly exchanged more than two words.
There has to be something else. It just can’t be
that simple.”

“So, no faith in love at first sight, huh?”

“No.” I cross my arms now, imitating his posture. I do think two people can have an undeniable
connection
, some chemical balance
that ti
es them together
.

Lust at first sight, certainly. But love? I have to believe
that love is bigger than a jolt of electric chemistry
, that it involves history and
memories and shared experience
.

“I thought everyone beli
eved in love at first sight, deep down
.”

I scoff at him.
“Is it possible to fall for someone the first moment you meet t
hem? Theoretically, I guess. But in reality?”

He’s grinning and poking the script. “It’s a movie, Hallie. We’re allowed to take liberties with reality.”

“I surrender!” I say, grinning back and grabbing the script. “You win. So, we’re going with your theory that James falls in love at first sight with…
What’s her name again?”

“
Jane
.”

“
James
and
Jane
. That’s cute.”

He snorts. “
Real cute.”

“
T
hat’s still
not the end of the explanation.” I’m flipping through the pages of the screenplay,
looking for some scene between James and Jane where they exchange more than sexual innuendos. All I’m finding is an endless
stream
of explosions.

“Find any of that rich character development yet?” He’s laughing at me now, so I poke him in the arm.

“That’s your job.” He looks sufficiently humbled, so I go on
.

“
There must have been
something that happened to him and to h
er in their pasts that make love at first sight possible
, and that’s what you need to tap into, his motivation. On page 4, he’s hooking up with this Desiree girl, the dancer, and she actually seems a lot less whiny than Jane here. But for some reason, Jane’s the one he’s obsessed with.
”

“Maybe he realizes that you don’t get many shots at
love,
and he makes a decision not to let
Jane
go, even if it means that he
loses his job and
gets killed in the process.”

I consider
this
for a second and I want to think of a witty re
sponse, but I seem to have reached my limit for the day
. I decide to focus on the second part of his statement, and
I force my
voice into
a light-hearted tone.
“I mean, obviously, he doesn’t get killed. There are probably like six sequels already planned.”

“But he doesn’t know that,” Chris says
, still intense.

“I guess you’re right.”

He smiles at me.
“
I’m sticking to my guns. He’s in love with her. You haven’t gotten to page 107 yet. That’s where it all comes out
.
It just comes down to whether there’s any way I can sell the lovelorn asshole James Ross to the director or not. Whether I can make him believe that I’m in love with Jane.
”

I have to look away, because his eyes are intense and focused entirely on mine as he speaks.
The irrational part of me wants to
fall into them and stay there for days. The rational side of me says t
hat wouldn’t be productive, considering that he’s asked me here to try to help him get ready for the biggest audition he might ever have.