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rsadelleMaster Post - Part 1 - Part 2
Victoria came into her office in the morning to find Nate leaning over her desk, sifting through the papers she'd left scattered across it.
"Sorry. I was going to take care of all of that last night," she said.
Nate waved away her apology. "I don't mind."
Victoria put her bag down and dug out the things she'd taken with her, which she hadn't actually done anything with. "Gabe talked me into having dinner instead of working." She said it without looking at him, but she could still hear the sudden silence as he stopped what he was doing. She couldn't hide in her bag all day, so she looked up at him. He was watching her carefully.
"How was that?" It was a neutral enough question, but Victoria knew it was only the tip of an iceberg of conversation and worry.
"It was okay." She sat down on the couch, facing him. "It was weird, but okay." She leaned forward and said, "I missed him," softly, even though there was no one there to overhear them.
Nate came over to sit next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "I know. Me too. I just don't want you to get hurt again."
"I don't think I can help it," she confessed. "It was awkward at first, but then it was like before." She leaned against Nate's shoulder. "I still love him."
Nate put his other arm around her too. "I know."
Victoria raised her head to look at him. "What about you? Are you okay with this?"
Nate smiled, and there was a secret twist to the edges of it. "Yeah, I'm okay." He pressed his lips to her temple. "Besides, I have a date tomorrow."
Victoria sat all the way up and stared at him. She hadn't noticed anything that would let her in on that. "With who?"
"Brendon." He shrugged under her regard. "We've been getting to know each other better on this project."
Victoria leaned back in and hugged him. "Good for you."
*
Cassadee found her not long after that, after she'd made her way onto the set, while the actors were still in makeup and everyone else was still running around getting set up for the day. She waited patiently for Victoria to finish talking to Jon, and only stepped forward when they were finished.
"Gabe said you would talk to me," Cassadee said.
That hadn't taken long. Gabe must have told her first thing in the morning.
"Sure." Victoria thought for a moment about all of the things still sitting undone on her desk. She could hand at least half of them over to Nate, even with the ones he'd already taken. "Come find me at lunch and we'll sit down."
Cassadee smiled and squeezed Victoria's arm. "Thank you." She didn't hang around to get in the way, but left, presumably to do whatever it was she was supposed to be doing.
Victoria didn't see her again until she was picking her way through catering after they broke for lunch. Victoria finished piling food onto her plate and said, "Let's go to my office. We'll be slightly less likely to get interrupted there."
Cassadee followed her, and took the couch when Victoria gestured her onto it. Victoria pulled her desk chair over to the other side of the coffee table and lowered it so she wasn't quite towering over Cassadee.
"Thank you again," Cassadee said. "I really appreciate this."
"Not everyone in Hollywood is out to get everyone else," Victoria said. "There's a lot of clawing to the top, but there are also people willing to help you along the way."
Cassadee nodded. "I know. I was lucky to find Gabe."
Victoria considered that for a moment, then said, "You were. The truth is that most people in this business don't make it. People who don't make connections never do, and Gabe's a good connection to have. He's pretty much a household name at this point, and he has a lot of connections that can help you."
Cassadee seemed wholly focused on the conversation. "How much harder is it to be a woman in the business?"
Victoria smiled wryly. "As much as you've ever imagined. You're going to have to fight to be recognized as a professional in your own right, and there will be people who will never take your calls, even as they spout off rhetoric about equality."
If anything, Cassadee only looked more determined. "That's not going to stop me."
Victoria could see what Gabe liked about her. She almost wished she could steal Cassadee away to be her own assistant.
"Good. Not everyone is going to be like that - Crush isn't - but you're going to run into it." Victoria took a bite of her sandwich and watched Cassadee think for a moment.
"When you do get someone to take you seriously, what do you want out of a producer you're working with?"
It was a good question, and one that made Victoria think. "Mostly the same things anyone wants out of a boss: support when I need it and staying out of my way when I don't."
Cassadee grinned at her. "I wouldn't know anything about that. Gabe never stays out of my way."
Victoria laughed. Cassadee, she thought, with that combination of determination and training under Gabe, had a chance at making her dreams come true.
*
Gabe found her the next morning, just before they were ready to set up the first shot of the day, and said, "Thanks for talking to Cassadee. She was over the moon about it."
Victoria looked at him for a long moment. "I didn't do it for you." It wasn't a lie; she'd done it because of him, because he'd brought Cassadee up in their conversation, but she hadn't done it for him. She'd done it for herself, because she truly did believe in nurturing and encouraging the next generation, and for Cassadee, because she knew how much it would have meant to her to have someone sit down and talk to her about the realities of the business when she was just starting out.
Gabe's mouth twitched in what might have been the beginning of a smile. "I know that," he said. "Thanks anyway. You didn't blow her off because she's my assistant, and you made her feel like she mattered."
"She does matter," Victoria said more forcefully than she meant to.
"She does." Gabe's face had settled into a soft fondness, and Victoria followed his gaze across the set to where Cassadee and Selena were leaning in close to each other.
She'd called him "indulgent," but that didn't even begin to cover it. It wasn't, Victoria thought, strictly Cassadee's ambition that made their professional relationship work. Gabe truly cared about her, and Victoria had seen enough to know that it was mutual.
She didn't want to let it make her soften toward Gabe, but she could feel that it was having that effect despite her wishes.
*
"You should come over sometime" was one of those things people said but didn't necessarily mean. Mike and Greta, it turned out, meant it.
"We also invited Ryland, Gabe, and Cassadee," Greta said when she extended an actual invitation, with a time and date attached, to Victoria. Now that she knew Greta, Victoria knew that her ability to drop important information in a completely casual manner was actually a skill of hers, and not something she'd planned out for her audition.
Victoria wasn't going to decline just because Gabe was going to be there - if she could have dinner with just him, she could have dinner with him and other people - and she both genuinely liked Greta and was deeply curious about Mike's cooking abilities.
Mike and Greta lived in a small house on a block of similar houses. Theirs was painted a soothing green and the yard, like the others on the street, was neatly kept. Victoria parked on the street, behind Gabe's convertible and across the street from Ryland's sensible Camry.
Light spilled out of the windows, and Greta answered the door haloed in the same warm glow.
Victoria remembered both Greta and Mike drinking when they went to karaoke, so she'd brought a bottle of wine, which she handed over to Greta as she came into the entryway. Greta thanked her, and led the way into the heart of the house.
The kitchen seemed to be the very center of it, with only its counters separating it from a dining room on one side and the living room on the other. Mike was in the middle of it, stirring something on the stove. Gabe was also in the kitchen, leaning against a counter with a drink in one hand and a carrot stick in the other. Ryland and Cassadee were on the outsides of the counters, their drinks between plates of appetizers that had once been neatly arranged but now had spaces where people had eaten from them.
"Victoria brought wine," Greta announced.
"Our fearless leader." Ryland raised his glass in a toast.
Gabe turned and smiled at her while Mike took the wine from Greta.
"Good choice," he declared. "We can have this with dinner."
"That's high praise," Greta said. "Mike's band likes to pretend they're hardcore, but secretly they're a bunch of wine geeks."
"Oenophiles," Mike corrected. "And we're getting older. It's allowed."
Greta laughed. "They think that since William has a baby and half of them have mortgages they're all grownups now. Anyway," she said to Victoria, "what do you want to drink? Gabe said you like Cherry Coke and rum, so we have that. Or we have pretty much anything else you can think of, as long as it's not too exotic."
Victoria didn't know what to think about Gabe telling that to people. She would have had a beer, or plain old rum and coke, or whatever people were drinking.
"Cherry Coke and rum sounds good," she said.
"Here," Greta said, pulling things out and putting them on a counter. "I'll let you fix it yourself." She even had cherries for Victoria to put in it.
Once she was in the kitchen, it seemed silly to go around the counters again, especially when she wasn't in the way, so Victoria leaned back against the counter next to Gabe.
"You should try these," Cassadee said, pointing at one of the plates of appetizers. "They're amazing." She picked up the plate and brought it around to Victoria's side of the kitchen.
