An Unexpected Affair by Elizabeth Lennox
Chapter 7
“Evie, could I speak to you in my office?” Brock called out as soon as she stepped through the doors of the sound stage the following morning.
Evie glanced over at Josie and Heather, who had already pulled out their magic tools, ready to go to work.
She shot them an apologetic look and they shrugged back at her. Josie stuffed her curling iron back into the protective shield and turned to one of the extras, working on their hair while waiting for Evie to get into her chair.
Evie stepped into the room that Brock had set up as an office. It wasn’t really an office. It was only a folding table with lots of papers spread out over the top and a folding chair behind it.
“What’s up?” she asked, struggling to appear casual. As if last night’s kiss hadn’t happened. As if she wasn’t completely humiliated by his retreat last night.
In reality, her stomach was tied in knots. Plus, she couldn’t look him in the eye. She’d thrown herself at him last night and he’d walked away. Ugh! She’d been so brazen! Never had she felt that…intensity before.
“I wanted to apologize for last night,” Brock began, standing behind the folding table “desk” with his hands on his hips. “I was out of line and…” he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, it won’t happen again. I promise.”
He was apologizing? To her? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
“Oh!” was the only thing that popped into her mind. “Well…um…” she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I respect you, Evie. You’re doing a really great job here. The movie is coming together better than I could have expected with you as the lead.” He held up a hand, smiling at her when she bristled. “I know that you believed you could do the part. But I only had the audition tape to go on and your past rom-com acting. So I wasn’t prepared for…well, for your brilliance in translating the character of Lucy.”
Wow! She was…stunned by his compliment. “Thank you,” she replied, bowing her head because she wasn’t exactly sure how to take such extravagant praise.
“Will you accept my apology?” he asked tentatively.
Evie lifted her head, feeling a soft glow surround her now. “I will under one condition.”
His dark eyebrow lifted with her words. “What’s that?” he asked.
She smiled and stepped closer, looking up at him and hoping that he recognized the sincerity in her tone and her eyes. “I want to forget last night happened. I love our evenings together. I love debating with you about which way a scene should go. Your intelligence challenges me to become a better actor and I don’t want to lose your friendship. We both kissed each other last night.” She looked at him, trying to gauge his reaction. “I mean…you weren’t the only one kissing last night.”
He hesitated, then opened his mouth, closed it with a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. Finally, he said, “All the more reason why we should probably keep our distance.”
Evie felt the pain stab at her chest. “Yes, if that’s the way you want to handle it.” She stepped away, more hurt than she cared to admit. Her hand was on the doorknob when she paused and looked back at him. Memories of last night, of being all alone in her house when she could have been with him, laughing and talking and rehearsing came rushing over her and she gave it one more shot. “But we’re both adults, Brock. If you don’t want my friendship, that’s one thing. But if you do, then I’m willing to keep my distance from you so that we can be friends without the other stuff getting in the way. We had a good thing. It was fun and I sincerely enjoy your company.” She laughed, shaking her head. “I didn’t think I would, but it’s true. So…it’s up to you.”
With that, she headed off to makeup.
The rest of the day was tense. The scenes they were filming today were difficult emotionally, but Evie felt as if she nailed Lucy’s character every time. Some of the scenes needed several takes in order to get all of the angles that Brock wanted. Others required several takes because she wasn’t doing quite what Brock wanted. During those periods, Evie gritted her teeth and fought to concentrate, working hard to follow his directions. But she wanted to yell at him, rail at him for walking out last night instead of going through these scenes last night with her. Damn kiss!
She hated kisses! She hated sex and kisses and romance and…all that stupid, messy stuff! Good grief, emotions were so much easier to handle when she could slip in and out of the character!
By the end of the day, Evie was exhausted. But when Brock finally called a halt for the day, Evie turned to find Jerry, her agent, standing by her dressing room doorway.
“Hey, Jerry. What’s up?” she asked, glancing at his hands, hoping that he didn’t have another script for her to read.
“Hey beautiful,” he said, air kissing both of her cheeks in the normal Hollywood style. “Don’t look at me like that,” he teased, following her into the dressing room and closing the door. “I had a very odd visitor today.”
“Odd how?” she asked, removing her suit jacket and hanging it up. She kicked her heels off towards the bin where her shoes were stored during the filming process.
“Well, it was a private investigator.”
That got Evie’s attention. She frowned confusedly at him, the makeup wipe dangling in her hand. “A private investigator? What did he want?”
“It was a woman, actually,” he replied sitting down on the small sofa against the far wall of the dressing room.
“Okay. What did she want?” Evie asked, turning back to the mirror to clean off the heavy makeup.
“She wouldn’t say. But she wants to meet with you. She has something to discuss with you.”
Evie laughed. “Right. That’s not going to happen.”
Jerry shifted on his feet. “The thing is, she told me it is a personal matter. A family matter.”
Evie stiffened. “My mother passed away four years ago, Jerry. You know that. You sent flowers to her funeral.”
“Right. That’s what I told her. That your mother was your only family and she passed away.”
