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“What a crock.”
“You’re the one who went behind my back to convince your dad not to sell me part of the company. How is that not hiding?” Adrian stared her down in the mirror, and she wanted to cry at the anger and disappointment she saw there.
“I didn’t tell him not to accept your proposal. I asked him questions and told him I couldn’t decide one way or another until I had answers.”
“Mascara. Open up.”
Sofia blinked rapidly and raised her eyes to the ceiling, while the tiny artist expertly applied the finishing touches. She would not look athimand screw up all of Natalie’s hard work with tears.
Frankie chimed into the conversation. “She didn’t tell him not to sell, but I did.”
“What?” they both asked in unison.
“I want to run the building side of the business. I have worked damn hard to prove my worth to this company, even if Dad refuses to see it. I’m not going to sit quietly by while he sells away half of my business.”
“Lips.” Sofia held hers still while Natalie painted them, giving her a good reason to refrain from stepping back into the fray. Frankie was doing just fine.
Adrian tried to protest. “That’s not how it would—”
Frankie cut him off. “How would it? How exactly do you see this working?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to get Dom to talk about it.”
“Ha. Good luck with that. I’ve been trying to get him to talk to me about the future for years.”
“Camera in ten,” Jake bellowed from outside the tent.
Sofia pulled the paper bib off her shirt and rose as gracefully as she was able to on shaky knees and stilettos. “I’ll leave you two to hash this out. I’ve got scenes to shoot.” Happy to escape the tension of the tent, she greeted Jake at the front door of the office with a firm and fake smile plastered on her face.
Let the circus begin.
Chapter 24
Three weekslater
How long couldshe keep this up? Her brain was spinning, and her sketches were blurring before her eyes. She’d been at her desk since before eight, only getting up to go through makeup before filming two customer sessions at her desk. Even now, at four in the afternoon on a Wednesday, there was still no end in sight. In the three weeks since the show had started filming in earnest, her world had exploded. All of their active contracts were being converted to the show as the owners signed releases. Three crews would be filmed on separate houses to fill the season fast. New leads were being funneled through production assistants, too.
She was suddenly designing for three different teams, on six projects. They were hiring on an additional crew to handle the increase of work, too. On top of all the additional HR paperwork and design and ordering that needed to go through, she was lucky to see the light of day. It would all calm down. Soon. This was just start-up craziness.
She reminded herself that this was what she’d signed on for. After reworking the contracts to provide better compensation for the crews, better percentages on side-lines, and stipulations about designs in her name, she’d been able to get everyone to agree to the concessions that the production company wouldn’t budge on, like timelines and overrun caps. It had taken all of her negotiating skill, but she’d done it. Three days later an expanded crew had pulled up, and she hadn’t taken a full breath since.
She’d feel a lot better about her workdays if her nights were as blissful as they had been. But going home to an empty apartment had distinctly lost its appeal. She found herself staying later and later just to avoid the loneliness. Even though her heart was broken, she was proud of the way they were handling things. Post-breakup, she and Adrian had taken to avoiding each other as much as possible. She was determined that their split wouldn’t interfere with their working relationship. She refused to prove her father right.
They had barely seen each other since filming started. Adrian was kept as busy filming at the houses as she was here in the office. And tomorrow payroll was due. It was going to be another late night for her. She printed and rolled up the three designs she’d fleshed out today and dropped them in a tube to go to Adrian for inspection. She was worried because she hadn’t been able to wait for him to get to all of the inspections before starting because she had Jake breathing down her neck to film the client sit-downs. She had built more space into the budget and less detail into the plan this time. Hopefully, it would be enough.
When Enzo popped his head into her office, Sofia leaned back with a sigh.
“Now a good time?”
“As good as it’s gonna get.” She stretched her arms out in front of her. “What’s up?”
“Dad wanted me to ask if you had the payroll done yet.”
“Why doesn’t he pick up the phone himself?”
“Because he’s still pissed at you.”
“Did you need something while you’re here? Or are you just today’s whipping boy?”
