Chapter 50
Evie
Crisis Management
“Cut!” Dante shouted and ran onto the set, shoving Sebastian off me. “What the fuck is your problem?” he shouted, just as the modesty patch Sebastian had torn from my body fluttered to the floor.
Crew members pushed Sebastian so hard he fell to the ground with a loud thump. He scrambled to his feet and glanced around, blinking rapidly, as if he was just as shocked as everyone else. Realizing everyone was looking at him, Sebastian stormed toward his chair, grabbing his robe, and slid it on.
“Oh, now you give a shit about modesty. Get the hell off my set.” Dante swung his arm toward the door and pointed at the exit. He then turned back to me. “Evie, are you okay? Fuck...” he hissed.
The new intimacy coordinator rushed over with my robe and helped me off the bed. I covered myself quickly, just as embarrassed as Sebastian.
“I’m going to get so fucking sued,” Dante groaned.
Putting their hands on my shoulders, the coordinator led me off the set and shot questions at me, asking if I was okay, if Sebastian hurt me, if I wanted to cancel the shoot.
So many voices were being thrown in my direction, I couldn’t focus.
It was so hot I was dizzy. My vision got spotty, and then suddenly, everything went black.
I WOKE IN my trailer with a cold rag on my forehead. Raissa and a plump young Black woman with long braids in a medic uniform sat a short distance away. I sat up, and the room started to spin. Laying back down, the two ran to my side.
“How are you feeling, Ms. Reyes?” the medic asked, pulling out a blood pressure cuff.
“Just dizzy. What happened?”
“Sebastian... “
Suddenly, it all came back to me. We’d gotten too into the moment. Everything around us had disappeared, leaving only our lust. He’d ripped off my modesty patch and was just about to…
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Um, I think with legal? They are trying to figure out if...” Raissa grimaced, giving me the familiar face of “I don’t want to tell you” that I’d grown to recognize.
“Do you want to press sexual assault charges, Ms. Reyes?” the medic asked matter-of-factly.
“What?” My mind went completely blank. Sexual assault?
“He tried to rape you.”
Rape? My mouth dropped open. That was a startling accusation. I wasn’t sure what everyone else in that room had seen, but it was far from rape.
I shook my head vehemently. “No, no, that’s not what happened. This is all a mistake.” I pushed them away and shifted, putting my feet on the floor. “I need to fix this. He shouldn’t be punished. We just got too—”
“Oh jeez, let me get Dante.” Raissa rushed down the stairs and out of my trailer.
The medic stepped aside and turned to give me privacy as I grabbed my clothes and began to change. I had just finished pulling on my shoes when there was a knock.
“Come in!” I called.
Dante came in, followed by a group of men and women I didn’t recognize. They all wore business suits, causing a ball of dread to form and drop into my belly. He excused the medic kindly, and after she closed the door on her way out, he turned back to me.
“Evie, this is our legal team. We... How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. You guys can sit if you want.”
I put my hands in my lap and watched them eye the couch with uncertainty, then sit.
“Should I have my lawyer?” I asked. Although now that Antoinette was gone, I wasn’t sure I had one. She’d been my agent and my lawyer.
“Do you want one?” Dante asked quickly. “We can get you one if you need. Sebastian has already called his. Jesus Christ, this—we shouldn’t have—” His lawyers gave him a stern look, shutting him up. “Fuck!”
He put his head between his hands, tugging on his hair and rubbing his short beard.
“Well, I think if you’re going to fire me, it’s fair I have representation,” I shot at him.
“Fired?” Dante stopped rubbing his face and looked up. “We’re not firing you, Evie. We’re worried you’re going to sue us.”
“Why would I sue you?” I looked around, trying to understand.
“Sebastian was not supposed to do what he did.”
“And neither was I,” I reminded him. “I was just as complicit as he was in that room.”
They stared at me as if I wasn’t getting it.
I clapped and brought my hands to my temples. “Look, I’m not suing anyone. I just want to keep my job.”
They exchanged looks and nodded. “Fair. No one is losing their job unless you want Sebastian off the project.”
