Off Script

by Anna Paige

  My pulse started to race as I realized Skylar had followed Marion’s lead and was openly staring, both of their gazes wandering from head to toe. I fidgeted at Gavin’s side, my hand squeezing the hell out of his biceps.

  Marion reached out and forcibly pulled him away from me. “How am I supposed to get a good look with you plastered to her side like that. Give us some room to work here.” She poked his ribs in a motherly way.

  Now that Gavin was a few steps away, I was completely exposed.

  My breath hissed in and out past the lump in my throat, and my arms instinctively crossed over my chest in a defensive position. I wanted this to stop. They had to stop looking at me like that, staring at every imperfection, judging me. It felt like unwanted hands on my skin. Goosebumps broke out over my arms.

  “Honey, I’m going to need you to stand still and uncross your arms. How can I take measurements with you balled up like that?” Marion’s tone wasn’t harsh, but I flinched back anyway.

  Apparently, Gavin was the only one who noticed my discomfort. “Sky, why don’t you go on ahead. I’m sure you want to grab fresh coffee before the table read. The rest of the tour can wait until later.”

  I glanced over at her and caught a trace of amusement in her eyes. Amusement at my discomfort. Clearly, I was wrong about no one else having noticed. “Fine by me. Looks like Marion will be a while anyway. Hope she can find something that fits our new star so she doesn’t have to start from scratch.”

  Something in the back of my mind told me that was probably a shot at my being a couple sizes bigger than her and Jenna, but I was so relieved to see her leaving that I didn’t care.

  Once she was gone, Gavin closed the door and came over to me. “You good?”

  My eyes burned as I offered a weak nod.

  Shit, don’t cry. They’ll think you’re insane.

  I hid my hands behind my back and started tapping my fingers to my thumbs, hoping neither of them saw it.

  Frowning, Gavin turned to Marion. “Can we speed this up a little? She’s not used to being gawked at by strangers.”

  Marion nodded. “I’ll make it as painless as possible.” She turned to me and patted my arm. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Once you settle in and we get to know each other, you won’t give any of this a second thought. Hell, the other girls change clothes in front of me all the time and let’s just say underwear isn’t always a factor.”

  She thought she was being helpful, I knew that, but the scenario she described made me want to hurl.

  “The guys are more bashful, of course. Except Michael. He’s a damn exhibitionist.” She turned to Gavin and shook her head, speaking to him. “He thinks it shocks me, but that’s virtually impossible after the shit I’ve seen over the years. I play along though, because it seems to make his day. Jenna walked in on him one morning, strutting around like a peacock with his pecker swinging in the breeze, and he didn’t even flinch. No shame, that one.”

  Shit. People can just walk in while you’re dressing around here?

  Breathe, Kaiti. Breathe.

  “I heard about that.” Gavin smiled back at her before nodding in my direction. “Which is why I’m betting Kaiti here would prefer to have her wardrobe fittings in her dressing room once it’s finished. Am I right Kaiti?”

  I could have fucking kissed him right then.

  I almost did. Probably would have if Marion didn’t have a measuring tape wrapped around my thigh. Not only had he just set it up so that this could be as painless and private as possible, he’d effectively distracted me enough to get through Marion’s initial prodding.

  Yep, really want to kiss him right now.

  Not that I hadn’t already, but I really wanted to now.

  A few minutes later, when the indignities were done and I was free to make my escape, Gavin sidled up next to me again and offered his arm. “You all right?”

  I was still a little shaky, but I didn’t want to admit it so I said, “I am now. Thanks to you.” I leaned my head on his shoulder as we walked the long hall on our way to my first ever table read. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stepped in. I was about to lose my shit.”

  “I told you I had your back.” He stopped us and looked down at me. “There’s a lot of new stuff to wade through, especially today. If you get overwhelmed, let me know. It’s no big deal if you need a breather. We all have to call a time-out now and then, so don’t stress it. Okay?” He kissed the top of my head. It was a friendly, comforting gesture, but his lips lingered there a touch longer than necessary.

