Out Of Focus (Wattys 2023)

14. I'll Take Honesty For 200 Alex.

"Geisenburg sent you a thank you card, you should probably send him a fruit basket," they're words from Pen that Oliver can hardly pay attention to the next morning from his seat in the blacked-out Range Rover.

The only thing that's bringing relief from his hangover (hey the legal drinking age in Australia is 18) is coming from how dramatic Ava was when he sent her ass home last night.

"Just wait until my subscribers hear about this in my best looks for heartbreak post-Oliver Henderson!" She had screamed before storming out.

Turns out, there wasn't a mix-up of secret boxes, Ava had just blatantly lied about her secret, thank God for secret cameras and microphones (surprise surprise; but he's not sure how his secret hasn't come out at this rate).

"Are you listening to me, Oliver?" Pen asks.

Oliver sighs, leaning his seat back while they cruise down the road.

"So like those fancy cheeses you all have here, or are we thinking good ol' fashioned fruit?" He asks.

Pen raises an eyebrow, obviously very annoyed. "Could you take something other than your career seriously for like five minutes?"

"Fine," Oliver says. "We'll have the fruit basket delivered by a drone or something. That screams billionaire extra-ness right?"

That gets Pen to smile. "Only if the drone is also dropping a hundred dollar bills for him to wipe his ass with."

They both chuckle at that one.

It's nice, as frustrated and hungover as he is, to have some more time away from the set; even if it's with the one woman who won't let him stop working (not that he has much else in the States). It's always been this way really, he works himself to death, and then Pen takes him somewhere he can turn his brain off and act like a real person (for as much as that's worth).

Today he's donning one of his favorite disguises: black sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a cheesy fake beard and wig Pen bought from Spirit Halloween (he had specifically requested those additions). They're driving to Santa Monica Pier, one of his favorite beach spots in the state if he's being honest. If there's a place to clear his head and forget his man-sized problems it's there.

"Things going OK with that Shayne guy on set?" Pen finally asks, shattering any illusion of a calm day. "I've seen him around and seen you both talking. Things staying pretty professional since the whole contract mess?"

Oliver wants to remind her that the contract mess was her idea and to tell her that she is partially responsible for things imploding between them right now. He also knows that doing that would ruin his fun day away.

"Oh yeah," he finally says. "Things are peachy. Just another production assistant on the set of my most-watched live show. I mean, have you seen our ratings; we're crushing 'The Bachelor', take that, Arnold Palmer."

Oliver's learned something about Pen that he just exploited. Even if he lies to her, if he tells her at least half of what she wants to hear it's smooth sailing. He just has to get her mind tied up enough to go with it.

He sets a mental stopwatch and counts; three, two, and one.

"Game-changing, you have yourself a hit kiddo," she says, victory spreading across his face as he presses his cheek to the warm glass.

"This is going to take your career to the next level, everyone is talking about Oliver Henderson."

And he knows that to be the most fact of them all, people can't stop talking about him (and it's exhausting). Just on Twitter in the last hour alone, his name has been trending along with the show, final four ladies, and Ava's meltdown.