The appetizers were some kind of pastry with a mushroom filling that seemed to melt on Victoria's tongue.
"These are amazing," she said. She glanced at Gabe. "Did you try them?"
While he reached across her to take one, Greta said, "Mike made them totally from scratch."
Mike nodded. "You can't get good vegan puff pastry unless you make it yourself."
"Well, I'm impressed," Victoria said.
"Me too." Gabe reached past her to get another one. In the process, he ended up close enough that Victoria could feel the warmth of his body all along her side.
"Me three," Ryland said. "Did you know Alex went to culinary school? He's tried to teach me how to cook a couple of times, but he always has to end up saving my ass."
"I think maybe actors just shouldn't cook," Cassadee said. "You should see some of the disasters I've had to clean up in Gabe's kitchen."
"None of those were because I can't cook," Gabe protested. "I had a good excuse for every one of them."
"Forgetting what you were doing is not a good excuse." Cassadee had the stern look down; Victoria guessed she probably wore it a lot.
As much as Victoria liked watching them spar, it really wasn't fair. "Gabe can cook." She looked at him, tilting her head up so she could see his face. "I think I dream about your mole sometimes."
Gabe's smile was soft around the edges.
"Now you're just a confused cook," Ryland said. "Mole's Mexican."
Gabe's smile turned brash again as he looked past Victoria to Ryland. "Uruguay isn't big on vegan food. I've had to expand my reach."
"And it's really that good?"
"It really was," Victoria said. "I think I've had sex that wasn't as good as that mole."
"Then you're doing it wrong," Greta said.
While everyone else was still laughing, Cassadee said, "You can't compare them. That's like comparing apples and oranges."
Ryland didn't miss a beat in saying, "Oranges are the far superior fruit."
Cassadee made a face at him. "You know what I mean."
"Sure," Ryland said, "but you're wrong. Food, sex." He held up his hands in a weighing gesture. "Totally comparable items."
"He's right," Mike said. "They're both about feeding the desires of the body." He handed a plate to Cassadee and another to Ryland. "And if you'll all help me carry things into the dining room, you can see how this food compares to sex."
Victoria relaxed and took a plate from him. The evening was going to be fine.
*
"Take five, everyone," Victoria called. "Gabe, over here."
Gabe made a face and trudged across the set to her. She knew how he felt; they'd done twelve takes already, and it still wasn't right. He had to be annoyed with himself. She was annoyed with him.
"I don't know," he said, as soon as he got close. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or why I just can't get this one."
"You're not letting yourself," Victoria snapped.
Gabe jerked back.
"This is it," she said. "This is what this whole story is building up to, and you're too fucking scared to let yourself go where Jasper is."
Gabe opened his mouth, but Victoria kept talking before he could say anything.
"This is a tough scene, but I need you to be inside it. Jasper is in love with Caroline, totally and completely. He's more himself because of it. You say you believe in love, so I need you to show me that. Be in love, and be devastated because of it. That's what's happening to Jasper, and this half-assed effort you're giving me isn't cutting it." Victoria pointed at the set. "You need to give this everything you've got."
Gabe's jaw set into tight lines as she spoke, but that was okay. Maybe if he was angry, he would get it.
"If you've ever been in love, I need you to use that. If you haven't, think about what Cassadee's been like, and what she'd be like if Selena did to her what Caroline did to Jasper." Victoria glanced at the clock counting down the break. "You have three minutes. Get it together."
Gabe went back to his mark without saying anything to her.
"Think that's going to work?" Nate handed her a coffee cup. It was hot, so he must have gotten her a refill while she was talking to Gabe.
"It better," Victoria said grimly. She sipped the coffee and tried not to look like she was watching Gabe pull himself into Jasper. "If it is, this is it. We're only going to get one take." She turned so her back was to the set. "I need you to make sure no one fucks it up."
"Already on it."
That was why she liked working with Nate, aside from the part where he was her friend. He had things under control, and usually knew exactly what she wanted.
By the time the clock counted all the way down, Gabe had managed to make himself wholly Jasper.
"Places, everyone," Nate called. "Quiet on the set."
Everything settled. "You ready?" Victoria asked Jon. He gave her a thumbs up, and she nodded at the PA with the clapper to snap it in front of the camera.
Victoria didn't need to worry about anyone interrupting the take; the moment Gabe started speaking, everyone on set stilled and turned toward him to watch. He'd gone even deeper into it than Victoria had expected. Jasper's despair was going to bleed off the screen.
When Ryland walked off through the door, Victoria gestured to Jon to keep the camera on Gabe. That shot was the one the entire movie hinged on, and she wanted to make sure she had enough of it that she didn't have to quick cut to the next thing. She wanted to do Pete's script justice.
Victoria's voice, when she finally spoke, was loud in the silence of the set. "Cut. That's a wrap for today." She pulled off her headset and started moving as she gave the order. She knew what was going to happen before it did.
Gabe crumbled to floor as if in slow motion. He wrapped his arms over the top of his head like a child, his shoulders shaking.
Victoria crouched down in front of him. "Gabe." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cassadee starting toward them. "Gabe, look at me."
He shook his head. She could hear his breath heaving.
"I can't do this," he said, his voice raw.
"You already did." Victoria put her arms around him. "I pushed you really hard and you did everything I wanted you to."
Gabe's hands moved to clutch at her shoulders. "I can't do that again."
"You don't have to." Victoria stroked her hands up and down his back. "We got it. You don't have to do that again."
His eyes were wide when he looked at her. "Victoria." She could hear that his voice was on the verge of breaking.
"Gabe." She kept her voice even. "It's okay. We're not filming tomorrow. Cassadee's going to take you home. Get some sleep and do something relaxing. Okay?"
Gabe nodded and pressed his forehead against her cheek. She let him rest there for a moment without caring that he was probably sweating makeup and hair product onto her skin. She loved him, and she was proud of him, and a little secondhand product was small price to pay for what he'd just done.
They stood together, Gabe leaning heavily on Victoria for a moment and Cassadee hovering beside them. Victoria handed Gabe over to Cassadee and stayed where she was, just breathing, as she watched them go.
*
Victoria had an editor. She had a whole team of people whose job it was to make her movie fit together. There was no reason she had to spend her day off holed up in her office watching footage and splicing it together to see how it would work best.
She'd always liked doing that, though. She liked putting it together herself. She liked coming to her editors with an idea they only had to make better. She wouldn't have gone into movie making if she didn't want to spend as much time as possible working on movies.
She'd been working long enough that Gizmo had given up on getting her to play and gone off to another part of the house when the doorbell rang. Victoria considered ignoring it, but just the sound had already broken her concentration.
Gabe was not what she expected when she looked through the peephole. She unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.
Gabe held out a Starbucks cup. "Venti nonfat mocha valencia."
Victoria took it from him. "Thank you." He remembered that was her favorite.
"I brought you a cookie too." He had two paper bags clutched against the other cup, and he shifted to hand her one of them. "Can I come in?"
Victoria glanced down at the coffee and cookie in her hands. "Sure. Since you bribed me and all."
Gizmo came skittering around the corner as she closed the door. She turned around to see Gabe dropping to one knee and scratching at Gizmo's ears with the hand not holding his coffee.
Victoria walked past them to the kitchen. She set her coffee and cookie down on the counter and opened the jar of doggie treats.
"Gizmo," she called. "Do you want a treat?"
Gizmo came into the kitchen with Gabe trailing behind him sipping at his coffee. Gizmo jumped for the treat Victoria held up for him. Gabe and Victoria watched him eat it in silence.
"I thought I told you to do something relaxing today," Victoria said without looking away from Gizmo.
Gabe was silent for a long moment. "Can I see it?"
Victoria looked up at him. He didn't try to evade it. His gaze was clear, he'd shaved, and he didn't have dark circles under his eyes. She judged the likelihood that he would freak out again to be low.
"I have it up in the office."
He knew the way, and she let him go first. He took her office chair, and she leaned over him to cue it up to the last, perfect take.
