She should have known that a Work It interview would have included Jordan Williams’ attendance. No, Sadie hadn’t at all been told, but she should have expected it. However, as her laptop screen with the Zoom call started dividing as more people joined, she almost forgot to hide her complete surprise when Jordan’s face joined the rest, and Sadie could see his mutual, but disguised, feeling.
Of course, the interviewer had to take advantage of this situation, all their questions being targeted towards Jordan and Sadie. And if they weren’t at them, they would be asking the rest of their castmates what it was like working with the ‘recently separated lovers’. While most questions had been subtle, soon the explicit questions came, and they first singled out Jordan asking what happened between them and how it was working together. As they had for the majority of the call, Sadie’s eyes floated to his screen where they stayed locked for the remainder of his answer.
Sadie condensed the smile that instinctively came from Jordan’s voice. Maybe for a moment she forgot the past four years and forgot that this was an interview with people watching them. A little fantasy she wanted so badly to be real. But that was brought to an abrupt stop by Jordan directing a question back to the interviewer, asking for the questions to stay movie-based, to which she gave a subtle nod in agreement. The words he said during his answer replaying in her head, as they would for months after. “Yes, of course, thank you for that answer,” They replied, an ounce of amusement over their face, before practically disregarding his request. “So, similarly, Sadie, how was it working with Jordan, and what do you think of him now?”
“Jordan, he’s…” Sadie paused for a moment, lost in her thoughts. How had he made that look so easy? Maybe it came so easily to him because he was over it all, and there was no emotional attachment to the answer. No, he definitely was over it all - how could she think he wouldn’t be? Her eyes hovered over his square on her screen, his face through a webcam giving no answers for her, how do you make eye contact with someone over a group call? He was probably just looking at the interviewer like she should be since they were looking at her waiting for an answer.
“Well, I, uh, I think it’s no secret that Jordan Williams is one… spectacular human being,” After worrying about how she was going to tackle this question, she found that as soon as she began, the words came out effortlessly, her eyes switching down to the keyboard making her forget the group of people watching her for an answer - and then the thousands watching after. “He’s the most talented person in every way possible, and he just continues to be more so as years go on. During- and outside of- the movie he taught me… pretty much everything I know and above all else he has the kindest soul, and he’s such a radiant light of a person,” She paused for a moment. Did she get too lost in the answer? Sadie knew she had unintentionally fed into the obsessive fanbase, giving them something to dissect and infer. What even was the question? The movie - focus on the movie. “I know for most people in the cast, it was like our first movie roles ever, but I think I speak for everyone when I say he easily made us feel comfortable in the unfamiliar environment. So, yeah, I guess it goes without saying that he was the best person to work with.”
It probably would have been logical for Sadie to join the cast reunion via zoom, as she knew a few had. Reduce the chance of fan rumours and assumptions from them… just standing together. Save any overthinking from her, knowing she would rewatch the live video too many times after. But, here she was, standing in at the front door of Jordan’s house. Jordan’s house, one that wasn’t theirs. She stood there for too long, wondering what kind of a life he had made behind that door without her. Was she about to see it? Sadie couldn’t have expected any different, this was her decision, one that she had made years ago. One that she had definitely, absolutely, completely gotten over. Then why was there so much hesitation in knocking the door?
When she finally did, her heart thumped as loud as the footsteps she could hear approaching the door. Though it could easily be one of their castmates answering the door: it was him, it was, she knew it was. But she had no control over her face lighting up when the door opened to reveal Jordan. It immediately felt a lot different to the Zoom call days earlier because this time… there he was, standing right in front of her, in real life, with no ambiguity of whether or not he was looking at her. He was right there.
No matter how long it had been, being around Jordan always instantly brought her back to being that seventeen-year-old girl, pitifully awkward and completely enamoured by the dancer who saved her from falling on her face in front of the entire senior year the day they met, from Emily Dalton who tried to make her life hell, from dying the night that still crept up and overtook her thoughts sometimes. Jordan was the foundation in her life for so long, and seeing him now made her wonder how it hadn’t been that way for the last four years.
“Jordan, hi, hello- hey, how are yo-… hey,” She closed her eyes as she painfully evaluated what she had just said. ‘Hi’ she realised was too casual, but then ‘hello’ felt too formal, so ‘hey’ felt like a steady middle ground… but what was it considered when you just say all of them at once? How many are considered too many greetings? Because Sadie definitely surpassed that unofficial number. As much as she wanted to take a second try at… speaking, Jordan had begun to have a go for himself, though his results came similar to hers.
Despite that being literally what she was here for, Sadie was slightly surprised as he stood back for her to come in. Maybe a small irrational part of her had expected a bitter reaction to seeing her, steam coming out of the ears from seeing the girl who ruined the family they had made. But, shock, that had not been the case. And now she was… walking into his house, something that fell from being normality for her. “Yeah, yeah it was good, it was- yeah, there was the sun- the sun was out, yeah,” She cringed at herself - a simple ‘good’ would have surpassed just fine, but now he knew the great details of it being sunny, when he definitely hadn’t been too invested in when asking. “How have you, uh- how have you been?” She asked, knowing she had to ask him a question back and finding success in actually composing somewhat of a cohesive sentence. However quickly realising that it may be a loaded question considering the history.
@.benitz786 Jordan Williams