Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙 ✦ Once the kiss with Jennifer was finished on camera, Adrian’s work on Friends came to an end.
That was only natural.
However well Marco Moretti had landed, the six regulars were the heart of the show.
The online poll had burned bright for a moment, but it could not change the shape of Friends forever.
Once the writers let Ross start regretting his marriage, Emily turn harsher, and Rachel become the one trying to help him sort through the fallout, the audience returned to the couple they had always wanted.
Marco’s arc reached its ending.
Adrian did not mind.
As Frederick had said, four episodes on a hit sitcom, about a sixth of a season, was already more than most newcomers could dream of.
And Marco had left an impression.
His final breakup with Rachel helped.
Faced with an ending he could not avoid, Marco recited a brief Italian sonnet, the rhythm romantic and wounded without becoming ridiculous.
That had been Adrian’s contribution.
The director had told him to improvise, so Adrian borrowed a few lines from Petrarch in Italian.
It fit the character’s unwillingness to let go and his grudging acceptance that he had no choice.
The director kept it in the final cut.
After the episode aired, the moment played beautifully.
Then there was the kiss.
Adrian and Jennifer did not kiss for long in front of the camera, but the scene carried a charge that made the director call out in satisfaction when they finished.
Even Matt LeBlanc, who had become Adrian’s closest friend on set, pulled him aside afterward and asked what exactly he and the women had done in Jennifer’s trailer.
After all, when Jennifer, Courteney, and Lisa came back out, they looked normal enough on the surface.
Underneath, though, there was something strange in the air.
“Nothing,” Adrian said after thinking for a second.
“Chandler, part two.” At the start of the fifth season, Chandler and Monica’s secret had been at its hottest.
When the others accidentally saw Chandler kiss Monica, he hurriedly kissed Rachel and Phoebe too, claiming it was a European greeting he had picked up.
Adrian had been luckier than Chandler in one narrow sense: the private rehearsal had actually solved the problem.
If the assistant had not knocked, they might have kept refining the scene for a little longer, mostly because the absurdity of the situation had broken his nerves at last.
Of course, none of that could be said.
So Adrian kept his answer vague and endured the look Matt gave him, the kind of look only another man would bother to translate.
The trailer remained one of Adrian’s stranger memories from the Friends set.
It helped him understand the rhythm Jennifer wanted, and the scene on camera worked because neither of them had to hesitate once the cameras rolled.
Kissing on camera was not complicated in theory.
The difficult part was rhythm: when to be soft, when to draw back, when to give the audience a feeling without letting the actors lose the scene.
The point was not to overwhelm.
It was to make the moment feel intimate while still serving the story.
Still, all of that had to be set aside.
The strong kiss, the Italian verse, and the clean end of Marco’s arc kept the character alive in small pockets of fan discussion even after Adrian left the show.
It was a perfect ending and, more importantly, a beginning.
The money helped too.
Sixteen thousand dollars in a month gave Adrian room to improve his life.
He bought a Nokia 5110.
He replaced a few pieces of worn clothing.
And then, most important of all, he found a new place.
“What is this?” Naomi asked as Adrian led her by the hand into the apartment.
She looked around, and a flicker of understanding passed through her eyes.
“Two bedrooms, one living room,” Adrian said, turning in a slow circle with a grin.
“Eight hundred a month.
Furnished.
You can see the Hollywood sign from the balcony, and the neighborhood’s decent.
I had to hunt for it, but it’s a good deal.” The apartment was not huge, but it was clean and properly furnished.
The building felt safer.
The street was better.
Compared with the cramped room with its tiny kitchen and bathroom, it was a different life.
“It’s good, Adrian,” Naomi said.
“Really good.” Her smile was gentle, but distant.
He noticed at once.
“What’s wrong?
Aren’t we supposed to be happy right now?” “Nothing’s wrong.” She walked toward the balcony and looked through the glass door at the distant hills.
After a quiet moment, she turned back as if she had made a decision.
“I’m leaving, Adrian.” For two seconds, he did not understand.
“Leaving where?
Back to Australia?
Are you giving up on Hollywood?” “No.” Naomi gave a small laugh.
“Last Friday, I finally got a part.
A supporting role in a film.
The pay isn’t much, but it’s enough to get me out of the hole.
So…” She made a helpless little gesture and tried to keep her voice steady.
“So I should move out.” Adrian went still.
“Do you have to?” “I’ve been in your way for too long,” Naomi said.
“I can’t keep imposing on you forever.
And now that I can afford…” “You know I like you, Nami.” He looked straight into her eyes.
