Chapter 10
Adriana
“Don’t you want to get in a bikini and join in?” Bryant’s voice came from behind me, and I sighed.
“Unfortunately, I’m not made for dancing in music videos,” I answered as I turned to face him, a smile already painted onto my expression. “I’m more of a behind-the-scenes person.”
“That’s too bad.” Bryant’s eyes were traveling over my body, a habit he did not seem to be ashamed of. “I assume everything is on track?”
I glanced down at my tablet. “No problems so far.”
We were standing beside the pool, where a music video was being produced, and this was turning out to be one of the more fun tasks I had had so far.
The actresses were all getting dressed in my improvised green room, and the crew was currently setting up all of the lights.
A lot more went into the whole thing than I would have thought.
“Excuse me.” An assistant appeared out of seemingly nowhere, looking somewhat shy and apologetic. “Mr. Money would like a chai tea while he waits for setup. With lemon juice and a sprinkle of turmeric. Says it’s good for his voice.”
“I’ll arrange it,” I answered, shooting a text to the bar to get it done. “Someone will be with you shortly.”
“Thanks,” she answered, flustered, before hurrying off nervously. I wondered how long she had been Mr. Money’s assistant. Normally, assistants that I’d met were far more confident, and somewhat more demanding. She’d been a peach all day.
“It’s like you get better by the day,” Bryant commented, and I noticed the flutter of butterflies in my stomach. “In more ways than one.”
“Just doing my job,” I replied, beginning to walk in the direction of a nearby crew member as I scrolled on my tablet.
Bryant didn’t follow, but I could feel him watching me leave.
I made sure to swing my hips an extra little bit so he’d have something nice to look at without sacrificing my professionalism.
“Are we ready for the first take?” I asked the crew member, who glanced around at the technical setup.
“I think there’s just a few sound tests to go,” he said. “Pretty sure you can get everyone down from the green room now.”
“Perfect.”
I got all of the actresses down to the pool, along with letting Mr. Money’s assistant know that we were nearly ready for him. Afterward, I stood to one side, watching the process unfold.
Bryant appeared beside me, holding a pair of drinks that looked like Long Island ice teas.
“Another success,” he mused, offering one of them to me. “You think you have time to celebrate?”
“Sorry, I don’t drink while I’m on the clock,” I answered, despite thinking that I could use something strong for my nerves.
Even though everything was going perfectly right now, there was always that possibility that a disaster could happen.
Frankly, at this point, the whole situation was in too-good-to-be-true territory.
“That’s why I asked for a virgin for you,” Bryant winked, and I tentatively took the drink from him, my fingers brushing against his. An electric charge seemed to rush through me, and I swallowed the feeling back.
“In that case, thanks,” I said, testing his statement by taking a sip. “Oh, it really is a virgin.”
“Gasp,” Bryant said melodramatically. “You think I’d lie to you? What a shock. I’m not that kind of guy, Miss Adriana. I’m actually quite the gentleman. Maybe you’ll see that if you try to get to know me a little better.”
The last sentence was accompanied by a wink, and I felt my ears heating up; but I kept a straight face. “That would not be appropriate, Mr. Thatcher.”
“Most of the fun things aren’t,” he answered, taking a step closer to me.
I realized that he was just a few inches away from me now, and I couldn’t deny the chemistry that hung in the air between us.
I wasn’t sure what to say or what to do; it felt like any move I made now could put my job in jeopardy.
“Adriana!” I heard Landon’s voice, strict and firm, and I turned away from Bryant to see him marching toward us. “Shouldn’t you be overseeing the food distribution in the green room?”
“I—” I started, but Landon interrupted.
“Get moving,” he said, his voice almost a growl. I realized that he was probably not very happy with the energy that he sensed between Bryant and I, and that it likely wasn’t a great idea to argue with him.
“Yes, Sir,” I answered quickly, before handing the iced tea back to Bryant and walking away.
Once I was inside, I paused next to a window and looked out curiously to see what was going on.
I couldn’t hear what was being said, but Landon looked particularly annoyed while he was talking to Bryant.
Bryant answered with a few sly smiles and a shrug, and eventually, Landon stormed away from him.
I realized that he was heading in my direction, and I rushed down the hallway toward the green room so that I wouldn’t get caught.
Nolan was waiting outside with two carts loaded with food. “Ah, there you are.”
“I was being held up by Bryant,” I admitted with a sigh, before checking my tablet. “Lunch in two minutes. I’m still on time.”
“By a hair,” Nolan said, though he sounded more amused than angry. “You ready to blow this crew’s mind?”
“Oh, yeah,” I answered, surprised that he seemed to be in such a good mood. I had noticed before that he was slightly less high-strung when he was outside of the kitchen, but today he seemed especially cheery. “Honestly, I’m hungry, too. Might just steal a little something for myself.”
Nolan raised an eyebrow at me. “Make sure you don’t get caught. They frown on that kind of thing here.”
I allowed myself a small chuckle before I opened the doors to the green room, where actresses were gathered on one end of the room, while the behind-the-scenes crew sat and chatted on the other end.
They immediately cheered when we entered with the food carts, though the actresses didn’t pay much attention. I assumed that they wouldn’t; according to the brief, they’d only be eating after the shoot. A few crew members were missing, too, likely manning the cameras outside.
