Chapter Four
Will
I didn’t have much time to think about the woman I bumped into at the coffee stand that morning until she wandered on to the set later in the day. Everything had gone so quickly that I’d barely had time to let my feet hit the ground, let alone figure out a game plan for getting such a tantalizing morsel into bed.
Her name was Dina, the same name as an actress I’d loved growing up when I was a kid. That was why the name had stuck in my head. Well, that, and the fact that I’d heard from someone who worked with her that not only was she insanely talented, but she was smoking hot to boot. Those names had a habit of hanging around the back of my mind whether I liked it or not.
She’d seemed surprised to realize that I actually knew her name and a little flustered at the start of the conversation, but she was smart and funny and I loved the way she brushed her dark bangs out of her eyes when she looked up at me. I just couldn’t figure out why she’d left in such a hurry. We seemed like we’d been getting on well, and then, boom, she backed off and fled to the make-up department before I had a chance to ask her out.
In a pause between filming, Dina darted on to the set with a make-up wipe and dabbed at the face of our lead actress, Martina. I found my attention drawn from the part of the script me and my co-director, Derrick, were going over.
“Are you sure we need it to go like that, though?” He pointed out, jabbing his finger against his copy of the script. It was covered in scribbles where we’d jotted down shooting notes, but all of them felt useless now that we were out in the middle of shooting. I was white-knuckling it through the day, trying to keep focus and not to get overwhelmed by how much I was having to learn on the job.
“We could take it out, or push it back till later in the movie?” I suggested. “I don’t think it would affect the story that much. It’s just…”
I trailed off as I watched Dina bantering with Martina, dabbing at her face where a slick of mascara had formed. Martina laughed at something Dina said, and Dina stood there for a moment with her hands on her hips, facing away from me. I couldn’t help but look – she was right there, after all – and the way her ass looked in those fitted jeans, the little sliver of her stomach that showed when she stretched her arms above her head…fuck, what was it about this girl? She was just so god-damn tempting.
“Just?” Derrick prompted me, dragging me back to the conversation that we were in the middle of. I shook my head, dismissing the dirty thoughts that were distracting me from the task at hand.
“I think it’s an important scene for her development, that’s all,” I sighed. “Can’t we stick with it for now?”
“I’m going to have a smoke break,” he got to his feet and ran his hand through is hair. “I’ll catch you in five, right?”
“Sure,” I nodded, watching as he made his way out the door and into the watery sunlight beyond. I’d picked him to work with because I liked the short films he’d put together when he was in college and his first feature had done pretty well on the indie circuit, but he was having trouble getting a mainstream break. He was proving to be a sharper around the edges than I had been prepared for, but I knew that it was different for him. If this movie was a flop, I’d take the shit I got for it, pick myself up and carry on, whereas for him, this was a make-or-break situation. I couldn’t get mad at him for taking this so seriously.
I leaned back in the little director’s chair I’d insisted on getting for the shoot, and watched as everyone milled around, taking care of the little details that their jobs required them to care about. Well, I was pretty sure that was what they were doing – there was only one person I was paying attention to, and that was Dina.
She was leaning up against the small table that made up part of the set and chatting easily with Martina, the two of them laughing and gesturing wildly. I wondered if they’d worked together before, or if Dina was just that good with people. All the make-up artists, all the ones who got repeat work, were generally sparky, interesting people with twice the social skills of any actor. Dina was certainly proving me right on that front. She went to grab her stuff and make her way off set, and she briefly lifted her head and make eye contact with me.
She froze for a moment, stock-still, and the two of us were just looking at each other. Her eyes were a bright hazel, outlined with long lashes that made her eyes look like a cartoon character’s. A smile slowly broke over her face as she seemed to unstick from the surprise of finding me staring at her, and I shifted in my seat, glancing away and then glancing back to see if she was still looking. This was the part of the chase I loved, the flirtation, the way my heart beat fast when I laid eyes on the object of my affection.
But there was something different about this. Maybe it was the uncertainty of the way she’d left me hanging last time we spoke, or maybe it was the unreadable expression in her face as she looked back at me, but something about it put a big grin on my face. I leaned back in my chair and tilted my head back for a moment, and when I returned my gaze to her found that she was grinning and shaking her head. Yeah, she was into me. Thank fuck. I had no idea what I’d have done if she wasn’t, because even just seeing her like this was enough to stir something deep down in my chest.
“Dina,” I called her over, waving my hand to indicate that she should come over. She glanced around before joining me, getting closer than she had to. I could smell her perfume – it reminded me of the hippy piano teacher I’d had when I was a kid, but in a good way.
“What’s up?” She placed her hands on her hips and smiled brightly, the grin lighting up her entire face. Damn, we could break down the lighting rigs right then and there and run this whole place just off her smile.
“I was wondering, about the make-up for this scene…” I began, speaking slowly so I could give myself time to figure out what I was going to say. To my relief and chagrin, Derrick arrived back right at that moment, and Dina stepped aside to let him past. She glanced over her shoulder at me one last time, a look that told me if we were at a bar then I should have been scrambling to my feet to follow her home, and then she vanished behind a trailer as Derrick sat down again.
“You know what you want yet?” he asked, and there was a tension to him that hadn’t been there when he’d left the room a few minutes before.
“I think we should shoot this scene now,” I nodded firmly. “We can always mess around with the placement later. But I want to have it, as an option.”
“You’re sure about that?” He cocked an eyebrow, and a flash of irritation marred my head for a second. He was sitting there like he knew better than me, when I’d been in the business way longer than he had.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I shot back, my voice a little terse. “You got a problem with that?”
“I just don’t think you’ve considered my point of view,” Derrick replied, pressing his fingertips together and tapping his foot against the ground. The motion made his knee bounce, and for some reason that annoyed me more than anything else.
“I have,” I assured him, my voice a little sarcastic. “Trust me, I have. And I think this is the best way to go forward for the movie.”
“I don’t want to pull the director card, but I don’t want you making mistakes this early on into shooting,” he spoke again, cocking his head at me and speaking as though he knew best.
“Good thing I’m not making mistakes,” I shot back through gritted teeth. “This is my movie, remember?”
“And it’ll have my name on it just as much as it will yours,” Derrick stopped tapping his foot. “I’m not willing to mess this up because you can’t swallow your ego.”
“It’s one scene,” I replied, exasperated. “Just give me this, will you?”
Derrick eyed me for a moment, and it seemed to strike him that I wasn’t going to back down anytime soon. He let out a long sigh, resigned, and turned away from me.
“Fine,” he snapped. “But don’t take this to mean you’re going to get everything you want in this movie.”
I rolled my eyes at him, and suddenly realized that someone had been observing us the whole time. Glancing around, ready to chew them out for eavesdropping, I found myself faced with Dina once more. I wasn’t sure how much she’d heard but the look on her face told me that it had been enough. She raised an eyebrow at me and glanced away, turning to take care of something on the other side of the set, and I watched her leave with a sinking feeling. Whatever that was, I doubted it was good news.