CHAPTER FIVE
Captain Sparta’s uniform was a white-and-gold molded bodysuit with a red cape and a Spartan helmet. Chase carried his helmet under his arm and came over to the director to shake hands and presumably say hello.
My heart was beating so hard in my chest that for a second I couldn’t hear. It was actually him. Lexi was right. He was even better-looking in real life, and I’d already thought him the most incredibly handsome man alive. I looked down and saw that my legs were shaking. I was grateful I was already sitting.
It was strange seeing him. Up to that point, Chase hadn’t been a real person to me. He was a character in a movie or a faceless entity sending out tweets. It was like it suddenly dawned on me that he was an actual human being. Like me. Or Lexi.
Obviously way hotter and taller and more amazing than Lexi or me, but still.
In all those years when we planned on meeting him, my imagined reactions usually involved screaming and jumping up and down, with tears streaming from my face.
I didn’t feel the urge to do any of those things. Turned out I had some dignity where he was concerned.
It was a nice thing to discover.
The director showed Chase where he wanted him to lie down—at the end of the lane where Lexi was bowling.
“Let’s do a quick run-through,” the director said. Chase got down on the floor, and an assistant came over to hand him his weapons—a long, pointed spear and a battered Grecian round shield.
“Quiet on the set! Places!” the assistant called out, raising both of his hands. I sat as still as I possibly could, watching Lexi as she held up her bowling ball, poised as if she were about to send it down the lane.
“Boom! Explosion! Everyone is scared!” the director yelled, and I did my best to react.
Chase had put his Spartan helmet on, and it covered most of his face. He leaped to his feet. He brushed off some imaginary dust and marched down the lane, stopping when he got to Lexi.
“Sorry I ruined your score, miss,” he said to Lexi. And there it was, that bone-melting, deep voice that sounded like smoke wrapped in velvet. It made me shudder.
Where I was falling apart even though he hadn’t been speaking to me, my friend had no problem stepping up to the plate. She put one hand on her hip and with a flirtatious smile said, “If you want to help me score later, call me.”
There was some loud laughter from the crew, and the director called, “Cut.” We had been told there wouldn’t be any dialogue in this scene.
Was Lexi going to be fired? Chase had spoken to her first. She had only responded. It would kill her if they made us leave.
I might also die a little on the inside if I was forced out after I’d finally gotten the chance to ogle Chase in person.
Okay, I would die a lot.
The same assistant as before came to collect his spear and shield. Chase took off his helmet, and some strands of sweaty blond hair stuck to his forehead. He was so sexy I couldn’t breathe.
“Marty doesn’t like it when I ad lib. That’s why I do it only on test shots,” he said to Lexi in a conspiratorial voice. “Kudos to you for that comeback. Hey, you’re that girl from the radio station, right? Is your friend . . .”
His voice trailed off, and he turned, looking dead at me. Ignoring Lexi, he walked over and offered me his hand. “You must be Zoe Miller. I’m Chase. Covington.”
He added on his last name like I wouldn’t know who he was. It was kind of endearing. I stared at his hand until the girl on my right nudged me, and I gave him mine. A zap of raw electricity sparked at his touch, his hand warm and strong and big. It shot up my arm and spread throughout my body, making every part of me tingle.
“Hi, Chase Covington.” I don’t know how I was able to form words. Or how I hadn’t dissolved into an incoherent, blubbering pile of Zoe goo.
“Hi, Zoe Miller.”
We were still shaking hands, which was basically holding hands at this point, as it had gone on so long. He was just grinning at me like I was some long-lost friend he was excited to catch up with.
I didn’t want to imagine what my slack-jawed, overwhelmed face looked like. He probably thought I was an idiot.
A guy with dark-brown hair and wearing a Bluetooth device in one ear came over. “Chase, Marty wants a word.”
Chase finally let go of my hand. “Thanks, One-F. Stick around, Zoe Miller. There’s more to say.” He walked backward a few steps, like he didn’t want to stop looking at me. With a wink, he finally turned and headed toward the director.
The girl who had nudged me said, “You are the luckiest wench in the entire universe. How did you catch Chase’s eye?”
I understood she was basically insulting me, but seriously, I had no idea.
I tried to watch him out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t think I was doing a good job of being subtle. Especially since he kept catching my gaze and smiling at me, like he knew something I didn’t.
Every cell in my body felt alert and aware, like I was a walking exposed bundle of nerves.
