Having It All_A Single Dad Second Chance Romance

by J. J. Bella

  "Definitely, but if we don't get a good take out of today I think I might flip my shit," she said, her eyes locked onto the actors.

  I couldn't help but smile a bit at this, noting that she was making quite the transformation into a hawk-eyed production assistant.

  "Come on!" she shouted, stomping onto the set after Michael called out "cut" yet again.

  I watched as she strode right up to Jace Landau, looking up at him, still short even on her tip-toes, and chewed him out for yet another line flub. He looked rather sheepish, and the sight of an acting big-shot like him getting read the riot act by a cute girl at least a foot shorter than him was quite the sight. I considered stepping in, but I decided to let her have her fun for now.

  And it seemed to do the trick, since the next take was exactly what we were looking for. We wound down the rest of the time doing some reshoots, and soon the day was done. I'd been my best to put Emmanuelle's texts out of my head, but my phone seemed to be crying out in my pocket, just being me to pull it out and take another look. But before I could consider the matter for too much longer, Mia approached me.

  "Ready to go?" she asked?

  "Absolutely."

  Twenty minutes later we were at a Thai place in Long Island City, two heaping plates of pad thai in front of both of us, along with a few scattered plates of spring rolls and chicken satay. We chatted about the work today, each of us expression humored concern about Michael's capabilities as a director and the prima donna attitudes of the talent.

  "So, have you been checking in with Simon?" I asked, wrapping a heaping helping of noodles around my chopsticks.

  Mia seemed to be startled by this, and nearly dropped the spring roll that she was dipping into her peanut sauce.

  "Um, why do you ask?" she said, her eyes downcast.

  "No reason," said. "Just making conversation. I figured he might be interested in how things've been going on set. You are still working for him, after all."

  "Um, yeah," she said, shoving the roll into her mouth. "Just through email."

  Something was up, but I didn't have anything more than Mia's odd behavior and a hunch to go on.

  "I'm trying to figure out how much to say about Michael and Emmanuelle," she said, clearly settling into something she was more comfortable talking about.

  I wanted to press her a little more; there was clearly something that she wasn't telling me. But now wasn't the time.

  "And if I didn't know any better," Mia continued, "I'd swear that little miss redhead has the hots for you."

  Now it was my turn to be uncomfortable.

  "I'm used to it," the words tumbling out of my mouth without consideration for how arrogant they sounded.

  "Well, aren't we Mister Hot Stuff," she said, raising an eyebrow her tone now more confident now that she not only was able to drop her issue, but focus on mine.

  I took a sip of water, giving myself time to think.

  "That's not what I mean," I said. "It's pretty common for actresses to be flirty. Women like Emmanuelle are always ‘on,' if you get what I'm saying."

  "I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it," said Mia, her mouth in a little smirk.

  "Trust me," I said, "it's more trouble than it's worth. I might've been receptive to the attention when I was younger, but it gets old fast. Especially when you're trying to make a movie."

  "I'm sure there're plenty of men who'd kill to have these kinds of problems," said Mia, that smirk still planted on her lips.

  For the moment she had me, and unless I wanted to really turn the tables, I was going to have to let her get her licks in. So, we passed the rest of the dinner like this, with Mia making crack after crack about poor little Liam who has the most attractive women in the world throwing themselves at him. I took it in good humor, but I could sense there was some real insecurity beneath the jokes.

  Not to mention the fact that the more she went on, the more certain I grew that there was something about her relationship with Simon that she wasn't telling me. Simon had a reputation as both a womanizer and as the kind of man who does whatever it takes to get ahead. In most circumstances, I would've avoided working with someone like him, but I knew that only with his resources would I be able to get this picture off of the ground. Still, by bringing him along, I'd invited an unwanted element into my life, and though Mia was surely on my side, who knows what sort of machinations he was working behind the scenes.

