Caitlin picked up her phone and set it down again after a brief war inside her head. She'd been wanting to text Harry the past half hour, to talk like they had before. Before...The Kiss. It so deserved capitalization. Only now, the kissing scene was the elephant in the room. It worried her so much she'd pushed her mechanic to finish work on her car.

Tina had sprung the script change on them last minute, so Caitlin had been sweetly oblivious on the drive to work. Afterwards she'd begged a ride home with Iris, telling Harry they were going shopping.

Her car was in perfect condition now, but driving by herself felt desolate. Boring. Lonely. She missed Harry.

Fuckit. She needed to deal with her inner turmoil. Time to clear the air; her phone was in her hand and Caitlin was tapping away before she could tell herself no. **hey! thanks for all those rides to and from work** Sent. Her stomach twisted on itself. Hunger or nerves? Both?

Her phone vibrated. **you're very welcome ~ guess the fun had to stop sometime**

Chewing on her lips, Caitlin considered her response. **I really appreciated carpooling**

Harry sent back an emoji, a wide smile and Caitlin sent the same and added: **Let me know if I can return the favour!**

Music blared and Caitlin looked at her phone like it had betrayed her; an incoming call. "Hello?"

"Hey."

Harry sounded a bit unsure to Caitlin. God, did she somehow guilt him into calling? Time for damage control then. "Are you calling to tell me to stop with the incessant texts?" She tried for a light tone, her stomach definitely twisting with nerves.

"No, nothing like that." Harry chuckled. "But I'd like to take you up on that offer."

A little confused, Caitlin didn't say anything. Part of herself was lost in thinking what she'd really like to offer Harry.

"Earth to Caitlin? My daughter is coming for a visit and I'd like to be able to let her use my car…so would you be open to giving me some rides?"

Caitlin nodded and then face-palmed and spoke a bit louder than she intended. "Of course. When is Jesse getting here?"

Her doorbell rang, and having heard the doorbell, Harry replied, "She only said soon, and you've got company, I'll let you go. We can talk about details at work, see you there!"

Ending the call and smiling at her phone, Caitlin moved to her front door. "Hello? Can I help you?"

A young woman who Caitlin recognized from the picture on Harry's bedroom door stood there with her suitcases, the taillights of a taxi diminishing in the fading evening light. "Not as much as I can help you."

Mugs of tea in hand, Caitlin and Jesse sat in the kitchen. Jesse had her father's bright blue eyes and dark hair but hers shone with a hint of burnished copper. "Nice house."

"Thanks." Caitlin offered milk and sugar. "So, um, what brings you here?"

Jesse doctored her tea and stirred, her spoon clinking musically. "Is it funny if I say an airplane and then a taxi?" She grinned and continued, "I said I can help you, but if I'm gonna be honest, it's a bit of me helping me."

Afraid to interrupt but also wanting a concrete answer, Caitlin smiled and nodded.

"Aw! You are the cutest, like dad said!" Jesse, with the aplomb of a much older person stared at Caitlin and blew on her hot beverage. "Waiting for me to spit everything out, and so polite."

"To a degree." Caitlin let her eyes drift to the pile of luggage in the corner of the room. "How'd you get my address?"

"Easily." Jesse winked. "Sorry, I like to give quick answers and not everybody finds them funny." She lifted her hands from her mug of tea and wiggled her fingers. "Computers make finding information super easy. But that's not what you want to know. You're curious about why I'm here with you before my dad can introduce us, right?"

"All that and more," admitted Caitlin, "but I get the feeling he doesn't often introduce you to his casual actor friends."

"Don't sell yourself short."

Caitlin was touched, Jesse had the same blinding smile as her dad - and some of the same confidence building ways of talking to people. "Jesse, Harry didn't even tell me he had a daughter until I saw your gift to him - that photo sign. If I hadn't, I don't know that he would ever have."

"But I've heard endless stories about you." A little bit smug, Jesse grinned. "Dad likes you and I want to get to know you."

