“Well, you’ve been sticking around here because of your parents and Lainey’s wedding, but you don’t have to anymore. Lainey is getting married in April, your parents are moving right after, and you’ve already said you don’t plan to follow. We’re filming here through mid-January.”
“I know.”
“Then, I’m going to Vancouver, but I’ll be done filmingby mid-April or close to it. I can – I mean, if we’re still dating – I could… come back… for the wedding.”
“Oh,” Dana said.
“Be your date.”
“You can’t, Samara.”
“Oh,” Samara said as well, sounding disappointed.
“Not because I don’t want you to. I do. But there will be pictures and stuff. I’m sure someone would see us dancing or something, and I can’t guarantee they would keep any of that to themselves. Lainey and Paige will probably invite kids from their past teams, and they’d recognize you in or out of a wig.”
“Right,” Samara replied. “Well, we’ll come back tothatlater, but the rest is still true. You could consider LA again.”
“Do you know that I’ve never even been there?”
“No, you didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s true. I was going to crash on that friend’s couch, but that would’ve been my first time there.”
“We can fix that easily. Come home with me,” Samara suggested.
“When?”
“For the holiday break,” Samara replied. “We have two weeks off. You can stay for the whole time, if you want, or at least a few days just to check out the city and see if you like it.”
“You want me to go home with you?”
“Yeah. Why not? You can see my place. We can swim naked in my pool and make love in my very nice king bed.”
Dana smiled but said, “I can’t go, Samara.”
“You have plans already?”
“We always do something on Christmas Day, but not specifically, no. This is all really new, though. What if you and I get there and we fight or don’t like each other as much as we thought we did, and you kick me out?”
“I wouldn’t kick you out, Dana.” Samara cupped her cheek. “And I highly doubt that a location change does anything to what I feel for you.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “But I don’t know. I just found out that my parents are moving. I need to talk to them. I also know there’s something Lainey isn’t thinking about with this wedding thing, and she has not exactly been the woman who wanted kids her whole life, despite what she just said in there, so I want to find out what’s going on.”
“Yeah, okay,” Samara said.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?”
Samara shook her head and replied, “No. I just thought it would be nice to have a few days away from here together, but it’s okay.”
“Can I give you a maybe?”
“Yes, but I’m packing tomorrow, Dana. I leave the day after that, so unless you want to join me later, you’ll need to figure it out soon.”
“Yeah…” Dana let the word dangle there, offering no commitments.
It wasn’t Samara she was really worried about, or even LA. It was the fact that her whole life appeared to be changing, and all at once, when she had only recently been catering film sets and talking to her sister about how she and Paige would get married when they would get married, so everyone should just mind their own business. Now, her parents were moving away, and she couldn’t make sure her mom went to her doctor’s appointments as easily. Her sister had a wedding date, a new house, and plans to adopt a kid. It was all just happening so fast… On top of it, Dana was dating one of the biggest celebrities on the planet, who also happened to be in the closet and lived miles away.
“Babe?” Samara said.
