by Diana Currie
“What will happen back at Casa Foster?” she asked in a small voice.
“I will have no choice but to remove all your clothes…”
“Yeah?” she breathed.
Nathan smiled; he had her attention now. “Remove all your clothes and take you into my swimming pool.”
Maddie huffed loudly and sat back in her chair. She hadn’t even realized she’d leaned forward so far. “Skinny dipping? Haven’t you learned by now not to frolic outdoors in your birthday suit?”
He ignored that jibe. “I meant the indoor swimming pool; it’s in a room off the fitness center. The damn thing is heated and has an underwater current so you can swim in place,” he said trying to entice her to agree to at least one idea he suggested.
“I suppose we could do that after lunch, but I was kind of hoping you’d take me back and make love to me in every room of that gigantic mansion,” she replied batting her eyelashes.
“That house is over ten thousand square feet, baby. Do you know how many rooms there are?”
“Yes, I am well aware,” she replied seductively.
“Well, hell… let’s take this meal to go then!” he said slapping his hand on the table and pretending to signal for the waiter.
“Nathan! You don’t take a seventy-eight-dollar steak in a doggy bag!” Maddie refuted. “Besides, I like this place. You picked a nice restaurant. Can’t we eat here and then go home?”
Nathan pouted playfully but then his face brightened with an idea. “Fine, we’ll finish our meal. But we’re starting with the kitchen counters!”
Maddie bit her lip with anticipation. Her first full day in Los Angeles was turning out to be even better than she hoped.
Chapter Twenty
Maddie had never been more nervous in her life, not even last September when she answered her phone and realized that Nathan Foster was calling her. Speaking to a movie star on the phone felt like small potatoes compared to this. It was Monday morning and Stanley was driving her and Nathan to the Universal studio where he was shooting Tomorrow and Forever. They had plans to meet with Nathan’s director and sit in while he went over the dailies from the previous day of filming.
Gavin Foster was not a name Maddie knew beyond the EVOL sequel, but just the thought of meeting the movie’s director was intimidating. Nathan said he’d mentioned to the crew that his girlfriend was coming to town and everyone told him to bring her in to meet them. The trip was still weeks away at the time when Maddie agreed to go and she figured she had plenty of time to prepare her inner fangirl for the experience. It turned out that there was no adequate amount of time to calm her nerves.
As the limousine entered the studio gates Maddie was borderline giddy. She had done so well with keeping a cool head up until that point. She hadn’t swooned over the Hollywood sign, or the limousine rides, or the big fancy mansion. But visiting the set of Tomorrow and Forever with the film’s star escorting her around? That broke her. That was a slice of Hollywood she could finally get excited about.
“Angel, are you okay?” Nathan asked. “Your eyes are as wide as saucers.”
“Yes, I am fine,” she managed to say evenly.
Nathan smiled; she wasn’t fooling him. “Are you sure?”
“Okay, maybe I’m feeling a little excited but can you really blame me?” Maddie asked.
Nathan rubbed his thumb along her blushing cheek and shook his head. He remembered his first time on a sound stage and how mesmerized he was by everything too. “This is my favorite part of my job; the sets, the choreography and costume design, all the technical details that go into making the movie. I can’t wait for you to see it.”
The limousine stopped in front of white steel double doors marked Stage 4. Stanley put the vehicle in park and said, “We’re here, boss. You want to get picked up in three hours?”
“Yes, thank you. I’ll call if plans change,” Nathan replied and opened his door before Stanley could get out and try to do it for him. He held his hand out for Maddie as she stepped out. “You ready?” he asked her.
“Not at all. Let’s do it!” Maddie replied with an eager smile.
Nathan laughed as he led her to the door and opened it. “Here we go, your private tour awaits.”
The inside of the building was nothing like Maddie expected. She had pictured a large dark warehouse type space with spotlights hovering over the set and camera crews all around. Instead, they walked into a long hallway with grey blue walls and doors every ten feet or so. Each door had a nameplate and Maddie read them with fascination as Nathan led her down the hall. The first few doors were operational; Broom Closet, Mechanical, Storage. They passed the restrooms and a lounge area before turning left down another hall. There they passed doors labeled Wardrobe A, Wardrobe B, Makeup, Cinematography, Producer, and Director.