“Zoe!” Lexi ran up to me, out of breath. “Can you believe it?”
Certain she was here to talk about the parallel universe that had just opened up, where Chase not only knew my name but was also looking for me and told me he wanted to talk to me and had basically held my hand, I sighed deeply. “I don’t really know how to explain it—”
She cut me off. “Neither do I! The DA just told me the director liked what Chase and I did. I’m going to get to say that line in the movie. I’m going to be an under-five! I mean, the line will probably end up on the editing room floor, but this is going to be such a great credit for me. I’m going to say a line in a Chase Covington movie!”
So not where I thought that conversation was about to go. “That’s amazing, Lexi. I’m really excited for you.” I stood up to hug her.
“Can you hold this for me?” She handed me her bowling ball, and I was surprised it was an actual, heavy bowling ball. I guess I thought it was like those fake rocks from old sci-fi TV shows that were hollow inside but looked heavy. It spoke to her dedication that she’d been holding it this entire time. “I seriously have to pee.”
Lexi had the bladder of an ant, so I wasn’t surprised she needed to use the bathroom. I was impressed she had lasted this long.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and whirled around, dropping the bowling ball.
A man swore and yelled, “Ow!”
Some tiny part of me was relieved when I realized it wasn’t Chase. It was the guy he’d called One-F. He was hunched over, grabbing his left foot.
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“I think it’s broken,” he said through clenched teeth.
Chase was there and calling for a medic. The medic rushed over and had One-F sit down. She carefully took off his shoe and sock and did a couple of tests. One-F grimaced and winced the entire time.
“It seems broken. I’m going to call for an ambulance to take him to the hospital.”
I put a hand over my queasy stomach. They were definitely going to fire us now.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Chase asked. Which meant One-F was somebody important to Chase. I felt light-headed and seriously considered sticking my head between my knees.
“No, stay here. If you come, it will just delay production.”
I apologized two more times, and One-F told me it was fine, accidents happen. The ambulance arrived quickly, and two EMTs got him onto a stretcher and out of the building.
“Excitement’s over! Let’s set up for another shot!” the director’s assistant called out.
“I’m sorry I broke your friend,” I told Chase. All I kept thinking about was that scene from Dirty Dancing where Baby was trying to act cool and impress Johnny and went to that party and blurted out, “I carried a watermelon!” and then beat herself up afterward for saying something so stupid. That was how I felt. It was my “I carried a watermelon” moment.
“One-F is not just my friend. He’s also my personal assistant. Which means I am down one assistant, and I rely on him a lot.”
And he was telling me this why?
Noting my confusion, he went on. “I think it’s customary that when you maim someone, you have to take over their job. Like a life debt or something.”
What? “That’s when someone saves your life, and then you have to follow them around and protect them. Which only happens in movies. But people out in the real world don’t take over someone’s job when they hurt them in an accident.”
Chase smiled at me then, a smile so intense and bright I wanted to shield my eyes. “I was teasing. But seriously, your friend mentioned you needed a job. And now I need an assistant. It seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement. What do you say?”
My girl parts said, Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! What is wrong with you? But the rational part of my brain resisted. “I don’t have any experience as an assistant.”
“You used to babysit, right?”
Where had he found that out? From Lexi or Twitter? “I did. They just moved.”
He crossed his arms, causing his forearms to flex. Wow. I had never noticed what sexy forearms he had. They were all rugged and strong and corded. “It’s basically the same thing.”
“So you’re a child who has to be watched? I have to make sure you behave?”
Now his smile was sly, sneaky. “You can come over and watch me. I won’t object. And I may or may not behave.”
I was so seriously out of my depth here. I swallowed hard, twice. I was feeling physical things I’d never felt before. I reminded myself that he was a flirt. I had read the tabloids. I had helped Lexi cut out said tabloid articles. He changed girlfriends more often than I changed my underwear. I needed to remember that.
I also needed to remember that I needed the money. And if I were his assistant for a little while, maybe after One-F got back on his feet (no pun intended), I could ask Chase to help with the Foundation benefit.
Win-win.
“You’re considering it.” He sounded like he’d won something important.
“Coming over to your house to watch you, or taking the job offer?”
He leaned in, and I almost blacked out when I smelled him. It was light and rich and expensive. Intoxicating.
“Both.” He whispered the word, and it felt like a physical touch, making me go weak-kneed.
Gah, he was right. I was considering both. “I am not.”
“That’s funny. Usually girls as pretty as you are much better liars.”