Naomi stopped.
She turned her head aside, then brought herself back to face him.
“I know.
I like you too.
A lot.
But I’m twelve years older than you.” “So what?” Adrian’s control slipped.
“Does that erase what we’ve felt these past months?
Does it erase the way we kept each other standing?” “No, Adrian.
Listen to me.” Her voice rose suddenly.
Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face against his chest.
“I won’t forget it,” she whispered.
“I will never forget it.” Her voice trembled.
“I never told you.
That day, before I called you, I was so low I could barely breathe.
I kept thinking about driving along Mulholland, all the way out, and not turning back when the road ended.” The memory of that night came back to him at once.
Adrian held her tighter.
“But you came,” Naomi said brokenly.
“You came quickly.
You talked me down.
You made me feel like someone in the world still needed me.” She swallowed and pressed her eyes shut.
“I will never forget that.
Never.” Then she looked up.
Her gray-green eyes shone with tears.
“These have been the happiest days I’ve had in years.
There was still pain.
Still trouble.
But somehow it was bearable, especially watching you get your feet under you in this business.
But Adrian, I need time.
I need a little space.
Do you understand?” What could he say to that?
He could only hold her.
After a long while, he lifted her face in both hands.
“Can I come see you?” “Of course.” She smiled.
Adrian studied her eyes and asked, each word careful, “Will you come see me?” For a moment, Naomi’s heart seemed to stop.
She looked at him for a long time before she finally answered.
“Yes.” Then Adrian kissed her.
The kiss turned fierce almost immediately, grief and desire rushing together until neither of them tried to separate the two.
They kissed again and again.
Naomi backed into the wall, clinging to him, and what followed was not gentle so much as desperate.
They held on as if the shape of each other’s bodies could postpone the decision already made.
Their last three nights together were wild, tender, and aching.
After Adrian helped Naomi move into her new place, he gathered everything he owned and moved into the two-bedroom apartment alone.
He had already paid three months’ rent.
There was no taking that back.
“Alone again,” he said later, sitting in the half-empty living room with a can of soda in his hand.
The words carried a sadness he did not bother hiding.
Puck was trying to climb into a cardboard box, back legs kicking furiously against the floor.
“Stop making trouble.” Adrian lifted the puppy away.
“There’s nothing in there for you to eat.” Puck barked in protest and immediately tried again.
Even when Adrian lifted the box over his head, the little dog hopped around his feet, determined to reach it.
“Fine.
Fine.” Adrian sighed.
“But don’t bite her, or I’m buying you a muzzle.” He set the box down and lifted Puck into it.
The puppy, who had been frantic outside the box, went still the moment he landed inside.
He stared at the tiny ball of fur curled in the center.
After a long moment, he stretched out one front paw and touched it carefully.
“Meow.” Puck jumped as if the box had exploded.
His tail wagged wildly, and he looked almost offended when the tiny kitten did nothing but shift in her sleep.
“That’s enough.
Let her rest.” Adrian took Puck out again and set the box up high.
No amount of pleading, pawing, or wounded puppy eyes changed his mind.
He had found the kitten in the same alley where he had found Puck.
Since he was moving out of the place where he had lived for five months, he had gone back one last time out of sentiment.
Instead, he found a discarded kitten curled into herself like a scrap of cloth.
For a while, he could only laugh helplessly.
Was that alley some kind of unofficial dumping ground for unwanted animals?
Maybe he should call the city and ask someone to check it.
But once he had seen her, and once Puck had taught him how quickly pity could turn into responsibility, Adrian could not just walk away.
So he took her in.
The license, checkup, and shots would cost money, but that was the price of deciding not to be heartless.
“At least I’ve got a cat to keep me company now,” he said.
Then he thought of Naomi and sighed again.
He walked to the balcony.
The last light of the day was fading, but the white letters on the hill were still visible in the distance.
Adrian took out his phone and called home.
“Hey, Mom.
It’s me…
This is my new cell…
I’m sorry I didn’t come back for Thanksgiving…
Maybe.
I don’t know yet.
It depends on work…
Yes, I love you too…
No, I’m eating.
I promise…” He looked again at the Hollywood sign.
Even as the sky darkened around it, the letters remained clear.
The past few months rushed through his mind: the bank, the auditions, Naomi, Puck, Friends, the parties, the new apartment, the strange little life he had built out of almost nothing.
“I think,” Adrian said quietly into the phone, “I found the work I want to fight for.” ✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS TheBacklot Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter drew you further into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.