Take Three Read online

  If you’re already comfortable fucking them, then you’ll be perfectly natural making out or flirting on camera. It’s not meant to be personal, it’s just work.

  Still, when sex gets mixed with business and feelings, it can get messy. Well, that’s Hollywood. It’s always a shitshow of relationships, nepotism and moral posturing.

  Thankfully, Zack seemed blissfully about that fray, but I still had to be careful.

  “Did you see today’s rewrites?” he asked.

  My face dropped. If there were rewrites, it was going to make this process that much harder. Too many rewrites and the actors would be doubly confused about the motivations of their characters and what they should do.

  And if the director lost the thread, watch out. That’s how you end up with a box office bomb like the Johnny Depp Lone Ranger movie.

  “Shit, no,” I said.

  Zack lead me up front and opened the door of the trailer. There was a pouch on the outside of the door for the scripts and rewrites or whatever someone might deliver to me in terms of paperwork. They would just sit in that pouch in the California sun until you retrieved them. It’s not like it ever rains here.

  “Yep, here they are,” he said.

  “Dammit, I barely had the script memorized,” I said worried.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it,” he assured. “We’re lucky if we shoot more than two seconds at a clip. You wanna work the lines for today? I’ll read with you.”

  “Can you? That would be so good,” I gushed. “Thanks, Zack.”

  “No problem,” he said flipping through the pages.

  We went into the living room area of the trailer and both sat on the couch. We had to sit next to each other because there was only one script. I had to try hard to concentrate on the words on the page and not how close my knee was to Zack’s.

  “Looks like you’re doing the scene with Christian today,” he said. “The one at the bar? It’s a kind of meet cute thing where your characters flirt.”

  “Okay, flirt away,” I told him.

  I blushed a little. It was a little weird, reading lines with him alone – and romantic lines at that.

  “Jenny, right? It’s me, Tyler. I’m the one who nearly ran you down in the stairwell,” read Zack.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said, feigning disinterest. “You’re about as coordinated as you are interesting. Get lost.”

  “Whoa, that was a little harsh,” read Zach. “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”

  “I kiss lots of things with this mouth,” I said, turning on the charm. “What’s it to you?”

  “Are you flirting with me?” read Zack. “Because if you are, it’s working and if you’re not… It’s still working.”

  “God, are you that conceited?” I said again, still feigning disinterest. “You can’t just sit down with me. I have to ask you to come into my space.”

  “Can I come… into your space?” read Zack.

  That last line melted me a little bit.

  I felt flushed.

  The best kind of acting was acting that you couldn’t really tell whether it was real or not. I was literally so flustered I forgot my line. I laughed and broke character for a moment, just to get my bearings.

  “Sorry,” I laughed. “That was really good. I really believed that you wanted to get in my pants.”

  Zach blushed and looked away a bit.

  Was he really flirting with me?

  Again, you had to be careful in this business. The line between relationship, flirting, dating, acting… it was all blurred. But we were actors, so to some extent, they’d let us play in the sandbox.

  “God, are you that conceited?” I said, delivering my last line again. “You can’t just sit down with me. I have to ask you to come into my space.”

  “Can I come… into your space?” re-read Zack.

  “You can,” I said seductively. “I’d like you to come inside… my space.”

  “How does that feel?” he read.

  We moved in closer.

  Uh, oh.

  Danger zone.

  “Feels pretty good, Tyler,” I said. “How’s it feel for you? Scared?”

  “Of what?”

  “That you might fall in love?”

  There was an awkward pause. I thought we might kiss, but was it the acting or was it real? I don’t think either one of us knew.

  What I did know was that Zach was a good actor. And he was hot as hell. I actually thought I was getting a little wet.

  “And scene,” he said, laughing nervously and scooting away from me a bit. “That was really great. You got this.”

  “Yeah, you think?” I asked.

  “Yeah, you should probably work these lines with Christian, though,” he said, sounding a little embarrassed. “It’s his scene. I probably shouldn’t be doing this. I mean, since they brought you in to replace Claire — I don’t want to give him or anyone the wrong impression.”

  “Oh, of course! Of course!” I nodded, agreeing. “Christian seems like a pretty solid guy. I would explain, of course.”

  “Do you have any cold bottles of water in here by any chance?” Zach asked, as he was already getting up to check.

  “Sorry, just the sink water,” I said, standing up to join him in the kitchen. “Claire’s people cleaned the place out. I’ll get Hex to restock.”

  We just sort of froze, looking at each other. I was finding it hard to breathe and Zack was still blushing just slightly. His lips were pulled into a curious smile.

  Wow. There was some real sexual tension between us now. God, there were so many good-looking guys in Hollywood. Zach was certainly one of them, with his big muscles and broad shoulders.

  But it was too early in the production and too dangerous to entertain doing anything with him. Not right now. Not today. But still, I could put the vibe out there. If not today, then another day.

  “I’m gonna go,” he said. “I’ll see you on set.”

  “Yeah, yeah, great,” I agreed. “See you in makeup.”

  “Oh, right,” he said, as if remembering.

  Zach laughed nervously and headed out of my new trailer.

  I fell back on the bed and exhaled. Then I immediately called Mallory.