I was overcome with a tongue-tied flush that I felt from the tips of my roots down to the white part of my toenails.
“Which is unfortunate, given that it’s such an important life skill.”
“Only for actors,” I retorted.
Another brilliant smile from him. The same one that had been plastered across millions of movie posters to entice women into spending a lot of money to watch him. He was seriously charming. Why couldn’t he have a troll personality? It seemed highly unfair that God had made him both gorgeous and likable.
“You don’t even know me,” I pointed out.
“Actually, I feel like I do know you.”
Before I could ask him what exactly he meant, we were interrupted. “Chase, they need you back in position,” someone said behind us. It was his publicist. Aaron with the blue-tipped hair.
“Yep. Coming.” Chase put one hand on my arm, and my lungs suddenly felt too small for my body. “You may be here awhile. I have another scene to shoot after this one. Come by my trailer. I have your money for today there. If I’m not back, just wait for me.”
For a full thirty seconds, I couldn’t move. Then I forced myself to go back to my spot and sit, his words ringing in my ears. The girl next to me was trying to get me to spill, but I couldn’t talk. My tongue had grown three sizes and was too thick to use.
Lexi came back. “What did I miss?”
Um, everything.
“Zoe, where’s my ball?”
The bowling ball. I had left it. “Sorry, it’s over there on the floor.” I pointed at it.
She ran over to retrieve it and went back to her mark. She gave me a confused look. I knew I was acting weird. I couldn’t help it.
Maybe Chase was chatting me up to get to Lexi. It wouldn’t be the first time a guy had used me to get close to her. He totally didn’t have to, though. Lexi was more than willing. All he had to do was say the word. Any word. I knew she wouldn’t be picky.
We did the scene over and over again as they got different angles for Chase and Lexi. After what felt like a hundred times, the director was finally satisfied. Chase shook Lexi’s hand and thanked her. He smiled at me as he left the set.
I thought that was it. Instead, we had to stay and film the scene with the stunt double being thrown through the wall into the bowling alley. It took a while for the stunt guy and special effects people to get set up. When they were finally ready, there were a lot of wires attached to the double, and fake debris was strewn about everywhere (which was good, as I didn’t want to see anyone else get bones broken today). The first couple of times my reaction was real because it did surprise me. But it just went on and on, and I felt totally worn out even though all I’d done was sit there and pretend to look shocked. They gave us breaks and pointed us toward the craft services table (which was awesome), but it was still so boring.
It went on for so long that I missed both of my Monday classes, which I hadn’t been planning on. I knew I could go in on Wednesday, come out of my introvert shell, and ask some classmates if I could borrow their notes. I’d been asked on more than one occasion; I hoped they wouldn’t mind returning the favor.
The DA finally announced that it was a wrap, and a woman with a headset approached Lexi. “We need you to come to the production offices so we can have you sign some paperwork and releases,” she said.
I told Lexi I’d meet her at the car, which is where I intended to go next no matter what Chase Covington had said. If he wanted to go out with Lexi, he could pursue her without my help. She hugged me and said she would pick up our paychecks and see me in a few.
I hadn’t gone far when I was stopped by a man with a beard. “Hey, I’m Brett. I’m Chase’s on-set PA. He asked me to walk you to his trailer when you were done.”
“Oh, I was actually just going to leave . . .”
“Come on, he said it was important. You don’t want to get me in trouble, do you?”
Having just lost my own job, I certainly didn’t want to be the cause of someone else losing theirs. It surprised me when we went outside and I realized it was dark. Brett whistled as he led me past the buildings and into a pack of trailers. “Chase’s is right here,” he said, opening the door for me.
I stepped inside, not sure what I was supposed to do. I was about to ask Brett, but he had already shut the door behind me and left. The lights were on, and I realized this trailer was nicer than my apartment. Probably bigger, too. It had a full living room and a kitchen. There were some shut doors that I had to assume led to a bedroom and bathroom. I wasn’t brave enough to investigate. Especially because I didn’t want to catch Chase in a possibly compromising situation. “Hello?” I called out.
No response.
The trailer felt like a generic man cave. Black leather sofa, big-screen TV with video game systems. A couple of vintage movie posters on the wall. Stainless-steel appliances in a kitchen that looked like it had never been used. I sank down onto the couch, surprised at how comfy it was.
And then I nearly jumped out of my skin when a half-naked Chase walked through the front door and said, “I’m glad you’re here.”