Far From Home // t.h.

9 - Tom

"You think so?" she looked down at her shirt, "because I still manage to feel a bit like an idiot right now." She laughed a little, clearly still a bit uncomfortable. Tom felt terrible, feeling like it was maybe somehow his fault. It probably was. But he really didn't see a big deal in it. One of his favourite hoodies was the blue Midtown High one, and he had Spider-man merch (self-bought) all over his house.

"Yeah," he said, "I mean, usually when you try to find merch, they tend to plaster it right across. So you might as well just write it across your forehead that you like something; that would be less obvious."

"That is so true." she sat up straight, now a bit more confident, which Tom was glad to see. "By the way, this wasn't an attempt at... sucking up."

"Really? Cause it's definitely working." Something definitely was. They had only spoken for a few minutes, but Tom could already tell that he was really enjoying talking to y/n. There was nothing forced about the way they spoke to each other. It was casual, fun. Much easier than what he had been encountering the past few years. People tended to pretend, whenever they were around him. Not in the sense of straight-up lying to his face about certain things (though, that did happen) but the conversations he had were nearly ever genuine unless it was with someone he already knew well. People put up these personas around him, never showing their real selves, but only the sides that could impress him. That was of course, very understandable to Tom, and he himself had always been scared of embarrassing himself in front of someone he looked up to but... all he wanted sometimes was just a normal conversation.

And y/n was giving him exactly that. He could tell that this was her. A bit awkward, sweet, funny, pretty... uhm. He felt his cheeks heat up, and knowing how his pale complexion was not opposed to hue, he tried to cover his face a bit, looking over to the side as someone walked into the pub. It was a man and woman, his arm was wrapped around her waist and they took a seat on the other side of the room at a small table. When he looked back at y/n, he caught her looking at them as well. When their eyes met again, both Tom and y/n smiled politely before getting back to the conversation.

Tom had to remind himself at that moment that they actually did have business to get to, just like he had told Greggy. As strange as it felt for him to do so, he was there to interview y/n to make sure that she was equipped to do the work that would need to be done. Yes, for Tom his priority was to find someone he could call a friend, but he knew that as his assistant, she would need to deal with other people and the entire operation that is film-making. He had to be sure she was up for it.

"Uhm, so I know I might not have a lot of experience-" She started to say, almost as if she had read his mind, but at that moment, Greggy finally showed up with Tom's cup of tea. He put it down on the table.

"Who would have thought, huh?" Greggy chuckled, tapping his large hand on Tom's shoulder, almost making him hit the table with his chin, "So y/n, you working Tommy now?"

"Oh, we haven't actually yet-" she didn't know how to respond to that, which was fair. Greggy was putting her on the damn spot with that question, and Tom as well, actually. What a dickhead he would look like if he didn't give her the job now.

"Greggy, mate, could you give us a moment, we were kind of..." Tom looked for the most polite way to tell his friend to bugger off, which Greggy, fortunately, understood.

"Ah, yes, yes, of course. I was never here." With his hands raised, the bartender backed away. Tom watched him walk away, and he could see the grin on the man's face underneath his thick beard. Once Greggy finally took notice of his other customers and started taking their order, Tom took his cup of tea and smiled at y/n. He was going to ask her to resume what she had wanted to say, but then noticed the biscuit that had come with the drink and couldn't help but frown.

"Do you maybe want it?" he offered. y/n blinked before looking down at the biscuit.

"Uh, sure." Tom gave her the cookie and she put it down on her saucer. "You don't like custard creams?"

"Oh, I love them, but I'm doing keto and the second I eat something not on the diet it all goes to shit, basically... that's why the plain tea, if you were wondering." And with that, he took a sip. It was warm and soothing but without the milk or a bit of sugar, there really was nothing more to it. Still, good tea, but Tom definitely missed being able to eat what he wants whenever he wants.

"I have to admit, that sounds horrible."

"Oh it is," he laughed, "but anyway, before we got interrupted, you were saying..."

It took a moment before she remembered what they had been talking about, but she quickly got back on track: "Oh, right, I was just saying that I know I don't have too much experience in the whole assisting thing, but I'd like to think of myself as a fast learner and, well," she suddenly leaned to the side to pull something out of her bag. When she put it on the table, Tom needed a second to recognise the document as a CV. It made him think, he had never actually had to make a CV like that. He had been working in the movie industry since he was 15, in which the most important thing was a headshot. People barely looked at what he had done in his part work. No one cared where he had gone to school, how many A-levels he had (thankfully, because it might not have led him anywhere with that information).

"It's not great but..."

"Aren't people supposed to over-sell themselves during job interviews?" He joked, "you really have nothing to be so insecure about, y/n, this looks great. Very impressive." He said as he scanned her achievements on the paper. She might have just graduated from university not so long ago, but in the years since, she has managed to have done more than Tom had done... ever.

"Oh, thank you."