“I’ll show you my dressing room first,” Nathan explained as they continued past doors that read Dressing 5, PeterWalker, Tyler Curran, and Katie Owens.
“Okay.” Maddie said excitedly.
They stopped at the last door in the hallway with Nathan’s name on it. The room was dark and Maddie gasped when he flipped on the light switch. The vivid colors and striking decor was drastically different than the drab industrial halls they just walked through. A long white counter top stretched along one wall and was covered in hair products, combs, and lotions. A mirror hung from one end to the other with large round light bulbs surrounding it. Maddie could imagine Marilyn Monroe leaning in to touch up her lipstick. The other side of the room had plush red sofas, a mini bar with a fresh fruit bowl on top, and an entertainment center that featured a large flat screen television and other gadgets.
“This is where I hide in between scenes,” Nathan joked. “The director’s assistant calls me on that phone whenever I’m needed on set.”
“This is fancy. How much time do you spend in here?” she wondered.
“It depends on the day. Sometimes I’m out in front of the cameras all day and then others I’m back here watching TV for hours at a time.”
“Is every dressing room this nice?”
“Yes, they were all done by the same designer. Gavin’s room has a treadmill and a hot tub,” he shrugged as if that was typical. “I didn’t request anything specific in mine.”
Maddie walked around the room inspecting the art on the walls and the few personal effects Nathan had left there. A copy of the script with handwritten notes all over the margins. A Green Bay Packers coffee mug. Jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers in the wardrobe closet next to a long bathrobe.
“We didn’t pass a single person in the halls. Where is everyone?” she asked.
“It’s eight am; we’re here a little early. Gavin’s probably already in the tech room reviewing the dailies though. Are you ready to head up there?”
Maddie turned towards the mirror and inspected her reflection. “Who else is going to be there?”
“Stuart, the editor, and maybe the cinematographer. His name is Gene. Why… you nervous?”
“I should have let you buy me something to wear yesterday. I look so plain and ordinary. I wish I had at least put on some makeup.”
“You’re so beautiful that you don’t need any of that crap. I like that you have a natural look,” Nathan said.
“Thank you, but I still feel out of place meeting the pretty people,” she said using air quotes.
Nathan laughed. “You’re meeting the crew right now, not the actors. Wait until you see Gavin at this hour of the morning. I guarantee he’s wearing jogging clothes, a skull cap, and at least two days of stubble on his face.”
Maddie smiled. “Okay. I know I need to chill, but it wouldn’t be this hard if you had a normal job like auto mechanic or bank clerk. Most people never get to see all this. I haven’t been outside your dressing room yet and I’m in awe,” she said turning to look in the mirror again.
Nathan rolled his eyes but walked over to stand behind her at the makeup counter. “Do you want me to help you out a little?”
“Yes, please,” she replied.
Nathan trailed his fingers down her arms. He touched a finger to her pink pouting lips. And he smoothed her hair down where it fell around her shoulders.
“There. Now you’re perfect.”
“You didn’t change anything,” Maddie retorted.
Nathan just smiled at her reflection in the mirror. “I know.”
Slowly, Maddie turned away from the mirror and wrapped her hands around the back of Nathan’s neck. She pulled his head closer until their foreheads were touching and then she kissed him; long and purposeful. Hopefully her actions would convey how she felt about him since it felt too soon to be saying it with words.
They walked hand in hand up to the second floor where there were more halls and more doors. Maddie had yet to see a single camera, a movie set of any kind, or another human being besides Nathan. The studio might not look the way she’d expected, but the ambiance of movie making was still all around her. These halls were more colorfully decorated than the first floor and had large framed photographs of actors from all the movies that had been made there over the years. Many were in black and white featuring old Hollywood stars posing with directors and antique camera equipment. She wanted to stop and look at some of them but Nathan towed her along.
He led her to a door marked Production and her stomach began to flip. Fear and self-doubt gave way to excitement as Nathan knocked twice and then pushed the door ajar. The room was dark and three men were sitting around large computer screens drinking coffee. One of them paused the film when Nathan entered and all three raised their heads to acknowledge them. Maddie picked the director out immediately; he looked exactly as Nathan had described him. The other two men were older, with graying hair and wearing casual business attire.
“Look who showed up on his day off,” one of the older men said.
