-
"Yeah, I like him a lot. I, um- I've connected with him a lot. I just don't know if he actually likes me back. I think he just thinks we're friends now," I said. Sky raised an eyebrow.
"Friends don't look at each other like that," he claimed. I fe...
Ben and I smiled at each other, and then looked back at the poster.
"Wow," Ben finally said.
"It's you," I stated the obvious. We'd been staring at the giant West Side Story broadway poster for a few minutes now. There was Ben featured among with others in the cast, with text in the middle. He'd already started doing commercials and photoshoots for the upcoming production, and now we were staring at one of the promotions. It was incredible to see Ben on here like this. Riff was a huge role, and he was going to get a lot well-deserved attention. I'm so proud of him.
"This is... weird," Ben stared at himself in disbelief.
"It's incredible! Come on, go pose next to yourself!" I urged him to stand next to the poster, and he sheepishly obliged. I took pictures of him, laughing as he made silly faces. We then took a picture of the poster by itself before moving on. We walked hand in hand as we made our way to the cafe we were going to have lunch at, enjoying the sights of summer in NYC.
So far, my time back in NYC had been amazing. I loved getting to spend time with Ben everyday, after so much time was lost to long-distance. It was hard to believe that earlier this year all we had was texts and phone calls, and now I get to fall asleep next to him every night. I was enjoying every little thing about us. Sticky maple syrup kisses after breakfast pancakes. Snuggles in bed before falling asleep. Sitting on the bathroom counter and talking while he shaves his face. Brushing our teeth together and laughing in the mirror. Leaning against his chest and feeling his heartbeat. Ben stroking my hair as I wake up. Taking Hammer on walks and watching him explore the world. The feeling of his soft skin against mine. I loved the world we shared together, and I knew it would keep building and getting better. When you're in a relationship for a long time, not everything is butterflies and that's okay. There definitely are butterfly moments and there always will be. But there are also moments filled with a calm feeling, the feeling that you are home. The love we had was warm and comforting and it was the greatest thing I'd ever experienced.
I smiled at Ben as I was brought back to reality. He squinted.
"What?"
"Nothing. I just love our life."
"I love our life too," Ben smiled back and kissed my cheek before we took our seats just outside the cafe. We let the waitress take our orders and then we started talking about this upcoming month. Filming was set to start next week, and we'd already had rehearsals and read-throughs these past couple of weeks. Pre-production was always the most work, so we'd been super busy this month. It was a lot of work but it didn't even feel like work. It felt good to dance like this again, it felt good to create. I am creating a movie with these people. I'm going to be in a real movie. It was still unreal. It was all so exciting, and I couldn't believe I got to be a part of it. Ballet had a structure to it, and this was so different and more like broadway. I'd missed choreography like this so much.
Everyone in the cast was so nice and we were already bonding. We even met Steven Spielberg, and I definitely felt starstruck. But he was just like any other human, really. He was so down to earth and liked joking around with everyone.
"You look like a true movie star with those glasses on right now," I joked.
"Oh yeah? These Ray-Bans are real, people!" Ben smirked, and I giggled. I took a picture of him to post on Instagram.
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