It all started in Gary (Indiana) with a letter letf on the sidewalk by a girl with long hair and the most beautiful eyes.
"For Michael, the show business wasn't boring or scary anymore because everywhere he went, Aria was with him. She was in every...
Aria stops the car in front of the set. She hears the music playing already and her eyes look at the watch on her wrist. "9:30 pm. Damn." She runs out of the car and goes towards the set.
"Okay guys!" The director yells. "We'll have a 15 minutes break." Aria sees Michael going into his dressing room and she tries to follow him.
"Hey," she greets him and leans against the door. "Sorry, I'm late." Aria takes a few steps forward.
"Oh, hi." Michael simply says and Aria rolls her eyes at herself. "Decided to show up?"
"I got stuck in traffic." Aria gets closer to Michael and, out of habit, checks his costume. "Jesus, this ain't right." She puts Michael's blue shirt inside his trousers and adjusts his white long belt.
"Tatiana helped me." He says, calmly as usual and that gets Aria irritated.
"Well, she should just stick to her dancing then. This looks awful." Aria folds the belt into a knot. "That's better." She looks up at him.
"You weren't here doing your job so someone had to." Michael is clearly mad at her. Usually he tries not to take these things personally but working with family is always difficult.
"I told you, I got stuck-"
"Hi," A tall, thin and tanned girl appears at the door. "Oh, I didn't know you were here with someone, sorry."
"There's no problem Tatiana." Michael smiles. "Come in," Tatiana gets closer. "This is Aria, my fashion designer."
"And sister." Aria adds and shakes Tatiana's hand, making an effort to smile.
"Nice to meet you, Aria." Tatiana giggles and looks at Michael. "Did you rearrange the clothes?"
"I did, they were," Aria folds her arms near her chest trying to find a word to describe Michael's previous outifit. "A little messy." Tatiana tries to hide a frown and Michael shoots a deadly glare at Aria.
"Tatiana, they need you in your dressing room." Karen walks in and Tatiana goes out, obviously offended. "Hey, I thought you weren't coming," Karen hugs Aria smoothly. "You can sit down Michael, I'm just going to retouch your makeup." Michael sits down but never takes his eyes off Aria.
"Probably she had more important things to do." He said and by this time Aria is sick and tired of Michael's stupid remarks.
"I WENT BACK, OKAY." Aria yells and suddenly the room is filled with nothing but silence. "I fucking went back there." She says, breathing heavily. It's like she needed to say it outloud to be down to eart again.
Michael doesn't need to ask where did Aria went to. He knows it. Michael knows the promise she had made.
Aria grabs her bag and walks to the door. "If anyone needs me, just call. Okay, Karen?" Karen nods and then Aria leaves the room.
"What was that all about?" Karen asks while applying powder on Michael's face.
"I don't know," Michael lies and sighs in frustration. "Let's just get this over with."
Michael is obviously worried about Aria. Since she was a little girl Aria promised to never go back to Gary Indiana again. One time the whole family went to Gary for a show and to reunite with the people but Aria stayed in California instead. So, to Michael this is all very strange. Why, he thinks. Something must've happened.
Meanwhile, Aria just walks to the car again. She opens the door, gets in and breaks down. It's not easy for her to cry about something but lately she's been in an emotional rollercoaster. She breaths in and out slowly and gets on the road again, going back to the hotel.
"Okay everybody, that's a wrap!" The director announces and Michael smiles, not because he's excited, but because he's tired and glad that it's over now.
"Thank you," Tatiana's voice takes Michael out of his trance. "It was very nice to work with you, all of you." Her voice is raised so everyone around her could hear. They all smiled and applauded.
"Tatiana," Michael calls when the dancers and the crew start to spread away. "Why did you come to my dressing room earlier?"
She smiles and looks down. "I wanted to talk to you." Michael grins. "I was going to ask you out for dinner or something."
"Oh boy," Michael wasn't expecting that. He thinks he should be the one asking a girl out. "Ahm,"
"Frank said you wanted to... so," Frank you rat, Michael thought.
"I would love to." He answers. Michael's heart starts pounding when he feels Tatiana's hand in his pocket.
"There's my number." Michael couldn't move.
"C'mon guys. Group pic! Everyone get together." Andrew, the photographer, calls. Tatiana puts her arm on Michael's shoulders. "All together, c'mon. Jackson, you can give me a better smile man." Michael leads his hand to Tatiana's waist. He does it very carefully not wanting to seem rude or disrespectful. Then he smiles.
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