"H-how can you know that?" Caitlin was honestly befuddled. "Why?"

"Which did you want to know, how or why? Dad's never shown this much interest in another woman in recent memory. I like seeing how happy he's been lately. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."

"We're friends." Caitlin cradled her drink, staring at the steam rising. "He's a great guy but he'd never think of me that way."

"You'd be surprised."

"I'm surprised he'd pick me out of all the available starlets in this town, not to mention the elegant and confident women closer to his age. I'm fine if we're ever only friends. He's a great guy and I'm not wanting to weird him out because of how I feel, that'd be ridiculous. He's your dad and you can't be wanting to have this conversation with me. But I'm not going to lie, I find Harry quite attractive." Caitlin did her best to report her thoughts in a matter of fact tone. "It is what it is. We can be good friends without ever trying for more."

"No. What's ridiculous is you thinking he's not as into you as you are into him." Jesse grinned. "You interested in getting and keeping what you're after?"

Iris nudged Caitlin and they both stopped pretending not to stare at Julian who was wearing the most ridiculous moustache. Very dark and fake looking; long, droopy and it was most certainly channelling the miasma of a 1970's porn film.

At least it wasn't his choice. Heaven help the man who wanted to sport that look. Good thing Julian was only doing a dry run-through right now of the scene. There were too many extras on set muffling laughter, pointing at the unfortunate actor and others with nerves of steel taking sly shots with their smartphones. It was a testament to his focus as an actor, as a master of his craft that Julian was able to ignore his truly awful appearance. Maybe it was also that Julian himself was checking out how foolish Harry looked in his own disguise.

Harry was glad his dress fit well and he didn't look like he was going to deliver a giant meat pizza to an undersexed and bouffant haired disadvantaged woman. As a long time actor he ignored his outfit and exaggerated make-up. You had to take the bad with the good. He let himself feel satisfaction, Julian looked ultra creepy in that moustache.

Neither of them cared why this scene had been altered. The director had her reasons, reasons that would make sense later. For every other slight or major twist; the script had evolved and continued to grow into a gestalt they all hoped would garner world-wide fans. In the grand scheme of things, if some tacky facial hair and a flowery dress worn with heavy face paint had to be shown, it was a scant price to pay for success.

Carlos walked onto the set and whispered into Julian's ear, making him grin, glance at Harry and nod. For everyone else's benefit Carlos loudly announced that actual shooting would commence shortly and errant phones taking photos of the two actors would be confiscated. That resulted in a rapid deployment of electronics back into pockets.

Iris defiantly withdrew her own phone at that point and took several shots, the quacking sound the device made at each capture fuelling her sadistic grin, both Harry and Julian giving her aghast looks before she blew them kisses and slid the phone back into hiding.

Caitlin, also dressed in a type of costume, wriggled with excitement. Her character came into the convenience store after Julian and Harry caused trouble and was, if possible, even lighter comic relief. There was nothing too odd about a woman wearing short shorts and a tube top... Other than the fact that her character spent most of her time dressed conservatively and acting straight-laced.

It was a chance to poke fun at expectations. For herself, Caitlin wasn't worried about exposing more skin than usual - it was less than fashionable regular clothes often displayed. Actually, she was a bit excited to see if Harry liked what he saw and sorry to feel like a high schooler - hoping against hope he'd think she looked…well, good. It wasn't very feminist of her to want to be lusted after for her appearance, but it did strike a chord deep in her psyche. And the truth was the truth; Caitlin wanted Harry to notice her as a woman.

Caitlin pulled into Harry's driveway and kept the engine on, switching into reverse and keeping her foot on the brake.

"Hey, you could have dinner with me and Jesse, she's made lots of food." Harry sat with his seatbelt unbuckled but making no other move to get out of the vehicle. "She keeps saying I need to bring my friends over." He made a half-smothered laugh. "Who's the adult and who's the child, eh?"

"I promised Iris we'd hang out tonight. We're working on a surprise for Barry's puppy party."

