Page 35 of Reality Girl, Ep. 3

Oh wow.

“Uhhm. I don’t know. Just. Whatever.”

“A grand? Two?”

I would have settled for fifty bucks.

I shrugged, struggling not to smile. “Two should work.”

She grabbed her wallet, rifled through it, and pulled out a wad of $100 bills. After counting them, she handed me the money. “There’s $1,700. It’s all I’ve got in cash. Will that work?”

“That should do it. Thanks.”

“You’re doing great, Lou. I’m going to leave this up to you. You’ve proven you’ve got great judgement. Let’s get a few scenes filmed that we can put in front of last night’s, and then get her over here for a few more short scenes.”

She inhaled a long, deep breath, exhaled, and then met my gaze. She was grinning from ear to ear. “And then we’ll shoot the fight, and the departure. End it with a shot from outside the fence of the runway, with the plane taking off.”

I envisioned the tears rolling down the cheeks of the viewers. “I love it.”

She hugged me. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

I glanced at my fistful of $100 bills. “Okay, I will.”

As she walked away, I shoved the money into the pocket of my sweats. She no more than closed the front door, and Eric walked into the kitchen.

He opened the fridge. “Was that Kelli?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d she have to say?”

“She wants you to get the girl back here for a few scenes. Will she do that?”

He set a carton of eggs on the counter. “Sure. She liked the thought of being on T.V.”

“In one of them, she wants you to fuck that girls brains out,” I lied. “They’ll edit it into something useable.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. She said the dirtier, the better.”

“Okay.”

If he did, it’d make me another $200. “Will she do that?”

“She wanted to last night, but I told her no.”

My eyes thinned. “What?”

“She wanted to last night, but I said no. I thought--”

I raised my hand. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve got her number, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do. Get her back here. We’ll film you two going at it, and then after you’re done, I’ll walk in without knocking. I’ll act surprised, and so will you. Then, you’ll walk her to her car. You and I will get in an argument the next morning, and I’ll demand you leave. She’ll come pick you up and take you to the airport. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to air.”

He gave me a blank look, and then blinked a few times. “Do I have to leave?”