Silence swept through the halls as Dave and Hellen followed Tommy towards their room. The only thing that could be heard was the distant clamor of a party they left behind and the footsteps which were louder than the party. Dave didn’t know if the footsteps were that loud or if they were so far away from the party for it to be so dimmed. During this silence he started thinking about his reaction and he slowly came to the conclusion it was more an overreaction than a reaction. As he came to his conslusion and decided to apologize to Helen, they also came to their destination.
Dave and Helen enter their room while Tommy entered the adjoining room at the same time. Both were avare Tommy would join them as soon as possible through the door in the middle of the room. Nevertheless, the very second they entered the room Helen bolted towards the adjoining door to get to Tommy.
He might’ve gotten to the conclusion he overreacted a moment ago, but it was this act, this urgency to get to him when he was already going to her that made him wonder how true that comment about her and Tommy was. He realized when he first said it he didn’t really believe it, he was just angry and projecting. Of course he didn’t know that, he just knew he was angry and knew he wasn’t angry at her or Tommy, at least, not at the time. When he first said it he knew it was fake, but now he was second guessing. He didn’t say anything yet though, he didn’t know what to do or say yet.
Before seeing it happen and realizing Helen liked Tommy he planned on making himself a drink before saying anything, in orer to think things over and make up his apology to Helen for what was said tonight. However … Now he felt differently at the words said to her. When he first confronted her about purposefully ignoring him, she said she was changing outfits … After doing a little math he realized it’s impossible for her to be changing that slow, no matter who she is. The drink he poured himself almost overflowed as he realized the gap between when he wrote his first text and when he wrote his second text was at least an hour and a half, and after that he was with Ravi for at least half an hour before he kissed her. If you include the argument between Ravi and her husband and Dave backing away and going back to the bar, it was almost, if not more than 2 hours.
Dave got angered how she expected him to believe she read his message but didn’t answer it because she was changing from one outfit to another FOR 2 HOURS!?!? He realized she probably lied because she was busy doing something else, and seeing how she ran to the door he came to the conclusion she was spending her time with Tommy instead, in fact they have flown here together.
At that moment he wasn’t sorry he said anything because it might’ve been untrue before, but it is true now. He wasn’t going to say “Sorry for saying that.” if he’s just going to repeat what he said anyways.
He took as sip and realized Helen had been talking for the entire time and his thoughts overshadowed her words. He was sort of pleased he didn’t catch most of what she said, otherwise he would be outraged. He knew … well, thought he knew the gist of her words. He thought she was saying how angry she was with him and how she was doing this whole fake dating thing perfectly and he was the one ruining it.
He turned around and the only thing he caught was “I don’t want to mix work and pleasure anymore.” After hearing that he didn’t react immediately. Instead he did something he usually never does and he observed. He figured Helen liked Tommy, but he was determined to find out if Tommy likes her back all through Tommy’s speech. "Well I understand where you are coming from Helen, and I’m sure Dave does too. While Dave had no idea what she said. “Maybe if y’all are both ready and willing to end the fake relationship …” Dave wanted to beat his fist against his head for not half listening to Helen to know if she actually suggested that or if she said something different and Tommy was bringing this idea up. He looked at her when it was said to try and figure it out and he noticed the absence of shock by this suggestion … Which he took as her not hearing this suggestion for the first time aka having been the one to suggest it. He was relieved … For the longest time he felt this relationship wasn’t it. He half listened to Tommy, having learned his lesson, and half gazed at Helen as she looked at Tommy. They way she looked at him, which he hadn’t noitced before felt so obvious now … The way her eyes focused on him made him feel a pang of jealousy. He confused himself because he felt jealous and desired that look too … But he knew if she turned around now and looked at him that way he would feel uneasy. He was jealous yes, but not for Helen’s loving gaze but that loving gaze but … somebody’s. Except he didn’t realize that was the reason. He ecided to stop this silly idea and turned his head towards Tommy to realized Tommy was gazing back at him. Dave felt uneasy by Tommy looking at him as if trying to read him so Dave turned his face away like a toddler avoiding somebody’s eyes while lying. Tommy continued talking about the schedule and soon after he turned away to make some phone calls. Dave decided to use this to talk to Helen withouth Tommy there. He downed his drink and thought for a second, making the realization that this fake relationship is over irregardless if Tommy likes her back or not. If he likes her back then there’s no room for him in this relationship, they’re always going to be sneaking away to be together and making excuses, which will ruin the relationship anyways … And still, if he doesn’t like her back in that way, it’ll hardly make her stop liking him, and she’ll always try to be with him which will do just about the same thing for the relationship. He walked over to her and said the first smart thing to come out of his mouth. “I don’t agree with you Helen. Neither of us were mixing pleasure with business. Neither of us liked doing this fake relationship. Just think about it … When on set we were pretending to love each other and pretending we’re a couple only to come back home and pretend we loved each other and pretending we’re a couple. I don’t know about you but it BOTH sounds like work to me.” He pronounced the word both. He sighed. “Thinking back on it now, it was too much for two actors just starting out to have a 24/7 acting job. Something like this is just too much for amateurs like us.” He sighed again, this time turning to a more serious topic. From Tommy’s speech he couldn’t figure out if he liked Helen or not, so he decided to ask her straight. “Now Helen … I want you to tell me why you lied to me? Why did you leave me on read? I know you weren’t changing your outfits for two hours, so what were you really doing?” He said all this in a calm, soft tone so Tommy wouldn’t hear it … Especially if she decided to confess something that she doesn’t want to confess immediately to Tommy. And although he was still angry at her, he swallowed it and avoided anger from seeping outwards. He wanted to avoid being obviously angry because she had more reason to be angry with him, and if he showed signs of anger she might lie again. He didn’t really care what she was doing, he only cared who she was doing it with at this point.
@eunoia - Helen
@ChayChay05 - Tommy