She'd watched it three times today already, so she didn't watch it this time. Just being here like this brought back the best of her memories of First Date. They'd made a ritual out of watching the dailies together in the beginning, before everything else had happened.
She sipped her coffee and watched Gabe put his down on the desk and fold his hands in his lap as the scene played. He exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath when it was over. His head dropped, and he reached out to turn the monitor off.
Then he swiveled the chair around and looked up at her. "That's going to win you an Oscar."
"That's going to win you an Oscar," she told him.
Gabe shook his head. "That." He pointed at the screen. "That's all you. I didn't even know I could do any of that. Shit, Victoria, you get me to do stuff I would never do for any other director."
"It's because I don't let you get away with any of the crap you try to pull."
"No," Gabe met her eyes and held her gaze. "It's because you're the best director I've ever worked with, and I trust you."
*
When Gabe invited Victoria over for dinner, she almost said no. For all that they'd gotten closer again and that being near him all day every day no longer reminded her of how he'd broken her heart, it seemed like too much. It seemed like crossing a line she was trying to keep drawn. But he was Gabe, and she was still in love with him, and filming was almost over.
Gabe answered the door when she rang the bell, and Victoria was greeted not only by the sight of him dressed neatly with an apron over his slacks and button down, but also by the mixed scents of chocolate and spice wafting out of his house.
"You look lovely," he said. "Come in."
"Thank you." Victoria stepped past him into the house. She'd dressed carefully - black dress that flowed softly around her, strappy heels, chunky purple jewelry - and left her hair down over her shoulders. Gabe had always liked her hair. "I like the dressy look you're rocking. The apron really makes the outfit."
"The apron protects the outfit."
Victoria laughed, as she was meant to. "This is for you." She handed him the bottle of tequila she'd thought an appropriate contribution.
"I don't know what it is about you and providing alcohol, but I appreciate it." Gabe led her into the house.
"Just being a good guest."
Gabe had moved since First Date, and this was the first time Victoria had been in his new place. Everything was very open, and the whole back wall of the house, or at least the parts of it bordering the public spaces, was made up of windows. There was a patio outside, with a combination of vines and fairy lights winding around the overhang. Beyond that was a view of the hills, houses that looked like pale blobs standing out against the landscape.
"Wrong direction for the sunset," Gabe said, as Victoria took in the view, "but nice in the morning. My bedroom faces that way too."
Victoria tried to imagine Gabe getting up for the sunrise. "Do you have blackout curtains?"
He grinned at her. "Not quite that heavy duty, but yeah. Mostly I see the sunrise when I'm still up."
The kitchen was fairly neat for a place that he'd been cooking, which meant Gabe was still the type to clean as he went, not that Victoria was surprised. The pictures in the entryway were neatly lined up, the blanket over the back of the couch was folded evenly in half and placed directly in the middle, and she'd heard enough gossip from wardrobe about how well he treated their clothes.
Gabe put the tequila on the counter and lifted the lid off of one of the pots on the stove. "Dinner's almost ready." He stirred what must be the mole, and turned back to Victoria. "I thought we could eat on the patio, since it's nice outside."
It was warm out, so Victoria shrugged. "Sure."
Gabe nodded. "Next question: drinks. Margaritas?"
"They are traditional." They'd had margaritas last time Gabe had made her mole, and the lime and tequila had blended perfectly with the chocolate and spice.
Victoria leaned back against the counter and watched Gabe as he pulled out triple sec, a shaker, and a pair of margarita glasses from the bar area and got limes out of the fridge. Victoria found herself watching his hands as he sliced one lime for garnish and cut another to squeeze into the shaker. He knew what he was doing, and she remembered the way he'd brushed those hands over her hair last time he'd cooked for her, the way one of them had cupped the back of her neck when he kissed her.
She watched him twist the lime around the rim of each glass and swirl them in salt. He wasn't showing off, the way he did on set or on screen, and his quiet competence was all the more attractive.
He looked up at her, and his eyes seemed to catch and linger on her face. "What are you thinking?"
Victoria didn't lie to him, and she chose not to evade the question either. "I like you when you're just being you."
"Well, Miss Asher," Gabe said, "I always like you."
Victoria smiled at him, and she knew it was too soft, was giving away too much. Gabe only smiled back and poured the drinks without disturbing the salt on the rim. He gave her one and then returned to the food, scooping rice and mole from their pots into a pair of serving dishes.
"I think that's it," Gabe said, glancing around the kitchen. He pulled the apron over his head and opened the pantry to hang it up. Without it, Victoria could see just how well his shirt and slacks fit him. She didn't let herself do more than notice it.
"Want some help?"
"If you'll just get the door," Gabe said.
Victoria held it open for him, and he brought out the serving dishes, one balanced in each hand. Victoria picked his margarita up off the counter and followed him out onto the patio.
She'd noticed the tables scattered across it, and hadn't been surprised. Gabe liked having people around, and the patio would make a good place for a party. She hadn't noticed that one of the smaller tables was set for two with bright dishes and white napkins.
There were no candles, and the sun hadn't gone down yet, but the soft glow of the fairy lights and the lamps dangling from the overhang lent the whole scene a romantic glow. Victoria tried not to think about how the evening would end if it were a movie. Instead, she focused on the practicalities of dishing up rice and mole onto her plate.
It was just as good as she remembered.
"Better than sex?" Gabe asked.
"I didn't say it was better than all sex," Victoria said. "Just some." She let that dangle in the air for a moment, then said, "But yes."
Gabe was watching her eat, his gaze too intense for her to hold for long.
"So if you're really good at this," Victoria asked, hoping to deflect some of his attention, "how did you end up with messes Cassadee had to clean up?"
Gabe launched into a story involving one neighbor's cat and another's somewhat famous stepdaughter that made Victoria laugh so hard she had to stop eating just to breathe.
"You're making that up," she accused.
"Whole truth and nothing but the truth," Gabe said, hand over his heart. "Swear to God. Of course, then I came back and there was Cassadee with her hands on her hips glaring at me because the soup boiled over and the bread burning set off the smoke alarm."
"Did she make you clean it up?"
"She couldn't, because I had an interview, which was the whole reason she came to find me anyway. She glared at me for three days, though."
Victoria had to laugh at that too. "She's pretty tough."
Gabe smiled and leaned across the table conspiratorially. "You should see her talk about Selena. You'd change your mind about that pretty quickly."
Victoria twisted the stem of her glass between her fingers. "True love?"
Gabe sat back. "Oh, yeah. Head over heels, and better for it. She used to hang out with me off the clock, but now it's all 'Meeting Selena. See you tomorrow.'"
"Poor you," Victoria said, without even bothering to pretend sympathy.
"I know," Gabe said mournfully. "The life of a young actor is a tragic one."
"It's nothing compared to the life of a director," Victoria said. "I don't even have an assistant."
Gabe waved his hand. "You don't need one. You have the whole set at your beck and call, except maybe the producers."
"Definitely not the producers. It could be worse. Pete's a handful, but not anything like some of the stories I've heard."
"Well, Bob and Jonathan aren't exactly the Weinsteins," Gabe said.
Victoria laughed. "Not at all. Did you know I met them once?"
"Really? You don't seem like their kind of director."
"I'm not. They thought I was the coat check girl."
Gabe started laughing and almost choked on his food. When he stopped coughing, he said, "They would."
Spending time with Gabe was so easy, so comfortable. It was like nothing had ever changed, like they'd been doing this regularly for the last two years. Victoria couldn't bring herself to even think about the reasons why they hadn't.
"There's dessert," Gabe said when Victoria was contemplating a second helping of mole.
Victoria decided against seconds. "Did you make that too?"
"Part of it." Gabe started gathering dishes into a stack.
Victoria folded her napkin onto the table and helped carry things back to the kitchen. While Gabe was putting things away, she followed his directions down the hall to the bathroom.
She peeked into doors as she passed them, taking in an office and a guest room, and going so far as to peer into his room before she went back toward the public areas of the house. Everything was very much Gabe; she couldn't see the influence of anyone else.
There were photos lining the hall, and Victoria stopped to look at them. "Are these your brother's?" she called to Gabe.