Evie felt a sense of dread looming over her as she looked at Jerry in the mirror. “Okay, so there isn’t a problem. I don’t have any other family. That means that this private investigator must have the wrong person.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Jerry, you know how many people try to see me. They all want just five minutes. It’s why I hired Beth’s firm. She handles all of my publicity and acts as a gatekeeper. If Beth thinks I should speak to this person, then Beth will call me. Otherwise, I don’t want to meet with…whoever this private eye is.”
Jerry nodded, his head bowed. “That’s what I told her. But she was very insistent. Plus, she has some interesting connections.”
Evie finished cleaning off her makeup and tossed the wipe into the trash. “Jerry, you know how to handle these things. If the person has powerful connections, I’m sure that yours are more powerful.”
He looked pained. “Actually, I don’t. The men who called my assistant demanding that I meet with this person were…well, they’re big names in the corporate world. So…would you mind talking to this person?”
Evie crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “Not a chance. I don’t have family besides my mother,” she stated firmly, her eyes hard and unyielding.
Jerry sighed heavily. “Okay, well, I think you’re making a mistake. She mentioned…”
“I don’t care, Jerry. Just get rid of her.”
“Fine,” he called back, lifting his hands into the air. “Fine! I’ll get rid of her.” He turned and headed for the door. “I think this is a mistake. I can’t explain why, Evie, but I feel this Frankie woman might have important information for you.”
Evie stared at the empty doorway, wondering if Jerry was right. The guy usually went with his gut and he was almost always right.
“Evie! I need you to review the dailies tonight,” Brock called out, poking his head in her dressing room doorway. “You are…” he stopped, taking in her flinty expression. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, stepping further into her dressing room.
Evie pushed the worry away and smiled. “Nothing. Everything is fine.”
“I don’t think so. What happened?”
Evie laughed. “Jerry, my agent, just stopped by.”
Brock waited, but Evie didn’t want to tell him about Jerry’s meeting with a private investigator. Brock had been suspicious of her before. Now that he’d gotten to know her better, finally put some trust in her, she didn’t want to tell him anything that might increase those suspicions. “You mentioned that you need me to watch the dailies tonight? Why? I don’t normally do that.”
“Because I think we have a problem. I need your opinion on the issue.” He turned again, hesitating at her door. “I’ll take you out to dinner afterwards, okay?”
She smiled brightly, her exhaustion slipping away. It was his way of agreeing with her proposition from this morning. He’d been completely professional during filming today, but hadn’t done anything to indicate that he wanted to get back to their friendship. This was it! This was his way of telling her that he wanted to get back to where they’d been before…before that kiss.
“I’ll be there in a minute. Let me just change clothes.”
He nodded, then backed away, disappearing seconds later. She closed the door and hurried to change into a pair of loose fitting cotton pants that rode low on her hips. She added a white cotton tee-shirt and slipped into a pair of comfy sneakers and tugged a baseball cap low over her head, covering her dark locks as much as possible. It was her version of a disguise so that she could go out into the world without being recognized. Usually it worked and she could walk down the street without anyone paying her the slightest bit of attention. But every once in a while, someone saw through the messy image and recognized her.
Tonight, it wouldn’t matter because she’d be with Brock. All of the attention would focus on him. He was too tall and muscular to pull off any sort of disguise. His height and brawn couldn’t help but draw attention.
Still, she was excited at the prospect of having dinner with him tonight.
Once she was dressed, she found him and Monty sitting in the screening room. “Okay, I’m here. What do you need me to see?” she asked, sitting on the other side of Monty. She and Brock might be on friendly terms again, but she didn’t want to push her luck. Besides, she needed a few more minutes to get her excitement under control.
“Take a look at this,” Brock said, pressing a button. The film played one of the scenes they’d shot today of her walking down the hallway. For the next thirty minutes, the three of them evaluated the scene until they all agreed to reshoot it tomorrow. Thankfully, it was only Evie in the scene with some extras, so it wouldn’t cost too much, but she still hated to mess up.
“Hey,” Brock said, touching her shoulder as they left the screening room.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, more upset than she wanted to admit. “I should have realized how those two scenes would connect and…!”
“Stop Evie,” he groaned. He looked around, but there were others in the area, cleaning up from today or setting up for tomorrow. “Let’s get out of here so we can talk.”
She grabbed her bag and walked alongside him. “I have my own car,” she told him.
He shook his head. “I should drive.”
Evie looked at the floor, wanting to laugh but worried she might burst into tears. “I don’t want to leave my car here overnight.”
He smiled faintly, and scanned the parking lot. “You mean you don’t want anyone else to see you driving away with me while your car stays here overnight.” It wasn’t a question. And he was right on target.
“That had crossed my mind,” she admitted. “So, how about that cute little salad shop by my house? I need some nutrition today and pasta for dinner isn’t going to cut it if I’m going to fit into that slinky beaded thing that Tina found for the gala scene next week.”
He chuckled. “Okay, fine. I know the place. I’ll meet you at your house in thirty minutes.”
