Chapter One
Ashlyn adjusted the settings on the camera one more time. She couldn’t believe that she was about to shoot scenes for the movie Firebird. She had always dreamed of filming, and being here felt surreal. It just seemed as though the preparations were taking forever! Gary Phogot was an up-and-coming director. The tabloids said he had promise, but that he hadn’t produced a movie yet that really grabbed into the public.
Ashlyn looked around and saw that many of the other togs were sitting around. Some were talking; some were eating the drinks provided. They certainly weren’t worried about their cameras flying away. Ashlyn decided she had to do something to relax. Her part in the filming would come soon enough.
“That looks good,” Ashlyn said, approaching one of the togs and commenting on their plate of food.
The man held it up and smiled. “Would you like to try some?”
Ashlyn grabbed a small handful of the trail mix and began eating it piece by piece as she tuned into the man’s conversation with another woman working on set. “. . .badly run. Before, we were very efficient. Now, it’s a lot of sitting, a lot of waiting, and not a lot of working.”
“You say that like’s a bad thing,” the woman answered. “We’re still being paid the same, so what does it matter?”
Ashlyn’s eyes traveled over to the director who was giving orders and flapping his hands like a bird who was desperately trying to take flight. Maybe he really was trying to move things along. The director motioned toward the woman in charge of the extras.
Ashlyn shook her head and turned away as the extras started filing in. She felt a little sick to her stomach. Her luck had never been very good. When she was growing up, all she had wanted was to be an extra. She hadn’t even asked for a speaking part, and here were others receiving their places easily. Her luck never seemed to take her very far, but then, that was normal. She hadn’t been able to finish film school either for lack of money. She’d had to beef up her resume with a few lies before anyone would take her.
But, it seemed to have work well in the end. Here she was, almost ready to begin filming her first scene. Ashlyn walked back over to the camera that had been assigned to her, her camera, and began fidgeting with it again. She looked up and watched the director direct. The extras were being led over to a certain part of the forest, and Ashlyn wondered why they needed so many. It’s not as though they were filming in the city.
One of the extras was pulled aside, and Ashlyn found her stomach flipping over as she studied him. She had never been one of those girls desperate to have a man, but this man was very attractive. He drew Ashlyn’s eye immediately. Ashlyn studied him as he listened carefully to the director’s instructions.
He had dark skin that looked as smooth as an undisturbed cup of hot cocoa. His hair was cut short, and when he smiled at the director, Ashlyn felt her heart beat hard. He was very handsome. After a pause, where she seemed to be struggling for control over her body, Ashlyn pulled away and forced herself to focus on something else. She struck up a conversation with a cameraman who was standing nearby.
“So,” she said, “what’s the protocol for filming? Do you know if we’re going to start this year?”
The guy looked up from his phone as though surprised that someone was talking to him. “Oh, yeah. Soon. Sorry, my girlfriend is being needy.”
Ashlyn glanced at his phone. She didn’t know what to say. She’d never been great at conversing with others. She was more of an introvert.
“So, shouldn’t we go ahead and set up our cameras?” she asked, more out of something to say than really thinking he would know the answer.
The guy shrugged. “I don’t think so. Gary will tell us when we’re supposed to do something. Just stay quiet and out of his way until that happens.”
Ashlyn smiled. “Okay. I’m just so excited to start that I want to be ready.”
The guy smiled a crooked smile at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I remember being a newbie.” He slapped her arm as one friend would to another. “Enjoy it. Pretty soon, you get bogged down and life, and then sometimes, you forget how much you loved working with a camera in the first place.”
“I don’t think I could ever forget that,” Ashlyn said.
Gary came over a few minutes later and began shouting hurried directions. Ashlyn adjusted her camera and focused on the area she was assigned. Everyone was in place and ready to start the frame.
Ashlyn stood behind her camera and looked through the lens. Her stomach flipped over again as she looked at the dark-skinned extra. She had thought he would just be playing with the others, be there for a day then leave. Instead, he had been chosen to have a little bit of a bigger part. Ashlyn didn’t like the idea of him having a bigger part, but who was she to say anything? She simply focused her camera on her and tried to calm her stomach. She had never felt such instant attraction to someone.
As soon as she started recording, she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. The man who was stirring her insides was playing a small role named Travis. She decided that would be his name from now on since she didn’t know his real name. She slowly moved her camera forward on the dolly at the correct part, focusing in close on Travis. He looked right at the camera as he delivered one line, and Ashlyn felt like she might throw up. What was her problem?
“Alright, everyone has five minutes,” Gary said. “Five minutes, everyone.” Gary was pulled away to deal with a problem, and Ashlyn began reviewing the shots she had. They were pretty good.
Ashlyn looked up and saw that Travis was headed toward her. Did he find her as attractive as she found him? Ashlyn looked toward the bathroom trailer, desperately searching for an escape. It was too late. Travis laid a hand on her arm.