Chapter 4 #2
He glanced at the screen.
Alexandra.
He smiled despite himself and picked up.
“Hey, sis.”
“Hey! I just called to remind you about my show. There will be a cocktail party after.”
Alexandra was an artist. Tonight was the showing of the work she had been developing for the past several years—a series of paintings titled L’homme.
It featured portraits of men at various stages of life.
Aaron had seen the paintings at different stages of development and had been looking forward to supporting his sister’s big moment.
Unfortunately, tonight he also needed to deal with Camille.
“Umm…”
“Aaron!” Alexandra said sharply. “I’ve been planning this for months. Don’t tell me you can’t come.”
“I don’t want to disappoint you, but I have a business meeting tonight and I’m not sure what time it will end.”
“But you told me you were free.”
“That was then. This is now. Something urgent came up.”
“What’s so urgent that it’s worth blowing off my show?”
Aaron ran a hand through his hair, feeling the tension creeping back.
“Let’s just say Camille Carlucci is proving to be a challenge, and I need to meet with her to discuss my concerns.”
“A challenge how?”
“She’s got her own vision for the character, and it clashes with what I’m trying to do. It has resulted in us being way off schedule. The studio execs got wind of it and are threatening to axe her if I don’t get her back into line.”
“Oh man,” Alexandra groaned. “I had heard rumors that Simon Halden let her run things on the Shadow Peak set. She’s probably spoilt.”
Aaron leaned back in his chair, staring out the window as sunlight flickered through the trees lining the street.
“I felt in my bones she was going to be trouble,” he said, thinking back to that period over a year ago.
“But she did great at the audition. She’s really talented.
There’s no denying that. When Ray decided to cast her, my objections seemed…
trite. Regardless, I need to meet with her tonight—to hash this out over coffee instead of in front of the entire cast and crew. ”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alexandra said brightly. “In fact, why not have a Bible study with her?”
“A Bible study?”
“Sure. This could be an opportunity for you to teach her about Esther—not just the surface story but the themes in Scripture about humility and surrender to God’s direction. Do some exegesis.”
Aaron laughed. “I think you have the wrong Cortelli brother.” Their brother Adam was a pastor.
Alexandra laughed too. “Nah. But Adam will help you prepare if you ask nicely.”
Aaron chuckled distractedly. The wheels in his head were already turning. The prospect of a Bible study with Camille was daunting—yet strangely appealing.
“And what if we just end up arguing again?”
“Then take along a referee.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“Me? Oh no,” Alexandra said quickly. “I was thinking about Adam. That’s what he does for a living after all,” she added, laughter bubbling through the line.
Aaron chuckled despite himself.
“Alright, you make a good point. I’ll consider it. But I’ll leave Adam out of this one.”
“Want her all to yourself, do you?”
“Alex,” Aaron growled. “That is not funny.”
“I was just kidding,” she said, still amused. “Still—it’s been three years. You don’t intend to live like a monk for the rest of your life, do you? Madison needs a mom.”
“I’m not ready, Alex. I don’t know when I will be.”
As he said it, his mind drifted to his recent interactions with Camille.
The way he felt whenever he was near her.
The attraction he’d felt during those scenes four weeks ago.
He had controlled his feelings, but that didn’t mean they had disappeared.
He knew that given the slightest provocation they would flare up again.
And yet he wasn’t ready for marriage. He wasn’t ready to let go of Scarlette.
Even the thought of another woman sometimes felt like betrayal.
“So,” Alex said, breaking into his thoughts, “can’t you at least pop by after your dinner date?”
“Don’t call it that.”
“After your dinner meeting. The show begins at six and ends at nine. Please try to stop by.”
Aaron sighed. “Okay. I’ll try to make it.”
It would mean ending filming an hour early and moving the dinner to six instead of seven. He stared at his coffee. This evening was shaping up to be… complicated.
~*~*~*~
Camille listened to her mother with barely restrained annoyance.
She glanced at the clock and tapped her fingers on her leg wondering when she could end the conversation.
She did not want to be rude to her mother.
She was her mother after all and the few times since being saved she had cut her off in conversation and ended the call she had been deeply convicted.
She’d had to call her and apologize to have some peace in her conscience.
So now she treaded more lightly. She sought God’s counsel, she prayed for strength and grace.
But Rita Carlucci could be so irritating.
“Camille! Camille?” Rita said.
Camille blinked. “Yes, mama.”
“What do you have to say to that?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to acknowledge that I have a point and not shut down on me like you are doing now.”
Camille sighed. “I’m not shutting down on you. I just don’t know what more to say. We have discussed this and I told you what I recently told him. I am not interested in returning to that show. Simon can go ahead with his lawsuit. I don’t care.”
“You should not be so flippant. You have a lot to lose financially if he wins.”
Even though she had tried not to think about that, it did bother her.
“James thinks that I may have a chance at winning.” James Pratt was her lawyer.
