Chapter Five
Dina
I stretched my arms out over my head and let out a long sigh. No-one was around to hear it, as I was hiding out in that make-up trailer all by myself, but it felt good to let out a little of the frustration that had been building up over the last few days.
The shoot so far had been trying. Even the most experienced amongst us could say that. Derrick Hanson and Will seemed to be at loggerheads with every other shot, and while I respected how passionate both of them were about getting this thing right, it meant that everything had slowed down to a snail’s pace. There was hardly any make-up to do day-to-day, and I was struggling to find reasons to stick around till the end of each shoot. Part of me wondered that if I just snuck off home, whether anyone would even notice my absence. I doubted it.
Not to mention that whole other kind of frustration, as well. That first day of shooting, when I had bumped into Will going for coffee and we had spent some time on-set eye-fucking, I had found myself thinking something was really going to happen between us. Yeah, he would head back to Hollywood as soon as this shoot was over, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have a little fun while the film was shooting, right? Even for those few hours, I let myself get caught up in the fantasy like some kind of idiot, and it took me overhearing the first of many rows he was to have with Derrick to snap me out of that silly little daydream.
Because he sounded like every other actor I’d ever heard – entitled, overly controlling, and determined to get his own way no matter what. Granted, I’d only heard the tail end when he’d been asserting himself so I had no idea what had led up to that moment, but I was particularly interested in chilling long enough to find out.
Not that my logic could stop my attraction to him. There was something about it that felt beyond anything I’d shared with a colleague before. The way he looked at me felt…heated. Yes, that was the word – as though I might burst into flames under his gaze at any moment. I knew at any given time when he was looking at me and what he was thinking about doing to me. I could see it in his eyes. And I shared the sentiment.
Every time I laid eyes on him I felt that skip of disbelief in my chest, the one that told me that yes, this was really happening and yes, the guy I’d crushed on all the way through high school and beyond was actually looking me straight in the eyes and seemed to like what he saw. I swear to God I could have licked my lips when I saw him in the mornings, all ruffled hair and tees showing off those well-defined arm muscles.
I wanted to sidle up to him and lead him up to that make-up trailer, and show him everything I’d always dreamt of doing. I could imagine the way his strong hands would have felt on my skin, the scent of his expensive aftershave curling around us both as he held me close and growled into my ear, the almost angry way he would spread my legs and-
But none of that was actually going to happen. I had to keep reminding myself of that. It was a bad idea. I had to keep focused on work, and that was going to be pretty tricky if we did actually hook up. Keeping my mind of the job was proving to be tough enough as it was, but that would double in difficulty if we actually did end up sleeping together.
Not that things were particularly easy now. I had felt the tension of the cast and crew on the rise since the very first disagreement between the directors, and it was starting to get under everyone’s skin. The long days, the intensity of the schedule, and the proximity that we all had with each other meant that sometimes, it felt impossible to escape from the grasping presence of this set. It got that way no matter where you were shooting or what the atmosphere was, but the fact that we’d had to go back and forth a couple of times, redoing scenes and sequences because one director thought we hadn’t got it down the first time, got grating fast.
I had done make-up on Martina Devos, the leading lady, this morning, for a scene that she had already run through a bunch of times the day before, and I could tell from the impatient way she tapped her feet and the tense way she smiled back at me that she was getting as riled up as the rest of us.
A knock on the door of the trailer roused me from my reverie, and I yawned and called whoever it was in.
The door opened, and I found myself faced with Natalie, my assistant. Her eyes were wide and she looked kind of shell-shocked.
“What’s up?” I asked, feeling a sinking feeling in my chest. I had been sure that we were just finishing up for the day, and the thought of heading back out to set up for another scene made me want to lock the doors of that trailer and not come up till the next day.
“Will, Mr Derry,” she pointed back towards set. “He’s told us all to pack up for the day. He’s taking us out.”
“What do you mean?” I cocked an eyebrow. “All of us?”
“The whole cast and crew,” she nodded. “To a bar just down the street. Says we could all use the chance to blow off some steam.”
“Well, he’s not wrong there,” I muttered. “When?”
“Now,” she replied. “I was wondering if I could borrow a little make-up-”
“Sure thing,” I grinned. “But be prepared for the fact that a bunch of people might be in here with the same idea as you.”
“I’ll risk it,” she replied, heading to the desk and rummaging through the piles of make-up sitting out on the table. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her excitedly go through the expensive make-up and fancy tools that had come with the small department we were running together; I still remembered how it felt the first time that I got a chance to get my hands on this amount of make-up, and how excited I was to get to play with new products on new people.
