Chapter Four
“I need Saturday off,” Amelia said pleadingly to Gina, the producer who handled the schedules. “Please? I know it’s short notice, but I’m only down to shoot a few close-ups, which could be done after I finish my scenes on Friday. Problem solved with zero disruptions.”
“No.” Gina didn’t even look up. Instead, she continued walking while focusing even harder on her clipboard.
Amelia followed her with determination. “It’s really important.” No response, so she tried to reason again. “At least let me shoot them first thing on Saturday morning. I just need to be away by ten. Please, Gina.”
Amelia didn’t usually ask for favours. She knew how important it was to stick to the schedule.
Time was money after all. Which was why she had come up with two perfectly viable solutions that wouldn’t cause any inconvenience to anyone else but her.
The crew would be there anyway, she had checked.
And if they went with either of her two suggestions then they would subsequently be ahead of schedule. A win for all.
Still, Amelia understood that most producers hated any unexpected changes to the schedule. It was written all over Gina’s face when she stopped and impatiently sighed at her. “What’s your current call time?”
“Twelve.” Which Amelia hadn’t realised when she’d planned her day with Imogen.
In fact, Amelia had been almost sure that she had no shoots at all on Saturday, but maybe it had been slotted in.
That happened sometimes too, because on the flip side, schedule changes were perfectly acceptable whenever they were made on the producer’s terms.
Gina eyed her for several excruciating, intimidating seconds. “I’ll change it to nine this one time, but you aren’t leaving until we get every shot we need. I don’t care if it’s midnight, you’re staying until we’re done. Got it?”
Amelia knew to keep her mouth shut when she was ahead. She would personally make sure the shots were finished in time. “Got it.” Gina had already begun to walk away when Amelia shouted after her, “Thank you!”
“Look at you asking for special treatment,” a familiar voice purred from behind her. Of course Bridget had overheard. She didn’t miss a single move Amelia made.
Amelia refused to cower as she turned around to face her. “Oh, hey, Bridget,” she said, forcing plenty of cheer into her tone.
“Amelia,” Bridget replied evenly, eyeing her with interest. “What has you messing up everyone’s weekend?”
She wasn’t messing up anyone’s weekend, but Amelia wasn’t about to explain herself to Bridget. That would only play into her manipulative hands. She also wasn’t going to divulge a thing about her personal life. “Just trying to arrange some time off for myself. That’s all.”
“Another day off? After you already missed that horrible open day yesterday?”
“Horrible?” Amelia said. “I heard it was a blast.”
Bridget gave a dramatic roll of her eyes. “If you call plastering on a smile all day while listening to the same gushes and compliments a hundred times over a blast, then, yeah. It was awesome.”
“Oh, come on,” Amelia said. “Who doesn’t love hearing lovely things about themselves? Plus, Gabe said that the crowd was really friendly.”
Bridget waved a hand like that didn’t matter a damn. “I suppose some were fine. For about two minutes. It quickly got tedious.”
Amelia’s mind absently wandered to what Imogen’s friends might have thought about Bridget, if they had met her, which in turn led her to think some more about Imogen. Imogen, who hadn’t been far from Amelia’s thoughts ever since the day before.
Amelia went on dates. She’d had a handful of semi-serious but short-lived relationships over the years.
She’d had many a crush too. But none of it ever felt easy.
Too often, the women she was interested in or dated were more interested in going out with a movie star than they were in going out with Amelia, the person.
If she dated someone who worked in the same business as her, there were always issues.
Time restraints. Competitiveness. Women trying to further their own careers through Amelia.
And likewise, even if they weren’t in the business, there were still issues.
Women tended to get with Amelia to see what they could gain out of the relationship.
Status. Attention. VIP treatment. Money.
Amelia had lost count of how many times she’d opened herself up to someone only to end up being used in some way or another.
So, yeah, Amelia found her love life a pretty difficult thing to navigate because who could she really trust? It was exhausting being on high alert all the time.
But yesterday with Imogen, it had felt easy.
Natural. Okay, so it didn’t hurt that Imogen had no idea who Amelia was.
