Authors: Marianna Roberg
"Madame Yolanda with her crystal ball?" he suggested with a quirky smile.
"I was thinking more the aunts in
Practical Magic
. Minus the special powers."
He was thoughtful. "Haven't seen that, either."
"You are so deprived."
At the look on his face, she said, "I said
deprived
, not
depraved
."
"Pity," he sighed.
Jaina scooped up a bit of dough and flung it at him. It hit him on the cheek. He looked shocked for a moment, then threw a bit at her.
In seconds, a full-scale cookie-dough war was waged. Jaina was glad she'd worn grubby clothing, because it wasn't long before they were both covered in goo.
Finally, they declared a truce.
"Well, I guess we won't be baking those cookies," he laughed, looking at her. She had cookie dough on her nose and chocolate chips on her shoulders. "Why don't we... well, I can loan you something, so you can take a shower, and then we can order in while we run a load of wash."
Jaina smiled, then wrinkled her nose as she realized the extent of the damage. "Okay, that'll work."
Chapter Seven
After they'd cleaned the kitchen, Colin let Jaina use the downstairs bath. To her discomfort, there was a large sliding glass door that looked into the yard... with no curtains.
"He's an exhibitionist," she muttered, shaking her head.
Jaina had stripped off her stained clothes and dumped them in a heap on the floor. She had a large bath towel, and wrapped that around herself as she filled the tub. Colin had loaned her some shampoo, and conditioner. She set these on the edge of the tub.
After she'd filled the tub, Jaina sank into the bubbles. She quickly washed the gunk out of her hair, then relaxed back against the foot of the tub and sighed.
But part of her wouldn't completely relax. That was the part that was squealing, "I'm in Colin Pierce's bathtub!"
"Shut up, brain," she muttered.
She couldn't let herself think about him. She couldn't think about the fact that he was upstairs... taking a shower... wet, and soapy, and-
"AGH!"
Jaina sat up quickly enough to splash water over the side of the tub. She sighed and stood, glad she'd finished washing off. She needed to get out, anyway. She'd spent so much time trying to not think about him, she'd been in there twenty minutes, just sitting.
She got out and used one of the hand-towels to mop up the floor.
There was a knock on the door, and she realized suddenly that the shower upstairs had stopped running sometime before. "Yes?" she called.
"Uh, I've brought some clothes for you. Should I, uh..."
"Leave them outside the door!" she called.
She scooped up the towel and was wrapping it around herself when the door started to open. Horrified, she realized that a) she hadn't locked it, and b) Colin had apparently not heard her correctly.
Jaina moved forward to stop the door, stepped on the end of the towel, and pitched forward as the door opened.
She caught herself on the door, one hand clutching the towel... at the level of her waist.
For one moment, they stared at each other.
Colin's blue eyes dropped, then a wave of red went up from the collar of his light blue tee to his damp, spiky hair. He quickly looked away, mumbling, "Sorry! I thought you said-"
Jaina hauled the towel up. "Do you have hearing problems? I said outside!"
Colin dropped the clothes and stumbled back, still incoherently babbling apologies. The door shut.
She sighed, clutching the towel to her chest. "Oh, lovely."
Then she thought, "What does it matter? He's gay. It's not like he's gonna be attracted!"
Jaina scrunched up her face, and eyed herself in the mirror over the sink. Well, she wasn't ugly. Not skinny. Definitely had some shape. Curvy hips, trim waist, and a rather... generous portion up top.
Sighing, still feeling embarrassed but a little better now that she'd comforted--comforted!--herself with the thought that he was, in fact, gay as her transvestite stripper neighbor back in Sydney, Jaina bent and gathered up the clothes he'd dropped. An oversized t-shirt, in--what else?--blue, with some pajama pants.
Jaina wriggled back into her underwear, then, feeling very weird, she pulled on the borrowed clothes. They smelled like him, and for a moment, she stood there, eyes closed, realizing with a sinking feeling that she was falling in love.
♥♥♥
It was with a weird flutter in her stomach that she joined Colin in the kitchen, after she'd dried her hair and pulled it back in a damp braid. She pulled out a chair and sat down at the small, tile-top table.
"Uh, sorry about earlier," he began.
Jaina raised a hand to stop him. "It's okay. You misheard. Let's, uh, forget that happened, okay?"
He was all too eager to agree. "I think the only delivery places open this late are pizza..."
"That sounds fine."
Colin ordered a medium pizza, with the works on his half. Jaina's half had chicken, ham, and pineapple, which Colin said more than once was very weird. She just made a face at his olives and peppers.
"You have cheese on your chin," Jaina said with a smirk.
Colin chuckled sheepishly, then wiped it away with a napkin. "How was your day on set?"
"Same as usual. Applied makeup to various faces, including yours, and only put my book down to reapply at various junctures. I spend all day in the trailer, pretty much, so it gets kinda boring."
"You don't
have
to spend all day in the trailer," he pointed out. "And next week, when we're on location in Warkworth, you won't even
have
the trailer."
"That's true." Jaina plucked an olive from her slice of pizza and dropped it on his plate. "We gonna carpool? I could ride with Angela some days, maybe..."
"No, carpooling is fine, as long as you like Bowie."
Jaina used a napkin to mop a little grease off her pizza. "Bowie?"
"Yes, I have to blast him at full volume when going to work on location."
Her brow furrowed. "But why Bowie? Why not Darren Hayes?"
He looked up and saw that she was teasing. "While both are very nice, Bowie is better."
