How You Get the Girl

Setting the Scene

"Anna, please."

The girl looked up, beads of rain clinging to her lashes. The only boy she had ever wanted stood before her, his T-shirt plastered to his skin, black hair dripping rivulets of rain down his face.

"I can't Chris."

The boy took her freezing palms in his, allowing her umbrella to fall as he pressed them to his lips.

"I Love You."

"Aaaaaannnnddd CUT!" a voice trumpeted across the set startling everyone and shattering the peaceful, romantic atmosphere into shards of chaos and conversation. The actors jumped too, caught up in the moment, before reluctantly letting go of one another's hands and putting on superficial smiles to face the director.

The rest of the set was a flurry of activity, jostling, shoving, and tripping over various pieces of unnecessary equipment as they tried to get on with their work.

"Wonderful acting" nodded the director absentmindedly as she flipped through the script. Loretta was a middle aged, buxom woman with cropped, red hair and a no-nonsense attitude. "With any luck we'll have it wrapped and ready to go by Tuesday. You two lovebirds had better head to the dressing rooms, you're soaked. Oh and Cam? Jennie wanted to see you before you left."

Having expressed all of this in one breath, she tossed the booklet aside and began another conversation with the head of the camera crew. Giving Loretta's back a mock salute, the actors took each other by the arm and pretended to skip all the way to the trailers, laughing amicably.

As Ivanna began talking about an incident in a newspaper she had read recently, Cameron took the opportunity to study her face. They had become very close over the past 5 months and he had come to admire the girl's artistic behavior and laid back way of living.

He already knew so much about her in such a short time, and she about him, that the fact that he might be falling in love with her had crossed his mind many times over.

"That's right, tell Woods to bring the original manuscript, we'll have to shoot a re-run of that scene. Where's Clarke? Tell him to get me another mocha- extra foam, and call Gregg while he's at it." The director's voice frog-horned across the clearing, jolting him out of his reverie and interrupting Ivanna's story.

She looked at him as if to say "that woman" and squeezed his arm affectionately.

"Well, this is my stop. See you around." Releasing his palm from her own, she stood at the tip of her toes and gave him a light peck on the cheek, her face flushing pink. As Ivanna disappeared inside her trailer, a goofy smile found its way into his expression.

Cam's mind was so addled, he didn't notice the pile of papers coming towards him until it was too late.

Thump.

Papers scattered like snowflakes and floated around them rather dramatically. A girl lay across from him, her black hair a mess and glasses askew. "Sorry. My bad- here let me help you-" Cameron paused midway as the girl righted her spectacles and practically squeaked when she saw who she had run into.

Paige Woods.

Paige stuttered apologies and hastily gathered up all the fallen pieces of script, pointedly not looking at his face. Quietly he too began collecting a few extras as he watched the girl guardedly. He remembered her well. Remembered all her sweet, expressive texts and how she shut him out. Her sunny smiles and her jealous storms.

Her love and her cold indifference. He remembered Paige Woods.

She remembered Cameron Ventura. In fact, there was never a day when she had forgotten him. His teasing, tender messages. His coy smile. His adorable rosy-faced reaction whenever she suggested something he considered 'inappropriate'.

Remembered his suddenly pushy demeanor and drowning accusations. She remembered his silence.

Holding out her arm to receive the final pieces of script imprisoned in his hand, Paige finally met his eyes, her stone cold glare killing any chance of a budding conversation. "My papers, if you please, Mr. Ventura."

Mutely handing over the papers, Cam watched her expression as their fingers brushed. She didn't even blink. Responding with a curt thank you, she rushed off with the manuscript, her shaking fingers crumpling the already worn sheets.

'I'm sorry, she thought, sorry that I didn't understand. Sorry that I couldn't trust you with my heart. But Air and Water were never meant to be.

'I'm sorry, he thought- fists clenching automatically, sorry that you couldn't tell me how you really felt; sorry that I cracked your heart and you shattered mine. But sorry isn't enough.

'

Sorry will never be enough.

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A/N: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the introduction- will be (hopefully) updating weekly. Kind of my super late entry to the FicFun Romance Contest! Please give this story a chance!

M.