CHAPTER 9
The next morning, Anya awoke to the phone ringing. "Hello", she said trying to wake up.
"Anya, I need you down here at the set immediately. It's an emergency."
"Joey, what's wrong. What's the emergency? Is everyone okay?" She was fully awake now and worried that something, or rather, someone was hurt.
"I'll explain when you get here. Just hurry up." With that, Joey had hung up and left Anya holding the phone.
She quickly got dressed and caught a cab to the set. When she finally got past security, she ran right up to Joey. "Okay, I don't see any emergency. This better be good or someone, who will remain nameless, better not fall asleep tonight."
Joey knew he had to think of something quick so she wouldn't get mad at him. "Listen, Bridget, the girl that was suppose to be my girlfriend in the video didn't show up and they have to start soon or we will be off schedule."
"Okay and why did you wake me up and drag me here under false pretenses to tell me that?" She noticed the puppy dog eyes immediately and knew what he was going to say. "No. No, Joey, I am not going to be in the video with you. Can't you find someone else?" She returned the same puppy dog look at him.
"If we could, I wouldn't have called you. Please, just do this for me. Please. Please. Please." He got down on his knees and grabbed her around the legs. "I'm not letting go until you say yes. Just say yes and we will be done before you know it."
She thought about it for a minute. It would be fun to be in a video. She finally gave in. "What do I have to do?" Joey jumped up and started spinning her around. "Don't you ever learn. Put me down before I throw up."
Joey put her down, kissed her hand and ran off to find the director. When he returned, the director brought a woman with him. "This is Melanie from wardrobe. You need to go with her now and find an outfit for the shoot. We are already behind schedule, so make it quick." The director told Anya.
Anya was a little taken back by the directness and tone of his voice. She was soon regretting saying yes to Joey. She was heading off with Melanie when the director came back up to her.
"I'm sorry I was rude to you a minute ago. Bridget was supposed to be here and she never showed up. I don't like to be passed over and I was taking it out on you. I apologize. I am very glad you decided to help Joey out today. Now get to makeup and wardrobe and get ready to shoot a video."
Anya was feeling much better about this whole video thing now. She smiled to him and turned to follow Melanie to wardrobe.
Forty-five minutes later, she was standing in the middle of a kitchen setting with Joey. The director was giving them instructions as to what he wanted them to do. "Okay, all you have to do is cook breakfast. A little eggs here, a little bacon there. Have fun. Smile. Laugh at each other. Now, Anya, I want you to burn your hand on the skillet."
She immediately interrupted him. "Excuse me, I have to burn myself for a 30 second spot in this video?" She didn't like the sound of that.
"No, not really burn yourself, just pretend. Then, Joey, you will take her hand and kiss it to make it feel better, and anything else you feel comfortable doing."
"What do you mean anything else?" Joey asked, unsure he wanted to do anything else with Anya. Sure they flirted together and pretended to have a thing going, but he knew that is was pretend. Anya was like a sister to him and he saw the looks her and Justin would give each other and didn't want to mess anything up that might be happening there.
"Like we said yesterday, the video is about romance and love. If you two feel comfortable kissing or what not, go for it. It would really set the mood of the video." The director chimed in.
"Listen, Joey, if you are comfortable with this than I am. Let's just see how it goes, okay?" Anya said, hoping it would lighten the mood. Joey was always the one in the group that had no trouble with women. He loved being with women. She thought it was funny that he would be getting nervous about being with her. She had to laugh at him for that.
"Okay, if you don't mind, I say let's go for it!" He said proudly.
"Fine, but if you put that tongue of yours in my mouth, I swear I will bite it off."
"Is that a promise?" He said, raising his eyebrows. Yep, the old Joey's back.
Justin arrived at the shoot a little while later. He had gotten up and went down to Anya's room to see if she would join him for breakfast. When he got there, she was not in her room. No one had seen her and he had become worried.