"Yeah?"

Harry's smile made Caitlin want to include him; Iris would understand, right? Many hands made light work and all that. But she'd promised Iris she wouldn't ask Harry to join - it was like Iris knew her weaknesses.

Harry finally reached for the car door. "Well, I bet it'll be awesome. We should car pool to the party."

"I'll ask Iris." Caitlin nodded and began to check the rear-view mirror in preparation to leave, missing seeing Harry's dismay at her words.

He smothered his sigh and made noises of agreement as he climbed out of Caitlin's car. "See you later then." They exchanged waves, Caitlin driving away and Harry walking slowly to his house.

"Dad, did you chicken out again?" Jesse was sitting on the porch in shadows, a tiny smile on her lips. "Why won't you ask Caitlin out?"

"Have you noticed how old I am?"

"But she likes you."

"I don't want to ruin our friendship."

"Don't you want to be happy?" Jesse pushed her father inside the house and hurried past him, running to the kitchen and bringing him a glass of wine. "Being happy is great, you should try it."

"You're funny." Harry sampled the wine and patted Jesse's hair. "I'm happy we get to spend this time together."

"That's sweet dad, but you need…" Jesse made an exaggerated wink. "…you need a girlfriend."

"Oh." A wealth of understatement was conveyed in Harry's one word response; and he took another draft of his wine and went to the kitchen.

Jesse burst out laughing and followed her dad, vowing to keep working on Harry's resistance to seeing Caitlin as more than a friend.

"Cisco, could you come here a moment?" Tina crooked her finger and gave her assistant director a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "We've got a wee bit of an issue."

"A problem?"

"Do we need an interpreter? I could have sworn you understood the Queen's English." Tina crossed her arms and sighed, barely holding back from rolling her eyes. "Hurry."

Cisco nodded dumbly and followed Tina into her office, jumping when she shut the door behind him with a slam. Tina pointed to one of the chairs opposite her desk and Cisco sat down, leaned forward and did his best to keep his face blank. "What can I do to help?"

"Ah, and this is why I haven't replaced you with my cousin." Tina grinned, all traces of her formidable temper and earlier attitude, gone. "It appears there's an organic opportunity to tamper, I mean, enhance the outcome I desire."

"Go on…" Cisco knew at this point asking questions would only get him yelled at; it was much better to encourage Tina to figure out what the hell she wanted.

"Even you must have received an invitation." Tina clapped her hands then laced her fingers together. Shaking her hands at Cisco she also leaned back in her leather chair and expounded on the opportunity she'd sensed. "Barry's Puppy Party."

"Yeah?"

"Don't be dense. It doesn't suit you. Everyone involved in this movie has been invited, ostensibly to raise funds for the humane society, but -" Tina separated her hands and slapped them on her knees, now leaning forward, "-I wish to push our erstwhile romantic leads together."

"Um, that might not be as cool an idea as you think." Cisco sucked air over his teeth and shook his head. "Free will is a real thing. Most people don't react well to being coerced and tricked into a relationship."

"Pish posh."

Tina made what Cisco could only think of as a smarmy face. He really wanted to argue with her but it wasn't worth the aggravation. "What's your plan?"

"Glad to know you're on board. My plan is simple and honestly exquisite. I'm going to introduce both Caitlin and Harry to scads of eligible potential partners."

"Oh…kay." Cisco was glad he hadn't been carrying anything because he might have been tempted to throw it at Tina. "And then they both end up dating other people?"

"Dear, sweet, deluded child." Tina drawled her words. "I said eligible people, but I never said-" she rolled her eyes; eyes that glinted derision, "-suitable partners."

"Might I say that's brilliant?!" Cisco inadvertently mimicked Tina's accent but she either didn't quite notice or care. "Throwing all the wrong kinds of people at them will drive them towards each other like nothing else."

"I'm amazing." Smiling and buffing her nails on her shirt, Tina locked eyes with Cisco. "Barry's Puppy Party will be the talk of the town, one way or another."