How the hell is it already November already?! I shake my head as I turn the next page on my wall calendar in my office. The network had officially and finally wanted to see the pilot episode script and go over the metric shit ton of notes on it. The deepening concern that the show was science-fiction comedy for network television was essentially seen as a flight risk, and I knew from by all accounts if it wasn’t for the fact Seth had a good working relationship with Fox and the fact that JJ Abrams was JJ fucking Abrams that this show would of never even gotten this far. So needless to say, they were taking a huge bet on us being basically the next Big Bang Theory or in more relatable Fox ratings New Girl. I sigh loudly as I look at the fact it was already November. Most of my friends were already well back into grad-school/med-school/law-school, so that meant more quality time banging out future scripts. I figured this would be the only time that I would be able to break my own stories and essentially get ahead in terms of work for the entire run of the series. Seth and JJ told me to remain firm in that the script was perfect and very shootable. In the back of my mind I was terrified that we were going to become another Hieroglyph show and be canceled half way through filming the pilot. It was my reoccurring nightmare.
I was clearly so lost in my own head that I didn’t even hear Seth at the door, who had clearly been there for a while. “Anna. Anna. Earth to Anna,” He waves his hand in front of my face. I blink as I see white paper to pink skin, finally drifting over to his face.
“Jesus fuck, when did you fucking ninja your way in here?” I quietly shriek and look at him in shock at his apparent sudden appearance.
The older man just shook his head at me,“I was on my way out and saw your light was still on. Thought you had forgotten to turn it off something, didn’t expect you to be zoning out in front of your calendar. Usually you’re out of here pretty early.”
“Decided to reorganize the office, have an existential crisis. You know the usual things,” My paltry attempt at playing off my internal panic. It was true, I had deboxed my latest limited edition dolls finally after watching them look awfully sad in their boxes. Toy Story effected me on a psychological level, alright. Who knows what nonsense they could be getting into after we left. The book shelves had been reorganized once more as well and my script cabinet was actually coming along.
“You okay to drive home?” His voice radiating genuine concern. It wasn’t like the weird paternal concern that the last two voice mails from JJ had been filled with at all. Having a male friend was something I hadn’t had experience in years with.
I shrug a little,“I can probably go crash over at Haley’s.”
“Didn’t you say she’s out of town though?” He reminds me and before I could even open my mouth to respond,“How about we go grab a bite to eat and you just stay over at my place. God knows, I have the room. We can watch a movie or something.”
“Seth, I couldn’t intrude on you like that. I’m-”
He was quick to cut me off mid-sentence,“Nope. Come on. It’ll be fine, besides don’t you already have your dress for the premiere tomorrow night?”
“Yeah,” I say slowly. The fact that he was even insisting on it.
“Come on, we can go nerd out over watching the original trilogy together and we’ll totally be refreshed for the premiere tomorrow. It’ll be fun. I promise.”
How in the hell could I resist that damn face pleading with me? I just sigh exhaustively and let my mouth quirk into a little smile,“Fine. Only because you promised the original trilogy. Let me pack up and I’ll follow you over.”
“Come on, grab your stuff from your car and we can drive over in mine. Your car will be safe here. It doesn’t look remotely valuable,” He snickers at my poor old car. Puffy had been my noble first car since I had gotten my license and sure he’d seen better days, but I had become a better driver with the fear of other cars and random poles at Del Taco that appeared out of no where to dent my door since then.
All I could do is shake my head as he just stands there for a moment and watches me shut down my laptop and start putting the papers into my tote bag. He shakes his head as he notices my new purse,“Do I even wanna ask about the purse?”
“My reward for running in the Avengers Half-Marathon last weekend,“I chuckle as I slip into my coat and walk to the door frame that he was blocking,"Ready?”
“Ready.”
The ride over to the place was fairly dull as we stopped off to pick up the Chinese food order and then right stopped at the grocery store to pick up snacks for the movie night. When we drove up to his gate, my mouth pretty much did the old school cartoon jaw drop. Massive was a vast understatement. This was less a house and more of an estate. Seth just snickers,“It’s bigger on the inside.”
He would fucking casually drop the worst line of Doctor Who. I was well within my rights to sock him in the arm for that. “Rich asshole.”
