Chapter Twelve
I stare at the camera and wonder how the hell Anika did this.
It’s only a camera. I tell myself that. I’ve done some establishing shots, but those were mostly of me walking into the place and setting up for the demo we’re doing this afternoon. I wasn’t forced to talk, and suddenly talking seems to be a hard thing to do.
“Harper, you’re supposed to look relaxed and ready to get started.”
Patrick Dennings stares at me like he can force me to do his will. He’s the head of production and the man knows his stuff, but I don’t think he’s had to deal with someone like me in a long time. He’s worked mostly on reality dating shows and some competition shows where everyone is comfortable with the camera because they’re mostly looking to get into the industry.
I am not.
I’m used to walking into work and getting to the job at hand. Instead I spent an hour in a makeup chair because apparently my complexion is ghost-like, and it’s not that kind of show. I’m not sure why the lead contractor needs glued-on eyelashes that I swear I can see whenever I blink, but I have them. There was also a lot of talk about flyaways. I have those too. Or I had them until someone superglued my hair.
“I am relaxed.”
Not true, but I’m pretty much as relaxed as I’m going to get.
“Girl, you look like someone is about to throw you into Squid Games, not hand you a multimillion-dollar mansion to play in.”
Patrick has his clipboard in hand and shakes his head the director’s way. “Maybe we should do this as an exterior shot. The fresh air might wake her up.”
“She’s fine,”
Anika assures them. “It’s the first day of shooting. You know how hard it is to get into a groove. I nearly faceplanted my first day.”
She had, and worse, it was a live shot. Her near miss with the concrete was broadcast to anyone with an Internet connection. I suppose I’m lucky they’re not doing that here.
“Harper will be awesome.”
Jeremiah strides in, setting down a leather portfolio on the chair with his name on the back. “She needs time to adjust. We can start with me if you like. I’m ready to go. Or I can do the shot with her.”
“It’s her establishing shot,”
the director says from behind the camera. “All she has to do is tell us a bit about herself, but when we try she locks down and goes monotone.”
“Which is why we should make this conversational,”
Jeremiah offers. His eyes trail over to Patrick. “Hello, Patrick. How are you today?”
Patrick kind of grumbles and won’t look Jeremiah in the eyes, and now I’d like to know what’s going on with them. “I’ll be better once I get the shots we need. Is your brother here? He’s up next.”
“I’m here.”
Reid has obviously been through the makeup and hair department. And maybe the wardrobe since he looks practically perfect in his three-piece suit with his hair slicked back and those blue eyes piercing through me. He’s looking like a million bucks, and I’m in jeans and a T-shirt, and despite all the work they did in the makeup chair, I still pretty much look like a woman who spends a lot of time with a hammer in her hand.
It’s been a couple of days since we made our deal, and everything is going well. We’ve had two meetings and nothing exploded, and we didn’t throw down on the conference table. We’ve been nice and polite, even when he used the word shiplap in connection to the foyer. I was polite and calm, and I did not take his head off and bathe in his blood.
“Let’s try it with Jeremiah introducing her.”
Anika is wearing what I like to think of as her work clothes. Well, her old work clothes since her new job requires a tiara. She’s in black jeans and a black T, her hair in a high ponytail. Ivy sits behind her. She’s been excellent at providing sarcastic remarks.
Jeremiah steps into the shot. We’re standing in the parlor where my crew is about to tear down a wall because this particular parlor is small, probably used for the immediate family. There’s another more formal parlor that would be used to greet guests down the hall. We’re going to connect the two to create a great room.
“All right, do you need some lines?”
Patrick steps close to us while one of the other assistants does the whole lighting check on Jeremiah.
Jeremiah waves off the suggestion. “She’ll be better natural. We need to show off her sweet, authentic self.”
Patrick’s eyes finally come up and he frowns. “Authentic. Sure. We’ll go that way. Tom, are you ready?”
The director nods and the clappy guy comes in even though it’s not like we’re filming scenes or anything. And we’re rolling.
Somehow when that camera is on, I freeze up. I can’t even explain it. I can talk in front of people. Not like to give a speech or anything, but I can certainly introduce myself.
Except I can’t now.
“So this is Harper and she’s going to be in charge of making all of our dreams for Banover Place come true. She’s our construction fairy.”
Jeremiah sounds chipper. And like he’s done this about five thousand times, which he has.
I have not. I try to smile and wave at the camera. “Hi.”