He came around the corner from the kitchen to see what she was looking at. "They are. They're all Uruguay on this side, and the U.S. on the other."
Victoria stood so she could see both sides of the hallway and realized that they were deliberately matched: nature photographs on one side faced urban photos on the other, with each set taking turns at showing landscape and cityscape, and people at on both sides at either end of the hall.
"They're good. How's he doing?"
"Good." Gabe went back to the kitchen, and Victoria went with him. "Still can't decide if he wants to live here or there so he does both."
"And how about the rest of your family?"
"Really good." Gabe smiled, bright and happy. "Sarah's pregnant. We're all stoked about that."
"I'll bet." Victoria leaned against the counter and watched Gabe put the last of the dishes in the dishwasher. "Uncle Gabe, huh?"
"Yeah." Gabe grinned at her. "I can't wait. I keep telling her she has to have the baby while I'm there on the interview circuit so I can visit right away."
Victoria laughed. "I'm not sure you understand how babies work."
"Maybe not, but wouldn't that be cool?" Gabe turned around and leaned on the counter across the kitchen from her. "How's your family?"
"Good. The same, mostly." Victoria shrugged. "You know. Not much changes with my parents these days. They're taking a ballroom dance class now. Two months ago it was Indian cooking."
"Your parents," Gabe said, "they did it right somehow. Managed to stay married and in love and now they're going dancing together."
"Yeah," Victoria said. She tended to take it for granted because they were her parents, but it really was amazing in a world where so many relationships didn't work. "I don't know what their secret is."
"Do you think there are secrets? Or is it all just finding your way through uncharted territory?"
Gabe's question made Victoria feel as if she were suddenly navigating uncharted territory herself. Although it was probably a mark of how far they'd come that she stopped to think about the question instead of saying something about before.
"I don't know," she finally answered. "I saw them kiss a lot when I was growing up, and they talk all the time, but I don't know if that's enough to sustain a marriage for thirty years. It seems like the same things wouldn't work for different people, but maybe trust and love and talking to each other is all you really need."
"Navigating the uncharted territory together." Gabe was watching her intently, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It felt like he was really truly listening.
"Maybe. Maybe that's what it's all about."
"Well," Gabe said, "at least it means there's hope. Not all relationships end terribly." Then, before she could think too much about relationships ending terribly, he asked, "Are you ready for dessert?"
Dessert turned out to be a chocolate cake Gabe hadn't made and a raspberry sauce he had. He put two large slices onto plates and drizzled the sauce onto them with a spoon.
"We could have had chocolate martinis," Victoria said as she took one of the plates from him. "Then the entire meal would have been chocolate."
"That would have been overkill." Gabe held the door for her, and they settled back at the table on the patio. The sun had gone down, and while the lights of L.A. meant it was too bright to see many stars, there was still a sense of the night sky stretching out above them.
"I think this might be overkill," Victoria said after she tasted the cake. It was dense and rich, and she would never have guessed it was vegan if she didn't know Gabe would never buy anything else. "This is just about the richest cake I've ever eaten."
"They're a good bakery," Gabe agreed.
They ate in slow silence. Victoria could hear the distant traffic sounds that never really stopped, but there was no noise closer than the occasional barking of a dog somewhere nearby and the scrape of their forks against the plates.
It was just as comfortable and easy as the rest of the evening, and she was sorry to finish her cake because it brought her closer to the end of it.
"It's nice out here."
"I'm a city boy at heart, but I actually like living out here with all this." Gabe swept his arm out, gesturing at the view that, in the dark, was just the shape of hills against the lights of the city with a few spots of light where the houses were. "It's like an escape, but I can be right in the city in no time at all."
As lovely as it was, it was starting to get chilly, and when Victoria shivered, Gabe picked up their plates. "Come on inside."
It was more comfortable in the house, with the heat from Gabe's cooking still bathing the kitchen in warmth.
Victoria watched Gabe rinse their plates and put them in the dishwasher, and realized that now that dinner was over, she didn't have any reason to stay longer. She didn't trust herself to stay much longer. She wasn't supposed to be comfortable. She was supposed to remember that he'd broken her heart. She couldn't, though, when the whole evening had been so perfect, when it was clear there wasn't anyone else in his life now.
Gabe turned around and smiled at her across the kitchen.
Victoria smiled back automatically and said, "I should probably get going."
Gabe's smile dimmed a bit, but he said, "Okay," and walked her to the door. He seemed reluctant to let her go, and part of her didn't want to ever leave. "Only another week of filming."
Victoria nodded. "I know." In her heels, she barely had to look up to meet his eyes. "It's been-" She stopped. "I was going to say 'fun,' but I'm not sure that's right."
"Good, though," Gabe said, "right? A growth experience. Healing." He waved a hand. "All that jazz."
Victoria smiled. "That, yes."
Gabe seemed to hesitate, more uncertain than Victoria was used to seeing him. "Can I hug you?"
Victoria stepped forward and hugged him in answer, and his arms wrapped tight around her. She realized that for as much as they'd gotten closer again, they'd barely touched, and everything about it flooded her senses. She could smell his cologne and the hint of chocolate still on his breath, and he was warm and solid against her.
"If I promise not to do anything stupid," Gabe asked, his voice soft in her ear, "can we stay friends this time?"
Victoria nodded against his shoulder. "Please."
*
The last week of filming flew by in a flurry of activity, and before she knew it, Victoria was standing on a chair in front of her entire cast and crew at the wrap party telling them entirely truthfully how wonderful they all were. There was a general cheer and a toast, and then she was off the hook and got to just enjoy herself.
It wasn't much later that she slipped out of the party. There was an alcove outside where she could take a moment away and smoke. Someone had even left behind an ashtray.
Gabe found her there and sat on the other end of the small bench. "You're missing your own party."
Victoria turned her head to look at him. "So are you."
Gabe nodded. They sat in silence while Victoria smoked.
"I'm sorry," Gabe said, the words seeming to spill out of him, "about Leighton."
Victoria winced and didn't look at him.
Gabe kept talking. "I fucked up. I chose her because she was easy. I didn't have to work for her, and it was never going to be anything more than a fling. You push me. You make me work for everything. You're forever." Gabe was silent for three very long seconds. "I know I fucked up and it's too late, but I wanted to tell you before this was all over. I love you like I've never loved anybody."
Victoria turned to look at his bowed head. When he raised it, his face was as open and vulnerable as anything she'd ever gotten him to do on camera.
She stubbed out her cigarette even though it was only half-finished. "It's not too late."
Gabe inhaled sharply. "No?"
"No." Victoria reached across the scant space between them. Gabe stayed perfectly still, as if he were afraid moving would make her stop. "I never stopped loving you." Their kiss, when she pressed her lips to his, was perfect, and she wasn't even thinking how to frame it.
*
Asher and Saporta: Clandestine No More
posted by Trixie in Confirmations
Rumors have been swirling for months about director Victoria Asher and actor Gabe Saporta. They've been seen out together and seem to have repaired whatever damage was done during the filming of First Date, the first movie they worked on together. Both camps have staunchly refused to comment, and the rumors have been just that. At least until last night's Academy Awards.
Although they each walked the red carpet alone, Asher and Saporta were seated together. When Saporta won for best actor for his performance as Jasper in Clandestine Hearts, they shared a kiss that was almost too racy to be shown on TV, and Saporta followed it up with a speech further confirming their relationship:
Have inside information? Don't forget that you can always email me at tips@trixiesblog.com or use our anonymous reporting form to tell me all about it.
Mix by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morganya
Art bya_dreamwithin
Master Post
Victoria came into her office in the morning to find Nate leaning over her desk, sifting through the papers she'd left scattered across it.
"Sorry. I was going to take care of all of that last night," she said.
Nate waved away her apology. "I don't mind."
Victoria put her bag down and dug out the things she'd taken with her, which she hadn't actually done anything with. "Gabe talked me into having dinner instead of working." She said it without looking at him, but she could still hear the sudden silence as he stopped what he was doing. She couldn't hide in her bag all day, so she looked up at him. He was watching her carefully.
