Laughter spreads through the crowd. We’ve had some throw-downs when we went to school together. Mike was on his face at the end of many evenings. It cuts the ice to make the joke and I relax a little, feel my sense of purpose coming back to me.
I didn’t come all this way for nothing.
Can’t let Natalie ghosting me take this away. I got worried something happened to her, sent Caden to check out Southern Comfort and The Dollhouse. That’s where he saw her, walking out with her computer bag, looking unhappy but alive. He hid in a corner to make sure she didn’t see him, and reported back to me after talking to one of the dancers that she for sure didn’t strip. I told him I wasn’t checking on that, just needed to see if she was breathing. But he insisted he had to check, since she was acting fucking weird.
Couldn’t argue with that.
Walking to ‘Jaden’ I tell him, “We’re going to start with you walking up to Marnie. She doesn’t have to be here for when we film the part with you and your brother. We’ll have you switch clothes, film both characters tonight.”
“Got it, Max,” he nods, eyes hyper-focused.
Nodding to my Marnie I silently ask if she’s ready to go.
She gives me a thumbs-up.
Walking to the camera, Rain moves back so I can see through his lens how he framed the shot. “Looks good,” I nod, stepping away to watch.
We’ve got a small crew. Besides us there’s a sound engineer, Kiera, a boom operator, Alison, and my Assistant Director, Pete, who’s also doubling as script supervisor, continuity expert and props department. We all dressed the set, and everyone was pretty excited they were inside the Falcons’ quarterback’s pad. We’re using mine for my Dad’s place, of course.
I mean, Jaden’s.
Gets confusing.
With steady concentration I call out, “Sound!”
“All good, Max.”
“Camera!”
“Rolling.”
“Background!” The pseudo actors silently party and it looks pretty fucking good. “Great job, guys! Keep it up. Alright and… Action!”
All that work in rehearsal paid off. Marnie spots Jaden and we’re on her in closeup, pulling back over his shoulder as he walks to her. Rain is using a steady-cam so we can go hand-held. I don’t want the camera stationary.
I want the audience to feel like they’re walking with Jaden to this gorgeous new woman. They need to experience the excitement he feels, see her eyes beckoning to him even as she pretends she’s not interested.
My goal is to make whoever watches this on their phones, computers, tablets, holograms, TV screens, wherever, fall in love with her and understand why he almost loses everything to save her.
They need to want to save her, too.
And as Colleen smiles at Dan, I hold my fingers together in the shape of a rectangular box to picture how this moment will look.
“Alright, cut!” I smile. “Back to one. Let’s do it again. That was great, everyone. If you can do that again you’ll make me a very happy man.”
“A happy Max,” Mike corrects me, inspires laughter.
Grinning I wave them to silence. “Come on, time is money.”
A few roll their eyes, “Don’t we know it!”
“That’s right, you’ve all been here. Let’s do this!”
The hours fly by. We grab all the best moments from every angle. His hand close up as he touches Marnie’s face. Her eyes as she reacts. A couple guests glancing over with curiosity. Even his legs walking to her, and her heels tilting as she strikes a pretty pose in anticipation.
Samantha taps my shoulder when it’s lunchtime and everyone files out to the elevator to go downstairs to the food trucks Natalie scheduled to arrive at the right time, before she fucking vanished on me. Crew eats first, usually, so they can set up the next shots while the actors eat.
Samantha waits with me as our cousin’s apartment clears out. “Wow, Max, you really set this up right.”
My mind is on Natalie as I repeat something I told her when we first started pre-production planning. “Everything is organized. Efficiency is key.”
“Yeah, but you really did it.” Smiling from the corner of her warm brown eyes she adds, “Like a pro.”
“I had help. You go on and eat. I’m not hungry.”
“No, you need fuel.”
Walking to clean up after people I lie, “Okay, I’ll be right down. Just going to get this area ready.”
Samantha, sweetheart that she is, believes me and goes to join the others.
