Chapter 15
Fifteen
HARSH
“Cut!”
The word rang through the set, breaking the moment. Harsh sighed, dropping his arms from around his heroine and stepping back. He’d been shooting since five in the morning. It was now seven in the evening and he was ready to wrap up for the day. Unfortunately, his co-star kept forgetting her lines and they were now on the fifty eighth take of the same damn scene.
He rubbed a tired hand over his face as he slumped on the chair with his name on it.
“Sir?” His make-up artist hovered. “Touch up.”
Harsh shut his eyes and let the man do his thing. It felt like he had ten layers of the rubbish on his face already, but these were tools of his trade and he didn’t bother arguing with the experts.
Someone sat down in the chair beside him. He heard the creak of the chair and the shuffle of feet. His co-star he assumed. Probably sulking after the dressing down the director had just given her. He kept his eyes closed as the make-up artist used the setting spray.
“Done Sir.” The younger boy put his brushes away and stepped back.
“Thank you,” Harsh smiled at him absently, straightening in his chair. The lights on set were blinding and they hurt his head, exacerbating the migraine that had been lurking since morning. He glanced around looking for the director, hoping to ask for an early pack up.
“Did Naidu Garu tell you when we’re wrapping up for the day?” he asked his co-star.
“No.” A completely different voice answered.
Harsh fell out of his chair and landed on his butt. He gaped at Raashi who sat in the seat beside him, looking down at him like a judgy old aunty.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
She tsked at him. “Is that anyway to talk to your girlfriend?”
Then she held her phone up and waggled it in the air. “Especially a girlfriend who has a video of you putting on makeup.” She tapped the phone against her chin. “This has viral potential with the Harshians. Do you think I’d earn brownie points with them by sharing it?”
Harsh started to laugh, the whole situation too ridiculous to comprehend. He got to his feet, batting away the helping hands from the AD and the spot boys who’d rushed over.
“What are you doing here?” he asked again, sitting down beside her, still gawking at her like he’d walked on to her film set.
“I thought I’d come see what my boyfriend’s workday looks like.” She sat on the edge of her seat, like a little owl, in cargo pants and a tank top, her long hair pulled back in a low ponytail. In direct contrast to him, she wore absolutely no makeup.
“ You thought?”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “The families thought. But it was a good idea. Now, I have all this blackmail material.”
“Blackmail.” Harsh pretended to shudder. “What would I ever do if people found out that I wear makeup? News flash, Viper, they already do. Every actor wears makeup.”
“But does every actor pout when they put his lipstick on?” She made an exaggerated duck face.
“You’re a liar.” Harsh glared at her. “I don’t do that.”
“A liar with proof.”
She popped the p in the word proof and he found his eyes drawn to her lips. Her no-lipstick lips.
“Harsh,” his director called out.
Harsh tore his gaze away from Raashi and looked across the set. His director mouthed ‘pack up’ at him and relief tore through his body. This shitty day was finally over.
“Oh damn,” Raashi said. “No more ‘Lights, Camera, Action!’? I was looking forward to that.”
He gave her some side eye as he stood. “Were you? Were you really? ”
She got to her feet and stretched, her tank top riding up to expose a toned belly. Harsh glanced away, swallowing hard. Weird things were happening to his body, and he was not down with it.
“There’s a family dinner,” she said now. “At your home. We are supposed to arrive together. The press will be waiting.”
The weird feelings disappeared, like they’d been stomped on by an elephant. Of course, there was a family dinner. Of course, his family told an outsider that before they told him. Of course, they were still expecting a command performance from him. And of course, the press would be waiting.
Welcome to the Harsh Kodela life.
“So, let’s go Make Up Nancy.” Raashi did a little bounce on her toes, slapping her hands together. “Time to bounce.”
His side eye got wider. “Time to bounce? How old are you? Seventeen?”
Her smirk disappeared. “Anything but seventeen.”
Harsh watched her, noting the tense lines of her face and the nervous twining of her fingers. He’d touched a nerve. He just didn’t know what exactly he’d blundered into. What exactly had happened when she was seventeen?
“Let’s go,” he said abruptly, signaling his security over.
“Aren’t you going to wash up?” she asked, drawing circles in the air around her face.
“No, Ms. Judgy. You, me and my face are going to leave now.” He caught her swirly hand and started pulling her towards the exit. It felt surprisingly tiny and fragile in his own bear paws. Bird bones, he thought, she had bird bones.
“So, your face is like a whole third person now?”
And a tongue like a serrated blade, he reminded himself.
“Sure,” he answered easily, leading them out of the studio. “My face is my fortune and all that.”
“Face and body, I’m guessing.” She was still taking the whole bustling scene around her in, her head practically swiveling on her neck like something out of a horror movie.
“You noticed my body, Rash?” Amusement filtered through his voice as her head swiveled towards him.
“It’s hard not to,” she said dryly. “Especially when your shirts just rip themselves off your body.”
Harsh laughed, the sound bursting out of him. Several people turned to look at them, smiling automatically. Even Raashi managed a reluctant smile.
His driver pulled up in front of them and he opened the car door, standing back for Raashi to get in. It took him a moment to realise she hadn’t expected him to open the door for her and had instead scurried around to the other side of the car, opened the door and gotten in. Leaving him standing like an idiot with an open car door in his hand.
“Umm, Rash.” He bent and poked his head into the car surprising Raashi while she was buckling herself in. “What the fuck?”
“I’m sorry, what?” She looked genuinely confused.
He slid in through the open door he still held and slammed it shut behind him, the plush quiet and dark of his car surrounding them.
“I was holding the door open for you!”
“Oh!” She frowned. “But why? My hands work. I can open my own doors.”
“Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.”
She stared at him, her face a picture of puzzlement and something else. Something he couldn’t put his finger on.
He leaned forward and tapped his driver on the shoulder. “Shankar Anna, Bar Q.”
Raashi’s frown deepened. “No. We have to go to Kodela House for the family dinner. Your family wants us to come straight there.”
Harsh leaned back in his seat, settling in more comfortably. “The first thing you’ll learn about me, Rash, is that I never do what my family wants.”
He put his hand over her face and gently shoved her back in her seat. “Get comfortable darling and stay buckled up. It’s going to be a wild ride.”