AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But I’m not sorry at all,” Emrys said.
“Is this the girl from the paper?” Jodie said quietly. “Or your fiancée? I won’t tell, but—“
“They’re the same person. My fiancée is the girl from the paper.”
“Oh, wow. Nice. You know, they’re always predicting someone is cheating or dying. They had an article out about your costar saying she’d gained 163 pounds and was at death’s door.”
Emrys almost looked back at her to see if she was joking. “See, Caitlyn, everyone deals with this tabloid garbage.”
“I guess so. I’m starting to see the humor in being the other woman to myself,” Caitlyn said.
“I’ll call Heloise and have her schedule you a massage. Relieve some of that stress,” Emrys said.
“I don’t know—“
“It’s done.”
“O-Okay, I guess.”
Emrys spoke to her for a few more minutes until he had to go, then he got off the phone, thanked Jodie for her work and her patience, and headed over to Wardrobe. While he would have liked to talk to Caitlyn more, he didn’t know the people working in Wardrobe, whereas he’d been on set with Jodie many of times. He trusted that while she listened to gossip, she didn’t share anything that wasn’t already in print.
After a quick run-in with the tape measure, Emrys waited for the head of Costuming to bring over his notes. He took a seat and started to skim over his script.
“Fancy seeing you here.” Nina approached him, walking slowly. She took a seat next to him and sipped an iced latte with the word ‘coconut’ scribbled on it.
“Given I’m the main love interest, not that surprising, I’d hope. How could I have gotten myself fired before we even do our first table reads?” Emrys said. “What are you doing here?”
“Improving the next six to eight weeks of your life.” Nina smirked and tossed back her thick black hair, which now had streaks of red and blond spiraling through it. “Your love interest has been recast.”
She pointed to herself with both hands and smiled smugly.
“Really? Did they say why?”
Nina shrugged. “Remember Jennifer was filming that comedy with her friend Daphne? She gained two dress sizes for the role and was probably counting John to keep lagging on his script revisions so she could get it all off before we had to show up on set. This is indie, but not that far indie.”
“I guess tabloids can occasionally get something almost right. Though I hope she’s not dying.”
Nina clicked her tongue. “She’s not dying. Her butt’s just the size of a boat.”
“To be honest, I never thought that Jennifer and I had much chemistry, but she was cast first.”
“At least they should know that we have it.” Nina winked. “We could give ’em a bit of a PR-mance.”
“I trust that PR can do their jobs without us having to pretend to go out or causing any more undue stress to my poor fiancée.”
“Yeah, where did she even come from? The last time I saw you, you were Mr. Flying Solo at that New York screening party. Now you’re engaged?”
Emrys pocketed his phone and stood. “What can I say? I’m in love.”
“Happens to the best of us, unfortunately.” Nina folded her hands together under her mouth. “Will we see her?”
“Maybe later. She’s not been feeling well since Greece, and Mum demanded that I let her train Cait up for the court.”
Nina laughed. “Poor fiancée!”
“I know, but better now than later. She may not know that I’m responsible, but she’ll be grateful once my father finally gives us permission to get married.”
“I honestly don’t understand how your country works.”
“I’ll invite you to the wedding, and you can see for yourself. Or ask my sister. She’s the one who does it, mostly.”
“And yet, Daddy Dearest is the one who gets to be all up in your love life?” Nina grimaced. “Weird.”
“If he couldn’t control the minute details of our lives, the world might just spin right off its axis,” Emrys said dryly.
The man from costuming who had taken Emrys’s measurements came for Nina. She stood, her tight mini-dress riding up so high that Emrys could have read the print off her panties, straightened her dress, and then walked away, swinging her hips. Wardrobe was going to have their work cut out for them getting Nina into clothing that went past the knee.
***
Emrys had only been on set for a week when Caitlyn saw that some idiot gossip blogger online had her on “Baby Bump Watch.” It was small consolation that he had: a) actually gotten her name right as well as the fact that she was supposedly Emrys’s fiancée and b) was using a picture from before she’d even reconnected with him. It was just that she was leaning over, and the loose fabric of her blouse very vaguely resembled a curve.
