my favorite part • chris evans (bwwm)

• ten •

"PHOENIX!"

"Huh? What?" She snapped her head up at the sound of Tom shouting her name.

"You've let me win 3 times in a row." Tom frowned while gesturing to the television, where they were playing Star Wars Battlefront II on Xbox. "It's no fun playing when you're not even putting up a fight."

"My bad."

Tom took Phoenix's controller and sat it down on the coffee table, placing his own controller right next to hers. "Where's your mind at?"

"I don't know." She lied.

"Well for one, I know you're lying but I won't force you to talk about it if you really don't want to." He told her. "Just know I'm here with open ears if you do decide you want to get it all out."

"I don't know if I should go out with Chris."

"What? Why not?"

"He's this HUGE star and I'm just little ol Phoenix, from UCLA, trying to break into the film industry." She sighed.

"Chris doesn't care that you're not a HUGE star. None of us do." Tom assured.

"I don't know, it's less about his status and more about mine. Reputation is EVERYTHING in Hollywood." She brought up. "How would it make me look to other directors, producers, videographers, and basically anyone who's in the business if I got romantically involved with someone like Chris? Half of those people would think I'm using him to boost my career and the other half just wouldn't take me seriously, plain and simple."

"Why do you care what people think?"

"Personally, I don't." Phoenix replied honestly. "But professionally, it means a lot. If even one director with enough pull said I was hard to work with, for example, no one would want to work with me. His opinion would determine my entire future. That's just how this business is. I've worked way too hard for myself to have people accredit my success to a man."

Rather than speaking right away, Tom took a few moments to compose his thoughts. Everything Phoenix said was completely valid. And he tried to take everything into account as he put himself in her shoes.

Phoenix had spent 4 years at UCLA, making short films and networking in an attempt to get hired on a big movie set. Thanks to her father's connections, she was able to show her work to the Russo brothers and secure a spot as part of the crew for Infinity War. After working on the set for 2 and a half months, she caught the attention of Chris Evans and had gotten friendly with him over the course of another month or so, putting her entire time on set at almost 4 months.

"You've been around everyone for a third of a year, Phoenix. Pretty much everyone, cast and crew alike, know what kind of worker you are." Tom spoke after a few minutes of silence. "Not once has it ever crossed my mind that you were on set for any other reason than to learn from the Russo Brothers. You're so far along at this point that going on a date with Chris wouldn't change anybody's perspective about you. I mean us knowing who you are only makes more sense as to why Chris would be into you in the first place. I just can't imagine anyone judging you based on those facts."

Phoenix furrowed her eyebrows. The last thing she expected was for Tom to give such a thought out response to her concerns but she wasn't too surprised. He always seemed to know the right thing to say to get her out of a trance, which was one of the reasons she loved him so much.