"When are you coming back?"
The question pulled Owen back to the present, away from his thoughts of his castmates.
"Twenty days of shooting…" Owen answered, doing the math in his head. "I'll be back Wednesday, August tenth."
Sophie nodded softly.
"And you? You come back on the twentieth, right?" he asked.
"One day earlier. The nineteenth," Sophie replied.
She was starting the shoot for The Boogeyman on July 20. As the lead actress, she'd have more filming days than Owen. And though both shoots were within the country, they'd be far apart for almost a month.
Owen fell silent, staring at the plate where his toast had been. It was a lot of days without seeing each other in person. Since they'd started dating, they spent most of their time together, normal for a couple who lived nearby and were young adults.
"I'm going to miss you…" Sophie finally said, reaching out and placing her hand over his.
He looked at her with a faint smile, laced his fingers with hers, and gave a gentle squeeze.
"Me too," he said. "But we'll stay in touch, texts, phone calls… though you'd better reply quickly. Otherwise, I'll think some guy's flirting with you and won't be able to sleep."
"Oh, the great Owen Ashford getting jealous?" Sophie teased with a sideways smile. "Afraid Rob, the never-shuts-up director, will make a move on me?"
Rob Savage, the director of The Boogeyman, was someone Sophie had already described to him: young, hyperactive, talkative, and quite full of himself.
"I don't know if him specifically…" Owen said, arching an eyebrow dramatically. "Didn't know you were into older guys, though. He's what, thirty?"
"I'm not into older men. Well, maybe Henry Cavill," she admitted with a thoughtful, mischievous look.
Owen stared at her seriously for a moment, then nodded. "Its fine. It's Henry Cavill," he said with complete conviction.
Sophie burst out laughing. "I didn't know you were bisexual."
"I'm not. But it's Henry Cavill," Owen repeated, as if it were an undeniable universal truth.
"That has nothing to do with sexual orientation," he added with mock solemnity. "We men just know when to show respect to someone like Henry. It's part of the male code."
Sophie nudged him with her shoulder, still laughing.
"Well…" she said with a playful grin, "then I'll get mad too if you take too long to answer my messages or calls. I'll think Hunter's flirting with you."
Owen raised his eyebrows. "Hunter?"
"Yeah, her or him, whatever," Sophie said teasingly. "I know a surprise down there isn't your thing, but you never know. Away from home, feeling lonely… maybe you'll discover new things about yourself."
Owen let out a laugh and shook his head. "Sophie, they'd cancel you if you made jokes like that in public."
"That's why I only make them with you," she said with a cheeky smile. "You know I'm not transphobic."
"I know, I know," Owen said. "But honestly… when I first met her in person, I swear I thought she was a real woman. There's nothing masculine about her, not her body, her features, or her voice… maybe the Adam's apple if you really nitpick, and her height. It's impressive. She's more feminine than a lot of girls."
Hunter, having previously been a man, stood at 5,7 feet, above the average height for women in the United States, which is 5 feet 4 inches.
"Did you like her?" Sophie asked, narrowing her eyes as she spread butter with a knife.
"I didn't get that far," Owen replied in a neutral tone. "But if one day you find out I ran away with a tall blonde with a hypnotic stare, it's probably her."
"I'll kill you," Sophie said with a sweet smile, never dropping her gentle tone as she lifted the knife slightly.
"I know, and it won't happen. Put the knife down," Owen said.
Sophie set it back on the plate with a soft clink, then looked at him with a mix of affection and seriousness.
"Seriously, we're going to be apart for a lot of days. But we're both moving forward. And I have to say, since I met you, my career's been on the rise."
She wasn't just saying that to be nice, it was true.
Before Paranormal Activity, Sophie already had more experience than many up-and-coming actors like Owen. She'd appeared in a couple of well-known TV shows in small recurring roles, and her résumé was solid. She wasn't a newcomer.
But she'd struggled to break through, to land leading roles or be part of projects that truly stood out. That's why she accepted Paranormal Activity in the first place, mainly because the shoot was unionized. Otherwise, she would never have considered such a low-budget film.
But something about the project caught her attention.
A fresh take on found footage, a style that had been nearly forgotten for years. A script that built fear patiently, letting the audience suffocate with suggestion.
And then, there was Owen. His acting skills were impressive, and working alongside someone so talented gave her confidence in the project.
She said yes, and not only didn't regret it, she ended up grateful.
The film was accepted into the Palm Springs Festival, where it had three screenings, each with over 70% attendance.
A24 won the distribution rights after outbidding Blumhouse.
Now, Paranormal Activity would have a theatrical release, and it would be her debut as a leading actress on the big screen.
After that, everything took off. She landed a starring role in the short film Blink, a well-funded project for its category.
Then came Paperman, once again with Owen. It was already generating buzz online and had been accepted by Short of the Week, an extremely selective platform.
And now, her newest milestone: she would star in The Boogeyman, a $35 million film based on a Stephen King story, her name on a major movie poster.
"With your talent, you would've made it sooner or later," Owen said, taking a sip of his tea.
Sophie looked at him and smiled warmly. "Yeah, but meeting you made me feel like I'd found my lucky charm."
"Boyfriend and lucky charm, I'll take that," Owen said, and Sophie laughed.
"Plus, Paperman might get into Sundance!" she added, her eyes sparkling.
She was right, that project, created, produced, and financed by Owen, with both of them starring and Matt directing, had already been officially submitted to Sundance.
Sundance was the most important independent film festival in the United States. It had launched the careers of filmmakers like Tarantino, Nolan, Damien Chazelle, and hundreds more. It didn't just award feature films, it also selected and honored short films, with ruthless curation. Getting in wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible either.
A few days earlier, Owen and Matt, his best friend, had completed the submission before the early deadline, which closed on August 8, 2022.
They paid the required fee: $45, the lowest of all the categories.
The submission was sent. Now, all they could do was wait for a response.
"Don't celebrate just yet," Owen said. "Getting into Sundance is harder than Palm Springs."
"But it's Paperman! Everyone loves it. Honestly, I think it's the first time I've seen something with zero haters… And being accepted by Short of the Week helps," Sophie replied confidently.
She genuinely believed in Paperman. Not only because of her own work and Matt's directing, but because it was Owen's creation, and he had a gift for crafting great stories. Plus, the short film was being very well received online.
Owen nodded, agreeing with her. He knew that, in his previous life, Paperman, in its animated version, had won the Oscar Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Here, he had turned it into a live-action version, handled with great care and respect, and its potential was enormous. He also believed that a human actor could convey more emotion than digital drawings.
So he shared Sophie's confidence, around ninety percent sure, that Paperman would make it into Sundance.
They finished breakfast. Sophie handled the cleaning while Owen made sure everything was ready. It was 6:10 a.m.
The flight departed at seven. His suitcase had been packed since the night before, and his backpack sat by the bed, filled with all the essentials.
At that moment, his phone buzzed on the table.
It was a message from his mother, Elizabeth:
[We're downstairs 😊]
Owen turned to Sophie with a half-smile. "My parents are here. Let's go."
Sophie nodded, stood up with him, and they headed out.
Owen's parents had offered to drive him to the airport, by car, of course.
It had been Elizabeth's idea. She said she wanted to give him a proper goodbye and seemed even more excited than he was, seeing her son succeeding in something he had always dreamed of.
His father, though less expressive, had agreed without complaint. He was proud and also wanted to meet Larry, Owen's new agent.
And naturally, Sophie would go with him. She had no intention of saying goodbye at the apartment door, not when they wouldn't see each other for more than a month.
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