Alexander
Ithoughtallmorningabout ways to make the most of this little trip. Ways to make it really count in my quest to sway her to make this real. But here we sit in silence. It’s like something crawled under my skin the moment I picked her up and swallowed up all my good ideas.
“The traffic’s heavier than I remember, but it’s been a while since I’ve driven out to Canterbury.” Traffic. Traffic is the best I’ve got. We’ve got over an hour left in the car.
She only hums agreement, and I glance over at her for what must be the hundredth time in the last half hour. She is so cute over there snuggled in with all her “travel accoutrements” as she called them. She has a blanket, a small pillow, a huge water bottle, and a bag filled with snacks. So many that I think shemust have been afraid I’d let her starve to death on our short trip.
I hear her digging around through said bag, then she speaks. “Would you like a Mars bar or a Crunchie?”
Honestly, I shouldn’t have either, given that for my next role I need to look like a professional rugby player, and I’m already pushing it on the age, but I’m not going to decline. “You don’t have a preference?”
“I’ve never had either. I just chose two candies. Your candy here is weird.”
I laugh and let that slide. “I think you should try the Crunchie. Our Mars Bar is the same as your Milky Way, so you can have that anytime.”
“Alright.” Ivy smiles over at me, opening then passing me the Mars Bar. “Enjoy road trip snack number one!”
“What else is there?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” She bites into her Crunchie and groans as she finishes her bite. “That is incredible. Can I take candy home in my luggage?”
“I would assume so.”
“Yeah. I did bring a whole big bag of pistachios over here with me. It should work both ways. I’ll just have to give away some of my clothes to make space. And actually eat the pistachios.”
“We could ship a box home to you. Oh! You could sellthem in your restaurant, like a little ode to your trip.”
“It would cost a fortune to ship as many as I’d want. But I can easily stick some in my luggage and ration them.”
“I’m shipping you some.”
“Alex …”
“I’m doing it.”
She sighs. “Fine.”
“You’re telling me you weren’t actually in a desert for that scene? You shot the entire thing in a studio?” The candy, or maybe more specifically the sugar, got us talking, and we’ve been going strong for the past half hour.
“That is, indeed, what I’m telling you.”
“It looked so real.”
“I know. They did a really nice job with it. It just wasn’t worth the effort of taking all the people and all the things to an actual desert. Not for two short scenes.”
“That makes sense. I’m gonna have to watch it again and see if I can tell.” Ivy pointed out some rather large cows grazing in a field to our right. “Are there any other secrets like that that would surprise me?”
“Hmm … inActivatethe—”
“Ihaven’t seen that one.”
“Really? It’s one of my most popular, I think.”
“I’m not a fangirl, remember?”
This makes me laugh. “Oh, I remember. We’ve talked enough about me anyway. Tell me about your restaurant. What will be the same? What are you changing?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you all about it, but first … road-trip snack two.” She pulls her bag up from the floorboard. “Chips! Orcrisps, rather.” Sher saysratherwith an English accent that made me chuckle.
