I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I sort of thought they were each other's first love."
"I'm sure they wanted your character to like Tommy more from knowing that. Did it have the opposite effect?"
"Sort of, I guess," I said, shrugging and being honest."
"What about your boyfriend now?" he said.
"What about him?"
"Did he ever date anyone before you?" he asked.
"Yes, b-but no one who he would come out and say was his first love. I feel like a girl wouldn't want to hear that her potential suitor had this big, first love who wasn't her."
"I get that," he said. "I guess we could pretend I never said that."
"No, we can't. It's a thing now." I straightened my shoulders and fixed myself up a little using my reflection in the tinythumbnail on my phone. "How do you think I compare to her?" I asked. I was joking around, and he knew it.
"Life was harder back then," he said. "People died young. An accident with a horse would be normal. Tommy would get over it and focus on Lottie."
"What about you?" I asked.
"What about me?"
"Do you have a first love?"
He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then he stopped himself. "Me personally? No. I wouldn’t say I had a… no. You?"
"I, well, I mean, I don't know. I've been with Jacob for over a year."
"What if you guys ever broke up?" he said. "Would you be able to give your heart to someone afterward?"
"I mean… if you're able to even picture that, something's wrong with the relationship, right? I would like to think we wouldn't break up."
"Yeah, I see what you're saying. I think for the purposes of the series, they wanted you to find Tommy more attractive. Would you rather have me say I didn't really like her? Maybe I was reluctantly betrothed."
"No, it's fine, you've already said it—she was your first love." I was smiling and shaking him off because I was being lighthearted about it in the first place.
"I've never had a director do this before. Maybe it'll help us to have that background information as we're filming a scene."
"Yeah, you're right, I'm sure Alex knows what he's doing. And speaking of that… I was talking to Jacob about the egg scene."
"What about it?" he asked. "I know you're not kissing me at the end."
"I know, he's being really nice by getting me a stunt double."
"I never thought kissing me was a stunt, but thanks, I guess."
"I wasn't talking about kissing when I brought it up, though. I was asking about the way you're supposed to be behind me and hold me by the waist and everything. I was reading that scene with my boyfriend last night… he's helping me prepare… and he was reading the notes. He said he really doesn't want your hand on my stomach like that."
"That's impossible to change," he said. "My hands are there when we're talking. It's in the shot. There's no way to use a stand-in for that."
"I know, I know, I told him that. And I'm not, I guess I'm not going to mention it to Alex. But just from me to you… could you try to be G-rated with that? Just keep your hand… I don't know how to do it… can you just do the minimum touching possible that Alex will allow? I'm sorry. I feel bad asking that."
"No, I'm… I'm just going to do what Alex asks me to do," Sam said, somewhat awkwardly.
"Yeah, you should. I'm sorry. I'm not going to say anything to Alex. Anyway, I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"It's no problem. We'll work it out."