"How was that?" It was a neutral enough question, but Victoria knew it was only the tip of an iceberg of conversation and worry.
"It was okay." She sat down on the couch, facing him. "It was weird, but okay." She leaned forward and said, "I missed him," softly, even though there was no one there to overhear them.
Nate came over to sit next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "I know. Me too. I just don't want you to get hurt again."
"I don't think I can help it," she confessed. "It was awkward at first, but then it was like before." She leaned against Nate's shoulder. "I still love him."
Nate put his other arm around her too. "I know."
Victoria raised her head to look at him. "What about you? Are you okay with this?"
Nate smiled, and there was a secret twist to the edges of it. "Yeah, I'm okay." He pressed his lips to her temple. "Besides, I have a date tomorrow."
Victoria sat all the way up and stared at him. She hadn't noticed anything that would let her in on that. "With who?"
"Brendon." He shrugged under her regard. "We've been getting to know each other better on this project."
Victoria leaned back in and hugged him. "Good for you."
*
Cassadee found her not long after that, after she'd made her way onto the set, while the actors were still in makeup and everyone else was still running around getting set up for the day. She waited patiently for Victoria to finish talking to Jon, and only stepped forward when they were finished.
"Gabe said you would talk to me," Cassadee said.
That hadn't taken long. Gabe must have told her first thing in the morning.
"Sure." Victoria thought for a moment about all of the things still sitting undone on her desk. She could hand at least half of them over to Nate, even with the ones he'd already taken. "Come find me at lunch and we'll sit down."
Cassadee smiled and squeezed Victoria's arm. "Thank you." She didn't hang around to get in the way, but left, presumably to do whatever it was she was supposed to be doing.
Victoria didn't see her again until she was picking her way through catering after they broke for lunch. Victoria finished piling food onto her plate and said, "Let's go to my office. We'll be slightly less likely to get interrupted there."
Cassadee followed her, and took the couch when Victoria gestured her onto it. Victoria pulled her desk chair over to the other side of the coffee table and lowered it so she wasn't quite towering over Cassadee.
"Thank you again," Cassadee said. "I really appreciate this."
"Not everyone in Hollywood is out to get everyone else," Victoria said. "There's a lot of clawing to the top, but there are also people willing to help you along the way."
Cassadee nodded. "I know. I was lucky to find Gabe."
Victoria considered that for a moment, then said, "You were. The truth is that most people in this business don't make it. People who don't make connections never do, and Gabe's a good connection to have. He's pretty much a household name at this point, and he has a lot of connections that can help you."
Cassadee seemed wholly focused on the conversation. "How much harder is it to be a woman in the business?"
Victoria smiled wryly. "As much as you've ever imagined. You're going to have to fight to be recognized as a professional in your own right, and there will be people who will never take your calls, even as they spout off rhetoric about equality."
If anything, Cassadee only looked more determined. "That's not going to stop me."
Victoria could see what Gabe liked about her. She almost wished she could steal Cassadee away to be her own assistant.
"Good. Not everyone is going to be like that - Crush isn't - but you're going to run into it." Victoria took a bite of her sandwich and watched Cassadee think for a moment.
"When you do get someone to take you seriously, what do you want out of a producer you're working with?"
It was a good question, and one that made Victoria think. "Mostly the same things anyone wants out of a boss: support when I need it and staying out of my way when I don't."
Cassadee grinned at her. "I wouldn't know anything about that. Gabe never stays out of my way."
Victoria laughed. Cassadee, she thought, with that combination of determination and training under Gabe, had a chance at making her dreams come true.
*
Gabe found her the next morning, just before they were ready to set up the first shot of the day, and said, "Thanks for talking to Cassadee. She was over the moon about it."
Victoria looked at him for a long moment. "I didn't do it for you." It wasn't a lie; she'd done it because of him, because he'd brought Cassadee up in their conversation, but she hadn't done it for him. She'd done it for herself, because she truly did believe in nurturing and encouraging the next generation, and for Cassadee, because she knew how much it would have meant to her to have someone sit down and talk to her about the realities of the business when she was just starting out.
Gabe's mouth twitched in what might have been the beginning of a smile. "I know that," he said. "Thanks anyway. You didn't blow her off because she's my assistant, and you made her feel like she mattered."
"She does matter," Victoria said more forcefully than she meant to.
"She does." Gabe's face had settled into a soft fondness, and Victoria followed his gaze across the set to where Cassadee and Selena were leaning in close to each other.
She'd called him "indulgent," but that didn't even begin to cover it. It wasn't, Victoria thought, strictly Cassadee's ambition that made their professional relationship work. Gabe truly cared about her, and Victoria had seen enough to know that it was mutual.
She didn't want to let it make her soften toward Gabe, but she could feel that it was having that effect despite her wishes.
*
"You should come over sometime" was one of those things people said but didn't necessarily mean. Mike and Greta, it turned out, meant it.
"We also invited Ryland, Gabe, and Cassadee," Greta said when she extended an actual invitation, with a time and date attached, to Victoria. Now that she knew Greta, Victoria knew that her ability to drop important information in a completely casual manner was actually a skill of hers, and not something she'd planned out for her audition.
Victoria wasn't going to decline just because Gabe was going to be there - if she could have dinner with just him, she could have dinner with him and other people - and she both genuinely liked Greta and was deeply curious about Mike's cooking abilities.
Mike and Greta lived in a small house on a block of similar houses. Theirs was painted a soothing green and the yard, like the others on the street, was neatly kept. Victoria parked on the street, behind Gabe's convertible and across the street from Ryland's sensible Camry.
Light spilled out of the windows, and Greta answered the door haloed in the same warm glow.
Victoria remembered both Greta and Mike drinking when they went to karaoke, so she'd brought a bottle of wine, which she handed over to Greta as she came into the entryway. Greta thanked her, and led the way into the heart of the house.
The kitchen seemed to be the very center of it, with only its counters separating it from a dining room on one side and the living room on the other. Mike was in the middle of it, stirring something on the stove. Gabe was also in the kitchen, leaning against a counter with a drink in one hand and a carrot stick in the other. Ryland and Cassadee were on the outsides of the counters, their drinks between plates of appetizers that had once been neatly arranged but now had spaces where people had eaten from them.
"Victoria brought wine," Greta announced.
"Our fearless leader." Ryland raised his glass in a toast.
Gabe turned and smiled at her while Mike took the wine from Greta.
"Good choice," he declared. "We can have this with dinner."
"That's high praise," Greta said. "Mike's band likes to pretend they're hardcore, but secretly they're a bunch of wine geeks."
"Oenophiles," Mike corrected. "And we're getting older. It's allowed."
Greta laughed. "They think that since William has a baby and half of them have mortgages they're all grownups now. Anyway," she said to Victoria, "what do you want to drink? Gabe said you like Cherry Coke and rum, so we have that. Or we have pretty much anything else you can think of, as long as it's not too exotic."
Victoria didn't know what to think about Gabe telling that to people. She would have had a beer, or plain old rum and coke, or whatever people were drinking.
"Cherry Coke and rum sounds good," she said.
"Here," Greta said, pulling things out and putting them on a counter. "I'll let you fix it yourself." She even had cherries for Victoria to put in it.
Once she was in the kitchen, it seemed silly to go around the counters again, especially when she wasn't in the way, so Victoria leaned back against the counter next to Gabe.
"You should try these," Cassadee said, pointing at one of the plates of appetizers. "They're amazing." She picked up the plate and brought it around to Victoria's side of the kitchen.
The appetizers were some kind of pastry with a mushroom filling that seemed to melt on Victoria's tongue.
"These are amazing," she said. She glanced at Gabe. "Did you try them?"
While he reached across her to take one, Greta said, "Mike made them totally from scratch."
Mike nodded. "You can't get good vegan puff pastry unless you make it yourself."
"Well, I'm impressed," Victoria said.
"Me too." Gabe reached past her to get another one. In the process, he ended up close enough that Victoria could feel the warmth of his body all along her side.
