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“How’d I do?” Violet asks with a quirk of her brow.
I pull the folded check from my inside jacket pocket and secretly slide it into her hand. “Best work I’ve seen in a while. Great job.”
She winks at me, places a soft kiss to my cheek to hide the way she slips the check into her bra. “Call me any time, Eddie. I like helping you out.”
For a cool ten thousand dollars, she had no choice but to like helping me out. But I don’t say it. Instead, I just smile and wink.
My guys lead her toward the back exit for her planned escape from the press and I watch her tight ass swaying down the hall. Black stilettos sealing the deal. A part of me mourns the fact that I’ve closed that door. Now Violet will always be my paid job, and that’s a woman I could never be with in any other way.
Violet is just out of view when my phone pings with a text. It’s Cara, of all people.
Got the role.
You can post the blank check to the theater.
13
Cara
First day jitters have me in a death grip when I make my way onto set. The general buzz of the crew seems louder, props look bigger… It’s like I’m five years old again. I follow the signs directing me to the main stage and that’s when it hits me: This is what the last few years have come to. I’m finally going to do the thing I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little girl.
The butterflies in my stomach go into overdrive when I see my chair. ‘Cara’ is emblazoned on the back in bold, white lettering. It may be Aliens Out West, and there may have been external forces at play in me landing the role, but there’s a feeling of unfettered excitement that settles in my gut and I know it’s a moment I’ll remember forever.
“Big day, huh?”
I spin around and find Luka grinning at me, a half-eaten cream cheese bagel in his hand. Maybe it’s the lighting or just my mood, but he’s a lot hotter than my first impression of him.
I return his easy smile. “I’m okay. Just… taking it all in.”
“I know it can be intimidating,” he says, hooking his arm through mine as he begins to lead me across the sound stage. “I’ll show you around and before you know it, this’ll feel like home.”
It’s neither the lighting or my mood - I’m happy to see Luka because he’s the only person I know here today. The familiarity is helping to ease my nerves.
So I let him take me around and offer the appropriate amount of interest to everything he’s explaining. The Kraft table laden with food, the props department, costume… Everyone’s really friendly and we get stuck a few times with me explaining who I am and how I got here.
The whole time, though, I’m trying to hide the way I’m searching for Edward. Part of me expects him to suddenly emerge from a dark corner to catch me off guard. Expects… or hopes…
I’d made up my mind to be done with him. I want to be done with him, I swear. But getting him out of my head has been damn near impossible. Just the thought of him makes my body react in ways that are mildly inconvenient in the light of day and at night, well, that’s another story.
“That’s us,” Luka takes me by the hand and drags me on set.
I’m flabbergasted. “But- we haven’t even done hair and make-up yet.”
I look around and see everyone taking up their various spots. Miranda slides into her chair and locks eyes with me over the main camera in front of her. I smile stiffly and she shows me to breathe.
“Lighting check,” Luka replies simply and kicks aside a tumbleweed covering a big blue ‘X’ where he’s supposed to stand.
I find mine and root myself to the spot, glancing over at Miranda for some kind of validation. But she’s already moved into director mode, calling instructions to her team. The lighting guys swarm around us, checking and double checking the set, telling us to look this way and that.
“Can we have a quick run through of scene six?” Miranda calls out. “Chase, I want you to check the levels on Cara’s right while they do it.”
It’s first on the sheet for the day and I’ve run this scene with Zoey probably a hundred times, so falling into it with Luka is a breeze. Even with everyone around us making it feel like a production, it takes no time at all for me to get lost in the moment. Something clicks and I’m doing what I was made to do.
A slow hand clap resounds on the quiet stage when Luka delivers his last line of the scene and we both turn to find Edward walking over. My heart sinks. He’d been here after all, biding his time, obviously.
“You sure are pulling out all the stops for a lighting check on a movie you once called mindless and meaningless.” His razor sharp smirk slices through whatever high I’m feeling, and brings me plummeting back to reality.
The sound stage seems to shrink around me and everything grows quiet. All I have is my thudding heart and the electric hum of the charge between Edward and me. Still there, still as powerful as ever.