  “Hey, what’s up?” she asked. “Nice digs, by the way.”

  “I just read a scene with one of my co-stars,” I explained.

  “Who?”

  “Zach Kimball?”

  “Oh, yeah,” laughed Mallory. “I remember him. He’s very handsome.”

  “It was kind of a sexy scene and it wasn’t even his lines and it got uh, heated,” I said.

  “Whoa, did you do anything?” she asked.

  “No! I have to be in makeup in like ten minutes,” I explained. “But it was intense.”

  “Well, he’s a pretty good actor,” said Mallory. “You sure he wasn’t just playing the role really well?”

  “He was, but I think he also wanted more,” I suggested. “I’m not sure really, but I am like this close to having to change my panties.”

  “Wow! Way to make a scene very real,” laughed Mallory.

  “It’s my first day, so I can’t make a move on him, right?” I said.

  “No! Not on your first day, but you are the star,” she reminded me. “You can make that move when you’re ready. Directors like that, especially if you have a sex scene with him.”

  “Well, the scene we read was actually the one I have with Christian,” I revealed.

  “Oh! Faux pas!” said Mallory. She tutted. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, because now when you should look all hot and bothered for Christian, you might start thinking about Zach,” she countered.

  “I can try to keep two men in my head at once,” I suggested.

  “Well, it’s not for everyone, but I wish you well on that front,” she said. “We both know it works for me.”

  “Yeah,” I laughed. “Maybe you can give me some tips.”
r />   My phone buzzed. I looked down and saw that it was Harlow.

  “Harlow’s on the other line,” I told Mallory. “Talk to you later.”

  “Later, girl,” said Mallory. I could hear a baby cry in the background. “I have to feed Luke, anyway.”

  “Good luck with that,” I told her, before hanging up.

  I marveled again at how impressive Mallory had become as a new mother. I wouldn’t know how to feed one baby, let alone two.

  I flipped over to Harlow’s call.

  “Are you shittin’ me with that trailer? That place is lit,” said Harlow. “If I wasn’t still a bit hungover from the other night, I’d come over.”

  “Well, it’s no good yet,” I joked. “Wait until I get it stocked with food.”

  “Are you shittin’ me? Seriously? You could live in there!” she snapped. “Does it have Wi-Fi? What am I saying? Of course it does, right?”

  “Let me see,” I said, checking my phone. “Yep, I think we have Wi-Fi here. I don’t have the password yet.”

  “Damn, I’m jelly. I am just super jelly,” confessed Harlow.

  “Plus, I just read with one of my co-stars,” I said, looking around to make sure Zach was still gone. “Zach Kimball.”

  “He’s pretty hot, if I’m remembering,” said Harlow.

  “Super hot and I think he’s into me,” I added.

  “Oooh, nice. When you gonna let him really get into you?” she asked.

  “Slow it down,” I laughed. “It’s my first day.”

  “Sounds like a great way to start things off, if you ask me,” she said wistfully. “Holy shit, you are living the life. So jelly.”

  “Well, when you come to the set, you’ll see it all,” I promised.

  “Can I be your assistant? I’d be a great assistant,” suggested Harlow. “I could ask for all the crazy shit, so you don’t look crazy.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like your fridge has to be stocked with Red Bull, vodka and bowls of green M&M’s,” she explained. “You always have to ask for one crazy thing.”

  “That all sounds pretty nuts,” I noted.

  “You just let me handle it,” she assured. “You just sit back, relax and go have sex with Zach Kimball.”

  I giggled and put a hand to my mouth. “I’m not having sex with him! We just read a scene!”

  “That’s how it starts,” she joked.

  My phone buzzed again.

  “Layla’s on the other line, let me go,” I said.

  “Okay, see ya, bye,” said Harlow.

  I switched over to Layla.

  “Oh, my God! Your trailer! It’s so big and awesome!” said Layla. “You should post it on Instagram!”

  “Nah, too soon,” I said. “I think I should wait at least a week for Claire’s memory to fade.”

  “Tch. Yeah, that’s true,” agreed Layla. “Oh, but we should have a little party there. That would be fun.”

  “Maybe. Let me get the lay of the land here first and we’ll see.”

  “You’re a movie star, they have to listen to you. It’s California Law, I think,” joked Layla. She giggled. “Are you shooting today?”

  “Yeah, I go into makeup in like five minutes,” I said, noting the time. “Shit. I really should reread this script.”

  “Go, go!” urged Layla. “Break a leg!”

  “Uh, don’t say that,” I said. “That’s what happened to Claire.”

  “Oh, right. Well, uh, do a great job!” said Layla, signing off.

  I dug into the script and went over the changes. It was nothing major. There were a few added scenes here and there.

  The key part was that I just had to keep learning the lines for the scenes I was doing each day. That would be easy. They never did very long takes, and even if they did, I could make mistakes and they’d just chop it up however they needed to make it work.

  Even when I was shooting the insurance commercial, I never had to memorize more than a couple of words at a time. But the thing about making a performance believable was that you really needed to wrap your brain around the whole story. You needed to follow your character’s arc in the entire piece.