Patrick’s eyes roll when I say nothing else. “We’re going to need more than that, Harper.”
Ivy moves in beside Anika. “Just tell them about yourself. I know it feels weird, but it gets easier.”
“In a couple of days you won’t even notice the cameras,”
Anika assures me.
Ivy nods. “Remember all the times Ani ripped one on camera because she forgot she was being filmed?”
Ivy gasps when Ani slaps at her arm. “Well, they gave you too many protein bars. You get gassy.”
Anika gives Ivy a growl and turns back my way. “The point is this is the hardest day. All we need is for you to give us a bit about yourself and then we’ll let you actually get to work. You get to sledgehammer a wall. Fun.”
It actually does sound like fun. I understand that work. It will be soothing. But I have to get through this first. I nod. “Let’s go again.”
“We’re rolling,”
Patrick says with a sigh. I’m pretty sure he already told me this information. Something about they’ll edit it later and this isn’t like acting. They roll until they get what they need.
I stare at the camera and give what I hope is a bright smile. “I’m Harper.”
That’s good, right? Simple. No nonsense.
“We need more,”
Patrick says with a huff.
Anika gives me an encouraging nod, her hands gesturing for more.
“I’m Harper and I build things.”
When I stop a groan goes through the place.
Jeremiah keeps on smiling. “What my friend here is trying to say…”
Patrick waves a hand after listening to whatever the director said to him. “Nope. We need her to stop trying to say and just say. We’ve got a woman contractor. We’re not going to have a man speak for her.”
Well, I don’t like the sound of that. Before I can protest, Reid is getting into my space. He turns to the still-running camera, and a slick smile crosses his lips.
“I’m Reid Dorsey and this is my brother, Jeremiah. We’re known as the Dorsey brothers, and we’re here to take this Gilded Age mansion and make it shine again,”
he says in a soothing tone. “In order to do that, we’ve put together a team of professionals, with a trusted friend leading them. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to hire on our own, so we ended up with this one. I think this might be her first job. I’m not sure. What was her name again?”
I hate him. “I’m Harper Ross, and I’ve been working construction longer than Reid Dorsey has been playing with swatches and arguing about the many shades of black. I started out in my family company when I was a teen, though there are lots of pics of toddler me in a custom-made hard hat. Ross Construction has contributed over two hundred buildings to the tri-state area.”
I turn his way. “How many curtains have you made?”
“Absolutely none. I just design, Harper. I don’t actually do the work myself. As you are about to learn. It’s precisely why we hired you. Well, why Her Majesty hired you. Aren’t you two friends?”
I nod, sinking my teeth into this fight. “The way you are with His Majesty?”
“Yes, we’re practically all family, and that’s what it’s going to take to give this place a real makeover and drag her into this century.”
He looks to his brother. “But don’t you think we need someone with a background in historical architecture and maybe some knowledge of restoration?”
I can’t smack him because the camera is still running.
“I think that’s why we brought in Harper.”
Jeremiah frowns like he’s not sure where we’re going with this.
Well, I’m not going to be Reid Dorsey’s doormat. That’s where we’re going. “In addition to working in construction all of my life, I graduated from college with a degree in business and a minor in architecture. I’ve spent whole summers of my life interning with some of the best restoration professionals in the business. I know the history of Banover Place and respect it as a piece of New York’s remarkable past.”
“Perfect,”
the director calls out. “I love the stuff about her child labor past. Can we get some pictures for the editors? We’ll add those in and humanize her.”
Why do I have to be humanized? I thought I was already a human.
“You’re welcome,”
Reid says with a nod. “The trick to getting Harper to do something is to give her an enemy to rail against. It’s mostly me.”
“It’s entirely you,”
I mutter between clenched teeth.
“Name one thing I said that wasn’t true.”
He turns to me, a wholly self-satisfied look on his face.
“My first job?”
His lips curl ever so slightly. “It is your first television job. Little virgin.”
I’m fairly certain if my eyes could become lasers, I would cut this man in half. “Virgin?”
“It’s what we call the newbies.”
Patrick’s head shakes as he moves in closer. “It’s not sexist. Men can be virgins, too. So that was not in any way a comment on the state of your femininity.”
Jeremiah waves him off. “It’s a thing they do. Trust me. She’ll give it all back to him and then they will stew in their own sexual frustration. It’s playing into the grumpy/grumpier romance they’re having. See, the better way to do it is grumpy meets sunshine. I’m sunshine, by the way.”