Jaina shrugged. "Okay, I'll have to agree to disagree there, but Bowie isn't bad."
"So you find Mr. Darren 'I was part of a band that no longer exists' Hayes to be better than BOWIE? That's it. You're driving with Angela."
"Gee, thanks," she said with a laugh. "I'll just take my REM CD with me, then."
Colin hesitated momentarily. "I can compromise for REM."
"But I promise I won't make you listen to Celine Dion or Richard Marx," she told him solemnly.
"Thank you," he said with a delicate shudder. "Ever so much."
"Hey, Richard isn't bad!" Jaina said defensively. "He's got some really great make- Uh. Rock songs."
"Stop. You're scaring me."
She continued, "The music you must fear is Spice Girls."
Dramatically, he slapped his hands over his ears. "Stop! My ears! I can't handle the horror! Although, Posh, very appealing."
Jaina choked on a pineapple chunk. When she'd quit coughing, she asked, "Oh, really?"
Colin had stood and fetched a glass of water. he slid it across the table. "Yes, it's the pouty thing. Kind of like she isn't going to talk back. Traditional idea of femininity. Ooh, good point for the Winter Debate. If it fits the topic." The Winter Debate was a charity comedy debate he'd participated in for a few years.
"Which is, let me remind you, in June. And we're on location in Warkworth then, too."
"Damn," he sighed. "Oh well."
"Yeah. Though I'm glad you've ditched the sideburns since the last one."
Colin feigned shock, hand over his heart. "I thought that they were quite masculine!" he said.
"Which is why you sported them in that episode of
Age of Heroes
," she said wryly. "Along with the half-a-wig thing with the turban."
"Let’s not discuss the turban."
Jaina nodded. "Good idea."
"Yes, of course it is," he said, voice a little smug. "I said it."
She raised a perfectly shaped brow. "Oh? Tsk, tsk. What an ego."
"You help to inflate it," he said, pointing a breadstick at her.
Jaina placed a hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to will away the mental image.
“Headache?”
“Turning into one.”
Colin shuddered in sympathy. He stood, tossed his napkin into the sink, and said, "I'm going to check on the laundry."
"Okay. I'll clean up in here."
Jaina cleared away the plates, and stored the rest of the pizza, in the box, in the refrigerator. She was just wiping off the table when Colin came back, her clothes held carefully folded.
She took them, and hugged them to her chest.
For a moment, neither spoke. Finally, Colin cleared his throat.
"Well, I guess I'd better take you home now."
"Yeah, I guess. And next time, I'll actually teach you something, not throw food at you." Jaina smiled briefly.
"That would be fantastic."
There was another awkward silence.
"Yes, well do you still cower in fear of the oven?" she asked.
"No, now I cower in fear of you."
Jaina chuckled. "Aww, how sweet."
Colin laughed. "Yeah, whatever. Get changed and get your butt in the car, McGregor."
Chapter Eight
"Hi!"
Jaina was startled out of her rather bad romance novel when the door opened and Angela popped in. She hadn't known her friend was on set that day.
"Hey," she said. "You're filming today?"
"No, I'm actually not. But since I couldn't get ahold of you last night, I decided to stop by." Angela took a seat in the other chair. "I called your house, but your sister-in-law said you'd gone to dinner with Colin."
Jaina rolled her eyes. "Technically. I actually went over to his place to show him how to use the oven. We were gonna make cookies, but then we had this food fight with the dough... It's a long story."
Angela grinned, her blue-green eyes sparkling. "So you're over the whole avoiding Colin thing, huh?"
"It's kind of hard when the guy I'm trying to avoid follows me around constantly."
Jaina put her bookmark in the novel and set it aside. "Let's go outside. I'm sick of being stuck in here all day."
"Good idea. We can wander over to the soundstage."
Together, the two women left the trailer and walked the short distance to the soundstage.
"So what's Colin's place like?" Angela asked. "I've never been by."
"It's... white. The skylights are cool, but... it's white. Plain, boring white. He's got some paintings and stuff, and the curtains are red, but... There's a lot of white. And a blue sofa."
Jaina refrained from mentioning the bit about the bathroom, and everything that had occurred there.
They entered the stage, Jaina carrying a few bits of makeup with her, just in case she was needed.
Then she spotted Colin, who was obviously getting ready for a shot. Where he was shirtless.
She must have made some noise, because Angela looked at her, then at Colin, and back.
"Jay?" the blonde woman asked.
Jaina couldn't take her eyes off Colin. "Crap," she muttered. "Ange, I have a question."
Angela grabbed her arm and hauled her over to some chairs. "Sit. What?"
She had to set down the handful of bottles and applicators. Then she shoved a shaking hand through her hair. Her green eyes were fixed, as if glued, on Colin, who was oblivious to her presence as he walked around, dressed only in a pair of shorts.
"Angie..." Jaina's voice was very soft. "How do you avoid falling in love with someone?"
Her friend glanced briefly at Colin; having once played Alex's girlfriend, she'd already seen it. Her face was concerned as she looked at Jaina, who looked both miserable and wistful. "You can't, Jaya. Sorry."
"That's what I was afraid of." She finally managed to drag her eyes away, aware that her cheeks were burning. "I don't know what to do. I think I'm..."
"In love with him? Yeah. Fortunately, he's a guy, and dumb as a stump." Angela's brow furrowed. "I don't know how to help you. It's kinda hard to set up two people when one of them is gay."
"Allegedly," Jaina said automatically, but knew her protest was hollow.
Her friend didn't know what to say. "Sorry" was hideously inadequate.