The Departure (2020)

Ah, the classic tale of relationships being put to the test of distance, or in this case, the potential of a long distance relationship.  In this indie short film, The Departure, we follow couple Nate (Grant Wright Gunderson) and Jessica (Kendall Chappell), as they begin to get to that serious point in their relationship where they are considering moving in together and taking that next step.  We open on them swimming, playing around in the pool, and talking longer term plans, that is until Nate gets the chance of a lifetime with his career to move to New York and get a huge promotion at his job that would put him in that upper crust of LA society after 6 months in the Big Apple.  Problem is though that Jessica's entire life is in LA, so she'd likely need to stay put.  After some consideration, they are convinced 6 months isn't that big of a deal and they can make it work, but Nate has a nagging feeling that she likes a guy she works with, so he isn't 100% on board with trusting her.  Enter his good friend John (Austin Lauer), who is a bit of an LA player and looking to nail anything on two legs.  Nate believes that if Jessica can resist any temptation with his good looking friend John, they can survive the distance and long term commitments he has planned for them.  So after a staged chance encounter between John and Jessica, the table is set for a diabolical test from an untrusting boyfriend.  Along the way though, we get to see that untrusting boyfriend Grant Wright Gunderson laying out poolside and then in a clingy swimsuit after getting out of the pool!  Not sure that body will get him past the jerk move of setting up his lady like that though...  It's always the bad boys that are too sexy for their own good!