  When he pulled back, he gave me that sexy-as-fuck wink of his and started walking again. Suddenly, I wasn’t at all nervous about the table read or the show or anything else.

  All I was aware of was the slight warmth where his lips had been.

  If he kept distracting me with moves like that, I might just be okay.

  More than okay. Much, much more.

  “Longest. Day. Ever,” I murmured as I searched for a vending machine on my way out the door. Gavin was only a few steps behind me and his responding chuckle caused me to flip him off over my shoulder.

  “I warned you, new girl.” His tone was mocking. The crew hadn’t been quick to remember my name so half of them had referred to me as ‘new girl’ all day, saying it like they genuinely thought it was my name.

  “Bite me, Hollywood.”

  “No more Mister?”

  I shook my head, making a beeline for the bank of vending machines by the elevators. “Nope. I’ve lost all respect for you today, so you’re just plain Hollywood now.”

  “Your words have the power to wound, and you’ve cut me deep.” He was pouring on the sarcasm.

  “Not my fault you flubbed your lines almost as much as me. So professional of you.”

  I stopped at one of the machines and started plunking in quarters, not caring what it spat out as long as it was cold and loaded with caffeine.

  Gavin moved to lean against the humming machine, tilting his body at an angle and smiling that damn radiant smile of his. “We all have off days; today was one of mine.”

  I ignored him until half of my ice-cold beverage was consumed, then gave him my attention, squinting. “So, you’re trying to tell me it usually goes a lot smoother than that for you?”

  “I rarely mess up. Sure, we all have those awkward moments where something in the script sounds dirtier than it’s meant to or a squeaky leather couch makes an unsavory noise and we all break character to laugh, but that’s about it.”

  “Why today, then?” I felt my whole face flush as an idea hit me. “Oh shit, was I so bad it distracted you and made you mess up?” Dear Lord, kill me now.

  “Of course not. You were great.” He stepped over and threw an arm around my shoulders, turning us toward the elevators. “I told you. It was just one of those days—no one’s fault but my own.”

  He walked me to my car and held the door open as I folded myself into the seat with an exhausted groan.

  “See you in the morning, Kaiti girl,” he said, mixing my actual name with part of my new nickname in a way that I really liked. Or maybe it was the way it sounded coming from him.

  “Good night, Gavin. Thanks for making today as stress-free as possible. I don’t even want to think about how it would have gone without you looking out for me.”

  “That’s what friends are for.” He closed the door with a soft click and turned to leave as I hurried to roll down the window.

  “Hey, Hollywood?”

  “Yeah?” He spun back to face me.

  “Do friends also mess up their lines on purpose so their nervous, less-talented friend doesn’t feel like a dolt in front of everyone?”

  He gave me a crooked smile. “Are you saying you messed up on purpose? For me?” He pointed to his chest. “Well, that was awfully sweet of you, Kaiti. Thanks for looking out.”

  He walked away before I could respond.

  I was wrong. Monday wasn’t the longest day ever. As it turned
out, every day seemed to get progressively longer until I wasn’t sure what damn day it was at all.

  The only good news was that I’d gotten more adept as the days went by, my movements were more fluid and my lines flowed well. I even managed to garner a few compliments from Bryce and the other producer, who rarely commented at all and whose name I still had a hard time remembering. Since people were still calling me ‘new girl,’ I felt little remorse for not knowing all their names.

  Plus, if I had to squeeze one more bit of information into my already over-worked brain, I was pretty sure my head would split like a freaking melon hitting concrete.

  Gavin’s performances were flawless after the first couple of days, where I swore he’d matched me screw up for screw up. Others noticed the trend and joked that he had the acting version of sympathy pains. Michael gave him hell about it for a day or two and then it sort of tapered off. The other actresses—how weird was it that I included myself in their grouping? —thought it was funny but didn’t tease as much as Michael, probably for fear of hurting my feelings. I mean, if he was getting teased about his mistakes, didn’t that mean I was just as bad, or worse?

