Page 6 of And They Had a Great Fall

She settled in and opened her laptop. She was ready to wind down, and work was the best way she knew how. She was not embarrassed to admit, while other people might unwind and relax with a book or movie, she enjoyed a good spreadsheet. Numbers were absolute. She understood them. Analyzing numbers to find efficiencies, patterns, and opportunities was her own form of meditation.

It was barely 5:00 p.m. New York time, but since it was a Friday, Kat didn’t want to keep the team for long. They worked through the unit projection spreadsheet from the sales team, and eventually the only person left on the line was Emily.

Kat opened a bottle of wine she had bought at a shop on the corner and poured herself a glass. When she’d first arrived at Jake’s apartment, she’d realized that not only was it a mess, butthe only things in the fridge were some condiments and milk, and the pantry only contained various protein powder and bars. She assumed he must be doing some physical transformation for this film. It made her curious about the movie being filmed and the role he was playing. After taking stock, she rushed down to Kihoskh, a wine and convenience store on the corner, before they closed for the evening. This was her routine whenever she was traveling, and this would be no different. She took a sip, forgetting she was on video.

“Ahhh, that looks good!” said Emily still typing. “Oh wait, what time is it there?”

“It’s 11:22 p.m. here. Late. But I haven’t adjusted to the time change. It usually takes me at least forty-eight to seventy-two hours before I feel normal.” She leaned back in her chair. “Emily, it’s Friday. Get out of there. Enjoy your weekend.”

“Yes, I’m leaving soon. Hey, looking at your background, where are you staying?” Emily asked. The question was innocuous, and Kat answered jumped in with a quick answer. “A temporary apartment. It’s right off the canal. It’s nice.” She left out the detail of exactly whose apartment it was.

Emily stopped typing and looked into her screen. “Nice. And when do you meet the Denmark team? Will you see them this weekend?” Kat knew Emily was just making friendly conversation, but the questions were beginning to unnerve her.

“I’ll see them on Monday. I’m visiting one of my friends this weekend. They’re working in Copenhagen as well,” Kat said, trying to keep her tone light and casual. She didn’t want to completely lie to Emily, who she counted as one of her few friends, but she also didn’t want to cause more questions.

“Interesting coincidence,” said Emily, raising her eyebrows.

Kat cut her off before she could say more. “Yes. I was going to come in November, post-launch, but I moved it up to observe the Denmark pre-order period. It made it easy to say yes at thelast minute. I can work, but I can also see my friend while they’re still here.”

“Interesting pronoun, too, Kat,” Emily said with a wink. “Want to tell me about this ‘they’ mystery person?”

Kat laughed and shook her head. “Go home, Emily. Have a good weekend.” She and Emily were friends, but Kat was still the boss. She never knew how much of herself to reveal and always erred on the side of not sharing at all.

Once the call ended, Kat worked on her final emails and refilled her wine glass. She was just about to text Jake and see if he was okay—he was rarely on time, but this was late, even for him—when she heard the keypad beep. Her stupid stomach fluttered, realizing he had arrived.

chapter four

Jake burst into the room with a flourish, and Kat’s face erupted in a smile. Video chats and phone calls over the past year had made it easy to forget how she felt when he was mere feet from her.He is so damn beautiful,she thought.She silently cursed her body as she felt an instant attraction.

He was nearly a head taller than her five-foot-four frame and had a mop of dark, almost black hair that had a personality of its own. She remembered how his curls could at one moment be perfectly coiled around his face and another minute be facing the sky, which just added to his unpredictable charm. His eyes were a shocking light gray with a hint of green. They had a coolness and depth that unsettled her when he fixed his gaze on her. His nose was lightly speckled with freckles so faint they didn’t show up on screen. In person, his face looked eternally sun kissed.

His features were sharp and angular; in certain perspectives, he almost had a hint of unattractiveness, but on screen, it was captivating. When you saw him through a camera, you could get lost in him, which is one of the reasons he was crowned the “it boy” of the moment. When he came on the big screen, she felt as if his presence altered the very air of the theater.

As he walked toward her, Kat could not take her eyes off him.

Jake breathed out a sigh of relief when Kat smiled as he walked through the door. He’d admonished himself the entire way home for not being there when she arrived. He couldn’t keep from picturing her look of disappointment.

Seeing her smile, he realized his anxiety was unnecessary. Once again, his worry and stress were self-created. It was common for him to navigate stories and scenarios in his head, none of which were based in reality. His mom used to beg him to “stay in the real world,ma belle conteuse”—“my beautiful storyteller,” she liked to call him. Living life with every emotion always just under his skin, ready to burst to the surface at any minute, was useful to a working actor, but confusing and brutal to a teenager. Jake believed if he had not found acting early in his teens, he may not have survived the conflict constantly raging inside him.

He all but ran over to the kitchen where Kat was sitting and threw his arms around her before she could even snap her laptop closed. She slid off the stool and fell into his hug, almost knocking him over. Jake laughed a real laugh for the first time in weeks, already feeling the consuming heaviness lighten. He engulfed her, wrapping one arm around her waist and another over her shoulder. He knew how their bodies fit together. He felt her body relax into his. He held her a beat longer and gave her one tight final squeeze before releasing her.

He hadn’t realized until that moment how much he’d missed her. After a year of nonstop work on different sets in foreign locations, he was used to feeling out of place. But at this moment, he felt the familiarity of home: Kat, his family, New York, the rush of the city, all of it. And it felt good.

She stood in front of him in jeans, a light blue sweater, and bare feet. He let his eyes trail across her body. She was fit, but still soft and curvy in all the places that mattered. He’d loved the feel of her when they’d embraced; he’d forgotten how comforting her body felt against his. Her dark blond hair was still slightly damp, strands falling around her face, which was devoid of makeup. He was drawn to her natural look. He lived in a world of beauty, but much of it manufactured.

Having her here, right in front of him, heightened every one of his senses. He drew her into one more embrace just to make sure she was real. He drew in a breath as they broke apart once again. She smelled of the soap he had in the shower, and he felt a wave of comfort because, in that moment, she smelled like him.

Her large, piercing green eyes crinkled at the edges as she smiled at him. Her eyes were one of his favorite things about her. They were open windows into her mind: fiery when she was debating a point, commanding when she was working, and twinkling whenever Becca was around. When she looked at him, Jake felt as if her eyes gazed into his soul. He couldn’t believe he’d stayed away from those eyes for so long.

“I can’t believe you’re standing here,” he said, taking a step back. “Hope your flight was okay. I’m so sorry about tonight. We were shooting bridging scenes and pickups, and they take forever. It was the most boring twelve hours of my life. You’re not mad, are you? I mean, I couldn’t really help it.”

He was rambling. He chastised himself, because he couldn’t get his thoughts together like a normal person. He often felt like too many synapses fired in his brain all at once and there was no controlling the onslaught of thoughts that came at him all. damn. day.

She waved away his comments and pulled a second glass off the dish rack. He wondered where she’d found a dish rack … or wine glasses, for that matter. Clearly she already knew her way around his apartment better than he did.

“You look like you need a drink. I started without you,” she said, and flashed him a smile that lit up her entire face.

He grinned at her. He’d painted her with a serious brush in his memories. Always in control. He’d forgotten the playful, fun side to her. He hadn’t known what to expect since they’d had zero communication for months.

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