  My commercials were only 30 seconds long. Okay, technically, they were less than that.

  A movie is around 90 minutes long. Granted, I wasn’t supposed to be in this one every second, but during much of it, I was. There was also action and drama. This was my big chance and I couldn’t blow it. I had to focus.

  I told myself to push Zack out of my head.

  The thought of trying to balance an on-set romance with my performance on set now seemed very foolish. With this movie, I could make my career. I’d be set for the rest of my life.

  There was a knock at the door. It was Hex.

  “Blythe, you ready?” he asked, looking at his watch. “C’mon, we have to get you into makeup right now.”

  “Yep. Let’s go.”

  Grabbing the script, I headed out to the makeup trailer with Hex.

  Chapter Four

  Christian

  “What the hell, Jim? What the hell?” I demanded.

  “It’s gonna be fine, Christian, trust me,” assured the director. “Claire having to bow out of this project is a blessing in disguise. A blessing in disguise!”

  “I don’t see it,” I said, not understanding.

  I ran my hands through my hair, feeling frustrated.

  I thought Claire was a great actress. And everything seemed to be going fine so now that she was out, I worried things would go downhill.

  “As the director, I’m the big picture guy here,” said Jim. “You have to put yourself in my hands. Just like I have to give you time to do your thing, right? So, trust me. We’re shooting the scene where your characters meet for the first time and you’re also going to meet your co-star in real life for the first time! It’ll be so fucking authentic! They’ll be talking about this in Variety and HR for months after!”

  “They don’t talk about shit like that in Variety or the Hollywood Reporter,” I insisted, putting my hand on my hips and glaring at him.

  Jim shrugged.

  “The Internet gossip sites, then. And it’ll be all over social media. Whatever,” he dismissed. “I’m telling you: this will make the scene glow. All you gotta do is be smitten, okay? Say the lines, be flustered and it’s all good.”

  “But I haven’t even talked to this woman! This new actress, whomever she is. How can I do a scene with her?” I insisted.

  “That’s the whole point! Discovery! You won’t even be faking it! That’s the beautiful part! Do you see?!” said Jim, clearly straining to explain. “You’re golden in this! You won’t even have to act! C’mon, get on board with this.”

  “I am, I am, I’m just—”

  “Perfect, you’re on board. I’ll see you on set in a few,” said Jim. “Just loosen up and let it flow. You’ll be great.”

  I walked back over to where Zack and Monk were sitting. My two co-stars were yammering on and on as always.

  Honestly, I don’t know why I’m friends with these guys. Here we are, finally on set together and they’re bullshitting like we’re sitting around at the bar or something. They need to take their jobs more seriously.

  “Guys, c’mon,” I said, dropping down into my chair. “We’re starting to shoot this fucking thing.”

  “Relax, bro,” said Zack. He was grinning like he always did. “You got this. Tell him he’s got this.”

  “You got this,” repeated Monk, stoically.

  He rarely showed his emotions off set.

  That was probably why they called him Monk.

  “Can you believe Jim?” I complained. “He wants to shoot the scene where I do the meet cute thing and I haven’t even read lines in advance with the lead! That’s fucked. It’s totally fucked!”

  “C’mon, bro. He’s tryin’ a thing,” said Zack with a shrug. “He has a different directorial vision than most. A more creative bent, and a spontaneous one. You know that.
”

  “I feel like he’s fucking with me,” I said, feeling a little paranoid. “Directors do that. They try to manipulate the scene before I even get a chance to act it out.”

  “So what?” said Monk, raising one eyebrow.

  “Because then he’ll blame me when it doesn’t go right!” I snapped. “Shit, do I have to draw you a picture? They already fired Claire.”

  “She broke her leg, dude,” said Monk.

  “They still fired her!” I said. “They could have just pushed back production.”

  “That woulda sucked,” Monk pointed out, and I knew he was right.

  There hadn’t really been much of a choice but to replace Claire unless we all wanted to wait ages to get anywhere on this project.

  “Bro, you gotta relax,” insisted Zack. “You already did this scene with Claire! You nailed it.”

  “It was okay,” I relented.

  “No, you nailed it,” said Zack. “It was perfect. Trust me. I just went through the lines with the new girl.”

  “What do you mean?” I said.

  “The stunt woman, Blythe, who is taking Claire’s spot,” he explained.

  “Yeah, I know who she is, but why would you do that?” I asked.

  “To help her deliver the lines better,” said Zack innocently. “She’s new to being the main actress. Plus, she hadn’t seen the rewrite, dude.”

  “You just got done explaining to me the entire point was that we do this new! You’re defending Jim’s decision and then you’re undermining it by doing that?” I snapped.

  “Bro, you gotta calm down,” said Monk, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You’re like ready to snap or something.”

  “Do you guys have any idea the pressure I’m under?” I said. “My older brother is one of the top grossing stars for the studio. If I don’t pull this off – or if this movie bombs – I’m done! I’ll be like Jim Belushi, man!”

  “Christian, Jim Belushi had a decent career,” pointed out Zack.

  “Yeah, after his brother died!” I countered.

  “You’re talking crazy, bro!” said Monk. “You have to relax. Here, take a swig.”