“I hope you’re all hungry,” I said to the crew, who offered me another cheer. “Our chef has prepared all the classics for you, just… the gourmet versions.”
Everyone was on their feet pretty quickly, while an assistant appeared to call the actresses out to the shoot. I noticed a few jealous glances toward the spread as they passed us.
The crew didn’t wait for us to plate their food for them.
Each took their own cutlery, grabbed a plate, and stacked it high with all of the fancy snacks Nolan had made.
I had to admit that it all looked incredibly good, and even I wanted a piece of it.
But I wheeled the cart to the corner of the room, joining Nolan against the wall to wait.
“Damn, they must have been starving,” he said to me with an amused smile. “Haven’t seen people chowing down like this in a while.”
“Yeah, it’s like wealthy people don’t want to admit they need food,” I joked in return, curious why Nolan was being so chummy with me. Up until now, our relationship was cordial at best.
“Tell me about it,” Nolan rolled his eyes before looking at me. “I don’t think you’ve actually eaten one of my meals before.”
I thought for a moment, then shook my head. “I haven’t.”
“I’ll cook you something after work sometime,” he said, then quickly shrugged. “Or leave you some leftovers. Whatever.”
Maybe it was just the situation with Bryant and Landon that had me overthinking things, but I could have sworn Nolan was flirting with me. That last statement seemed to be his attempt at hiding it.
Then again, maybe he was just trying to show off his skills, something that was completely in line with his personality. It was possible that I was seeing things that weren’t there. Was I just obsessed with thinking that all the men around me were into me?
“Dude, these donuts!” One of the crew members yelled from the couch. “They’re like… Magical!”
Nolan laughed, a sound that I hadn’t heard from him in the entire time I had been working at The Pacific. “Thank you, Sir. I do my best.”
“That’s because you are the best,” I said, keeping my voice at a low volume. “Or at least, so I hear.”
After the entire crew had eaten their fill, I assisted Nolan with getting things cleaned up and back to the kitchen. He was nothing but pleasant the whole time, aside from a few sarcastic comments.
I found that interesting. He was actually pretty attractive when he wasn’t being a complete asshole. But it was dangerous to think like that, given that I’d already gone over the line with Landon, and that Bryant was clearly trying to push things in a certain direction.
“See you later,” I said to Nolan before I left the kitchen, doing my best not to smile too much at him.
Unfortunately, I spent most of the rest of the day wondering about where all of this was going, and whether Nolan and Bryant’s bodies were as fantastic as Landon’s.
By the evening, I was struggling to focus on my job, given how intense the thoughts were.
Then, my phone vibrated while I was in the middle of sorting out a towel emergency. I checked the message; it was from Landon, requesting my presence in his office.
It was strangely formal, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. This had to be about the elevator incident. We hadn’t spoken about it at all yet, and obviously we couldn’t just leave it there.
“Can you take over?” I asked the receptionist on duty, who agreed, but seemed curious about the sudden frown I had on my face.
I tried to walk at an even pace, even though my heart was racing and my legs wanted to run. I wasn’t sure if I was nervous, excited, or terrified. It was probably a mix of all three.
I stood in front of the office door for a long moment to catch my breath. I wondered if Landon regretted what had happened, or if he planned to keep to what he said; “we’ll have to finish this later.”
The thought of that sent a thrill through me, but I kept myself calm. I couldn’t seem too eager.
Finally, I knocked on the door, and Landon called for me to enter.
When I did, he was standing beside one of his many bookcases, watching me closely. I closed the door behind me and stepped forward. I couldn’t quite place Landon’s expression, but it was somewhere between stoic and unhappy.
“Is there something I can do?” I asked, not quite ready to drop the professional facade. “I believe the schedules are still in line.”
“It’s not about that,” Landon answered, and he seemed pretty frustrated as he spoke. “I need to warn you. Stay away from Bryant Thatcher.”
I blinked at him a few times. I knew that he was likely jealous about how flirty Bryant had been with me, but I didn’t think that it was that serious.
I didn’t think that we were exclusive, and on top of that, nothing had happened with Bryant.
I had only been professional until now, aside from accepting the drink that afternoon.
“What’s the deal with him?” I asked sincerely, crossing my arms. “Why is everyone so weird about him? And how do you expect me to avoid him when it’s my job to—”
Landon lifted a hand. “Listen, just trust me, okay?”
The way he said it was really convincing, so I simply nodded and kept back my curiosity. I still hoped that my questions would be answered one day, but for now, I’d do as Landon asked.
The air between us was quiet for a moment before I spoke again. “Is that it?”
“What?”
“Did you just call me to warn me about Mr. Thatcher?”
“Why?”
I felt exasperated, and sighed. “What about the elevator? Aren’t we going to talk about that?”
Landon walked up to me so fast that it seemed like it happened in a single movement. He stood almost against me, looking down at me with what looked like fire in his eyes.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said, before putting a hand around my neck and pulling me close.
This kiss was even more urgent and full of passion than the first one had been. It was a promise that there was more to come, that I’d only had a small taste of what was truly beneath Landon’s suit.
And I was looking forward to seeing more.