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“I’ve done some shitty things recently.”
“Then apologize and fix it.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick. I’ll quit trying to talk Thad out of seeing you. I’ll tell him you have my blessing.”
Jill smiled at him. “That would be nice. I like him.”
“But you love me?”
“Always and forever, no matter who I am dating.”
Kline swallowed hard. “Can I spend the night? I won’t try anything. I just…”
“Don’t want to be alone? Of course you can. I’ll be the big spoon.”
Rhiannon Charles
Filming in Prague had been riddled with issues and the small cast and crew were starting to joke that it was a cursed set. Thad kept reminding people that no one had died, but Rick just kept grumbling, “Yet.”
It was a hard time on the calendar to be working, and the little delays were stacking up until they were bumping up on their planned two-day break, making even the affable Australian tense and waspish. No one went into an indie like this thinking they’d be getting a great vacation, but when a summer storm came down like Thor’s wrath, flights were grounded, stranding the whole team. Given his plans to jet to London to see his kids for a few days, it was the last straw for his morale.
Rhiannon spent most of the stormy Saturday in her hotel room going over her notes and checking various inputs from the director and the continuity team, only looking up when Rick had knocked to see if she wanted to join him to walk down to a local pub for dinner.
The work she was doing had been much more intense than she’d expected, and in ways, Rhiannon felt like she was just keeping her head above water, though she’d rather chew razor blades than admit to that. Now, with production shut down by rain and one of their sets literally stuck in the muck until Tuesday, she’d gotten caught up on her work and decided she could put the laptop and binders down.
Working with Rick was easy, if unusual. She considered him as they walked down the hotel stairs together. This movie had become a money pit for him, and even if he was richer than God, he had to be feeling a pinch. But he’d kept production from stalling twice, with quick thinking and an open mind to alternatives, and he hadn’t let what was clear stress and agitation affect how he treated the people around him. Simply put, he was just a nice man.
The more she saw him in action, working with the crew–because he was actually picking up slack all over the set–the more she liked him. Unlike most of the money guys on a set, he didn’t just stand around watching over his investment. He was in the thick of it, always looking for a way to help and be useful.
Now, as they raced to the corner pub under twin umbrellas, she found herself laughing. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I said Prague in rainy season,” Rick laughed. “Wait, yes I do. Sixteen-hour days that would let us shoot a movie set in the wet outdoors in half the recommended time. I got exactly what I asked for. Rain.”
“How bad is it–production-wise?”
“Honestly, not too bad. It feels bad. It looks bad. But I planned for contingencies, so we’ll be okay on the timeline. What I’m worried about is morale. Everyone’s been working hard, nearly twenty-hour days for weeks, and I know they were all looking forward to getting out for the weekend, no matter how briefly. I don’t want this to be the worst experience these people have ever had. I’m afraid it’s putting Thad off film forever.”
All she could do was hum at him as he was echoing Thad’s sentiments exactly. “You can’t control the weather.”
“I keep trying! I can’t find any virgins for the ritual sacrifices.”
They both laughed. He seemed to be waiting for something as they sat down in a booth and ordered. Finally, when drinks had been served, he shrugged. “So, I don’t know how to ask you this, so I’m just going to do it. Did you know your friend Jill Parker had gotten married to Kline Scott?”
The words were so foreign that they passed right over Rhiannon’s head for a moment. “What?”
“This came across yesterday.” Rick pulled a few folded pages from the interior pocket of his leather bomber jacked and pushed a fax of a trade publication across the table. "Did They or Didn't They?" Was the headline above a grainy picture of a grinning Kline and Jill huddled together and running out of what appeared to be a wedding chapel, Jill with an armful of flowers.A smaller picture inset showed them leaning over a desk, apparently signing a document, the wobbly caption reading, “Did all those days steaming up the set on Devil’s Party send the hot, hot, hot couple down the aisle? Studio insiders say the two didn’t seem like they were acting while filming the big love scenes last week, and we know we’ve all been following Bumpwatch!”
The story below detailed the couple's wild romp in Vegas, following up with the speculation that they'd tied the knot at the same chapel as several other hot Hollywood names.Camp flacks for Kline were refusing to comment on his private life. Camp flacks for Jill weren't returning calls.
Rhiannon read over it twice, her eyes narrowing in disbelief. "This can't be true."
"It certainly looks that way to me," Rick said, seriously.
She shook her head. "It's probably just some press setup and speculation."
"In a wedding chapel in Las Vegas?"
Rhiannon bit her lips together. “Shit.”
“Yeah. So, I showed Thad, wait–” He put a hand down on hers as she started to protest. “He’s one of my best friends. I know they’ve been talking a lot, but I also know they left it as ‘we’ll see what happens’ and he needed to know. She didn’t even drop him a courtesy call. It was all over the internet fifteen minutes after I got that fax, and I didn’t want him to run across it accidentally.”