We quickly finished up a look that would work for the bar, and ducked outside to find the cast and crew milling around, more relaxed than I’d seen them since the start of shooting. I scanned the crowd, and within seconds, my eyes fell on Will. It was like a magnetic draw directly to him, and I shivered as he looked up at me and offered me that cocky half-grin. I flushed and looked away, reminding myself of everything I’d told myself earlier. Nothing was different just because he was taking us out.
It seemed like we timed it perfectly, as everyone as one suddenly shifted to head down the street to the bar around the corner. They wouldn’t know what hit them – at least three dozen people blowing off a couple of week’s worth of steam all over them. Tomorrow was going to be interesting, for certain – working in such close proximity usually fostered a few intense crushes that tended to manifest themselves on nights like these, and I was looking forward to the gossip that would have raised its head by the next morning. I felt a little flip in my chest when I realized that that could be Will and I if I let it, and pushed the thought to the back of my head. No. This was just a fun night out. Nothing more.
Before I knew it, I had been swept along with the crowd in the direction of the bar. There was excited chatter amongst the crew as we got the first round and shifted off into our little groups and cliques. I was sure that people would grow out of this sort of crap as adults, but all that working in the movie industry had proved to me was that drama was always a prime source of gossip no matter what age you got to. I got myself a whiskey and took a sip of the heady, bitter liquid, sighing as I sat back on the bar stool and closing my eyes.
I tried not to drink too much when I was on a shoot since you never know when you were going to get called out at the last minute to cover for somebody, but since everyone was doing it, it would have felt odd not to. When I opened my eyes, I found Will looking at me, and a little uptick of confidence got me to my feet. I closed the distance between us, and held my glass up to his.
“Thanks for this,” I bowed my head. “I needed it.”
“Me too,” he agreed, looking me up and down in a glance. “You look nice.”
“Perks of working in the make-up department,” I shrugged. “How’s it going over on the main floor?”
“Slower than I expected,” he sighed. “But it gives me an excuse to do something like this so I don’t mind.”
“I can’t imagine…” I waved my hand around. “I can’t imagine being able to afford something like this. It just doesn’t compute.”
“Trust me, if you had this kind of money, you’d get used to it quickly,” he cocked an eyebrow. “It’s amazing the shit Hollywood can find for you to spend your cash on.”
“I bet,” I cocked my head, and took another sip of my drink. He was just so easy to talk to, the words coming easy as the nervousness that I felt whenever I saw him lifting as soon as he spoke to me. Helped along by the fact that he really seemed to want to spend time with me. I was practically having to avoid him and keep out interactions to a minimum just to be sure that I wouldn’t let my resolve slip and-
Natalie appeared behind me, and grabbed my hand – I turned around and she tugged me in the direction of the bar.
“Come on, you have to hear this,” she jerked her head towards the group that she was hanging out with, shooting a look at Will as she did so. I turned and gave him an apologetic look, and he shrugged, bowing his head as though giving me permission to go. I walked away, half-relieved that Natalie had arrived to drag me away before anything else happened, and half-annoyed that I wasn’t getting the chance to find out exactly what it was between us once and for all.
Because there was something. The rest of the night told me that for certain. Even though we barely interacted, we couldn’t take our eyes off each other, to the point that even Natalie couldn’t ignore it. We didn’t lay hands on each other, but the bar was so packed out that there was no choice but to squeeze by people, the knowledge of which we both took advantage of. On his way to the bathroom, he touched his hands to my hips to alert me to his presence and brushed by, close enough that I could smell his aftershave. He traced his finger up and across the tiniest strip of bare skin above my jeans before moving on. If I hadn’t felt it, I wouldn’t have been sure it had even happened it had been so fast.
I looked after him but he didn’t look back, as though that would have been acknowledging it. Well, two could play at that game. When I went to order another drink, I made sure that I had to head around to his side of the bar to do so, popping my hip and pressing it against his for a split second before I sighed and shifted my weight casually. He glanced over at me but I kept my eyes fixed firmly forward, as though I didn’t even know he was there.
I’d had a couple of drinks and by now I was starting to forget why on earth I’d ever held back. Will Derry was flirting with me – Will fucking Derry! Why had I ever given it a moment’s though? With a couple of glasses of whiskey swilling around my system, I wasn’t sure exactly what I had been so against. He grinned as he turned he attention away from me, as though he knew what I was playing at and liked it, and I felt a flutter in my chest. I wanted this. I wanted him. And why shouldn’t I have a little fun?