Zendaya walked back into the room with a big grin on her face. She was leaning her chin on her phone but started to tap it onto the palm of her hand as she sat back down in a chair. She didn't say a word, making both Tom and Jacob stare at her with curiosity.
"Well..." Tom finally spoke up, "and?" He was leaning out of his seat now, eager to hear the verdict. Zendaya was staring at her screen by that point, almost making it too blatantly apparent that she avoided the answer.
"She said she'd do it," she shrugged.
"Wait, really?"
"Mhm," was all she responded with, and a part of Tom was actually annoyed at how casual she was making this all seem to be. Maybe it was no big deal, but to Tom, a really huge weight had just lifted off his shoulders. He had an assistant! Well... almost. He would still obviously have to talk to her and feel how she was as a person. Tom never thought he asked much of the people around him and/or working for him. But what he valued most, really, was someone who he could just be himself around. Yes, he would need someone to keep track of his appointments schedule and bring him coffee when he was stuck in the make-up chair for hours, but he also needed someone to talk to when things got to straining. He needed a friend.
That's why he appreciated Harrison being there for him so much. He was his best friend, after all. But now that he was off, being a movie star himself (which Tom was so incredibly proud of!), he didn't feel like he actually had anyone else to vent to. So maybe, whoever this y/n person was, could be that for him.
Or was that too much to hope for? Was it weird to think so?
****
A week had gone by. Production was well on its way, and soon the actual filming would begin. Usually, Tom tended to get nervous about that. He'd still be panicking about the script and all the scenes he just could not manage to remember. But that morning, all of that didn't seem to compare to what he had to do in the afternoon.
For some reason, Zendaya had been very mysterious and avoided any kind of questions that Tom would throw at her about this y/n. Instead, she seemed to brush him off or pretend she was busy and couldn't talk then. At first, Tom wasn't worried, he trusted her, but it was getting a bit weird.
"I just... I don't want to say anything that might not be true. I mean, I don't know her that well. You should get your own first impression when you meet her and go from there." She had finally said when Tom basically had to corner her in, "but believe me, she's great, ok?"
It wasn't much, but it was all he had to go off.
Well, and the fact that y/n had worked on another movie production before, in close proximity to the cast, meaning the studio has had to do some research into her, and everything had checked out. That was reassuring.
It was a cold morning, like usual in London, but Tom was glad to experience it. Hearing that they would be filming a majority of the movie in the place where he grew up, in his hometown, was a dream come true.
Of course, the irony of working on a movie called Spider-man: Far From Home basically in his back garden didn't go unnoticed, especially when he had filmed Homecoming on the other side of the world.
As the sun slowly made its ascent over the houses and trees of the city, Tom got ready. It took him a while, with his anxiety pouring over him like hot and heavy lead. Everything seemed harder to do when he was anxious. And did he need to use the bathroom again?
Once he was dressed and basically ready to go, Tom realised, however, that he had been much faster than he had thought. It had bothered him, but again, trust was vital. Zendaya was the one, of course, to set up his meet-up with y/n. He trusted her to make the right choices. But it did annoy him that she wouldn't even give him y/n's phone number so they could start talking before meeting in person.
But he had been pleasantly surprised when Zendaya gave him the time and place of the meeting.
"Be there at 12. At a place called... the Globe," she said over facetime a few days ago. Tom looked surprised at her.
"Did you decide on that?"
"No, y/n suggested it. Why?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just that," Tom smiled to himself, "nevermind."
"Alright, well, good luck."
Yeah, good luck was definitely what he needed. It was so weird. He was supposed to have the upper hand here. He was going to be her boss... if everything went right. He was there to interview her and decide if she was suitable for the job. There were no stakes up for him to be nervous about. Yet, Tom really was, without a doubt. He always had found a need to appeal to other people and please them, even if they were strangers. He wanted to make a good impression of himself as much as, he assumed, she would like to herself.
Besides, he had never done anything this serious before. He was an actor, for god sake. His job was to learn his lines and look good on camera, with a side-job in whatever he needed to do as promotional stunts- which mostly were just more acting. Yes, he had done a million interviews (that's at least how many he felt like he had done), but he was never on the interviewer side of it.
But through it all, there was one thing that suited him. The Globe. He couldn't believe that, out of all possible places to meet up in London, she had chosen that one pub. Of course, Zendaya had sent him the address, but Tom already knew it for years. He had gone there more times than he could count. He'd hung out there with his best mates; he'd gone there on dates...
Tom checked his watch again. If he called an Uber now, he might get there before her and get rid of his last-minute panic.
YOU ARE READING
Far From Home // t.h.
Fanfiction~currently being rewritten and edited. The new version should be up soon, but I'm busy so it could also take a while. atm only chapter 1-31 are edited, because of this process, changes in plot are being made that might not be shown in the future cha...