I’m alone now.
The quiet is almost too much.
My anger is back.
Nothing to distract me.
Turning on my phone I wait for it to fire up, swearing under my breath, “Fuck, don’t call her. Don’t do it.” But my fingers won’t listen to me. “Dammit,” I mutter as her voicemail comes on. “Hey, it’s me. Again. Just wanted to tell you the food trucks arrived on time. Good job. Things are going well. First day shooting, don’t know if you remember or not.” Rubbing my eyes I sigh, “Okay, call me and let me know you’re alright. Bye.”
Biting my lip I stare at the phone and fling it with all of my strength against a wall. It smashes, falls, skitters across the tile in a million pieces. But I don’t even care. I’m already at the floor to ceiling windows, staring out at Atlanta and wondering where in the fuck is the one person who really believed I could do this?
My Producer.
My business partner.
My friend.
CHAPTER 30
N ATALIE
“Why does your phone keep blowing up and you’re ignoring it?” Mary asks over dinner, curly hair wilder than normal.
“It’s on silent.” I turn it over despite the fact that I want to know when he calls. Hearing from Max is almost as good as talking to him.
“Why not just turn it off?”
Twirling spaghetti on my fork I shrug, “My boss might call.”
“But now you’ve turned it over,” she points out, tearing a piece of garlic bread from the loaf.
“What are you, the police? Stop with the interrogation.” Eyeing me she chews, until I realize how that sounded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t snap at you like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t. But I forgive you.” She tosses a chunk of gooey bread at me.
With tense laughter I shake my head, picking it up and offering it to her. “Did you drop this?”
“I threw it at your head, actually.” Taking a sip of wine, Mary glances to my phone. In the dim restaurant lighting the glow is visible from my screen even turned upside down.
I stare at it as I chew on my noodles, then give in to curiosity. Max’s name shines from the screen again. It hurts my heart not to answer, and I close my eyes a second as I set it back down.
“Okay, that’s it,” Mary snatches it from me.
“NO!” I reach over the table and spill my wine glass. Cabernet Franc slides everywhere and she and I jump out of the booth to avoid getting splashed.
She holds the phone to her breast, dryly asking, “You want to tell me what the fuck is going on now?”
“Waiter!” Several employees come running as I meet the unavoidable gaze of my closest friend. To the staff I say, “I’m sorry. Guess I’m clumsier than I thought.”
They hurry to clean up, reassuring me it’s fine.
But I’m not fine.
Not at all.
As they disappear, promising to bring back another glass and more food, I cover my face with my hands and start to cry. Mary takes me by the shoulders and guides me to the restroom. “Okay, come on, this way. Let’s talk.”
She checks under the stalls and nods that we’re alone, snatching a tissue from its canister by the sink.
“Thank you,” I sniff, trying to catch my breath so I don’t go full on ugly-cry.
“Who is Max?”
“The director.”
She tilts her head. “The movie director who’s shooting in my apartment tomorr
ow?”
“Uh huh. And I was working with him on this. It’s his first Feature film.”
“I thought he was just a friend of yours. I didn’t know you were working on his project. What were you doing for him?”
Wiping my eyes I croak, “I was producing it!”
Mary’s eyebrows fly up. “Wait, you were a movie producer?” At my nod, she digs deeper, voice filled with edges. “What happened? Did he try something? Is he stalking you?”
“No, don’t get upset, it wasn’t like that. He’s amazing. Fucking gorgeous. Really smart. Funny. Stupid dad-humor sometimes but he makes me laugh, you know? And he’s so proud and passionate and self-sufficient and family driven.” Sniffing I push fresh tears back down into my heart. “Dammit, I didn’t want to miss this!”
“Honey, I’m confused. What is the issue here? Did you pull a Mary on this guy?” At my blank stare she reminds me, “When I went running right after Alan proposed to me!”
