June 2017

A month later, Callie was still staying at Shannon's place. He was away on tour and the renovations on her house in the hills were almost finished. She was running lines with Aya in Shannon's living room, trying to prepare for an audition at the end of the week. 

"No, it's he kissed me; touched me. There was another me suddenly, wanting to get out," he told her, reading directly from the script as he lounged on one of Shannon's leather sofas. "And try to be a bit more urgent about it, yeah? Apparently you've just almost had sex with a man twice your age. Its your sexual awakening for fuck's sake."

Callie glared at him over the island as she washed dishes. "A little hard to put emotion into things when I'm washing dishes."

"Practice makes perfect," he quipped back. 

She finished rinsing the dishes off and turned off the tap before grabbing a dish towel to dry her hands. Aya moved his feet as she sank down next to him. 

"How's the reno going?" he asked.

She sighed heavily. "Its going. My dad says it should be done in two weeks, which is great I guess."

"You'll be able to move in before you jet off to wherever you're filming this thing," he replied. 

"Assuming I get it, sure," she said taking the script from him. "I never feel good about any audition I go on. And this is a period piece and I need an accent and its just ridiculous. I don't even know why I agreed to take the audition."

"Well you just bought a house for $1.9 million, so my guess is you took it for self-preservation," Aya said, putting his feet on top of her lap. 

"Are you guys enjoying having the house to yourself?" she asked. "I imagine you've fucked on every surface possible?"

"I love that you assume we hadn't done that before getting married. It's cute," he replied with a grin.

"Oh gross!" Callie exclaimed, whacking him on the abdomen with her script. 

"It's weird having the house to ourselves though," he said quietly. 

"That doesn't sound good," she replied, trying to hide her happiness.

It was wrong of her, she knew, but hearing how unhappy Aya was with Tessa gave her a sick sense of pleasure. 

"Its fine, actually," he said, sitting up. "You moved out just in time."

"I would have left eventually," she replied. "Tessa meows like a cat when you fuck. Its really annoying."

"Excuse me, I lived through Chris Evans practically breaking your back every other weekend for months. I don't want to hear a fucking word about my wife's sex noises," he countered. 

Callie fought the blush rising in her cheeks. The sex with Chris had been amazing. 

"Anyway, I didn't just come over to hang out," he continued. "I actually have some pretty exciting news."

"Oh God, Tessa's not pregnant is she?" she remarked in a joking tone, trying to think of the worst possible thing Aya could share with her that he'd deem as 'pretty exciting news'.

Aya was silent, biting his lip. Dread filled Callie from the core.

"Oh Christ, she is, isn't she?" she asked. 

Aya nodded slowly, forcing a grim smile. "We only found out a few weeks ago. Its really fast, I know. But I guess its just the right time."

Callie struggled to form words. Aya was having a baby. Not just a baby in general, but a baby with his wife. She had barely gotten used to calling Tessa that and now she was going to have to get used to a baby, too?

"Please say something," he said softly. 

"I - I - I'm surprised," she managed. "You only just got married and now you're having a baby. Its just a lot to take in."

"We wanted to wait to tell everyone until after we told our families," Aya explained. "And obviously we wanted to wait until Tessa was further along, but she couldn't hold it in any longer and practically word vomited all over her mam yesterday. So I knew I had limited time before my mam found out. So now we've told everyone."

"But I'm not family," she said slowly. "Why tell me now."

Aya looked at her in confusion. "What are you on about? Of course you're family, Cal. You're my best friend here. You're my sister. Of course I'd tell you before everyone else."

Callie blinked back tears and pasted on a smile. "I'm really happy for you. I am."

Aya had chosen his path. And as much as it pained Callie to see it, he was free to do whatever he'd like. Tessa was all wrong for him and probably going to ruin his career, but that wasn't something she had control over. The wedding was rough for her, knowing her main support system - Aya - wasn't only hers anymore. Suddenly a thought entered her mind and she started laughing. 

"What? What's so funny?" Aya demanded. 

"Tessa's gonna get so fat," she howled, laughing hysterically. 

"Oh fuck all the way off!" he replied, hitting her in the face with one of the pillows and eliciting more laughter.

***

"So how's the house coming along?" Shannon asked, his voice sounding tinny through the speaker phone. 

"Dad says they'll be ready soon. They just finished retiling all the bathrooms and the kitchen, so they've got to wait a few days before they can do anything else in those rooms," Callie said as she checked her outfit again in the mirror, holding up two dresses on hangers. "That atrocious wallpaper came down, too."

"What? Now way! I thought you were keeping it?!" Shannon said in mock anger. 

"That wallpaper was tacky as sin," she replied pointedly. 

"It was not," he countered with a laugh. "It looked like it belonged in the Jungle Room at Graceland."

"Which is precisely why it needed to go," she said, tugging her top off and pulling one of the dresses over her head. "Oh - I have big news."

"You found a literal skeleton in the walls during reno?" he asked jokingly.

"No," Callie replied in annoyance. "Aya's pregnant. Well, Tessa is. Not Aya. But they're having a baby."

"You're fucking with me!" he exclaimed. Callie heard a loud truck drive past him and figured they must be stopped at a venue. "They're having a baby?"

"Yeah. I'm glad I'm not the only one who's this surprised," she said. 

"I mean its a surprise, but its great for them if that's what they want," Shannon responded. 

"How is it great? It's going to kill his career!" she insisted. "Tessa probably did this on purpose! She has never liked that he was more famous than her."

"Are you sure that's the angle you want to approach this one with, Cali-cat?" he asked. "I mean, Aya's a big boy. He's capable of making his own choices. How do you know this wasn't his idea?"

"Because he said it was a surprise," she said dully, fixing her hair. "Aya would never have agreed to try for a baby at this point in his career. He knows that his sex appeal is the biggest reason why he's so popular. Even his fucking agent told him the wedding timing was a terrible idea. But I guess Tessa has his balls so tightly they've shriveled into raisins."

"Callie, he loves her. They're having a baby. Just be happy for them and focus on your life," Shannon said. "There's no point in being upset because nothing you do will change that."

"I could push Tessa down the stairs," Callie said darkly. 

"I can't tell if you're joking or not so I think I should probably hang up now," he said. "Good luck with the audition. Let me know how it goes, ok?"

She sighed. "Fine. Obviously I was joking. But I do need to get going. Talk to you later." She hung up and looked at herself in the mirror again, trying to decide if her outfit was audition-appropriate. "Fuck it. If they like me, they like me. If not, fuck 'em."

***FILM & CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT***

Universal Studios has just announced that it will be bringing Stephanie Cowell's 2004 Marrying Mozart to the big screen. Marrying Mozart follows the young composer as he struggled to bridge the gap from his childhood successes to adulthood and how he navigates love and independence in 18th-century music scene. With Jamie Bell cast in the lead role of Mozart and Lea Michele as his muse Aloysia Weber, the film will be directed by Sofia Coppola and produced under her production company Zoetrope. The cast will also include Callie Morrison, Chloe-Grace Moretz, Hanna Murray, Emma Thompson, and Christoph Waltz. Additional casting to be announced when it breaks. The film is scheduled to begin shooting on location in Austria by the fall. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This is the end of Philia. I know it took a long time coming out but I really appreciate each and every one of you that stuck around and continue to read my work. My next goal is to focus on getting a chapter out for Look East and then turning to Dark Necessities, Book Two. I hope you are all well.

S.