It was not until he rounded the corner of the makeshift kitchen, that he realized where she was. He couldn't believe what he saw. Instead of Joey and that Bridget girl from yesterday, there was Joey and Anya, looking very close. A little too close. He continued to watch them do their scene. First, they were laughing and throwing flour around the room. Obviously, they were making biscuits. Not too bad, yet. Then he saw her pretend to burn her hand on the skillet and Joey immediately took her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth. He slowly kissed her fingers and then pulled her close to him. Justin's temperature was rising at the sight before him.
He knew Joey and Anya were only acting but he still didn't like it. He didn't know why Bridget was not there, all he knew was that Joey and Anya were…. Oh Lord, they're kissing. I didn't think that was part of the scene, he said to himself. He saw them pull apart and look at each other. For a moment, he thought they would kiss again, but instead they both began to laugh uncontrollably. The director yelled cut and they were done with their part of the video.
When Anya walked over to get change, she ran into Justin. "Hey, Justin, I didn't see you there. How long have you been here?"
"Oh, I've been here awhile. I saw your scene with Joey. Why exactly are you with Joey?" He wasn't sure he wanted to hear her explanation.
"Well, it's a long story, so I'll give you the cliff note version. Joey called this morning and said there was an emergency and I needed to come down. When I got here, I found out that Bridget didn't show up and they asked me to fill in for her. End of story." She was satisfied with her answer and was about the walk off when Justin interrupted her.
"Okay, that explains why you're here but can you explain why you were kissing Joey. I didn't think that was part of the scene." He was getting upset. She wasn't telling him the whole story and it was driving him crazy.
"Do I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice?" She loved this. She was making him jealous. The funny thing was it was with Joey.
"I'm not jealous. I was just wondering, that's all." He tried to act as if nothing was bothering him but it was. For a while now, he had seen Anya in a different way. He wanted to talk to her about maybe stepping up their relationship into something more, but didn't know how to approach the subject. He didn't want to see her go out with another guy and certainly didn't want her to kiss anyone else, even Joey.
"Well, if you must know, the little talk the director had last night about if you guys wanted to do anything else in your scene, to just go for it. Joey and I decided to go for it, so to speak. That's all, no harm done. If you were watching, you saw us burst out laughing when we finished. It was like kissing my brother. Not that Joey isn't a good kisser, it's just, it was weird." She wondered if her and Justin kissed would it feel weird like that too. Oh well, you'll never know.
"Oh, okay. Anyway, are you going to stick around for my scene?" Justin wanted Anya around all the time but couldn't tell her.
Anya, on the other hand, wanted to stay but didn't think she could handle seeing Justin with Libby if they decided to "go for it", too. "I may stay for a little while. I didn't eat anything for breakfast and I'm hungry. So, maybe I'll stay for few minutes and then head back to the hotel." She hoped that he wouldn't think she didn't want to stay for him. It was Libby that she didn't want to see.
And if right on cue who should appear but Libby. "Hi Justin. Hi…um…."
"Anya."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Libby said turning her attention back to Justin. "So, are you ready to play some basketball?"
"I'm always ready to play." Justin gave Libby that million-dollar smile of his and she giggled.
Anya just rolled her eyes at the two of them and excused herself. "I have to go change now. I see you two later." She left to find her clothes she had worn earlier that morning.
Anya watched Justin shoot his scene and surprisingly enough, he didn't "go for it". She was pleased about that. She saw JC arrive and went to talk to him. When he was summand by Melanie to get to wardrobe and makeup, Anya decided she would go find Justin and see if he was ready to go back to the hotel. She rounded the corner of a dressing room and heard talking. She knew it was Justin and Libby. She was about to leave when she heard someone call her name. "Anya, please come here. I need your help." Libby had asked for her.
"What can I help you with, Libby?" She didn't like the look in Libby's eyes but felt compelled to stay and listen to what she had to say.
"I am trying to get Justin, here, to go out to dinner with me tonight and he is being very stubborn." She looked over at Justin and began to pout.
"I told you, Libby, that I wanted to go back to the hotel and rest." Justin didn't want to go out with Libby tonight. He was trying to be polite but she was making it very difficult for him.