I ignore their obvious sexual tension because I am a focused individual. “I promise I haven’t been a virgin for many years, Reid, and you should remember that.”
“Well, you’re not now since you got that first shot out of the way. I hope I made it as comfortable for you as possible. That first time can be hard.”
“Okay, now, see, that does feel like he’s talking about something other than the job.”
Ivy is standing right next to Anika.
“I probably should have hired an HR firm,”
Anika admits. “I kind of thought I wouldn’t need one.”
I stare up at Reid, getting into his space. I wish he wasn’t so tall. And broad. “Like my other experience, you made it awkward and weird, and I’m going to try to forget it ever happened. Which will probably be easy because I’ll get more enjoyment out of using my sledgehammer than I’ll ever get from you.”
The man lights up. Like he is loving this. “Oh, then I’ll have to try harder.”
“Yep, definitely needed a human resources department.”
Anika nods. “Now I’ll end up with lawyers when someone sues about the very uncomfortable workplace this set is becoming. I’m talking to you, Reid.”
“I don’t know. Harper just talked about taking pleasure from a sledgehammer,”
Ivy points out. “We might have to send her there, too.”
My friends are not helping. “I did not say that.”
“You kind of did,”
Reid offers.
“I thought the sledgehammer was a metaphor for Reid’s dick.”
Jeremiah joins Ivy and Ani. “I can’t figure out if she’s saying his dick can ruin walls or his dick is smaller than a sledgehammer.”
He looks to me. “Harper, I’m going to need you to be way clearer with your metaphors.”
“It was not a metaphor, and I was not talking about anyone’s penis,”
I announce.
The director puts his fingers in his ears and starts to hum.
Patrick frowns my way. “Now you’ve broken Tom. That man had to survive filming three seasons of House of Skanks. Do you know how much he’s been through?”
“A whole lot of lawyers, probably,”
Jeremiah quips. “You know because of all the harassment claims.”
Reid sighs. “There’s no harassment. I apologize, Harper. I thought maybe some sparring would bring you out of your shell.”
I don’t want to be an adult, but it does seem like we’ve sent the poor director into a PTSD episode. “I apologize for making people think I was referring to your penis as a sledgehammer.”
“I think we should bar the word penis,”
Ani says with an overly bright smile. “And virgin. All those words. We don’t need them here. Tom, are you okay? I’m going to check on him. He really did have a hard time.”
“Well, it was called House of Skanks. Of course it was hard. I bet many of them were hard,”
Ivy replies as she starts to follow Ani. “I saw that show. He’s lucky he didn’t get a contact STI.”
“You are not helping,”
Ani hisses.
“Are they going to stop staring at each other?”
Patrick asks, leaning Jeremiah’s way.
“Eventually,”
Jeremiah replies. “But that can take a while. They do this thing where they stare and neither one wants to break away, and I can’t figure out if it’s because they’re trying to establish dominance or they really like the way the other one looks. It could go either way. We should grab a coffee.”
I am staring at him. And I’m fairly certain I’m trying to establish dominance and not the other thing. I break eye contact and take a step back. I don’t need dominance over this man. I simply need to do my job.
“I have some stuff to get done. But everyone else take a ten-minute break and we’ll get back to Reid soon,”
Patrick announces. “After we talk Tom down. Thanks, people.”
I didn’t mean to send the director into some sort of shame spiral. I don’t know what to call it. “Well, I have a wall to remove. Excuse me.”
“Have fun with your…sledgehammer.”
Reid gives me a jaunty salute. “I’ll be somewhere planning color schemes that didn’t exist in the Gilded Age.”
“I’m sure you will,” I reply.
“I will,”
he says back.
“And it will be terrible.”
He stares at me with intense eyes. “It will.”
I am so annoyed. And a bit aroused. “You have to have the last word, don’t you?”
“I don’t know, Harper. Do I?”
“Yes, you do.”
He’s silent for a moment. He waits until I’m about to walk into the hallway. “I do, and I always get my way.”
I turn, ready to flay the man, but he’s gone.
Jeremiah points to the door. “He fled. That was…shockingly childish of him.”
Coward. “And this surprises you?”
“Yes,”
Jeremiah admits. “Reid is the most mature person I know. He’s kind of known for being a stickler for rules and behaving professionally. Many people we’ve worked with comment on the stick up his backside.”
“Well, he must have changed then because that man is quite an asshole.”