Rita scoffed. “How, pray tell?”
Camille swallowed back her irritation. “Unsafe working environment.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sexual harassment by my producer for one.”
“Really. You are seriously going to claim that. When the cast and crew were well aware that the two of you were involved in a heated love affair for years.”
“Well, breach of contract in any case. He engaged in wrongful behavior towards me that damaged me.”
“What a snowflake you sound like.”
“James says that even if its proven that I broke the contract—”
“Which it will be—”
“—then Simon has to prove that he took reasonable steps to reduce the financial impact. Which I know he did. He immediately found a replacement for me, the actress who plays my long lost sister, and he rewrote the script accordingly. So based on that, the lost to him was likely to be minimal.”
“All of this is speculation, you know. If you quit this movie and go back to the show, Simon is willing to forgive everything. I think that’s pretty generous of him.”
“I’m shocked that you can use the word generous and Simon Halden in the same breath.”
“He isn’t as terrible as you make out.”
“Not terrible! The man who lied to me for years about his intention to divorce his wife and then forced me to abort my child.”
There was silence. “I don’t think you can blame him for the abortion,” Rita said quietly. “That was your choice.”
Camille acknowledged that. It had indeed been her choice. A choice that haunted her every day of her life.
“I wasn’t a Christian then. I fell for the lie that it was my body and my choice.”
“If you had just come to me …”
But she hadn’t because she knew that Rita with her catholic upbringing would have talked her out of it.
“Anyway,” Camille went on, steadying her voice, “this isn’t about the past. I’m committed to this film. I know what I’m choosing. I’m not pretending it’s free.”
“So you want to risk everything?” Rita asked. “You see your life, Camille? Your house, your security, what you’ve built? You’re asset-rich, yes—but liquidity is another matter. You don’t have endless cash lying around.”
That triggered Camille.
“And why do you think that is?” she said. “Who didn’t pay taxes on my income for years? Who left me with penalties and interest so large I spent the best of my twenties repaying?”
“That wasn’t me, Chiquita. That was your father!” Rita said defensively.
Silence reigned for a couple minutes then Rita sighed.
“Camille,” she said quietly now, the sharpness gone. “You’re acting as though this is about money. It isn’t.”
Camille didn’t respond.
“This is about leverage,” Rita continued. “About who gets to walk away and who doesn’t. People like Simon don’t lose. They wait.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” Camille said.
“I know,” Rita said. “That’s what frightens me.”
Camille was silent. Thinking. She knew Rita was right, Simon was adept at playing the long game. She knew it full well.
“You think this is strength,” Rita continued. “Walking out mid-season. Making it moral. But morality doesn’t protect you in this business.”
“So I should stay,” Camille said softly, “even if it costs me my soul.”
Rita didn’t hesitate. “I’m saying people survive worse things than bruised souls.”
Camille flinched. “That’s your answer?”
“My answer,” Rita said, “is that this movie is a luxury you can’t afford right now. Shadow Peak is infrastructure. You give up infrastructure, the ground starts to move. All you have to do is endure a little longer until the season ends.”
Camille stood.
“No,” she said. “What you’re asking me to do is compromise my ethics.”
“I’m asking you to stay the course until the end of the season.”
“I won’t do it,” Camille said.
“Then I hope,” Rita said carefully, “that your principles are as strong as you believe they are. Because they’re about to be very expensive.”
“I have to go, Mama,” she said evenly. “Filming starts soon.”
She ended the call before Rita could respond.
~*~*~*~
A moment after Camille ended the call, there was a tap at her trailer door.
She opened to find Tiffany Davis standing there.
Tiffany was a beautiful black woman with a smooth café au lait complexion, high cheek bones and full lips.
Camille had often found their interactions pleasant and noted that Aaron seemed to depend upon her and trust her efficiency.
They seemed to be quite the team. She would almost be jealous but for the fact that Tiffany seemed happily married to one of the camera crew.
Plus, like every other female member of the cast and crew Aaron treated her more like a sister than a romantic interest.
“Message from Aaron.”
Camille blinked, refocusing her thoughts.
“Yes?”
“He wants you to meet him for dinner tonight at Frank’s Diner at 6:00 p.m. after filming wraps up.”
“He what?”
“There is a business matter he needs to discuss with you.”
Camille sighed. She would love to say ‘no can do’ but somehow she didn’t think that would go over well. Things had not exactly been going amicably between Aaron and her lately. she didn’t need to make it worse be refusing his dinner invitation.
She nodded. “Sure. I’ll be there.”
“Great. Filming restarts in 15 minutes.”
The message settled heavily on her shoulders when Tiffany left.
The dinner invitation from Aaron felt ominous, and her mind raced with worst-case scenarios.
The fight on set loomed large in her thoughts, and the fear of being fired gnawed at her.
She couldn’t afford to lose this role; it was more than just a job—it was her lifeline.