Love Scene, Take Two

by Alex Evansley

  “Cool. We can talk more about it when this scene’s over.”

  “You got it,” Burt says, then stands to address the crew. “All right—everyone ready?”

  Bennett glances at the camera monitor to see if all the actors are in place—and she startles a little when she finds two big brown eyes looking back at her for the first time in what feels like way too long. Granted, Teddy’s looking at the camera and probably doesn’t know Bennett is watching him, but it still counts … right?

  Feeling brave, Bennett subtly leans around all the equipment in front of her, and Teddy’s gaze meets her there, too.

  “All right, people, let’s get rolling,” Burt calls, but Teddy is still looking at Bennett. She lets her eyes flicker away for a moment, worried she looks like a total creep. When she chances another peek at him, he’s glancing down again, but there’s the tiniest hint of a smile on his face that wasn’t there before. Bennett tries hard not to get her hopes up that it might have something to do with her. She goes back to hiding behind the camera monitor just as Burt calls action.

  Filming wraps for the day about thirty minutes later, and Burt spends another fifteen after that slinging around end-of-day orders from his director’s chair. Bennett waits it out, trying to not let her imagination run wild with all the different ways he could bring up the PR scheme. She goes back over everything Olivia and Emmy said at lunch today, just to keep from chickening out.

  “Okay, so, the signing next Saturday,” Burt says, turning away from a herd of PAs crowded around him. He’s still wearing his Ray-Bans, even though they’re inside. And it’s pretty much dark outside. “You wanna just talk now? Or schedule a time? Actually, now’s probably best, since I talked to a rep from your publisher this morning.”

  This is news to Bennett. “What?”

  “Yeah—just about logistics. I wanted to run a few ideas by them,” he tells her, then takes in her reaction (or lack thereof) and says, “Look, Bennett. I know you’re not on board with the PR thing with Teddy yet, but you gotta big-picture this here.”

  Oh, God. Oh, no. He’s not—

  “Your publisher seems to be on board with it, though,” Burt says. “We discussed the possibility of getting Teddy to come to the signing with you.”

  And there it is. This is too perfect.

  “You went to my publisher?” Bennett asks. It’s the only thing she can think to do that doesn’t involve demanding to know what gives him the right to go behind her back like this. At least Burt seems to pick up on some of the vibes radiating off her and has the decency to acknowledge what a dick move this is.

  “I know it wasn’t cool of me to do, Bennett, but this is a good idea even separately from you and Teddy,” he explains. “All the actors are already in Wilmington—I don’t know why someone didn’t think of this sooner, actually.…”

  “Because it’s a logistical nightmare on such short notice,” someone says. Bennett jumps and turns around to find Emmy standing behind her, Olivia by her side. “The actors have separate third-party contracts with talent agencies and managers in addition to the parent production company, and it’s a whole mess of paperwork to get everyone to agree to scheduled appearances outside of the allotted time for promotional work.”

  “True,” Burt says thoughtfully. “But it’s not impossible to get everyone to agree, right?”

  “Technically not, I guess,” Emmy says reluctantly.

  Burt hums, and Bennett can all but hear the gears turning in his head. Then, to her complete and utter horror, he leans back in his chair so he can see around Emmy and Olivia and calls out, “Hey, Teddy! Could you come over here for a minute?”

  Bennett’s eyes lock with the director’s. “Burt? What’re you doing?”

  “Seeing what Teddy thinks about this,” he says, which makes this the second time today he’s decided to go over her head.

  An excruciatingly long moment later, Teddy comes over to join them. “Yeah? What’s up?”

  Burt claps him on the back. “Did you know Bennett’s publisher set up a big promotional book signing here in Wilmington for the Parachutes series next Saturday?”

  Teddy hesitates. “Um. I did, actually. Yeah.”

  “How much begging and paperwork would it take for you to make a cameo?” Burt asks.

  Teddy scratches the back of his head. “I don’t know, man. You’d have to talk with my manager about it.”