"Me three," Ryland said. "Did you know Alex went to culinary school? He's tried to teach me how to cook a couple of times, but he always has to end up saving my ass."
"I think maybe actors just shouldn't cook," Cassadee said. "You should see some of the disasters I've had to clean up in Gabe's kitchen."
"None of those were because I can't cook," Gabe protested. "I had a good excuse for every one of them."
"Forgetting what you were doing is not a good excuse." Cassadee had the stern look down; Victoria guessed she probably wore it a lot.
As much as Victoria liked watching them spar, it really wasn't fair. "Gabe can cook." She looked at him, tilting her head up so she could see his face. "I think I dream about your mole sometimes."
Gabe's smile was soft around the edges.
"Now you're just a confused cook," Ryland said. "Mole's Mexican."
Gabe's smile turned brash again as he looked past Victoria to Ryland. "Uruguay isn't big on vegan food. I've had to expand my reach."
"And it's really that good?"
"It really was," Victoria said. "I think I've had sex that wasn't as good as that mole."
"Then you're doing it wrong," Greta said.
While everyone else was still laughing, Cassadee said, "You can't compare them. That's like comparing apples and oranges."
Ryland didn't miss a beat in saying, "Oranges are the far superior fruit."
Cassadee made a face at him. "You know what I mean."
"Sure," Ryland said, "but you're wrong. Food, sex." He held up his hands in a weighing gesture. "Totally comparable items."
"He's right," Mike said. "They're both about feeding the desires of the body." He handed a plate to Cassadee and another to Ryland. "And if you'll all help me carry things into the dining room, you can see how this food compares to sex."
Victoria relaxed and took a plate from him. The evening was going to be fine.
*
"Take five, everyone," Victoria called. "Gabe, over here."
Gabe made a face and trudged across the set to her. She knew how he felt; they'd done twelve takes already, and it still wasn't right. He had to be annoyed with himself. She was annoyed with him.
"I don't know," he said, as soon as he got close. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, or why I just can't get this one."
"You're not letting yourself," Victoria snapped.
Gabe jerked back.
"This is it," she said. "This is what this whole story is building up to, and you're too fucking scared to let yourself go where Jasper is."
Gabe opened his mouth, but Victoria kept talking before he could say anything.
"This is a tough scene, but I need you to be inside it. Jasper is in love with Caroline, totally and completely. He's more himself because of it. You say you believe in love, so I need you to show me that. Be in love, and be devastated because of it. That's what's happening to Jasper, and this half-assed effort you're giving me isn't cutting it." Victoria pointed at the set. "You need to give this everything you've got."
Gabe's jaw set into tight lines as she spoke, but that was okay. Maybe if he was angry, he would get it.
"If you've ever been in love, I need you to use that. If you haven't, think about what Cassadee's been like, and what she'd be like if Selena did to her what Caroline did to Jasper." Victoria glanced at the clock counting down the break. "You have three minutes. Get it together."
Gabe went back to his mark without saying anything to her.
"Think that's going to work?" Nate handed her a coffee cup. It was hot, so he must have gotten her a refill while she was talking to Gabe.
"It better," Victoria said grimly. She sipped the coffee and tried not to look like she was watching Gabe pull himself into Jasper. "If it is, this is it. We're only going to get one take." She turned so her back was to the set. "I need you to make sure no one fucks it up."
"Already on it."
That was why she liked working with Nate, aside from the part where he was her friend. He had things under control, and usually knew exactly what she wanted.
By the time the clock counted all the way down, Gabe had managed to make himself wholly Jasper.
"Places, everyone," Nate called. "Quiet on the set."
Everything settled. "You ready?" Victoria asked Jon. He gave her a thumbs up, and she nodded at the PA with the clapper to snap it in front of the camera.
Victoria didn't need to worry about anyone interrupting the take; the moment Gabe started speaking, everyone on set stilled and turned toward him to watch. He'd gone even deeper into it than Victoria had expected. Jasper's despair was going to bleed off the screen.
When Ryland walked off through the door, Victoria gestured to Jon to keep the camera on Gabe. That shot was the one the entire movie hinged on, and she wanted to make sure she had enough of it that she didn't have to quick cut to the next thing. She wanted to do Pete's script justice.
Victoria's voice, when she finally spoke, was loud in the silence of the set. "Cut. That's a wrap for today." She pulled off her headset and started moving as she gave the order. She knew what was going to happen before it did.
Gabe crumbled to floor as if in slow motion. He wrapped his arms over the top of his head like a child, his shoulders shaking.
Victoria crouched down in front of him. "Gabe." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cassadee starting toward them. "Gabe, look at me."
He shook his head. She could hear his breath heaving.
"I can't do this," he said, his voice raw.
"You already did." Victoria put her arms around him. "I pushed you really hard and you did everything I wanted you to."
Gabe's hands moved to clutch at her shoulders. "I can't do that again."
"You don't have to." Victoria stroked her hands up and down his back. "We got it. You don't have to do that again."
His eyes were wide when he looked at her. "Victoria." She could hear that his voice was on the verge of breaking.
"Gabe." She kept her voice even. "It's okay. We're not filming tomorrow. Cassadee's going to take you home. Get some sleep and do something relaxing. Okay?"
Gabe nodded and pressed his forehead against her cheek. She let him rest there for a moment without caring that he was probably sweating makeup and hair product onto her skin. She loved him, and she was proud of him, and a little secondhand product was small price to pay for what he'd just done.
They stood together, Gabe leaning heavily on Victoria for a moment and Cassadee hovering beside them. Victoria handed Gabe over to Cassadee and stayed where she was, just breathing, as she watched them go.
*
Victoria had an editor. She had a whole team of people whose job it was to make her movie fit together. There was no reason she had to spend her day off holed up in her office watching footage and splicing it together to see how it would work best.
She'd always liked doing that, though. She liked putting it together herself. She liked coming to her editors with an idea they only had to make better. She wouldn't have gone into movie making if she didn't want to spend as much time as possible working on movies.
She'd been working long enough that Gizmo had given up on getting her to play and gone off to another part of the house when the doorbell rang. Victoria considered ignoring it, but just the sound had already broken her concentration.
Gabe was not what she expected when she looked through the peephole. She unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door.
Gabe held out a Starbucks cup. "Venti nonfat mocha valencia."
Victoria took it from him. "Thank you." He remembered that was her favorite.
"I brought you a cookie too." He had two paper bags clutched against the other cup, and he shifted to hand her one of them. "Can I come in?"
Victoria glanced down at the coffee and cookie in her hands. "Sure. Since you bribed me and all."
Gizmo came skittering around the corner as she closed the door. She turned around to see Gabe dropping to one knee and scratching at Gizmo's ears with the hand not holding his coffee.
Victoria walked past them to the kitchen. She set her coffee and cookie down on the counter and opened the jar of doggie treats.
"Gizmo," she called. "Do you want a treat?"
Gizmo came into the kitchen with Gabe trailing behind him sipping at his coffee. Gizmo jumped for the treat Victoria held up for him. Gabe and Victoria watched him eat it in silence.
"I thought I told you to do something relaxing today," Victoria said without looking away from Gizmo.
Gabe was silent for a long moment. "Can I see it?"
Victoria looked up at him. He didn't try to evade it. His gaze was clear, he'd shaved, and he didn't have dark circles under his eyes. She judged the likelihood that he would freak out again to be low.
"I have it up in the office."
He knew the way, and she let him go first. He took her office chair, and she leaned over him to cue it up to the last, perfect take.
She'd watched it three times today already, so she didn't watch it this time. Just being here like this brought back the best of her memories of First Date. They'd made a ritual out of watching the dailies together in the beginning, before everything else had happened.
She sipped her coffee and watched Gabe put his down on the desk and fold his hands in his lap as the scene played. He exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath when it was over. His head dropped, and he reached out to turn the monitor off.
Then he swiveled the chair around and looked up at her. "That's going to win you an Oscar."
"That's going to win you an Oscar," she told him.
Gabe shook his head. "That." He pointed at the screen. "That's all you. I didn't even know I could do any of that. Shit, Victoria, you get me to do stuff I would never do for any other director."