“Yeah, I wonder what happened to make him change,”
Jeremiah murmurs, glancing back to where Patrick is standing, checking over some equipment. “What’s his story?”
I should walk away. Jeremiah belongs to Reid, and I am attempting to stay away from all things Reid adjacent. I can tell the man I have work to do. Which is the truth. I still have to stop by the office at some point in time today to make sure everything is running smoothly. But do I use that valid excuse? No. Because despite everything, I’m curious. There’s a weird vibe around those two. “You don’t know? He’s pretty much the reason Ani and Luca got married. I mean, they would have anyway, but what happened with the director sped things along. Now, there was a man who didn’t faint when he heard the word penis.”
Jeremiah’s eyes go wide. “Patrick was the production assistant the director was harassing? The one Luca caught on tape admitting to it? They kept his name out of the press pretty well.”
“That’s him. He and Ani became friends, and she offered him this job,”
I explain with a long sigh as I think about what I should have been thinking about a few minutes before. “So he’s got his reasons for being uncomfortable about what happened. I need to go apologize.”
“What did happen?”
Jeremiah asks.
I don’t even know. “He pushes my buttons. He claims I push his.”
“My brother is always calm. He’s a freaking oasis of calm. I’ve seen him face tragedies and accidents and not once lose his cool, but you walk in a room and he loses his damn mind.”
Jeremiah looks me up and down. “I’m not sure if this is a good development or a bad one.”
“It’s no development at all. We don’t mix well. It’s like that with some people.”
I start moving toward Patrick.
“Not with my brother,”
Jeremiah calls out. “He gets along with everyone. Everyone except you. I wonder why.”
“Just lucky I guess,”
I retort and move to stand in front of Patrick. “I am very sorry.”
He glances up from his clipboard. “For?”
“That whole scene back there. I’m sorry. It was juvenile of us, and it won’t happen again.”
“Hopefully the you talking like an actual person on camera will happen again.”
Patrick checks something off, proving he can multitask. He can work and make me feel like crap at the same time.
“Okay. I’ll figure it out.”
I’m about to turn around and do what I should have done the first time. Get to work.
“Harper,”
Patrick calls out with a long-suffering sigh. He’s good at those. “He was doing it to help you.”
“Doing what? Insulting me?”
“He was trying to turn it into a challenge. You can’t resist those, and the man knows it. I don’t care about the inappropriate remarks. Trust me. I know when someone is being inappropriate. You two are fighting a big attraction, and I salute you for it. I mean it. Keep it up. Do not fall into bed with that man.”
“I have no intention of sleeping with him.”
“Good.”
Patrick gets back to work. “Because the last thing we need is big drama on set. But he wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I watched him watching you, and he was worried. He didn’t jump in to harass you. He thought he could help, and he did. You’ll be better next time because you got through this time.”
Because Reid pushed me, and when he walks into my space, nothing matters except him. “I should get going on the demo. Is the other unit thingee ready?”
“The other unit thingee is Bill with a handheld. So yes, he’s probably ready,”
Patrick agrees. “Think about what I said and maybe go easier on Reid.”
“I’m not the only one with a Dorsey brother problem,”
I point out. “You and Jeremiah seem to be hitting it off.”
Now the clipboard lowers. “Oh, that’s not happening. That man is hiding something. I’m not sure what it is, but he’s wound tight. We went to dinner a couple of times, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off in his life. I’ll admit he’s exactly my type, but I’m going to keep it professional.”
I was unaware they went out. “He asked me about you. I was surprised he didn’t know how you and Anika met.”
“I don’t talk about that time in my life often, and I certainly don’t lead with the fact that I put a Hollywood director in jail with help from a European king.”
“Okay, then I have something else to apologize for,” I admit.
He waves me off. “It’s not a problem. We’re a crew. I assure you he would have found out sooner or later. It’s hard to hide when you’re working together twelve hours a day. Like I know your mother is giving you hell for not using your ovaries properly.”
“Jeremiah,”
I huff. “Now I wish I knew something about him.”
Patrick smiles for the first time. “If you figure out what he’s hiding, give me a heads-up. And again, think about not loathing Reid for what happened today. What I saw was a man who was trying to help someone out the only way he could think of.”
“He should have thought of another way.”
Patrick shrugs. “It worked. You looked good on camera. You were energetic and gave us some good stuff. And you didn’t do it until he pulled it out of you. Think about that. Now go and take it out on that wall. And don’t sleep with Reid Dorsey.”
That is a promise I am happy to make.