  “All right. Let’s say I do and we somehow expedite the process. Would you be open to doing it?” Burt asks, and it pisses Bennett off to no end that he’s asking Teddy if it’s okay but didn’t extend the same courtesy to her before ganging up on her with her publisher.

  “I mean, I guess I’d be as long as it’s okay with Bennett and her publisher?” Teddy says, and he’s more than likely trying to be tactful about it, but he pretty much just gave Burt the opening he’d been looking for. It takes active effort for Bennett to not tip her head back and groan.

  “I’ve already spoken with Bennett’s publisher—they’re on board.” When Teddy doesn’t initially say anything else, Burt adds, “Sounds like a great opportunity for some PR work, yeah?”

  Silence.

  “What?” Burt asks when no one jumps at the idea. “Why are you looking at me like that? This would be good for promo in general, guys—not just for what Teddy, Bennett, and I talked about.”

  More silence.

  “What a wonderful idea, Burt,” Olivia says suddenly, and Bennett has just started to panic that she’s jumping ship when she adds, “I’d also love to attend an event like this.”

  Burt’s expression is unreadable, giving Bennett a tiny shred of hope he’s possibly bluffing. But then he sighs. “You’re right, Olivia. I guess having both lead actors there would be pretty beneficial.”

  Olivia pretends to pout. “You guess? You mean we’ll basically blow the lid off this thing! You said you want promo work, right? Think of all the promo two of us can generate instead of just one?”

  Bennett has to bite back a grin, because again, contrary to first impressions, Olivia Katsaros is fucking awesome.

  “Well, that’s not necessarily what—” Burt starts.

  “I’m in,” Teddy interrupts. “I’ll call my manager right now to see if we can make this work.”

  “Me too,” Olivia adds.

  “I think it’s a great idea, actually,” Bennett admits. “If my publisher’s already on board with it, then I am, too.”

  Burt stands and picks up his jacket slung over the back of his chair. “All right. I’ll send out an e-mail about it to everyone tonight and a calendar invite to set up meetings to get all this taken care of.”

  And Jesus, you’d think for a dude so worried about midproduction PR he’d at least have a little more enthusiasm about it, even if it is a watered-down variation of what he originally wanted. Burt heads across set, shouldering on his jacket as more crewmembers scurry up to him for last-minute touch-bases for the day.

  Bennett waits until she’s sure he’s completely out of earshot before saying, “God, I cannot believe he went to my publisher.” She looks at Olivia. “I told you he was gonna do this.”

  Olivia nods, though it doesn’t look like she fully agrees. “Yeah—I’ll admit that wasn’t the best way for him to go about it, but I still don’t think his intentions are disingenuous, B. It sucks, but at least the signing will be good, right?”

  Bennett feels her eyes go wide, and they only get bigger when Teddy joins in.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure he understands exactly what he’s asking,” Teddy says absently, rocking back on his heels and looking at something across set. Then he nudges Bennett with his elbow. “Still shitty of him, though.”

  Bennett’s heart leaps into her throat, the unexpected gesture completely disarming her. Teddy seems startled by it, too, stepping away a moment later and casting his eyes down.

  “Well, anyway…” He clears his throat. “I’m, uh—I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you guys later.” He tu
rns and walks about three steps away, realizes he’s heading straight for the dead-end side of the set warehouse, and turns back and walks past them. He points a finger toward the exit doors and says again, “Yeah. See you guys later.”

  Bennett watches him go, wondering if he actually somewhat agrees with all this, or if he’s just good at putting up a front.

  “God, can’t you guys just kiss and make up already?” Olivia says, ruining her pout with a shit-eating grin when Bennett scowls at her.

  “You are a ridiculous human being, Olivia,” Bennett says. “But you just saved the day with Burt, so I owe you big-time.”

  Olivia beams and curtsies. “No worries. It’s what I’m here for.”

  “Hey—Bennett?”

  Bennett looks over at Emmy and realizes it’s the first time she’s contributed to the conversation in a while.

  “Yeah?” she says, registering the unease in her assistant’s expression.

