Love me tender

Chapter 8

Stefania POV

I arrive at Danielle's house at 7, I don't know why but coming here always makes me nervous. I ring the doorbell and my nerves get even worse when I hear the word "Coming" from the other side of the door.

Danielle opens the door, jumps a little and says "Hi Bella". How is she so fucking cute?

"Hello beautiful" I say, hugging her and picking her up a little.

She gestures me to come inside, and I do. The house smells amazing, it comes from the kitchen. I smile widely, turn to her and say "Bella, are you cooking? Why didn't you tell me? I could have come sooner to help."

"I wanted it to be a surprise, I happen to be really good at cooking"

"I have no doubt, thank you" I say sitting down in a chair near the countertop.

"No problem, the only issue is that I didn't really have time to make dessert." She says sitting next to me

"I brought ice cream"

"How Italian of you"

"Oh no, I brought ben and jerry's, my favorite gelato spot in LA was closed" I say. She makes a mocking pout.

"But don't worry Bella, I'll take you there one day. Better yet, next time it will be in my place, I'll cook some Italian dishes for you"

She looked at me and smiled, that genuine, beautiful smile that makes your heart stop.

"Really? You'll cook for me?" she said. "I feel honored". She said giving me a brief hug.

"I do make a delicious lasagna"

"Okay all this talking about food is now making me hungry, let's eat."

I see that she has already organized the table. There's some wine on the table, its not the one I brought her. When I asked her about it, she said that she didn't want to open it yet, said she was saving it for later. I help her put the food on the table, she cooked meat and vegetables and some mashed potatoes. It looks delicious. It almost seems like a date; I'm not complaining though. I honestly wish it was.

We talked for a couple of hours, about station 19, about greys anatomy, about what we hope will happen between maya and carina. We both had already read the script for next episode, 3x14. It's an intense one. There are a lot of emotional scenes, especially for Maya. Thankfully, Danielle is an amazing actress, she has the ability to show what she is thinking and what she is feeling with such ease. On and off screen she can make you cry, and laugh right along with her, she can make you feel alive. She makes me feel alive.

We finish our meal and head towards the couch to start practicing our scenes.

I start reading our first scene out loud

Int. Maya's office. Continuous

Carina pushes Maya against the door, closing it as they make out. They kiss  passionately and start moving towards the desk. Carina starts moving her hands around maya's...

I can suddenly feel my face getting redder and redder and begin chocking on the words a little. I look at Danielle and see that she Is looking at me, trying to hold her laughter by biting her lower lip. (Which is clearly not helping). She bursts out laughing and I do too.

As the laughter ceases, she looks me in the eyes, she smiles and bites her lip again. She leans a little bit closer to me and lowers her gaze towards my lips. I feel as my heart begins to race and lean closer until we are only a few centimeters apart.

"Umm maybe we should..." She says, almost whispering.

"Yeah... umm..." I cut her off, suddenly losing my ability to form a coherent sentence. I look at her lips and then her eyes. My heart is racing and I feel a bit lightheaded.

"Skip...this...part?" She says, tilting her head a little, never loosing eye contact. I know it's supposed to be an affirmation, but it sounds like a question... or maybe... an invitation to do the exact opposite.

"mhm, it's... for the better" I say.

"Cool" she says, looks at my lips one last time, smiles and looks away. "So... Next part" I feel like I can finally catch my breath.

I let out a little cough and start reading when Emmett appears. We do the scene in different ways and make some mental notes on what we should each do. After a while we do other scenes and before we know it, we reach the final scene of the episode. In that final scene maya cries as she fails to see how her father abuses her, it is very hard to read and I imagine, very hard to portray.

After reading the scene a few times, I saw that Dani's mood had changed drastically, we sit in silence for a while, I ask her something, but she is completely zoned out. I gently touch her shoulder and say: "Bella, what's wrong".

She wakes up from her trance and tries to shrug it off. "Oh, it's nothing" she says, not looking at me

I grab her face gently, so that she looks me in the eyes "I know you Danielle Savre, it's not nothing... Talk to me."

"it's just... as much as I like making those scenes, my mind has to go to some dark memories to really get in the mood. It's hard... to snap back into myself. To get out of this dark pit." She says, I can see her eyes watering up a little bit.

"But hey, apparently it works. People seem to love the waterworks" She continues, trying to force a smile.

"Don't do that"

"Do what?"

"Act like it doesn't hurt. You don't need to pretend around me. Ever." I say, grabbing her hand and caressing her palm gently. "I'm not gonna ask you where your mind went, I can tell that you don't really want to talk about it right now. However, I'm always gonna be here whenever you do want to talk. Sometimes it's all it takes, to bring back the light."

I see a tear sliding down her face, I wipe it gently and put my head on her shoulder.

"You are amazing, you know that?" she says resting her head on mine.

"I know Bella, what would you do without me?" I say, smiling, trying to lighten the mood a little.

She lifts her head and I do too, she tilts hers a little and says "I don't ever want to know the answer to that question"

"You won't" I say.

"Promise?"

"I promise"

Authors note

Hi wonderful people! Today I decided to write another chapter cause i dont really know when i'll be able to publish another one. 

If you like the story,  have any suggestions or questions, my dms are always open. 

Hope you like the story so far and have and amazing day 😊

C.