Page 9 of Between Takes
I took to periodically feeding Shaun, figuring it was a regular low blood sugar thing and he was tired. Every time the director called for a break, I stepped in with a plate of cut-up fruit. Shaun scowled at it the first time, but eventually, he silently picked up a piece of apple and kept moving.
You’d think I’d enjoy the silence. Hell, I thought I’d enjoy it. All the better to appreciate his rock-hard body and gorgeous face. When he wasn’t speaking, he was rather nice to look at. He didn’t have a resting prat face, so I easily forgot the venom he could spit and found myself softening.
Of course, it never lasted.
He’d open his mouth and I’d scowl at myself for forgetting that beneath the pretty veneer lay a vile, bitter man. He shouldn’t have held the smallest iota of my attention. Yet my eyes always drifted back to him, caressing the ridges of his broad shoulders and his tapered waist with far too much interest.
Thankfully, or not, his bad attitude quickly escalated to shouting at the crew and his co-stars. One of the runners delivered him coffee and the glacial atmosphere went from frigid to deadly. The kid couldn’t have been older than twenty. He tried to hold a smile, but even from the sidelines, I could see the fragile edges slipping.
Shaun accepted the cup with a grunt, took a sip and spat it back out. The runner’s smile collapsed as his face turned ashen.
“Are you trying to poison me?” Shaun shouted, his voice cracking like a whip.
Silence swept across the sound stage. All eyes turned to watch Shaun, equal parts dread and fascination on their faces.
“The entire fucking production knows I’m lactose intolerant! So why the fuck are you giving me this?”
The runner flinched and backed away. Brian winced, but otherwise did nothing.
“I-I didn’t know,” the runner stammered.
“You didn’t know?” Shaun repeated, his voice deceptively calm. The runner nodded, his face frozen in terror. “If you’re too stupid to retain basic information, you’re not cut out for this business. Get off my fucking set!” Shaun roared, his voice echoing around the big space.
What the hell was wrong with these people? He was attacking a kid for an honest mistake and they were just standing back and letting it happen. He was out of line; he had to be stopped.
“Shaun!” I yelled.
“What!” he snapped back, his eyes flashing as they focused on me.
The runner staggered away, shaking and breathing hard. A red-haired woman about my age placed her hand on his shoulder and led him out of the warehouse.
“We all know you’re a hotshot. You don’t need to be a dick to the crew,” I shouted across the space, turning the tables on him. I power walked across the stage, anger fuelling my clipped and loud steps.
“If he wasn’t properly trained, he shouldn’t have been allowed near my coffee.”
“That’s fair, and I’m sure the production team is correcting it now, but you could have handled it better.”
Shaun stepped back as I jabbed my finger into his hard chest.
Damn! How much muscle is he carrying?
“He’s just a kid. He made a mistake, and he definitely didn’t deserve to be publicly belittled for it.”
Shaun ground his teeth. “He could have killed me.”
I snorted. “We both know that’s not true.”
Shaun stared at me, irritation shining from his hard eyes. He took a step towards me until our chests almost touched, and I had to crane my neck to meet his annoyingly attractive gaze. We were too close. I itched to wipe that smug smirk from his face.
“It would have set the production back.”
I shrugged. “I’d have found you some lactase, and you’d have gotten on with it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
I laughed. It wasn’t an amused sound. It was a sarcastic “give me a break” chuckle that I’d dredged up from the bottom of my patience barrel.
“It is that simple. You’ve been baring your teeth at people all day, but flying off the handle at an inexperienced kid… seriously, Shaun?”