“No, I didn’t pull a Mary.” Sighing I walk to the mirror and see pure sadness reflected there. “He started filming last week. I was supposed to be there.” Covering my face with one hand I shake my head. “I didn’t show up.”
“Natalie!” Mary crosses to me and leans over the counter to make me look at her. “You shouldn’t be this sad this close to Christmas! What is really happening?”
“I can’t tell you!”
Her eyes go huge. “Are you pregnant?!”
“No!”
Unconvinced she stares at me. “You lying?”
“I’m not lying.”
“Why is it like pulling teeth getting this story from you?”
Wetting a tissue so I can do a better job cleaning my streaked mascara I throw her a look. “Maybe I have a good reason. Give me a little credit.”
“Girl, you just burst into tears when I tried to see who was calling, so forgive me for wondering if you’ve forgotten to take your medication!”
Throwing the wadded tissue in the trash I mutter, “We both know I’m not on meds.”
“Well, the Natalie I know has her life in order! So who are you?”
My jaw tightens because it’s a really good question.
“Are you in love? Because from the looks of it you are.”
“I might be.” Covering my face I start to cry again. She hugs me and coos into my ear until I’m finally able to talk again.
“Natalie, please let me help you.”
“I wish you could,” I whisper.
“You sound so scared, baby, why?”
Waving her to follow me, we walk into the farthest stall. I lower my voice, heart racing. “I need to tell somebody but I’m afraid of putting you in danger.”
Her eyebrows fly up. “You talk to me right now or I will drive your ass to the police station!”
I stare at her and launch in, desperate. “My boss is a bad guy. I’ve gotten myself into trouble. It’s like the mafia in the movies. That bad! I caught someone tailing my car from The Dollhouse two nights ago. I saw that same car last night, outside of my apartment, that’s how I know it wasn’t my imagination.”
Horrified she whispers, “We have to call the police!”
“I’m scared to!” Grabbing her hands I ask, “If they know these people exist why do they keep letting them walk around? One of our bartenders told me that Max’s uncle went up against the gambler that my boss is partnered up with. If Justin Cocker didn’t bring that guy down then how can the police do it? Shouldn’t a Senator have more pull?”
“Retired Senator.”
“With a lot of friends!”
She thinks about it. “You can’t live like this.”
“He doesn’t want me connected to the Cockers so as long as I just let this film keep going without me then Max can have his dream and he won’t get hurt! I won’t get hurt. And I can forget about him. Time will pass and I’ll…still be in jail.” Covering my face I shake my head, trying to catch my breath.
“Your Max is Max Cocker?”
The bathroom door opens and a couple of women walk in having an easy conversation about how well the Falcons are doing. “I think he might take us to the Super Bowl again!”
Mary and I stare at each other. You can’t throw a rock in this city and not hit someone affected by Max’s family.
Pretending to sniff cocaine, my friend heads out of the stall, mumbling to give the women a show. “Mmm, that’s good stuff.”
I follow along, pretending to clean under my nose, no stranger to the irony of this considering what Max’s film is about. It works to distract the women about why we’d be in a stall together. And why I look like shit.
Appalled, they watch us leave. Mary heads for the booth and pulls her wallet out, motioning to our waiter with the universal hand-gesture for a check. She pays the tab and agrees to have everything wrapped up. “We’ll give this to someone who still has an appetite,” she mutters as we head to our cars. Outside, we dart glances around the lot to see if we’re being watched. She raises her eyebrows to silently ask if I see that car. I shake my head no.
Under her breath she says, “We need to talk to Alan.”
“No, we can’t bring him into this.”
“My husband loves you like a sister and there is no way he’d want to find out one day you’re face down in a river and he didn’t do something to help!”
Stunned by the image I follow her to her car.
“You can get yours later. Maybe that scumbag will see your BMW stranded here and think you skipped town!”
My phone lights up in her hands. “I still have this?” Turning it over she shows me Max’s name. “This boy is not giving up easily!’
