Leo did not disappoint.
Bright and early at 4:30 am, Leo instantly ordered Delaware and I's breakfast once he got my text, and by 5:30 am, as promised, our food was at the foot of the door along with a small flower arrangement. It consisted of white roses and orchids, with a singular pink rose placed right in the center, with a note he had signed.
"Hope you enjoy them, Estrella." It says.
Oh Tortuga. Always outdoing yourself.
I give Delaware her breakfast and eat mine as we finish getting ready. By the time we were done, we reported to the lobby, where everyone was waiting for the shuttle to arrive. Outside was a line of security guards overlooking their surroundings as fans and paparazzi started to emerge. Something tells me Celise leaked our hotel location, judging by the number of photos she had been taking the other night.
My suspicions were confirmed when Director Jimenez pulled her aside and made her return the laminated badge to him. Without our identity badges, we wouldn't be allowed to go on set.
She begged and pleaded with mascara running down the sides of her face, creating an entire scene in the lobby. She attempted to have Georgia vouch for her, but like Director Jimenez, she too was non-complicit in Celise's mistake.
"But she was the one who told me it's okay to post. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it!" Celise aggressively points at Georgia. "She insisted!"
"I said no such thing!" Georgia defensively says, crossing her arms.
"Yes, you did!" Celise fumes.
"No, I didn't!"
"Enough!" the director snaps. "The shuttle will be here in less than 5 minutes. Per your contract, which you have signed, any type of posting is prohibited. By doing so, you have breached the contract you have signed with us as Georgia's guest. Another vehicle will be here this afternoon to take you to the airport."
"You can't do this! I just got here!"
He turns away from Celise and goes through the glass doors to go outside with the security as he takes a phone call. Two guards enter the lobby and begin to instruct Celise to stay away from us. She cries in their arms, but they stay firm when she tries to approach Georgia.
"It's way too early to be dealing with this," Delaware mutters to me, checking the time on her phone. The shuttle should be here any minute.
Georgia tries to hide from Celise's threatening glare by inserting herself between Omar and Leo. Omar protectively tells her to give Leo some space and reassures her that Celise won't attack her.
"Tell me about it." I groan, taking a sip from my cup of coffee, and offer some to Delaware. She eyes the drink with temptation, but quickly declines as she already has enough caffeine from the tea she had drunk and doesn't want to arrive on the set all shaky.
"Don't mind if I do," Mitchell says from over my shoulder, taking the drink from my hand.
"I was offering Delaware." I cross my arms and frown. "Not you."
"Ouch, Stephanie. I didn't mean to press your buttons so soon. Come on. Let me have a taste." he inches closer to me, and I lean further toward Delaware to put some distance.
"Fine." I groan. "I'm only saying yes because I am not in the mood to fight over a cup of coffee."
He happily raises the cup over his lips and stains his entire black leather outfit when Leo purposefully bumps into him.
"Gahhh! God dammit, Vasquez!" He curses, turning into the same shade of red as Celise.
"Sorry, Mitch. I didn't see you there. Don't worry, Stephanie. I'll re-order you another coffee, but you can have some of mine, that is, unless Mitch wants it." he turns to Mitch with a blank smile disguised as an undercover smirk, and waives his cup over the bridge of his nose.
"Forget it." Mitchell brushes Leo's arm away and takes off his ruined jacket. His shirt remained fine, but his pants were not.
Noah kindly comes to the rescue as he runs to the front desk and asks for paper towels and napkins. When he hands them to Mitchell, Director Jimenez comes through the glass doors to tell us that the shuttle is here. He takes one look at Mitch and the coffee cup that is in his hand, and lets out a sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose.
"The shuttle has arrived. Make sure to have your badges on you at all times. No exceptions. If you lose it, come find me immediately. That being said, let's have a good day." He turns to Mitchell, "And let's avoid any other incidents."
We walk to the blacked-out shuttle, with a line of guards barricading us in a linear fashion. I rushed as fast as I could, as a few camera flashes started to trickle in between the security guards, and a handful of voices of fans shouting the cast members' names echoed about.
"I call dibs on the front," Georgia announces, pushing me out of the way so she is the first to enter with her high heels.
I follow after her, not letting her behavior get to me, and sit in the middle section by the window, across from her. Leo enters, and she immediately shoots up, sliding closer to the side.
"Leo, if you'd like, you can sit with me," she says, batting her long lashes and patting the empty spot beside her. "We can go over our lines."
"Sorry, Georgia," Leo falsely apologizes. "But I promised Stephanie that I would sit next to her the entire trip, as she is my guest and girlfriend. If you want to rehearse, we can definitely practice once we're on set."
She mumbles something under her breath that I could not hear due to the engine of the shuttle bus. Leo frowns in disapproval and shoots her a warning look, along with a few other words that got a scoff out of her.
He then makes a sharp turn to me and situates himself. His grin grows when Mitchell notices his missed opportunity to sit with me and goes to the far back of the shuttle with an angered frown on his face. Then came Noah and Delaware, who gave me a thumbs up, holding back a laugh.