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you this because it’s supposed to be a surprise, but given the possible change in plans here…”

  “Okay, what’s up?” Bennett prompts cautiously.

  “Your—um,” Emmy hesitates, looking more and more like she might throw up. Bennett might join her, depending on what she says next. “Your entire family is planning on coming to the book signing to surprise you.”

  Bennett freezes. “What?”

  Emmy nods. “And when I talked to your mom a couple of days ago to finalize plans, she said your aunt and uncle and cousins are coming, too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Teddy, Bennett, and Olivia have three meetings over the course of the week with Burt and some of the PR reps to go over the logistics for the signing. The new itinerary now involves a Q&A panel in addition to Bennett’s reading, then the actual signing, and Bennett wants to murder whoever came up with the genius idea to give fans an allotted space to ask whatever questions they want—about whatever subject matter they want—during a signing that’s supposed to double as PR relationship bait.

  And bonus, Liz is going to be in attendance.

  Bennett needs a hell of a contingency plan here.

  “This is so excessive,” she complains for the third time that morning. It’s the only thing giving her a sense of control in the chaos that is her life now.

  Olivia bursts out laughing and kicks her heeled boots up onto the limo’s leather seat. “I don’t even know whose idea the limo was, but I don’t hate it.”

  Bennett glances at Emmy, who’s next to Olivia and checking her e-mail on her iPad; then she subtly looks over at Teddy, who is sitting in the seat opposite her and scrolling through something on his phone. His eyes casually flick to hers, and Bennett’s stomach twists up into her rib cage when she realizes he’s probably smirking because he’d caught her staring at him.

  Everyone involved with the signing has spent a lot of time with one another since Burt decided to put together this little field trip, and even though Bennett and Teddy haven’t spoken very much during that time, it still feels like something has changed between them again. This time, for the better. Kind of.

  It isn’t so much the way she and Teddy act toward each other as it is the atmosphere change between them. The two weeks after the whole trailer debacle were full of this palpable tension that made Bennett feel guilty every time she and Teddy were in the same room together. But the closer they got to the book signing, the more it felt like someone had taken that tension and scrubbed away at it until there was nothing left but some kind of shy, unspoken olive branch for one of them to take.

  Now it’s up to one of them to take it. And Bennett knows it should be her. Teddy at least deserves the conversation/explanation he’s been asking for since he arrived on set. Fighting with him is exhausting; avoiding him is exhausting; everything that involves going against the obvious feelings Bennett has for him is exhausting.

  Bennett jumps when her personal phone rings.

  “Hey, Mom,” she says after checking the caller ID.

  “You’re not supposed to know they’re coming, remember?” Emmy whispers. Bennett nods, and her eyes accidentally shift to Teddy again. He’s biting down on his thumbnail and grinning at the floorboard.

  “Sorry, Mom—what’d you say?”

  “I said,” her mom’s voice rings out a second later, “‘Hi, honey, how are you?’”

  “I’m good. What’re you doing?”

  Bennett holds back a grin when her mom replies with, “Oh, you know, doing a few things around the house. Are you excited for your book signing?”

  “Yeah. Should be … eventful,” Bennett says, immediately regretting it.

  “Why do you say that?” her mom asks.

  “Just bec-because—” she stammers, then decides to just go with it, since her mom is going to find out sooner or later. “Some of the cast of the movie is coming with me, so it’ll probably get a little crazy with the fans.”

  “Oh!” her mom squeals. “Is Teddy going?”

  The only person who loved hosting Teddy that weekend back in July more than Bennett’s brother (and Will, for that matter) is Bennett’s mother. Listening to everyone go on about how cool and funny and smart and amazing Teddy is almost had Bennett rethinking deferring college for a year, just so she’d have somewhere else to live.

  Bennett’s eyes flick to Teddy again. “Yep, he’ll be there.”

  He looks up, but she drops her gaze to her lap before they can make eye contact.

  “That’s so exciting! You think you’ll have a big crowd?” her mom asks.