“He’s furious.”
“He’s a lot more than that, Natalie,” she knowingly says as the seat belts fold over us. “He’s hurt. When a man is hurt, he gets mad. But anger is a mask for pain every time.”
CHAPTER 31
M AX
“T hank you everyone,” I say with a forced smile, shaking hands with my crew at the end of our first day at Mary’s place, doubling for Marnie’s apartment.
Rain asks, “You okay, Max?”
Rubbing my eyes I admit, “Hard scene.”
“Yeah, these are the rough ones,” he agrees. “Colleen did a fantastic job with it. A performance like that really tears your heart out and scrapes it over broken glass.”
Walking to where I hid my phone from myself, I mutter, “Yup.” I don’t even want to turn it on because I can’t stand finding out that she hasn’t called again. Shoving it in my back pocket I scan the mess everyone left behind and cross to Mary’s couch, flopping onto it. “Great job today.”
When he doesn’t respond I find him staring at me like he’s a friend. “Max, seriously, you okay?”
“No.” Wincing I close my eyes and rub them some more. “I’m hung up on a girl. But she apparently doesn’t give a shit about me. So that’s fun.”
He zips his camera bag. “This is why I love being married. Never have to worry about that again. The wife won’t mind if I come home a little later though. You want to grab a drink?”
“I gotta clean up here. Early shoot-time in the morning, too.” Blinking I realize, “Oh, wait, we have a day off tomorrow.”
“Mandatory. Wanna take me up on it then?”
Sighing I shake my head. “No, but thanks. This is her friend’s apartment. I need to make sure it’s nice before I leave.”
“It’s Natalie you’re hung up on?” His eyebrows lift and he clucks his tongue against his teeth. “She’s a looker. Wondered why she hadn’t shown up.” He carries his bag to the door and mumbles, “Surprising though that she didn’t reciprocate.” This catches my attention.
“Why do you say that?”
“I thought she had a thing for you.”
“Wait, stop. Did you?”
He glances back. “Yeah. She couldn’t take her eyes off you for long when we were interviewing crew members. You should have seen the glow in those babies wh
en you hired a woman engineer and boom operator! I thought she had it bad for you.” Sighing, “Guess I was wrong,” he heads out and shuts the door behind him.
This gives me enough hope to turn my phone on. Sometimes a man just needs a drop.
Maybe this time there will be a message from her. A text. Even a go-fuck-yourself, so I can finally stop wondering if I’m ever going to see her again. My screen lights up with messages from family, even one from my crazy cousin that lifts my eyebrows. I type a quick text back to her, “Of course I’ll marry you guys. Be honored.”
A knock catches my attention and I hurry to see who it is. “Hello?”
A man’s voice comes through from the other side. “Max?”
Unlocking it, I recognize Alan. “You don’t have to knock at your own home.”
“Didn’t want to interrupt if you were still filming.”
“Come in. What am I talking about? You don’t need an invitation. Sorry, I’m a little out of it. But thanks so much for this space. It’s perfect.”
He nods, dark eyes scanning the room but not landing on anything until he turns to me. “Anybody else here?”
“They all left. I’m just cleaning up.” As I start back on the task he grabs my arm.
“Max, I need to talk to you,” he says, somber as he releases me.
“Oh shit, I’ve been calling her too much. She’s pulled the plug on the rest of our shoot here, hasn’t she?”
He blinks at me, confused. “Who, Natalie?”
“Yeah, look, I’m sorry. I’ll stop. Just can’t understand why she vanished on me, the film, after all that…hard work. But I really need two more nights here. The rest is crucial.”
He shoves a hand in his back pocket, the other waving, “No, stop, it’s not about the film.”
My chest explodes as I grab his arms and rasp, “Is she hurt? Did she get in an accident?”
“She’s in trouble. There was no accident. Just a miscalculation when it came to her job. She’s in with the mob or something.”
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