Chapter 41

"So how's it going with Lizzie?" Zoë gushes standing in front of me as she brushes her teeth on a Sunday night while I sit on the couch looking for something to watch since sleep isn't that visiting me just yet. I just got home after a whole week of staying at my girlfriend's and thankfully my plants are still thriving thanks to Zoë or should I say Liz. If I didn't have to work in an early hour tomorrow, I might've spent one more night there but I clearly have a shoot tomorrow at the studios and I really have to impress the guy considering he agreed to let me go this week for my trip to Italy with Elizabeth.

"Yea, everything's good. My family loves her as they always does. Maybe they love her even more than me actually." She snort in laughter and I smiled.

"That I believe." I rolled my eyes at her causing her to laugh again. "Shan, who wouldn't love the Elizabeth Olsen, tell me. You might be the luckiest fucking human being in the whole fucking universe having her for a girlfriend. That woman is gorgeous as hell, an angel on earth and so damn fucking hot." She rambles on as she walks away from the room and to the bathroom to rinse off her mouth. I smile to myself thinking about it.

If only she knew, how I feel overwhelmingly in love with that woman. Its just unbelievable how she makes me feel, just by being there. Yes, we had our moments when we don't actually agree on the same things just like earlier, when she insisted on driving me here rather than letting me drive Chase home. Well, after hours of convincing I got her to raise the white flag with a promise that I'll call her al throughout until I get home. Its annoying sometimes, how she can be so overprotective sometimes, but I have to understand and put myself in her position and that just gives her justice every time.

"Oh man, you got it bad." I look up and saw Zoë giggling before launching herself on the couch beside me making me so confused on what she's on about.

"What?"

"You've been smiling to yourself again like a lovesick fool." She nudges me and takes the control from my hand and finds a good movie for us to watch since I'm out wandering through memory lane of Elizabeth and I.

"I can't help it, she really is amazing and perfect. I can't believe it either and sometimes, I feel like I'm still dreaming. It's just too good to be true."

"Well, I'm really happy for your Shan. I've never seen you this happy before and I just wish it continues."  My smile grew upon hearing that. I really am happy, happiest I've ever been. "Why don't you invite her for our little party next week? When you get back from your Italy trip."

"Oh yea, I forgot about that, sorry. But yea, I'll talk to her about it." I really did forgot about that. We have this thing in our circle of friends where we host get together parties every now and then and Zoë's going to be the host next week and its like a Texas themed party.

"When is your flight anyway?"

"Wednesday after lunch."

"When are you coming back?" She asks again.

"We'll be back in LA by Saturday morning then I would be home by Monday night because I have an early shoot at the studio for the cast of Moon Knight in the morning. What's with all the questions anyway?" I sighed glancing at her and she just gave me a shrug.

"Liz's coming over while you're gone." She giggles winking at me. Right, why did I bother to ask. I know she's having Liz come over every time I spend the night at Elizabeth's. Now I wonder if there's a chance she would spend the night here too. Oh right, the party.

"Oh shit, I just realized I will have a celebrity in my little party next week and that's a lot of pressure." I chuckled as I think she stopped breathing for a second.

"Hey, its just Elizabeth. She's cool with anything." I winked at her.

"Well, yea for you, but we can't take the fact that she is a celebrity Shan-"

"And you too duh!"

"Not like that big." She sighs and rolls her eyes stating the obvious. Well, I'm just trying to ease her worries down. Elizabeth is just like us behind cameras and its really nothing to worry about.

"Zoë, trust me. Its going to be fine. Before you know it, you and her will be as close as the two of us." She smiles as we fall into a silent comfortable silence just watching Noah flirting with Allie on the screen, but my mind is on the party and imagining how that would go considering for the first time ever Elizabeth is going to be there and I can't really imagine how that would go. Maybe chaos it is.——————"Shannon!" I turn around at the sound of my name and saw the Benedict Cumberbatch walking towards me with a full smile on his face. Right, here we go again. I force myself to smile and have that small sense of familiarity to just go with this thing again. He pulls me into a tight hug as soon as he was in reach as the sound of his chuckle makes me actually nervous.

"I haven't seen you in so long." He says before completely pulling away. I let out a soft chuckle feeling weird about this. I should be used to this because its becoming a routine every time I have a shoot but I guess I'll never get used to lying to their clueless faces.

"How are you doing? Where have you been? I heard you and Lizzie got back together. How is she by the way?" That's too many questions and its jumbling in my mind. He stares while I organize my thoughts in a matter of seconds, which is a pressure by the way, before opening my mouth to answer and say.

"I'm good yea, I've been back in Dallas cause of the pandemic and I just got back this year. Elizabeth's doing just fine too and yup we are together." I released a soft sigh of relief as I watch his lips curves into a smile nodding his head.

"Well, that's good to hear and its great you're working with Marvel too and that's incredible really. When did all of this happened?" My mind went blank. Fuck! Why can't I think of anything. Well besides the fact that I don't fucking remember anything and haven't asked Elizabeth this part of my life, that's the first time I heard that question and now my mind is in chaos trying to find some kind of excuse to it.