  We finished up our food and headed home, picking up Olivia from her friend's on the way back. Once home, the girls planted themselves in front of the TV and went to my office. I needed some solitude to figure out just how to handle all that I'd learned today.

  But one thing was for sure: things were about to get a lot more complicated.

  16

  That strange dinner lingered in my mind for the rest of the week. I wasn't the best liar, and I knew that Liam had to be suspecting something. But what, precisely, I didn't know. I was terrified he'd find out. So, when I received a call from Sophia Saturday morning asking me if I wanted to grab some lunch, I was more than happy to join her.

  We met at some cheery brunch place in SoHo, and once we said our hellos and ordered some drinks, we got right into the gossip. However, as we talked, I couldn't help but notice something seemed…off about Sophia. Like her normally chipper and positive personality had been dulled somewhat. But I figured she must've just been tired, so I put it aside.

  "So…" she asked, a smirk forming on her lips. "How're things with you and Liam?"

  "That's, um, hard to say. I mean, we've just been so busy with what's been going on with the movie that the, um, sex stuff is just kind of happening."

  "'Kind of happening'?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "You're going to have to be a little more descriptive than that."

  "Well, we work together all day, and when we're doing that, we're just coworkers- all very professional."

  "Well done," said Sophia, giving me a muted round of applause. "Good to hear you're still keeping your eye on the ball."

  I gave a half-smile and rolled my eyes.

  "Anyway, then after we get off work, we go home and have dinner with his daughter, then go to bed."

  "That's it?" asked Sophia. "There's got to be more to it than that."

  "Let me get to it," I said. "Some nights, when Olivia is out with friends having a sleep-over or something, we'll go out to dinner. And it ends up becoming a date. We eat, we drink, we…um, do other things."

  "Other things?" she asked. "Whatever could you mean by that?"

  I smiled and tossed a wadded up napkin at Sophia, who swatted it out of the air.

  "You know," I said. "And on those nights…well, it's like we're an actual couple. I mean, we have to be discrete on account of the freaking paparazzi, but it's like we've been dating for years or something."

  "Sounds pretty goddamn nice to me," said Sophia. "All of the nice things about dating a guy, with none of the bullshit? Sign me up."

  "It's nice, but I'm still wondering just what the hell we are. I mean, are we going to be doing this weird thing until the project's over and we're done? Then I go back to Bronzeplate and that's that?"

  "You could talk to him about it," she said. "As crazy as that sounds."

  "I could, but I don't want to sound, you know, too into it. He's running a whole freakin' company; I'm sure the last thing he needs is some girl he's screwing to give him the ‘what are we'? spiel."

  "But you're not just ‘some girl'," she said. "You're, like way more than that."

  I scoffed.

  "Please," I said, taking a sip of my Bloody Mary. "You should see the kinds of girls who're throwing themselves at him on a regular basis. Models, actresses, every cute intern on the set- it's ridiculous. And…"

  "And…?" asked Sophia.

  This little gossip-shark smelled blood in the water, and she was going in for the kill. If only the juicy meat she was after hadn't been stripped from my hide.

  "Liam and Emmanuell
e…" I said, trailing off.

  "Wait," she said, holding up her hands. "Just to be clear, this is ‘Emmanuelle Jerrod' when you say ‘Emmanuelle,' right? The famous actress. Just so I know exactly who we're discussing."

  "Yeah, it's her," I said.

  Sophia shook her head as she worked the straw from her Bloody Mary into her mouth.

  "Goddamn," she said. "I'd kill to have my drama involve celebrities like that. Luck-y."

  "I don't know if I'd consider this being ‘lucky'," I said. "Anyway, I'm almost positive there's something going on with her and him. I mean, not positive that they're actually doing anything, but…I mean….you know."

  "Well, if he did, did you, like, have any claim on him? I mean, like you said, you're not dating."

  "I know, but still. If he's sleeping with me and seeing her, then…"

  I trailed off, having trouble finding the right words.

  "…then he's just the same guy he always was," finished Sophia.