  Skylar made a couple of ambiguous comments that could have been aimed at me, but she played it off like they were shots at Gavin, who only flipped her off and kept working.

  Thankfully, no one else seemed to be interested in pointing out my shortcomings, but I was trying exceptionally hard not to give them cause to ridicule. Skylar in particular. As the week dragged on, even she seemed too tired to care one way or the other how her fellow thespians were faring.

  Each of the lead actors and actresses had their own dressing rooms that were decked out like efficiency apartments. Well, everyone except me, but they were working on mine. Not that anyone really spent that much time in their allotted rooms anyway, since Bryce tended to address us all in the communal lounge area—a space that had originally served as a huge hub of cubicles that now greatly resembled an expansive den, complete with overstuffed recliners and wide screen televisions.

  Everyone sort of gravitated there between takes while the crews reset.

  On-set shenanigans aside, it was a long exhausting, amazing week. I felt more and more like I’d made the right decision as the days wore on, and I was all but giddy with excitement when I thought about explaining it all to Evie when she got back. I asked Gavin if it would be okay for her to join me on the set for a visit—assuming I was still working here when she got back—and he said it could be arranged. He just had to schmooze Bryce a little. No big deal.

  He was great like that, always quick to help.

  He and I had taken to texting constantly in the spaces between scenes, a steady stream of memes and hilarious gifs intended to break the tension that often built up on set. A lot of it was decidedly flirty, from both sides, but we kept an outward air of friendship. It seemed easier to flirt over text than to actually verbalize it. I couldn’t remember who started it in that direction, but I convinced myself that it was Gavin because that made me happiest.

  Occasionally, he managed to make me blush with the memes he sent, but the vast majority of them were funny, with a few sultry ones peppered in to keep the flirtation going.

  We would sit on opposite sides of the communal lounge and watch each other try not to crack up at the pics and comments coming through on our phones.

  Okay, it was a little immature, but things weren’t always exciting on set. Between shot blocking and switching backdrops, crews fluttered around at the speed of light, paying little attention to us as we waited for the stage to be set so we could do our thing. And after a while, I’d realized that I didn’t have that much in common with the other actors. All of them had grown up on sound stages and sets—except for Jenna, who had only been acting for five years after a long stint in modeling—so their stories and general way of life were so foreign to me that I felt like a total outsider when they all stood around chatting.

  Gavin’s mask was firmly in place on the set, so he rarely joined in for those bullshitting sessions, preferring to hang out alone. It was odd seeing him so closed off and distant. I’d never witnessed that side of him, and it made me realize just how relaxed he was with me, how playful and happy. Not at all like Work Gavin, who was a ghost of the man I knew.

  The others said he’d always been that way and attributed it to his process—needing time to himself to switch gears between scenes.

  I’d initially given him his space until he started texting me insanely funny pics, after which I realized he didn’t prefer to be alone—he just didn’t want to hang out with the other people on the cast. I asked him once, in another of our covert texts, why that was and he’d said: There are only so many ‘I hate the paparazzi but I keep going out in short skirts with no underwear because it makes headlines’ stories I can take before I lose my shit.

  I’d responded with, Oh, my god, it was Michael, wasn’t it? #freeballin

  He’d been across the room when I sent that one and had laughed so loud everyone looked at him like he was crazy. He later told me that the Tom Petty song “Free Fallin'” had been stuck in his head all day after that, along with the disturbing image my text had conjured. I considered that a total win. He vowed revenge.

  The rest of the cast seemed to adjust to my presence quickly. The other cast members—for the most part—and even the crew took me into the fold and treated me like an old friend. I liked Jenna a lot. When you could get her away from Skylar, she was hilarious, not to mention helpful. We weren’t close like I was with Gavin—he was the only one that I never wore a mask with—but it was still nice having another on-set friend, even with the masks.