"Shannon?" I snapped out from my gaze and looked at him. I might've zoned out and that's just embarrassing, but then again, I still don't know what to say. What would I say?

"Benedict!" Someone called making us turn and Gabriel, Oh thank you, just in time to save me from embarrassing myself even further. He raises his brows and says "You're up for costume change. Shan, I need you to start working on it Tom will be out in a minute then followed by Andrew and Toby."

"Alright, that's my cue. I'll catch ip with you later. It's really great to see you again." He smiles tapping me on my good shoulder.

"Yea, Its really great to see you too, I'll see you later." He nods and makes his way to Gabriel. As soon as he was out of sight, I released a heavy sigh of relief at the same time Dani appears beside me looking at their direction.

"God, every time." She sighs too but more like a sigh of not again. " Are you still keeping up?" I glanced at her the same time she looks at me quirking an eyebrow making me roll my eyes and breathe out.

"Barely." I sigh. "Come on, let's get this over with." She gives me a shrug as we went back to the set fixing everything. But my mind is somewhere else. Its still stuck on his question. How did I end up in Marvel anyway. I don't remember how this all started. I just got a call from the Kevin Feige for a meeting and that's it. Well, is that it? I need some confirmation on this and I know exactly who to get it from. Elizabeth.

So I pulled out my phone and send a text to her.

Baby, I need your help. Benedict Cumberbatch is here at the studio and he saw me and he asked how did I end up working at Marvel and I fucking froze and I don't know what to say. What the fuck will I say? Tell me ASAP. I love you.

The moment I got to send the text is the time Tom walks in the set and ready for a photoshoot in his costume and he looks so cool. I chucked my phone in my pocket and grab my camera to start with the shoot.

The shoot with Tom went pretty smoothly. Maybe because he's just feeling it and playing it and its easier to work with that rather than some scripted poses. We had small talks during the shoot and still its just about me and Elizabeth getting back together. Now, I'm starting to get intrigued on what happened and how did I met them. Elizabeth might've mentioned Comic Con, I don't know. God, my memory is so bad, but I think she might've mentioned it. Maybe that's it, I met them at Comic Con two years ago? I'm really not sure of anything right no—

"Shannon!" I snapped out of my thought with Dani shaking me back to reality. I looked at her as she raises her brows at me and now Tom is in front of me, looking at me weirdly and confused. I am confused, what just happened? "We've been talking to you for the past five minutes asking for the review of the pictures. Are you okay? You kind of zoned out." Fuck.

"Yea, sorry." I walked to the monitors shaking my head to just get me out of this thing I have right now. I showed them the shots and it turned out pretty good considering I was half paying attention to the shoot and still my mind is somewhere else.

"Dude, these shots are awesome."  Tom says tapping me on my shoulder. I smiled at him before Dani announced the presence of Andrew and Toby and my smile just grew wider. This is like a fucking dream shooting this. Its really a privilege.

We continue with the shoots and I just enjoyed every moment of it. These three are just iconic and every shot is just perfect. I also figured that this is the first time I probably met Andrew and Toby since Tom introduced me to them as soon as they stepped in the studio, which is easier to interact and not get me into a state where I have to gather and organized information in my head based on what I can recall with what Elizabeth had told me or my flashbacks back then.

"I feel like I know you." Andrew suddenly says during a reshot and suddenly my heart starts to race at the thought of having to recall everything again.

"Yea?" I smiled as I take a shot again.

"I think so, I've seen your face somewhere." He looks at me thoughtfully and honestly, it was making me uncomfortable. I felt my phone buzzed in my pocket telling me Elizabeth might've texted back and now I feel the knot tightening in my stomach wanting to just have a small break to look at my phone. I shook off the feeling and took another shot.

"You're tall, do you do modeling?" Toby asks and suddenly Andrew reacts making us turn to him.

"Yea, that's it. I saw your billboard on New York for The Row." What! I have a billboard. My eyes widen and I think my jaw dropped at the sound of that. What the fuck?  The twins! They didn't mention this to me or let alone discussed anything about a billboard. Fuck this is too much for me right now. My head is starting to hurt again.

"Shannon, are you alright?" Tom asks snapping me out of my daze again. I need to talk to the twins or Elizabeth or anyone, I can't process all of these things in one fucking day.

"What? yea, uhm. Can we have a ten minute break?" They nod and I glanced at Dani who is looking at me with worried eyes, so I gestured her for some kind of distraction to give them while I take a call and she gets it immediately standing up from the monitors and going towards the three men. I excused myself and pulled my phone out of my pocket seeing a text message from Elizabeth that says

Call me.

So I did and it only rang once until I hear her faint 'Hello' on the other line, I guess she's been waiting for me to call her since she saw my message.

'Babe—'

'Yea, you and Benedict met at Comic Con. You took a picture of the whole panel after the presentation and Kevin Feige noticed you were familiar with the whole cast so he wanted to meet you at dinner. He offered the job to you that night and then—" She paused but I hear her breaths and something in the pit of my stomach tells me that something is not quite right.

"Elizabeth?"