"It's because I don't let you get away with any of the crap you try to pull."
"No," Gabe met her eyes and held her gaze. "It's because you're the best director I've ever worked with, and I trust you."
*
When Gabe invited Victoria over for dinner, she almost said no. For all that they'd gotten closer again and that being near him all day every day no longer reminded her of how he'd broken her heart, it seemed like too much. It seemed like crossing a line she was trying to keep drawn. But he was Gabe, and she was still in love with him, and filming was almost over.
Gabe answered the door when she rang the bell, and Victoria was greeted not only by the sight of him dressed neatly with an apron over his slacks and button down, but also by the mixed scents of chocolate and spice wafting out of his house.
"You look lovely," he said. "Come in."
"Thank you." Victoria stepped past him into the house. She'd dressed carefully - black dress that flowed softly around her, strappy heels, chunky purple jewelry - and left her hair down over her shoulders. Gabe had always liked her hair. "I like the dressy look you're rocking. The apron really makes the outfit."
"The apron protects the outfit."
Victoria laughed, as she was meant to. "This is for you." She handed him the bottle of tequila she'd thought an appropriate contribution.
"I don't know what it is about you and providing alcohol, but I appreciate it." Gabe led her into the house.
"Just being a good guest."
Gabe had moved since First Date, and this was the first time Victoria had been in his new place. Everything was very open, and the whole back wall of the house, or at least the parts of it bordering the public spaces, was made up of windows. There was a patio outside, with a combination of vines and fairy lights winding around the overhang. Beyond that was a view of the hills, houses that looked like pale blobs standing out against the landscape.
"Wrong direction for the sunset," Gabe said, as Victoria took in the view, "but nice in the morning. My bedroom faces that way too."
Victoria tried to imagine Gabe getting up for the sunrise. "Do you have blackout curtains?"
He grinned at her. "Not quite that heavy duty, but yeah. Mostly I see the sunrise when I'm still up."
The kitchen was fairly neat for a place that he'd been cooking, which meant Gabe was still the type to clean as he went, not that Victoria was surprised. The pictures in the entryway were neatly lined up, the blanket over the back of the couch was folded evenly in half and placed directly in the middle, and she'd heard enough gossip from wardrobe about how well he treated their clothes.
Gabe put the tequila on the counter and lifted the lid off of one of the pots on the stove. "Dinner's almost ready." He stirred what must be the mole, and turned back to Victoria. "I thought we could eat on the patio, since it's nice outside."
It was warm out, so Victoria shrugged. "Sure."
Gabe nodded. "Next question: drinks. Margaritas?"
"They are traditional." They'd had margaritas last time Gabe had made her mole, and the lime and tequila had blended perfectly with the chocolate and spice.
Victoria leaned back against the counter and watched Gabe as he pulled out triple sec, a shaker, and a pair of margarita glasses from the bar area and got limes out of the fridge. Victoria found herself watching his hands as he sliced one lime for garnish and cut another to squeeze into the shaker. He knew what he was doing, and she remembered the way he'd brushed those hands over her hair last time he'd cooked for her, the way one of them had cupped the back of her neck when he kissed her.
She watched him twist the lime around the rim of each glass and swirl them in salt. He wasn't showing off, the way he did on set or on screen, and his quiet competence was all the more attractive.
He looked up at her, and his eyes seemed to catch and linger on her face. "What are you thinking?"
Victoria didn't lie to him, and she chose not to evade the question either. "I like you when you're just being you."
"Well, Miss Asher," Gabe said, "I always like you."
Victoria smiled at him, and she knew it was too soft, was giving away too much. Gabe only smiled back and poured the drinks without disturbing the salt on the rim. He gave her one and then returned to the food, scooping rice and mole from their pots into a pair of serving dishes.
"I think that's it," Gabe said, glancing around the kitchen. He pulled the apron over his head and opened the pantry to hang it up. Without it, Victoria could see just how well his shirt and slacks fit him. She didn't let herself do more than notice it.
"Want some help?"
"If you'll just get the door," Gabe said.
Victoria held it open for him, and he brought out the serving dishes, one balanced in each hand. Victoria picked his margarita up off the counter and followed him out onto the patio.
She'd noticed the tables scattered across it, and hadn't been surprised. Gabe liked having people around, and the patio would make a good place for a party. She hadn't noticed that one of the smaller tables was set for two with bright dishes and white napkins.
There were no candles, and the sun hadn't gone down yet, but the soft glow of the fairy lights and the lamps dangling from the overhang lent the whole scene a romantic glow. Victoria tried not to think about how the evening would end if it were a movie. Instead, she focused on the practicalities of dishing up rice and mole onto her plate.
It was just as good as she remembered.
"Better than sex?" Gabe asked.
"I didn't say it was better than all sex," Victoria said. "Just some." She let that dangle in the air for a moment, then said, "But yes."
Gabe was watching her eat, his gaze too intense for her to hold for long.
"So if you're really good at this," Victoria asked, hoping to deflect some of his attention, "how did you end up with messes Cassadee had to clean up?"
Gabe launched into a story involving one neighbor's cat and another's somewhat famous stepdaughter that made Victoria laugh so hard she had to stop eating just to breathe.
"You're making that up," she accused.
"Whole truth and nothing but the truth," Gabe said, hand over his heart. "Swear to God. Of course, then I came back and there was Cassadee with her hands on her hips glaring at me because the soup boiled over and the bread burning set off the smoke alarm."
"Did she make you clean it up?"
"She couldn't, because I had an interview, which was the whole reason she came to find me anyway. She glared at me for three days, though."
Victoria had to laugh at that too. "She's pretty tough."
Gabe smiled and leaned across the table conspiratorially. "You should see her talk about Selena. You'd change your mind about that pretty quickly."
Victoria twisted the stem of her glass between her fingers. "True love?"
Gabe sat back. "Oh, yeah. Head over heels, and better for it. She used to hang out with me off the clock, but now it's all 'Meeting Selena. See you tomorrow.'"
"Poor you," Victoria said, without even bothering to pretend sympathy.
"I know," Gabe said mournfully. "The life of a young actor is a tragic one."
"It's nothing compared to the life of a director," Victoria said. "I don't even have an assistant."
Gabe waved his hand. "You don't need one. You have the whole set at your beck and call, except maybe the producers."
"Definitely not the producers. It could be worse. Pete's a handful, but not anything like some of the stories I've heard."
"Well, Bob and Jonathan aren't exactly the Weinsteins," Gabe said.
Victoria laughed. "Not at all. Did you know I met them once?"
"Really? You don't seem like their kind of director."
"I'm not. They thought I was the coat check girl."
Gabe started laughing and almost choked on his food. When he stopped coughing, he said, "They would."
Spending time with Gabe was so easy, so comfortable. It was like nothing had ever changed, like they'd been doing this regularly for the last two years. Victoria couldn't bring herself to even think about the reasons why they hadn't.
"There's dessert," Gabe said when Victoria was contemplating a second helping of mole.
Victoria decided against seconds. "Did you make that too?"
"Part of it." Gabe started gathering dishes into a stack.
Victoria folded her napkin onto the table and helped carry things back to the kitchen. While Gabe was putting things away, she followed his directions down the hall to the bathroom.
She peeked into doors as she passed them, taking in an office and a guest room, and going so far as to peer into his room before she went back toward the public areas of the house. Everything was very much Gabe; she couldn't see the influence of anyone else.
There were photos lining the hall, and Victoria stopped to look at them. "Are these your brother's?" she called to Gabe.
He came around the corner from the kitchen to see what she was looking at. "They are. They're all Uruguay on this side, and the U.S. on the other."
Victoria stood so she could see both sides of the hallway and realized that they were deliberately matched: nature photographs on one side faced urban photos on the other, with each set taking turns at showing landscape and cityscape, and people at on both sides at either end of the hall.
"They're good. How's he doing?"
"Good." Gabe went back to the kitchen, and Victoria went with him. "Still can't decide if he wants to live here or there so he does both."
