Lily stood up. She was wearing a silky black dressing gown, and it fell around her in sinuous waves, fabric slithering against the leather of the conference room chair. ‘It doesn’t have to make sense to you, Murray,’ she said. ‘It’s not about you.’
She crossed around to my side of the table and pressed her lips to my temple. ‘Get some sleep.’ Her fingers were cool against my jaw. ‘Please. I worry about you.’
I finally made it back to my trailer in the grey pre-dawn. I went into the bathroom to grab a quick shower before I fell into bed for an hour, and caught sight of myself in the mirror.
There, smudged at my hairline, wasBlood of My Enemies.
11LilySeven years ago
‘All right, assignments,’ Tony barked, at the end of our 7am production meeting. ‘Rookie, you’re running point on the date card reveal. Can you handle that?’
Suzette nodded firmly, although she looked apprehensive. I wasn’t surprised. She was a newbie subbing in for the most recent producer Tony had crushed under his heel. This would be the first segment shoot she’d run on her own.
‘Sit Pete M and Harry next to each other,’ I told her. I’d noticed them posturing at each other during the previous evening’s Last Chance Party, much more involved in defeating each other than they were in Melisa, the Juliet for this season ofWherefore Art Thou Romeo?. ‘They hate each other. You’ll get good TV.’
She smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks.’
‘O’Connell,’ Tony said, speaking over the top of Suzette, ‘you’re running point on the group date shoot.’
I glanced at Murray across the conference table. This wasthe third major setpiece in a row Tony had outsourced to him. Was it a vote of confidence, or laziness? Or somewhere in between?
Murray didn’t glance back. There were dark smears under his eyes, and he was looking at his hands, left thumb twisting his wedding ring around and around his finger.
‘And you’re on night shift,’ Tony said, looking at me. ‘Dailies duty.’
Busywork.
Middle of the night busywork.
Again.
It had been like this for two years, ever since we’d moved to the Romeo and Juliet franchise. If there was busywork to be done, more times than not, I was the one to do it.
‘Lily and I are going to swap,’ Murray said, not looking up.
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even a statement, really. It was somewhere closer to an order.
‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, O’Connell,’ Tony said. ‘I gave you a prime assignment.’
‘I know,’ Murray said. ‘But Melisa’s been complaining she feels isolated and she never gets to talk to any other women. We’ll get more out of her in ITMs with a different approach.’
Tony eyeballed me. ‘You get one shot at this,’ he said, a warning note in his voice. ‘If you fuck it up, there’ll be consequences.’
‘Well, I better not fuck it up then,’ I said, in my brightest, cheeriest, least I-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep tone. ‘Thank you for the opportunity.’
I glanced at Murray again, but he was still looking at his hands, twisting his wedding ring around and around.
‘Hey,’ I said, once the meeting had broken up. ‘Can I buy you a coffee?’
‘Sure, but you bought the coffee yesterday,’ Murray said. ‘It’s my turn.’
I sighed. ‘Don’t be obtuse. It’s not cute.’
‘No, Lily,’ he said tiredly. ‘You are not buying me coffee for getting a racist, sexist megalomaniac to take his thumb off the scale for a second.’
He put the strap of his satchel over his shoulder. ‘If you want to grab coffee before you head out to set, though – on me, because it’s my turn – that’s a yes. I’ll need the caffeine for the night shift.’
We went down to the café on the ground floor of the network building. I got a cappuccino. Murray bought himself two coffees – one, an espresso shot he knocked back like tequila; and the other black, in the size the café labelled ‘bucket’.