This was actually my first time at his home and I was having house envy. I mean it’s not to say that I didn’t adore my childhood home back in Orange County. It was a timeless piece of Arts and Crafts styling, but it was only 2000 square feet. But this was absurd. It was house porn. Decorating wise, it was a bit of a let down once you got inside. The man was a bachelor at the end of the day still and it did show. Seth was being the stupid gentleman as he attempted to carry my things in along with the Chinese food.
“You’re going to drop something and then we’ll have a real problem, because it took us ten minuets to get all up here to your damn house. So carry the Chinese food like the precious cargo that it is and I’ll grab my stuff,” I direct him with a tiny bit of a threat laced in my voice. My laptop was precious and didn’t deserve to be dropped again and definitely not on the hard concrete floors of his garage. He shook his head as accept the hot chinese food that I had been safeguarding on the ride over while popping the trunk before he exited the Aston Martin. Seth quickly went inside.
Semi-regularly being given rides in an Aston Martin had to be one of the weird new features in my life. Probably out-shadowed by my vastly rich friendship with the guy who was best know for dick and poo jokes. Grabbing my emergency overnight bag that I had snagged from out of my car and set in the backseat. Shaking the thought from my mind as my stomach growled an order to follow the good man with the beef lo-mein. Letting my feet go inside the house, I attempt to figure out where Seth had ran off to with the food.
“Seth..” I shout out into the house as I mull around looking for him. How could he be so damn quick? Why did he need such a large house? Peeking into the various rooms, before I hear a piano playing from what I assumed to be the family room and let the sound guide me. “There you are. I thought you had left me to starve.”
“No, never. I just went to go make sure the guest room didn’t have like a corpse or something in there.”
“Haha. Okay, show me where I can set my crap in and then let’s go eat and movie. We’ve got three movies and not little time until we shit ourselves for the seventh,” Really, i could help but be so damn smiley around the man. Really, I needed to get me some quality nerd friends because this was a fucking dream. Chinese food and a Star Wars Marathon as precursor to going to the actual Episode Seven premiere.
Seth shows me to a rather spacious guest room that held no dead body and was rather nicely furnished. Quickly shooing him out for a moment while I changed into the pair of emergency pajamas from the bag, then we swing by the kitchen and pick up the necessary forks and we start the hike to where we were having movie night. It was for a lack of better words and actual fucking movie theater.
“Welcome to my man cave.”
One of my eyes just starts to twitch as he gestures to the sign that had clearly been adjusted to say: STAR WARS MOVIE MARATHON ALL WEEK LONG! It was an actual imax theater with large plush seats and very clearly an expensive add on.
“Okay, I’m asking it. Fuck the not saying the obvious Scrooge McDuck. How much did fucking get out of Fox? Because this is cannot be cheap.”
Seth just sits me down on one of the plush couches in the theater and places his hand on top of mine,“An astronomical tune of a hundred million dollars and that’s not even counting my royalties. Personally, I’m impressed it’s taken you this long.”
“You keep an imax theater in your house. That’s basically the nerd hermit life goal,” I sit there shaking my head as he stands up to go find the remote. A fucking remote. Big ass imax screen and it used a fucking remote. I just start opening up the bags of the Chinese food and sorting out the containers as I watch Seth drag in a tiny little table to move the food off the couch. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to be honest, you’re the first person I’ve had a Star Wars marathon in here with,” he confesses.
“Seriously?”
Shaking his head as he grabs one of the boxes that I had pushed towards his side,“You’re an impossible man, Seth. Impossible.”
Seth just smirks as he pushes the play button and the whole room swells with the fanfare of John Williams’ arguably most famous score. How was this my life? Why was I sitting here watching A New Hope with this man? This incredibly talented, brilliant man.
“Ah whiny Luke Skywalker and wanting to go to Tosche Station with his friends.” comments Seth.
“What the hell is even at Tosche station that’s so great? I mean the planet is fucking sand.” Throwing out the valid question. Seth just threw a fortune cookie at my face. “Abuse! Abuse!”
For the entirety of the first film we just joked and talked and ate through it. It was strange to just throw out random behind the scenes facts and to not have to explain any of it to the other person. Really, I needed to branch out in the friendship department. The girls weren’t seemingly passionate about anything.
The Empire Strikes Back was arguably my favorite movie, maybe of all time depending on the week and my mood. It was a nerd thing. But Empire was a movie I had always held closely to my heart. Leia’s reluctancy to accept that she loves Han. My continuing not giving a damn about Luke Skywalker’s plotline. It was just while watching one scene that I felt like that strangely my life was starting to turn into a big reluctant parallel.