Once we were all inside, the driver immediately got us out of the parking lot before more fans and paparazzi could block us in. I caught a glimpse of one of the 'fans' holding a poster board with my face marked with red paint in a not-so-flattering way. I lean my body against the window to block it out of Leo's field of vision and tug my sweater closer to my body.
"How'd you sleep?" Leo asks, still holding the same cup of coffee he offered to Mitchell.
"Good." I calmly say, pretending not to be startled. "What about you?"
"Not bad…until Omar started to snore his brains out in the middle of the night." He peers at Omar, who obviously heard us in the next seat over. "Scared me half to death."
"It couldn't be that bad."
"Oh, it was!" Leo assures, taking a sip out of his cup.
"Is that why you're drinking coffee instead of your morning smoothie?" I verbally note.
He lowers the cup from his lips and curves the side of his mouth. Amazed that I had caught on. "You never miss a detail, do you, Estrella?"
"Only because you don't miss any either, Tortuga," I swiftly justify, crossing my arms and legs in my seat.
It's true, and he knows it.
There was an unspoken tactic we previously had, where each detail was documented in our minds to use later. If I slipped up, he would cockily mention my mistake to me, and I would do the same to him. Nothing about what we do was left behind, as it became our fuel for our comebacks. Our words were our weapons, and when he saw me having a panic attack, I was deeply mortified.
I spent years hiding that part of myself from everyone, including Beth. The only way she found out was because we were going to hang out, and I had failed a big project during my undergrad. I broke down in my car, and didn't realize she arrived at the location early. I then started manically laughing because she started to freak out, thinking I had a heart attack, and it almost made me choke on my sour candy.
It was more than a relief when I realized Leo wasn't going to expose my flaws or mock me for them. All the scenarios that had played in my head had vanished, and made me see him in a better light. However, I am not naive nor stupid. Deep down, I know I would never trust him or anyone, for that matter, fully.
My suspicions remained as I noticed he was equally observant of me as I of him. I couldn't tell if it was him being concerned, a chatterbox, or if he was trying to get more out of me for him to memorize.
How are you?
What's you're favorite snack?
Did you get to the part where so and so did this and that?
Every day, it was a different inquiry when he came home from filming. What was strange was that I never needed to fish conversation the way he did. I could ask him about his family history, and he would lay it all on the table for me.
I told Beth about this, but she said, "Maybe he is being nice. You do live with him. It would be awkward to live with someone and not talk to the person."
I agree with her, as it would definitely be awkward and would probably be worse if he didn't say a word to me during this whole ordeal. I also considered the atmosphere of his home. Without staff and Sir Stefan, the place might as well have been haunted. I had to place my plushies throughout the house, including Wally the Walrus in my bedroom, to make the house feel more homely. Perhaps Leo felt the same, which is why he felt better having someone else in his home, who isn't Omar or Sir Stefan.
"Touché, Estrella, touché," he replies, and offers his coffee cup to me. On his wrist dangled his turtle bracelet. I lift mine, accepting his offer, and in disbelief that he hasn't once taken it off, nor have I.
I remove the lid and take a sip. I glance over as he is suspiciously watching for a reaction. As soon as the coffee slips over my tongue, I recognize the flavor. My eyes widen, and another wave of delight flashes over Leo.
"Is this what I think it is?"
He nods.
I take another sip to confirm.
"No way." I gasp. "Where did you get this?"
"I packed some of that instant coffee you use and wanted to give it a try," Leo explains. "But I didn't know if it would be good, and if our room would have a microwave and milk to make it. Once I saw the microwave, I ordered the milk via room service, and the rest was a matter of putting it together."
"You should've told me!" I said a bit too loudly as Omar poked his head from behind us.
"Told you what?"
"That Leo had some of my dark roast instant coffee and made this."
"He didn't know if it was good. Frankly, I was afraid to try it." Omar eyes the coffee cup. "I don't do diary."
"Fuck that." I take another sip. "It's great!"
Not just great, but unfortunately better than mine. I don't know whether to be impressed or disappointed.
"Did you add chestnut creamer?" I ask, detecting the faint taste as I figure out what he did to make it better.
"And a dash of cinnamon," he proudly replies.
"You brought cinnamon with you?" My mouth slightly opens. What kind of person brings cinnamon and ground coffee with them when they're traveling? Especially here in Mexico, where it's ten times better. Heck, I was planning on stocking up here and packing it into my suitcase on our free day off. That, and a few other items in my list that I had made space in my luggage for.
"No, but Omar did," he points to Omar.
"I like to add it to my tea. Never leave home without it while we are traveling," he holds up his coffee cup with a tea bag dangling outside of it.
"That is a serial killer trait," I say, with my index finger swaying side to side at them, and return my taste buds with one last sip of Leo's coffee. I return it to him and sink deeper in my seat with my attention on the window.
The sun was slowly creeping towards us, brushing across the never-ending green landscape, meeting the sides of the road until the wheels of the bus, itched with the crunches of sand.
According to the schedule, this is where we will be shooting the first scene of this trip, the beach scene. Oh, and the main stars of that?
Leonardo Vasquez and Georgia Fuentes.