"Yea, that was it. Are you okay? Did he say something else?"

"No, that was it. Gabriel called him seconds later for costume change." I sighed.

"That's all that I know of honey. They took you away from me at dinner so I really don't know things you talked about then."

"Well, Tom's here and he seems to be familiar with me. Ugh, I thought I should get used to this but its still confusing and my head is starting to hurt again. I might have a Tylenol later on. Anyway, have you had a talk with your sisters about a thing I should know about?"

"What? Why?" Her tone is completely confused so probably not.

"Andrew Garfield just told me he saw me on a fucking billboard for The Row in New York."

"What!" Oh damn she's mad. "Oh that two are really not letting me have a say on this. They should've at least told me about it or gave me a heads up before putting it up. You're my fucking girlfriend for god's sake. Honey, I love you but I need to have a word with my sisters, so better text me later okay. I'll drop by the studios later and pick you up."

"But I have Chase wi—"

"I'll let Charles drop me off so you'll have company when you drive later on. I love you!"

"Bu-" The beep signals she dropped off and I sigh. I can fucking drive my own car without anyone watching me damn it. Hmm, Alright calm down, she's just worried. I did told her I'm having a headache so maybe that's because. I sigh having nothing to do but go with it so I put my phone back in my pocket and got back to work.——————Shoots done and I'm just packing my things up. Its already five in the afternoon and I'm beat. The headache that I'm talking about just got worse when Benedict kept asking me questions I try my best to fucking answer and now, I just can't wait to see my girlfriend so she could take me home and finally get in bed and snuggle all night. That sounds so nice and comfy.

"Shannon?" I snapped out of my little bubble and turn to the door to see Gabriel walking towards me with a smile on his face making me mirror it and somehow confused on what was happening, he barely smiles at me. "The pictures were on the spot. The cast loved it."

I let out a sigh of relief as my smile grew wider. Doing these photoshoots plus directing music videos and creating content for Storyblocks and Youtube is really enhancing my skills and I'm really happy about the improvement of my shots and I guess it really shows since Gabriel loves my work now.

"Thanks Gabriel"

"You're really getting a hang of it, anytime soon you'll be out of probation and might be on the field now. Great work kid." He says as he taps me on my good shoulder and hearing that is just music to my ears and somehow, for some reason it created a lump in my throat. I don't know, maybe I'm just so tired and hearing that is just a total relief. Its like a huge weight was lifted off my chest.

"Are you set to go? Do you have a lift? You want to tag along?" I was speechless, and now he's offering me a fucking ride? Am I dreaming? What the fuck. This is all too much. "Uh- Shannon? You alright?"

"Y-Yea" I snapped out of it my head hurting again. "Uhm, What I meant was , I have Chase- I mean I have a car and I'm waiting for my girlfriend. Yea, she's uhm she's coming here. Thank you though." I stammer as I touched the hairs on the back of my neck and he just looked at me with a questionable look. God that was embarrassing.

"Are you sure?" He asks again squinting his eyes on me and I just nod my head vigorously which I regret immediately feeling an instant sharp pain through my temple making me scrunch my eyes.

"Shannon are you okay?"

"Yea, just a headache. I'm fine—"

"Knock knock." A very familiar voice says catching both our attention as our heads snap towards the door and there she was, just in time sweetheart, just in time. A smile automatically appeared on my face as she walks towards us.

"Hi" She smiles as soon as she was in reach wrapping her arm around my waist as I place a soft kiss on top of her head. She then turns to Gabriel and I'm guessing they haven't met?

"Hi, you must be Gabriel. I'm—"

"Elizabeth Olsen. The Scarlet Witch." Elizabeth giggles and that made me smile, its really comforting. "Finally, on the flesh."

"Yea, its really nice to meet you." They shook hands before Elizabeth turns to me. "I'm sorry did I walked in on something?"

"No, its all good. I'm going ahead now. Really great work Shannon keep it up. " I smiled and nod at him as he starts to walk away. "Oh and enjoy your trip to Italy. "He winked and I let out a chuckle and with that he's gone. Glad that's over. I really want to go home. Elizabeth's hands travel to the side of my neck making me turn to her just to be met by soft lips on mine and I just melt in her arms right there.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit late. I ran into Benedict at the hallway so I we talked a little about the reshoot next month.  So how was it?" She whispers before completely pulling away, "How are you?"

"I'm beat, but the pictures were great. Gabriel said the cast loved it." I let out a tired smile before grabbing my back pack and my camera bag before taking her in my arms resting my head on her shoulders her hand making its way to the back of my neck.

"How's your head?" She places a soft kiss on my temple which made me smile.

"Terrible."

"Want me to drive?" I slowly nod my head at her offer. I really can't focus on anything right now because all I can think of is me + my bed+ Elizabeth = heaven.

"Can you spend the night too? Zoë wouldn't mind." I whispered against her shoulder. She giggles.

"I don't have clothes at yours baby."

"You can wear my clothes. You can wear anything you want or nothing." I instantly felt a playful slap on my shoulder making me chuckle. "Please my love"

"Alright then. Let's go home" I smiled. Right, home it is.