  Ha. “I’d say it’s a safe bet.”

  “Well, that sounds great,” her mom replies. “I hope y’all have a great time.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “Call me when it’s over; I want to hear about it.”

  “Okay.” Bennett tries not to laugh.

  “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Bennett hangs up and can feel everyone looking at her.

  “What?” she asks, self-conscious.

  Olivia snickers and sits up, putting her feet back on the floor. “Were you aware that you get quite the little southern drawl when you’re talking to your family?”

  “What are you—”

  “And when she drinks,” Teddy pipes up, smirking.

  “And when she’s angry or yelling about something,” Emmy adds.

  “Wow. Cool, guys,” Bennett says, trying to ward off the blush taking over her face. They just laugh at her. “Well, if y’all think mine is bad, wait until you meet the rest of my family.”

  “Who else is coming again?” Olivia asks.

  Bennett refuses to look anywhere near Teddy when she replies, “My parents, my brother, my aunt and uncle, and my two cousins.”

  Olivia smiles. “Oh, how awesome—”

  “Liz is coming?”

  Bennett knows Teddy’s question is for her, but Emmy is the one to answer him.

  “She’ll be there,” she says.

  Silence.

  Teddy looks like he’s close to saying something disapproving but hasn’t fully committed yet.

  Olivia sighs. “Okay, now what?”

  “Nothing. Just—some stuff’s happened between Liz and me over the past few years. No big deal.” Bennett shrugs. This is the last thing she wants to get into today. Emmy and Olivia are eyeing her though, expecting her to elaborate, and she can practically feel Teddy’s gaze pinning her to her seat.

  “Jesus, okay, fine.” Bennett drags a hand across her forehead. No bandage today, but the cut is still there. She throws a quick apology to Teddy for making him listen to this story twice now, then says to Emmy and Olivia, “I dated a guy in high school that Liz said was cheating on me and, like, only liked me because of all the Parachutes stuff happening. Turns out he was cheating with Liz and half the other girls at our school. And somehow Liz convinced our friend group afterward that it was my fault for not listening to her in the first place.”

  And Go
d, Bennett can’t stand how cliché it is. Her face burns all the way through the awkward pause that follows.

  Olivia frowns. “What a psycho—”

  “It’s fine,” Bennett insists. “Liz actually did me a favor.”

  “How the hell can you say that was doing you a favor?” Teddy snaps, smacking his hand down on the leather seat next to him. Apparently he registers it might have been a bit of an overreaction, because a second later he clears his throat and adds, “For real, though?”

  “Because the guy really was a scumbag who wasn’t actually interested in me. Liz went out of her way to make sure I was well aware of that,” Bennett says, reaching up to mess with the sunroof buttons. “He and I broke up, and now here I am in much better company.”

  She wishes she was brave enough to say who she really means by “better company.”

  “God,” Olivia says. “Sounds like this girl has some serious issues, starting with being obsessed with Bennett.”

  “Okay, wait a sec—”

  “That’s what I said!” Teddy interrupts.

  A slow smile spreads across Olivia’s face. “Well, I can’t wait to meet her now.”

  * * *

  Book signings are intimidating enough as it is, and the added pressure of being flanked by two actors is almost enough to make Bennett second-guess her career choice here.

  As soon as they arrive, they’re informed of the million things to get done before doors open. A rep from Bennett’s publisher has flown in and is already making the bookstore rearrange the panel setup (because it has to be both easily accessible but not too visible from the outside). The bookstore staff is doing all the heavy lifting and placing boxes of fresh copies of Parachutes out for sale. The bookstore’s owner tells them Burt sent over a few of the makeup artists from set, free of charge. For some reason, Bennett wants to be irritated by this, but she can’t quite get there.

  Bennett’s sitting in a chair with a makeup artist in her face and some kind of wrap from the lunch buffet in her hand when someone taps her shoulder. She’s in the middle of having eye shadow caked on so she doesn’t know who it is until Emmy’s talking ninety miles an hour a second later.