  She knew me too damn well.

  "That's right. I mean, he never cheated on me when we were dating, but he loved the attention he'd get from women. And believe me, he got a lot. Seeing him again after all this time, he seemed so different, like he'd finally gotten his life together. But if he's just the same party guy winking at every girl that walks past, then he hasn't changed; he's just got fancier girls to flirt with and a nicer apartment."

  "Well, there's one way you could find out," said Sophia, a conspiratorial tone to her voice.

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "Snoop around in his phone or something," she said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "If they've got at thing going on it'll be there in his texts."

  "No way," I said, sweeping my hand in front of me and nearly knocking over my drink. "I swore a long time ago that I'd never be the type of girl to go through a guy's phone."

  "What's wrong with that?" she asked. "I mean, you'll have your questions answered, and you won't have to deal with the hassle of asking him about it. Problem solved, and no awkward conversation. Sounds like a no-brainer to me."

  "Yeah, aside from the ‘snooping through his personal business' thing."

  "Oh, please," she said. "Couples lie to each other all the time. And I don't even consider it so bad; it's like, if you were leading an army or something, you'd be dumb to not send some scouts out, you know, do a little recon."

  "'Recon'?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Exactly- ‘recon.' You're just getting information and using that information to make the best move possible."

  "Sounds great if you're fighting a battle or something," I said.

  "Well," said Olivia, "you know what they say about love: all's fair…"

  "Yeah, yeah," I said.

  I wasn't on board for Sophia's "recon," but her bringing up Liam's private information reminded by of what Simon had asked me about his own brand of spying.

  Sophia gave me a skeptical once-over, her eyes narrowed as I looked away in thought.

  "OK, girl," she said. "Something else is up. Something you're not telling me."

  I have no idea how, but Sophia always seemed to have a way of cutting through the BS. If she wasn't so dead-set on being a big-shot producer, I'd suggest to her that she get into psychiatry. Part of me wanted to lie and not bring the subject up, but I knew Sophia; she'd poke and poke until I spilled the beans. Besides, I was halfway through my Bloody Mary and already craving another- it was only a matter of time until I blabbed, so I figured I might as well get it all in the open now.

  "It's Simon…"

  Sophia's expression turned grim.

  "What is it?" she said, her good humor draining out of her voice.

  "He…asked me out to lunch the other day. I figured it was just to check up on me; I mean, that's what he told me it was going to be about."

  "Uh huh…" said Sophia, leaning forward in interest.

  "And…he told me that he wants me to do some spying on Liam, for me to go through records and come back to him with details."

  "Why?" asked Sophia.

  "He says that Liam's company is so successful that he just has to know what his secret is. He wants me to get information on his finances, his upcoming projects, probably even correspondences between him and other producers and actors."

  "Geez," said Sophia, still leaning forward, her blonde hair draped over her hands. "I knew that you had to be ruthless to get to the top, but asking an employee to betray her first love in order to get the edge on the competition…that's something else."

  "Who knows if he knows about that," I said.

  "No doubt he does," she responded. "Simon's got the scoop on everyone. Might even be why he brought you to the meeting to begin with."

  I felt my jaw clench hard. Sophia was just speculating, but the possibility of this made the anger rise up in me.

  "So…are you gonna do it?" asked Sophia.

  "No!" I said, my response shrill and catching the attention of nearby customers. "I mean, I can't."

  "That's gonna be a problem," she said. "Simon doesn't screw around with stuff like that."

  "And there's more…"

  Sophia leaned somehow even closer, as though she knew just what I was going to say.

  "Did he…make you do anything?" she asked.

  "What?" I shot out, again attracting attention.

  I looked around, checking to see if anyone was listening in.

  "How…did you know?" I asked, my voice a conspiratorial hush.

  "Because," she started, sitting back in her seat, folding her hands on her lap, and looking down. "Because I, um, kinda-sorta slept with him."

