Page 29 of Between Takes
Because of me? Surely not.
An irrational slither of guilt hit me. It was tiny. Why did he have to be nice when I was thinking about my next move?
He settled in beside me, forcing me to shuffle over on my flight case. He took a sip and let out a contented sigh.
“Okay, so you’re right. The coffee in my trailer is better than that stuff.” He gestured towards the craft table hidden behind a crowd of SAs.
I stared at the crowd, my eyes widening in horror. There were more of them. It wasn’t my imagination. They’d bred! Where were they going to put them all? The set wasn’t that big.
“Earth to Mona.” Shaun snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.
“Sorry, did you say something?”
“Depends. If I don’t repeat it, do I get a free pass?”
I studied him. “A free pass from what?”
“You know that benefit dinner Sherry signed me up for?”
I nodded, my stomach cramping. The benefit dinner for refugees that was a month away and had sold out, tripling in capacity purely because it had been widely reported that he’d be in attendance.
“I need you to get me out of it.” He said it like it was nothing more important than a trip to the cinema. Thousands of pounds’ worth of donations, and it meant nothing to him.
“Why?” I tried to swallow the disbelief. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but dammit, I was. I thought I’d glimpsed the real Shaun, the one who took his assistant out for smoothies because he felt guilty for making her life difficult.
“I don’t feel up to it.”
The disappointment crashing into me was unwelcome. So, he’d lulled me into thinking he’d turned over a new leaf. Why should I care that he’d been lying? And yet, the pressure in my head said I did care. In fact, I cared so much I was angry.
With a tight nod, I hot-footed it to the bathroom trailer before I lost my temper. He’d been nice to me for five minutes, and suddenly, I didn’t want to tear him apart in front of the crew. I’d gone soft.
What was that all about?
It wasn’t until I tried to slam the restroom trailer door that I realised he’d followed me. I’d been so focused on escaping his bullshit that I hadn’t heard him.
Muttering to myself, I gave up trying to shut the door. I turned on the sink’s cold water and splashed myself. I hoped it might give me a moment to breathe.
It didn’t.
“What’s wrong?” Concern trickled from his words.
I whirled around to face him and his eyes widened. Water dripping from my face didn’t help reinforce my take-no-shit armour.
“Why are you here?”
“Pretty sure I asked first.” He shut the door and flipped the lock.
“You followed me into the women’s toilets. How is that normal behaviour, Shaun?”
He crossed his arms and settled in with an arrogant smile. His expectation that I’d roll over and do whatever he said was written clearly across his face. My blood boiling, I pulled my shoulders back and channelled the old, unaffected Mona.
Sod feeling guilty. He didn’t deserve my bloody loyalty. And what difference would it make, anyway? It wasn’t like I had a job with him after Mystery Lines finished.
Forcing a hard smile to my lips, I shut down his ridiculous expectations. “I’m not cancelling the charity dinner. You’re going to put on your best tux. You’re going to smile and take pictures with all the women who bought tickets to be near you.” In the flow, I jabbed my finger into his chest, staring up at him with disgust. “For one fucking night, you’re going to pretend that you’re a decent human being who actually cares that people are dying while you swan around with your self-centred attitude.” I sucked in a breath, fighting for air in the stale space.
His fingers wrapped around the one I’d pressed into him. I tried to pull my hand back, but he held firm.
I frowned at his hand. “Let go of me.”