Of course that was a plus. Because how could Imogen possibly have ulterior motives when she didn’t even know that Amelia was famous?
She couldn’t. So, unlike her usual interactions, Amelia had been able to relax and let her guard down.
It had been invigorating to get the chance to be herself without the hindrance of fame weighing her down.
In the end, Imogen hadn’t agreed to go out with Amelia Whitlock, the movie star.
She had agreed to go out with Amy, the girl from the bar. And that felt amazing.
Except, Amelia had also messed up. Because she was famous.
And she’d had two perfect openings to tell Imogen the truth about it, and she had squandered them both.
It was wrong of her, and she knew it. Growing up, her mom had very firmly instilled in her that it was never okay to tell lies. And Amelia didn’t. Normally.
The guilt had kept her up for most of the night.
Amelia had tried to justify it to herself that it was more of an omission of truth than an outright fabrication.
At one point, Amelia had even tried to convince herself that it was for safety reasons.
But all of that was a load of crap, and she knew it.
She could come up with a hundred excuses, but none would be good enough.
The reality was that Amelia had lied to buy herself some time with Imogen.
And then she kept up with the lie to buy herself some more time.
There was no way that Imogen would have agreed to go out with Amelia if she’d known who she was.
Not after her prickly reaction about celebrities.
And even if Imogen would have somehow agreed, despite knowing the truth, then Amelia would have the same old problem that she always had.
She’d wonder what Imogen was doing with her and constantly question her motives.
Because usually, that’s what Amelia had to do.
And usually, she ended up bitterly disappointed with what she discovered.
Therefore, during her hours of missed sleep, Amelia decided that she was going to give herself this one date.
She wouldn’t lie or evade the truth. If Imogen asked her something that would somehow give her away, then Amelia would answer honestly and accept that her time was up.
And if Amelia did somehow manage to get to the end of their date without that happening, then she would come clean with Imogen about everything anyway.
Amelia hoped that when she explained the reasons why she had kept her identity a secret, that Imogen would be open enough to understand.
Amelia didn’t know her that well, but she seemed like a compassionate person. Call it intuition.
Or maybe the date would be a complete disaster anyway and it wouldn’t be an issue.
But Amelia doubted it. There was something there between Imogen and her.
A spark. Amelia couldn’t remember the last time she had met a woman and felt such an instant connection.
Maybe never. And perhaps it was wishful thinking, but she had a feeling that Imogen had felt it too.
The whole encounter had left Amelia wondering if wishes from wells really did come true. When she had thrown her pound in and wished that she’d find the woman she truly belonged with, only to meet Imogen a couple of minutes later—it was coincidental to say the least.
Bridget cleared her throat and Amelia snapped back to the present. What had Bridget been saying? “Tedious. Right. I’m sure.”
Bridget narrowed her eyes. “You’re acting strange today.”
“Am not.” Was she?
“Whatever. I don’t care. I just wanted to ensure that you aren’t going to mess up any of my scenes with this whole slacker persona you’ve decided to take on.”
“Nope. My slacking will have no impact on your scenes at all, rest assured.”
“Hmm. Well, I hope you’ve got your head in the game for next week. A lot of our big scenes together are coming up.” Bridget shot her a grin that was all too smug. “Though you probably knew that already. Most actors look forward to kissing me.”
Amelia looked forward to shooting their kissing scenes about as much as she looked forward to getting her period.
She was sure that a lot of actors did look forward to kissing Bridget.
Objectively speaking, she was a very attractive woman.
Too bad Amelia valued kindness and personality rather than just looks.
Therefore, kissing Bridget wasn’t particularly high up on her wish list. But Amelia could pretend for the movie.
That was the job after all. And Amelia was good at her job.
“I can’t say that I ever look forward to filming any kissing scenes, but I’m sure that you and I will be able to do it justice.
That’s why they picked us, for our excellent acting ability. ”
Maybe Amelia could write a handbook on how to handle Bridget Clemonte, because for once she didn’t seem to have any sort of comeback.