  This time I was too shocked to shot out a response. Sophia looked down, appearing guilty and a little ashamed. But she quickly regained her usual composure.

  "Why?" I asked.

  "Come on," she said, wringing her hands together. "You know what kind of industry this is. I mean, you're gonna have to do something like that eventually. And he said it would help me move up in the company. ‘Two legs apart means one leg up-‘ those were his words."

  I shuddered- it sounded like something disgusting that Simon would say.

  "Don't get me wrong," she said. "Nothing happened that I didn't agree to. I mean, it was disgusting, but it was over just like that. The hardest part was having to spend the rest of the evening with him afterward. He's a real fucking gross, pervy dude."

  The thought invaded my mind of Simon on top of me, his hairy, flabby body shuddering and sweating as he pumped away, his fleshy face tight with pleasure as he shouted out expletives in that British accent of his. It was enough to make my stomach turn.

  "That's kind of his thing," Sophia said. "He treats the gofers like his own little personal stable of girls. Once you move up he loses interest in favor of the new crop. It's actually pretty surprising that he hasn't, um, tapped you for this kind of work earlier. I mean, you're a total babe."

  "Maybe he wanted to use me for this before any of…that."

  "Maybe. But the fact of the matter is that if you want a future at Bronzeplate, you're going to have to bite the bullet and bite his little bullet, if you get what I'm saying. A few girls have said no that I know of, and Simon ends up finding an excuse to get rid of them before too long. Putting their names on his little blacklist before booting them out the door, of course."

  I was disgusted. I knew that the film world had the "casting couch" reputation, but I'd just assumed it was all talk for the most part. The fact that someone like Simon could get away with what he'd been doing was making me rethink right then and there my desire to be in the industry.

  "It's a shitty situation," Sophia said, "but that's the business. If I were you, I'd stick with Liam for as long as possible. At least with him, you're banging some guy who you're actually into."

  It was the smallest of consolations. When she finished, the waitress came by and placed our food in front of us. But as I looked down at my French toast all I could think abou
t was how sick I was. Eating as the last thing I wanted.

  And I knew that I had a serious situation I was going to have to figure my way out of, one way or another.

  17

  "Aaaand-action!"

  I'd heard the words over a thousand times so far, but this time it wasn't Michael speaking them- it was Mia. Once we'd gotten far enough into the production that it became abundantly clear that Michael and Emmanuelle were going to have more than a hard time working together, Mia began stepping up to the plate, handling more and more of the on-set affairs. Michael was all too happy to partake in this arrangement, slipping back further and further on set until he was well-hidden behind the bay of computer monitors where he could watch over the shooting from a safe distance. So, Mia had become an assistant director of sorts, handing the direct interaction with the staff while Michael maintained the grand vision he was looking for.

  It was a highly unorthodox arrangement, but I'll be damned if it didn't work. I was more than impressed to watch Mia take the reins like this. I was hesitant at first, but she seemed to have a knack for working with the talent. She'd gone from a shy little wallflower to a stern-voiced pro over the course of the shooting, and I was pleased to have been the one to facilitate this transformation.

  Everything began to move so smoothly, in fact, that I was shocked to find how quickly we approached the final few days of shooting. The final scenes were a major pain to organize, what with them taking place in Times Square, but all was going well so far. Today was the last day, and I was quite excited to have the shooting behind us. Since the film dialogue-heavy, post-production wouldn't take very much time at all; Michael and the screenwriters had even asked me to step in and offer some suggestions for how to cut the film, and I was more than willing to help. It'd been quite some time since I'd sat down in the editing room, and I looked forward to offering what suggestions I could.

  I watched carefully Emmanuelle and Jace as they performed their big scene in front of the neon lights and massive advertisements of Times Square. Jace was a little heavy on the overacting, but nothing that we couldn't fix in post. He had a face made for the big screen, and his amateurish-at-times acting could easily be cleaned up with the magic of editing.