"And how about the rest of your family?"
"Really good." Gabe smiled, bright and happy. "Sarah's pregnant. We're all stoked about that."
"I'll bet." Victoria leaned against the counter and watched Gabe put the last of the dishes in the dishwasher. "Uncle Gabe, huh?"
"Yeah." Gabe grinned at her. "I can't wait. I keep telling her she has to have the baby while I'm there on the interview circuit so I can visit right away."
Victoria laughed. "I'm not sure you understand how babies work."
"Maybe not, but wouldn't that be cool?" Gabe turned around and leaned on the counter across the kitchen from her. "How's your family?"
"Good. The same, mostly." Victoria shrugged. "You know. Not much changes with my parents these days. They're taking a ballroom dance class now. Two months ago it was Indian cooking."
"Your parents," Gabe said, "they did it right somehow. Managed to stay married and in love and now they're going dancing together."
"Yeah," Victoria said. She tended to take it for granted because they were her parents, but it really was amazing in a world where so many relationships didn't work. "I don't know what their secret is."
"Do you think there are secrets? Or is it all just finding your way through uncharted territory?"
Gabe's question made Victoria feel as if she were suddenly navigating uncharted territory herself. Although it was probably a mark of how far they'd come that she stopped to think about the question instead of saying something about before.
"I don't know," she finally answered. "I saw them kiss a lot when I was growing up, and they talk all the time, but I don't know if that's enough to sustain a marriage for thirty years. It seems like the same things wouldn't work for different people, but maybe trust and love and talking to each other is all you really need."
"Navigating the uncharted territory together." Gabe was watching her intently, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It felt like he was really truly listening.
"Maybe. Maybe that's what it's all about."
"Well," Gabe said, "at least it means there's hope. Not all relationships end terribly." Then, before she could think too much about relationships ending terribly, he asked, "Are you ready for dessert?"
Dessert turned out to be a chocolate cake Gabe hadn't made and a raspberry sauce he had. He put two large slices onto plates and drizzled the sauce onto them with a spoon.
"We could have had chocolate martinis," Victoria said as she took one of the plates from him. "Then the entire meal would have been chocolate."
"That would have been overkill." Gabe held the door for her, and they settled back at the table on the patio. The sun had gone down, and while the lights of L.A. meant it was too bright to see many stars, there was still a sense of the night sky stretching out above them.
"I think this might be overkill," Victoria said after she tasted the cake. It was dense and rich, and she would never have guessed it was vegan if she didn't know Gabe would never buy anything else. "This is just about the richest cake I've ever eaten."
"They're a good bakery," Gabe agreed.
They ate in slow silence. Victoria could hear the distant traffic sounds that never really stopped, but there was no noise closer than the occasional barking of a dog somewhere nearby and the scrape of their forks against the plates.
It was just as comfortable and easy as the rest of the evening, and she was sorry to finish her cake because it brought her closer to the end of it.
"It's nice out here."
"I'm a city boy at heart, but I actually like living out here with all this." Gabe swept his arm out, gesturing at the view that, in the dark, was just the shape of hills against the lights of the city with a few spots of light where the houses were. "It's like an escape, but I can be right in the city in no time at all."
As lovely as it was, it was starting to get chilly, and when Victoria shivered, Gabe picked up their plates. "Come on inside."
It was more comfortable in the house, with the heat from Gabe's cooking still bathing the kitchen in warmth.
Victoria watched Gabe rinse their plates and put them in the dishwasher, and realized that now that dinner was over, she didn't have any reason to stay longer. She didn't trust herself to stay much longer. She wasn't supposed to be comfortable. She was supposed to remember that he'd broken her heart. She couldn't, though, when the whole evening had been so perfect, when it was clear there wasn't anyone else in his life now.
Gabe turned around and smiled at her across the kitchen.
Victoria smiled back automatically and said, "I should probably get going."
Gabe's smile dimmed a bit, but he said, "Okay," and walked her to the door. He seemed reluctant to let her go, and part of her didn't want to ever leave. "Only another week of filming."
Victoria nodded. "I know." In her heels, she barely had to look up to meet his eyes. "It's been-" She stopped. "I was going to say 'fun,' but I'm not sure that's right."
"Good, though," Gabe said, "right? A growth experience. Healing." He waved a hand. "All that jazz."
Victoria smiled. "That, yes."
Gabe seemed to hesitate, more uncertain than Victoria was used to seeing him. "Can I hug you?"
Victoria stepped forward and hugged him in answer, and his arms wrapped tight around her. She realized that for as much as they'd gotten closer again, they'd barely touched, and everything about it flooded her senses. She could smell his cologne and the hint of chocolate still on his breath, and he was warm and solid against her.
"If I promise not to do anything stupid," Gabe asked, his voice soft in her ear, "can we stay friends this time?"
Victoria nodded against his shoulder. "Please."
*
The last week of filming flew by in a flurry of activity, and before she knew it, Victoria was standing on a chair in front of her entire cast and crew at the wrap party telling them entirely truthfully how wonderful they all were. There was a general cheer and a toast, and then she was off the hook and got to just enjoy herself.
It wasn't much later that she slipped out of the party. There was an alcove outside where she could take a moment away and smoke. Someone had even left behind an ashtray.
Gabe found her there and sat on the other end of the small bench. "You're missing your own party."
Victoria turned her head to look at him. "So are you."
Gabe nodded. They sat in silence while Victoria smoked.
"I'm sorry," Gabe said, the words seeming to spill out of him, "about Leighton."
Victoria winced and didn't look at him.
Gabe kept talking. "I fucked up. I chose her because she was easy. I didn't have to work for her, and it was never going to be anything more than a fling. You push me. You make me work for everything. You're forever." Gabe was silent for three very long seconds. "I know I fucked up and it's too late, but I wanted to tell you before this was all over. I love you like I've never loved anybody."
Victoria turned to look at his bowed head. When he raised it, his face was as open and vulnerable as anything she'd ever gotten him to do on camera.
She stubbed out her cigarette even though it was only half-finished. "It's not too late."
Gabe inhaled sharply. "No?"
"No." Victoria reached across the scant space between them. Gabe stayed perfectly still, as if he were afraid moving would make her stop. "I never stopped loving you." Their kiss, when she pressed her lips to his, was perfect, and she wasn't even thinking how to frame it.
*
Asher and Saporta: Clandestine No More
posted by Trixie in Confirmations
Rumors have been swirling for months about director Victoria Asher and actor Gabe Saporta. They've been seen out together and seem to have repaired whatever damage was done during the filming of First Date, the first movie they worked on together. Both camps have staunchly refused to comment, and the rumors have been just that. At least until last night's Academy Awards.
Although they each walked the red carpet alone, Asher and Saporta were seated together. When Saporta won for best actor for his performance as Jasper in Clandestine Hearts, they shared a kiss that was almost too racy to be shown on TV, and Saporta followed it up with a speech further confirming their relationship:
Thank you. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. To the family, friends, and fans who've believed in and supported me over the years, to Pete for an amazing script, to the most wonderful cast and crew for making this movie happen. Most of all, thank you to my friend, my director, the love of my life Victoria Asher. You make me more myself. I wouldn't be here without you.Asher won for best director, and the two were again nearly too hot for TV. (Thank God for TiVo and YouTube so you can watch it over and over again.) Asher was, as she usually is, more subdued than Saporta:
Wow. Thank you so much. I knew when I read Pete's script that with the right combination of cast and crew, we could make it here. Thank you to Pete for that script, to our producers for getting us what we needed to make this happen. Thank you to a crew that worked so hard to make this movie everything it could be. And thank you to my cast. Good direction depends on a cast that can make it happen. Thank you to Ryland, Greta, Gabe - especially Gabe. You made this happen.Will we be hearing wedding bells for Asher and Saporta any time soon? At this point, we can only speculate; they continue to refuse to comment on their relationship. We here at Trixie's Gossip Blog certainly wish them well.
Have inside information? Don't forget that you can always email me at tips@trixiesblog.com or use our anonymous reporting form to tell me all about it.
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