Chapter Two
“Why the hell do I have to do this stupid meet the fans thing and you don’t?” Bridget asked as she burst into Amelia’s trailer like a raging bull. “Doing shit like this was not included in my contract.”
Although Amelia was startled by the intrusion, she made sure not to show it. Bridget Clemonte was the type of person who preyed on weakness.
Bridget was the biggest star in any room, and she knew it, and most people on the set were totally intimidated by her.
Not Amelia. She refused to bow down to Bridget and her bratty ways.
Amelia had worked her ass off for her part in this film, and she was determined to be viewed as an equal, regardless of who had played the bigger roles or boasted the longer list of credits.
She glanced up at Bridget from her spot on the plush white couch where she had been rehearsing her lines for their next shoot. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re the only one the fans want to meet.” That’s right. Appeal to her ever-so-large ego. Maybe she’d leave faster.
Bridget narrowed her eyes. “Well, of course they want me. But I don’t see why I need to suffer alone.”
“You won’t be alone,” Amelia assured her. “A few of the others have been roped in too. Including Gabe, your doting husband.” In the film, obviously. Amelia couldn’t imagine Bridget having someone so doting in real life. She would eat the poor guy for dinner.
“Oh great. I get to have fucking Gabe drooling over me all day.” Bridget plonked herself down on the sofa beside Amelia, and again Amelia worked hard not to flinch. Instead, she calmly flipped the page on her lines.
Bridget often sought Amelia out to offload her many, many grievances.
Sometimes Amelia wondered if Bridget saw her as a kind of friend she could talk to.
Rather, to complain and bitch to because Bridget Clemonte didn’t chat or trade niceties.
But Amelia always ruled the notion out again very quickly.
It was more likely that she was trying to suss Amelia out.
A keep your friends close and your enemies closer type of thing.
Especially as Bridget acted like the two of them were rivals rather than colleagues most of the time.
Whether she liked or disliked her, who knew?
It was hard to tell what Bridget really thought, especially because Bridget wasn’t particularly pleasant to anyone.
At least all the offhand comments and throwaway remarks weren’t personal.
What Bridget did do, was keep a close eye on Amelia.
Amelia could sense her there all the time, watching.
Like Bridget was waiting for her to trip up in some way.
And Amelia was sure that if it ever happened, Bridget would take great delight in sinking her.
Which was why Amelia felt it necessary to keep her guard up around her.
You rarely knew who you could trust in showbiz.
“I’m sure he’ll be too busy to drool.” In truth, Amelia didn’t mind doing meet and greets.
Any fans she met tended to be really sweet, and chatting with them was a part of her job that she genuinely enjoyed.
But she had already clocked way too many hours over the past three weeks of filming, and they had to give her some time off by law, apparently.
So, although she had volunteered to stay, the production heads had insisted that she take the day off, so she didn’t do something silly like collapse and sue them.
Of course, Amelia could explain that to Bridget, and she would to any other normal human.
But Bridget wouldn’t take kindly to hearing that Amelia had clocked more hours than she had because everything seemed to be a competition—even though Amelia was sure that Bridget would catch up on the hours soon.
They had pretty much the same number of scenes, a lot of which were together.
“Don’t you think you should do it instead?” Bridget flashed her the smile that charmed most of the world but had zero effect on her. “It might be good for your little career.”
Ah, some condescension. Nice. “I’m sure that the fans would be very disappointed if you weren’t there,” Amelia said, sticking to her flattery approach. “Besides, I’ve already arranged to go out today.”
Bridget screwed up her face like she couldn’t fathom why. “To do what exactly?”
“Explore. Take in the scenery. Maybe go for a walk somewhere.” Not that Amelia had to explain herself to Bridget.
“Explore?” Bridget let out a bitter laugh. “Fields, animal shit, and more fields. That’s what we’re surrounded by here. There, I saved you an unfortunate tour. You can thank me later.”
Amelia disagreed entirely. What she had seen of Ireland was stunning and she couldn’t wait to see more.
“Hmm. I think I’ll still go. But at least you won’t feel like you’re missing much when you’re here greeting all your lovely fans.
” Okay, that was a touch catty, but Bridget had that effect on her.
It really did amaze Amelia, how Bridget was so carefully portrayed as a perfect sweetheart to the public, when she was such a blatant pain in the ass behind the scenes.
It did say a lot about her acting skills though—honour where honour is due.
The woman didn’t lack for talent. That, and her people must be really good.
“Indeed,” Bridget replied with an insincere smile.
“Well, at least we know the movie will be getting the best publicity with me there as the face of it.” She stood up again, and Amelia couldn’t help thinking that sitting down in the first place had been pointless.
It was probably just a power play to show her that Bridget could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
Even if that was in Amelia’s personal trailer.
Bridget paused in the doorway. “Be careful not to get lost. I’d hate for you to delay my scenes tomorrow.
” And with that she strode out of Amelia’s trailer every bit as abruptly as she had entered it.
Amelia blinked a few times at the closed door.
In her whole acting career to date, she had never met anyone as challenging as Bridget Clemonte.
During their takes, Bridget was a dream to act with, probably the most talented actress that Amelia had ever worked with if she was honest about it.
And despite their strange, competitive—on Bridget’s side—personal dynamic, their onscreen chemistry was electric.
Which was all that mattered, really. As long as the movie was a success, Amelia could manage to tolerate the rest. It was only for a couple more months, then she wouldn’t have to deal with Bridget Clemonte again.
Aside from the press tour and the odd faux-cheery greeting at an award ceremony from time to time maybe.
And if they did ever end up working together again, at least Amelia would be adequately prepared.
Facing Bridget was like facing the final boss in a video game.
Once you worked out how to defeat her, you could do it over and over again.
Defeat Bridget, and you’ll have officially conquered the boss of showbiz divas.
Amelia set her script on the coffee table beside her.
She was already confident that she knew her lines, plus she would go over them again before bed like she did every night.
She had only flipped through the script in the first place because a full day off was so alien to her.
Amelia had jumped from another project straight to this one, and it felt like she hadn’t had a day to spend at her leisure for months.
So, it was more of a habit to rehearse rather than chill while she waited for the driver to come and pick her up and take her wherever she wanted to go.
The studio had insisted on sending a member of their security team with her as well, which seemed unnecessary, but Amelia knew better than to argue.
They were all about safety. Amelia’s publicist, Helen, was all about it too, and had been going on at Amelia for months to hire her own personal bodyguard.
Especially for big, public appearances. Amelia didn’t love the idea, so she kept putting it off.
She assured Helen that she would get around to it at some point.
Steve, who the studio was assigning, was a good guy anyway.
Amelia had met him around the set a few times.
He was a man of few words, but Amelia was happy to not talk too much today.
She did plenty of talking. She was just excited to finally get out of the confines of the set or the hotel and have a look around.
She had read that some of the filming locations from Game of Thrones weren’t too far away, so she hoped to check some of them out along with some of the amazing coastline.
Amelia double-checked her appearance in the mirror to make sure she was good to go when the driver arrived.
Getting ready to go out into the world was hard sometimes.
Amelia didn’t want to look dreadful in case she got spotted by any paparazzi that were lurking around.
But she also didn’t want to look like glammed up Amelia Whitlock, movie star, either. That was so not her everyday look.
Amelia knew that a lot of her fellow actors regularly went out in disguise, and she understood the need for it sometimes. But she preferred more of a blend into the background style rather than a full-blown costume. She wore enough of those for work.