Seth and I had somehow fallen into us sitting nearly touching as we sat there and took in the intensity of the movie. Also the fact that we were sharing the double pint of strawberry truffle gelato was the official given excuse as it sat in between us. Both of us spooning it into our respective mouths almost mindlessly. Glasses of Jack Daniel’s abandoned to the sides of us with the bottle sitting on the table with the empty cartons of Chinese food.
Yet at the moment, we had abandoned eating the nearly empty gelato as we watched the scene between the reluctant lovers. Seth’s fingers were barely grazing my own, but neither of us notice it.
Leia finishes welding the valve she’s been working on. She attempts to reengage the system by pulling on a lever attached to the valve. It doesn’t budge. Han notices her struggle and moves to help her. She rebuffs.
'Hey your worship I’m only trying to help.’
'Would you please stop calling me that,’ Leia says, but clearly still struggling. Han hears a new tone in her voice. He watches her pull on the lever.
'Sure, Leia.’
‘You make it so difficult sometimes.’
'I know, I really do.’ Han agrees as he watches her reaction,‘but you could be a bit nicer too… Come on, admit it, sometimes you must admit I’m all right.’
'Occasionally. Maybe… When you aren’t acting like a scoundrel.’ Leia reluctantly smiles as she haltingly replies as she lets go of the lever and rubs her sore hand.
Some how, Seth’s hand had moved on top of mine and had started to rub soothing circle on it. I had instantly brought my focus out of the movie and causes me to struggle to not towards my hand.
'Scoundrel? Scoundrel.’ Han at first appears to be offended by the notion, but starts to laugh. 'I like the sound of that…’
With that, Han takes her hand and starts to massage it. Leia instantly looks alarmed at her own enjoyment,'Stop that.’
“Stop that,” I echo in hushed tones to Seth.
'Stop what?’ Han says innocently.
“Stop what?”
Leia is flushed, confused,'Stop that… My hands are dirty.’
“Stop that… my hands are dirty.”
'My hands are dirty, too. What are you so afraid of?’
“My hands are dirty, too. Are you afraid of a little hand job?”
She looks right into his eyes knowing that dirt was just a substitute for him,'Afraid? I’m afraid of getting my hands dirty.’
My eye brow is raised at his choice of words as he turns his head and quirks it at an angle,“Afraid? I’m afraid of getting my hands dirty.”
Han looks at her with a piercing look. He’s never looked handsomer, more dashing, more confident. He reaches out and takes Leia’s hand again from where it’s resting a console. He draws it towards him.
Maybe it was the trick of the light or maybe it was the time of the night or maybe it was the fact we had both had a little bit to drink. But I could argue that Seth was looking at me with the same piercing look as a young Harrison Ford. It was definitely the flattering, dark lighting that some how made him look unfairly more handsome, dashing and the Jack Daniel’s always seemed to give him the flicker more liquid confidence. His hand just rubs more deeply in a way that a skilled artist’s hand could only do.
'You’re trembling?’ Han seems confused. Then with an irresistible combination of physical strength and emotional power, the space pirate begins to draw Leia towards him very slowly. 'I think you like because I’m a scoundrel. I think you haven’t had enough scoundrels in your life.’
“You’ve been trembling for the last hour,” He states with a hint of matter-a-factness to his deep voice. Why was he saying it like it was blatantly obvious? Like he knew that I had been internally terrified that I had completely lost control of my life a little over six months ago. “I think you’re still thinking about work. And that’s not the point of tonight. The point is to let go.”
Leia is very close and following the exchange takes place as their faces draw even closer. Leia’s voice is barely an excited whisper, in complete opposition to what she’s saying,'I happen to like nice men.’
We were getting very close and following the exchange, we get even closer. My voice is low and breathy in complete and utter terror of being this close to a man, who I would never admit to being genuinely attracted to because it would be such a fucking cliche and ruin my belief that men and women can be solely just friends. What was I saying. I wanted those lips on my damn lips, but damn my brain for actually keeping a choke hold on my tongue,“I can let go…”
'I’m not nice?’
“Can you?”
'Yeah… but you…’
“Yeah… but you…”
He kisses her now, with slow, hot lips. He takes his time, as thought he had forever, bending her body backwards. She has never been kissed like this before, and it almost makes he faint. When he stops, she regains her breath and tries her hardest to work up some indignation, but finds it hard to simply talk.
