“Impressive that you still ended up so close then,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was placating me. Or maybe mocking me. It didn’t seem like it, though. “We’ll ride together in the future.”
While you work throughlighttraffic in a speed machine?
No thanks.
I kept that to myself since I didn’t need to add insulting his driving to my long list of faux pas I continued making despite my good intentions.
Even if I wanted to say anything, I lost the ability to when he opened the doors to chaos.
Chaos that ground to a halt at our appearance.
Okay, that was a little dramatic. Most of it continued as people messed with lights, cameras, and backgrounds. But there was a small group of people who stood nearby, clearly waiting for the star to return from his rescue mission.
I tried to fall back, but like at Hullywod, Tripp didn’t allow it. With a large hand on my lower back, he propelled me forward as he introduced me to the team. They likely had no interest in meeting a random assistant, but they were polite enough to fake it.
Tripp was guided to a long vanity with multiple mirrors and lights so bright, they were giving me a headache even from a distance. The makeup artist kept a smile on his face until he turned away from Tripp, then let it fall to show his annoyance at the mess that’d been made.
Oops.
He grabbed wipes before pasting his fake pleasantry back on as he cleaned the handsome slate to start over. To be fair, Tripp probably shouldn’t have ruined the work that’d been started. But also… It was dots. Maybe some primer under them, but not more than that. It wasn’t like the man had spent hours crafting a full-face glam look just for Tripp to swan dive into a vat of makeup remover the second he was done.
It made me wonder how many people smiled to Tripp’s face while glaring behind his back. I also wondered if he was aware of it.
I bet he was. I got the feeling there was little he missed.
That has to get exhausting for Tripp.
I positioned myself out of the way and listened as one of the people in charge went through the plan for the day.
Since dragging out my portfolio would be a cumbersome pain—not to mention, a visceral, emotional one, all things considered—I made notes on my phone as she spoke.
Once she was done, I looked over to see if Tripp had any questions, notes, or needs. Instead, I saw his eyes were locked on me in the reflection, watching as if people weren’t fussing around him and waiting for his response. Or an expression change. Anything but the zoned-out way he was staring.
When the silence stretched, the woman tacked on, “Unless you have an objection to any of that.”
Tripp started to speak before the makeup artist let out a panicked noise. He carefully gave a thumbs up instead.
It took a lot longer and a lot more makeup than I expected for Tripp to look… basically the same. The same, but with an airbrushed finish. He stood and should’ve gone to the waiting team, but he moved to stand in front of me instead.
“Better job with the blending this time,” I joked, expecting him to laugh.
He didn’t. With his jaw clenched, his head tipped toward my phone in my hand. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“In the future, keep the texting to a minimum while you’re working.”
“I… Uhh…”
His rumbled words and the strictness of his tone caught me off guard, leaving me a stammering dummy. He wasn’t being a dick. If I had been texting on the clock, his warning was completely valid.
But after all I’d heard about Alex, I was surprised that Tripp had any limits as a boss. Especially one as frivolous as being on the phone when there was little else happening.
His authoritativeness also showed he was treating me like an employee and not a party buddy, though. It was what I wanted, and it made a little buzz of excitement swirl in my stomach.
“Say you understand, Greer,” he ordered, and that didn’t cause a little buzz of excitement.
It was a tremoring earthquake.