  The biggest area of tension I noticed on set was between Skylar and Michael, but even then, it was a passing jab—usually from Skylar. Maybe they’d dated in the past and had ended on bad terms or something. I wasn’t sure and didn’t ask. Either way, they always put it aside when working their scenes, and it was a great learning experience to watch them—all of them—interact in front of the camera.

  It was fascinating.

  Not as fascinating as my escalating relationship with Gavin, but still.

  I was learning so much and with each passing day, I was finding it easier to be in front of the camera. Gavin had a lot to do with that. He could hone in on my moods better than anyone I knew—maybe even better than Evie—and call for a break any time he saw me stressing.

  It was his nature to be protective and a part of me wanted to question it, figure out why he chose me of all people, but the rest of me—the majority—was so damn grateful for his help that the reasons why just didn’t matter.

  He was exactly what I needed.

  And everything I wanted.

  From the way he was acting, I had to wonder if he wanted me too.

  My heart raced every time I contemplated it, but in the most amazing way.

  By Friday, things were flirtier than ever and I was so focused on the feeling of anticipation in my gut that I coasted right through my scenes with barely any awareness. I nailed each take and glowed under Gavin’s looks of approval between shots.

  We worked late into the night but I was so energized that I barely noticed. Gavin, too, looked wide awake.

  “Let’s hit the IHOP after we wrap for the day.” He threw an arm around me as we all stood around waiting for word that we could go. Someone somewhere was checking the dailies one last time to be sure we got everything.

  “Hmm…pancakes do sound good,” I mused.

  “You’re a star now, Kaiti-girl. Get fancy and order the French toast.” He tickled my side and ducked away when I tried to swat him.

  He did that a lot, popping in to flirt and then darting away—I called it sneak flirting—but it was usually when we were out of sight of everyone else. This time, the whole cast was on deck but they were all too tired or distracted to notice.

  Half an hour later, we were safely tucked into a booth in a practically empty IHOP near the set. The server—
whose blush clearly announced that she recognized Gavin—seemed to understand when he asked for the most secluded spot in the place and gave us a table in a section that was cordoned off late at night.

  It was quiet and private and perfect.

  We ordered French toast—I got extra fancy with the bananas Foster—and coffee, not that we needed it to keep us awake since we were both practically bouncing in our seats with nervous energy.

  As soon as our coffee arrived and the server stepped out of the room, Gavin flashed his sexy half smile and asked, “So, what’s your impression of this whole acting gig now that you’ve cleared your first week?”

  I thought about it for a second as I tore open sugar packets, still not believing it had only been a week. “It’s really hard but also awesome as hell. I’ll admit, I never would have thought there would be so much down time. I kind of pictured this constant flurry of activity, being continually engaged, but that wasn’t the case.”

  “Yeah, there’s a lot of room for boredom, especially at that particular location. The dressing rooms are too small to really hang out in. No trailers to retreat to or other sound stages to check out. When we’re in Wilmington, it’s easier to keep busy—or at least find ways to avoid nodding off between scenes. There are lots of other shows you can check out. It’s really interesting. The sitcom sets are the best; the outtakes are usually funnier than the actual skits.” He chuckled softly. “My favorite, though, is when we shoot at Oak Island. It’s a stretch of private beach we use for Tyler’s surfing scenes or whatever they can squeeze into the storyline that gets us outside. Tia’s wedding was supposed to be there, you know, before they killed off her fiancé. The producers say outdoor shoots are important to make the show believable, which I guess is true. No one wants to see the same fake backdrops in every scene.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, some of my favorite sitcoms used to use the same projected backdrop, with the same flock of birds flying through ten times a scene. It was funny after a while, and I found myself paying more attention to the stupid birds than the actors.”