Seth is the one who boldly moves forward and swoops closer towards my mouth. Oh god. Oh god. It’s happening. His lips redirect at seemingly last second to my cheek and presses a kiss on it. Motherfucker! Then he goes in for the last scoop of the gelato that had been left to seemingly melt in the container.
'Okay, hot shot…’ Leia tries before he begins to kiss her again. She tries to speak again, but his mouth stops her. A swimming giddiness spins her around until, before she knows it, she is kissing him back. Finally, Han breaks the kiss and looks at her. They stand there for a moment looking at each other. Leia is totally, frantically, confused by her feelings. First with her eyes, then with her body, she withdraws, detaches from Han. She slips from his arms and hurries back into the cabin.
There was a manic chuckle as he looks at me with an irreducible smugness about getting the last scoop of gelato from me. I just wanted to slap that smugness off his face. He fucking Solo’d me into giving him the last bite of the fucking gelato. It had a fucking piece of truffle. I was quietly fuming for the next fifteen minuets with him. Looking over at him every so often as he had quickly become reabsorbed into the movie.
Did I have feelings for Seth? Or was I simply confusing genuine male-female friendship as flirting? I mean I had no basis to go off of for what the hell that even was. All I knew is that I treasured my long lunches and dinners with him. I clearly enjoyed just sitting in silence with him eating, even if he infuriatingly ate the last bit of gelato. He was essentially everything I crushed over on fictional men in a bona fided real life human male that I actually knew. I couldn’t ruin whatever this was just because my damn vagina was slightly curious what it would be like for something other then a dildo or a vibrator to be shoved into it.
With that thought, I just pushed the entire train of thought into a nice hole in the back of my mind attempting to forget the whole thing. Sleep eventually took the pair of us half-way though the Return of the Jedi. Subconsciously in our sleep we had started to use the other as a seeming pillow. Which made for an awfully interesting awakening at the pleasant hour of ten o'clock in the morning.
Bleary eyed, I start to grope around for my glasses, despite being reluctant to remove myself from the heat radiator. Eventually, my hands find the object not to far from my apparent sleeping position. That’s when I all but bulge my eyes straight out of their sockets. Seth had firmly wrapped his arms around me at one point during the night and wasn’t letting go. Gently, I nudge my hand up to his face and slowly caress it almost tenderly like a lover would. Then like an annoying best friend, I flick him hard on the cheek with my fingers.
“Wakey wakey, Seth. You need to unclench,” I whisper to his face.
“What the fuck time is it?” His voice completely thick and heavy by sleep. It was the single most attractive sound I had heard. Benedict Cumberbatch had literally nothing on this man’s ear porn voice.
I look around the dark theater. No clock was evidently placed in the room, nor was there a window. So I dryly reply,“A freckle past a hair. We do have to go into the office and you know pretend we’re not bumping out early to go to the movies.”
Seth makes a childish pout,“But it’s Star Wars. They’ll understand.”
“They don’t get to go to the premiere. Nor do they get the movie until Christmas.”
At this point in time has yet to release me from his arms. Not that I minded and I don’t think he seemed to mind either, but then my stomach unleashed the most terrifying growl.
“We should eat before we head in…” he acknowledges.
“Where’s your kitchen?”
“Erm…” He is painfully quiet on the subject.
“Oh god, don’t tell me that you barely cook.”
“In my defense, I don’t really have the time. You know, two TV shows, a few more in the s-”
“Alright, I get it. Show me the way to the kitchen and I’ll whip us something before I start turning into a cannibal,” I say jokingly,“But seriously, that’s going to require you to stop using me as a hugging pillow.”
“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” The flash of instant guilt that he had basically touched me in my sleep was somewhat endearing.
I just shrug it off as we start to stand up and start to shove our trash into the empty Chinese food bag,“No harm no fowl, cuddle monster.”
“Oh come on, I have a reputation to maintain.”
“What? That Seth MacFarlane, official black plague of Hollywood and general equal opportunity offender is actually a big giant softy?”
He just bites his lip and raises an eye brow,“Come on let’s go get food.”
With that, Seth and I went into his sparsely used kitchen. I shake my head at the sheer expense of his appliances. Everything was top of the line and basically a chef’s wet dream. It was my wet dream. Oh the pastries I could make in here. It didn’t take me too long to find everything I needed to make pancakes and eggs. Seth was content with making us coffee with the machine. It was simple enough. Even if life wasn’t simple by any means these days.