I sighed deeply. “No, I do not. Can we finish the day out? What time is it?” I looked for my clock. “How much time did we lose because of this?”
Dante scoffed. “We can’t go back to set today. Even if I wanted to, all the studio executives are losing their minds. We’ll be lucky to get on set tomorrow. Take the rest of the day off. Get some rest.”
I sat there for a moment, replaying everything that had happened today and how it led to this moment. I was keeping my job—but was Sebastian going to be punished?
“Do you have any questions or concerns for us?” one of the lawyers asked.
I pressed my lips together, my belly churning with nerves. “Actually, yes. Sebastian mentioned simulated and unsimulated sex scenes... What if we tried unsimulated…”
“Oh, fuck me.” Dante stood and began to pace the trailer. “I’m so fucked. I’ll never work again. This is bad. This is so goddamn bad. Did Sebastian tell you to ask?”
One of the lawyers jumped up and went to him while the others stayed seated.
“No!” I swore. “I just…” I drifted off as my face began to flush. How could I tell them that I’d been just as eager to remove my tape on that set?
“Well, Ms. Reyes, unsimulated sex scenes come with a lot more restrictions and rules, and that would—”
“We’d get an NC-17 rating for starters. Then I’d have to worry about one of you revoking consent at any moment, which would cause a myriad of issues. They’ll call me the fucking porn king. You can’t really be thinking about this, Evie. What the hell.”
I lifted my shoulders. “I don’t know, Sebastian just—”
“Please don’t say he convinced you of this.” The lawyers looked at each other. I could practically hear the collective scream—if I said Sebastian had told me to say this, they could be sued out the ass.
“No. I just... I don’t know. You wanted the movie to look real.”
“Oh, I think it looks pretty fucking real, Evie.” Dante sighed. “It’s only been a few hours, and already we’re getting phone calls.”
“Phone calls?”
“Yeah, whoever leaked what happened on set is getting fired,” Dante muttered. “This is so bad.”
I stood slowly to keep from making myself dizzy. “I’m so sorry. I—”
There was a knock on the door, and when I called for them to come in, Stacey, the woman from the PR company, came into the trailer. Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by so many people in my private space.
“Hey, Evie, how are you feeling? We heard you had a little spill.”
“I’m fine.” I crossed my arms. “What are you doing here?” Whenever she and her team showed up, it wasn’t great. She always had a new scheme.
“Well, word is slowly spreading about the little moment on set, and we wanted to discuss our angle for this. Is legal action being taken?” She directed the question to the lawyers. They shook their heads, and she sighed in relief. “Oh good. So, we’ll get contracts stating this, then?”
They nodded, and one of them opened a briefcase and pulled out a standard NDA.
I wasn’t enthused about not having a lawyer to consult, but I’d signed more than one of these, and it didn’t look like anything scary.
I signed it quickly, and they left, thanking me as they went.
Dante stayed behind and sat beside Stacey as she turned to me.
I was so sick of this fake relationship. I had to be “on” at all times, and I was ready to be “off.” It was exactly why I planned on letting go of The Body Count Bimbo channel. I wanted to live a real life.
If I never saw Stacey or her team again, it’d be too soon.
“So, let’s figure this out, shall we?” She smiled tightly. “Sebastian is still talking with his legal counsel, right?” She looked to Dante.
“I think so, yeah.”
“Can we bring him in on this?”
“Probably not.” Dante shook his head. “They aren’t going to want him anywhere near Evie.”
“Fair. Okay, let’s sort out details and then get with him.”
“Details?”
I was beginning to wonder if I’d gotten a concussion when I collapsed, because none of this made any sense. Who was in trouble and why? Maybe I needed to get the medic back in here.
Stacey leaned over and put her hand gently on my knee.
“Evie, sweetie, we have the story that is going to make this movie a whole lot of money, so long as we spin it right. This evening, the media is going to hear about Sebastian removing your modesty patch during filming today, and we are going to tell them that not only is it true, but you two can’t keep your hands off each other. The world is going to love you.”