When filming resumed, she pulled her attention away from the actors and thumbed through the script to the next scene to be filmed. Rob returned to his seat next to Elle, and leaned his elbow on the wooden arm of his chair. “Thoughts?”
“I’m not sure she’s ready for the next scene.”
They’d been going strong for over ten hours, and Elle was contemplating skipping the scene until the next day. After all, it was a tricky one, and she worried Gina might be too exhausted to nail the emotion required to pull it off.
Rob shook his head and Elle tilted hers, looking at him over her wire-rimmed glasses.
“What?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest as her knee bobbed up and down.
“You’re too hard on her.”
“I disagree.” Her tone was harsh, dismissive.
“She can handle it, Elle. She always does.”
Gina was a good actress. In fact, most of the time, Elle thought she was the perfect match for the character. But there were specific scenes that gave Elle pause. Those were the scenes based on him. Based on the man who had inspired the entire concept for Follow the Sun. The man who had left her heart wounded and exposed.
In the quiet moments, the thoughtful moments, the moments when Elle could tune out the noise of Hollywood, she let her mind drift back to the chapel in Las Vegas. To the man whose heart she had broken, who then stifled hers in retaliation.
Their love affair was her inspiration.
Her muse.
The hidden scar that sat tucked beneath her chest.
And because she didn’t know where he was, having avoided social media like the plague, and because he might be sitting on a couch somewhere, snuggling up to a girlfriend or wife who insisted they watch her show week after week, Elle knew those scenes needed to be just right. Every last one.
If he was watching, he had to know she was strong, that she didn’t need him—or anyone, for that matter—to make her whole, fulfilled, or satisfied.
And that, despite the scar, her heart was, and would continue to be, just fine.
About the Author
Melissa Brown is a hopeless romantic living in the Chicagoland area with her husband, Chris, and their two fantastic kids. She loves travel, baking, and just about anything Disney. She speaks fluent movie quotes from the ’80s and obsesses a little too much over television dramas like Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal.
If You Can't Take the Heat Page 29