Nathan grinned and squeezed Maddie’s hand in what she felt was a comforting gesture. “Yes, I know it’s quite a shock. But I’m here to put some rumors to rest,” he joked. “Guys, this is my girlfriend, Madeline Sherratt. Maddie, this is Gavin, our director, Stewart is our editor, and Gene here is the most gifted cinematographer in town.”
“Hello, it’s very good to meet you all,” Maddie said politely.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, love,” Gene replied with a smile. “That Walker kid owes me a hundred bucks now.”
Gavin and Stewart laughed. Nathan looked down at Maddie and she was surprised to see him blushing. “Apparently everyone’s been placing bets on who they thought I’ve been texting back and forth with the past few months,” he clarified.
“No one could believe you were texting a girl?” Maddie asked in disbelief.
Stewart cleared his throat and said, “No, it was the girlfriend claim everyone had trouble believing. For the record, I only placed modest bets.”
“What were some of the theories?” Maddie wondered.
Nathan watched Gavin’s face light up with amusement. To his credit the director made eye contact with him to silently ask for permission before revealing the unflattering details of the bets. Nathan rolled his eyes and shrugged; that was permission in Gavin’s eyes.
“A few crew members had specific actresses in mind; Scarlett Johansson, Dakota Johnson, Shailene Woodley, and I heard one person mention the Love Spelled Backwards director. Others suggested things like sex chats, prostitutes, and his agent.”
Stewart snorted. “I thought it was his mother.”
Nathan frowned and ran his hand through his hair. “This is humiliating. What have I ever done to you people? Who said a prostitute?” he asked.
“I don’t remember, but Walker thought it was your drug dealer. I can’t wait to take that little creeps money,” said Gene.
Gavin sighed and leaned back in his chair. “All right, enough gossip. Pull up some chairs, we have work to do.”
The men re-positioned their chairs to make room for two more. Nathan could see on the screen that they were going through Friday morning’s footage. The frame currently paused was from the dorm room scene. The rest of the dailies would be scenes with Abigail’s parents. Most people found reviewing raw footage to be boring but it fascinated Nathan. He liked to watch them as often as he could in order to critique his own performances and learn how Gavin and the others picked out which takes to keep and which to reshoot.
Since September, Nathan had enlightened Maddie on some of the downsides of his career. She saw from the media coverage the lack of privacy, the social pressures, the constant criticism from journalists, moviegoers, and everyone in between. She met him when he was at his worst; suffering from the loneliness that came with his job and teetering on the edge of drug use that ran rampant in the local culture. But Nathan knew another side of the film industry that he wanted Maddie to see too. Inside this studio there was camaraderie among the cast and crew. They supported and encouraged each other. It was a place of imagination and self-expression where one’s creativity could flourish. Watching the gears in Gavin’s mind work as he explained what he wanted for a scene and then seeing it come to life was inspiring to him.
Whenever Nathan wasn’t in front of the camera he was eager to step behind it and see how Gavin and his team created a movie that would feel realistic and entertaining to those who eventually watched it. There was a lot of down time on a movie set and Nathan thought it made for good opportunities to learn something from the experienced filmmakers around him, when he wasn’t hiding in his dressing room texting Maddie, of course.
“So, what have you got here?” Nathan asked looking at the computer screens as Stewart reached forward to hit play.
Gavin pointed to the left side of the screen. “See these shadows behind Caleb? We didn’t see that during the shoot and I’m hoping some of the later takes don’t have them in there.”
“We can’t leave it like that. I don’t know what happened with the lighting but if you don’t have a decent take without the shadows then you’ll have to reshoot,” said Gene.
“Calm down, Gene,” Gavin chides. “We did this scene at least fifteen times. Katie kept adlibbing her lines. There will be something usable.”
Maddie watched the screen with fascination. The footage didn’t look anything like a finished movie. The camera lens was pulled out further than she expected, and there was a black bar along the bottom that kept time and labeled the scene number being shot. The actors kept stopping the flow of dialogue and speaking the same lines over and over. Katie giggled every time she missed a line and a few times Nathan stopped himself and asked to do it again. It was odd seeing Nathan in the footage, being Caleb one minute then acting like himself the next. She was amazed at how he could flip back and forth between personalities like that.
She recognized this scene from early in the book. It was an important part of the story where Abigail was moving into the on-campus housing at college and Caleb was having difficulty with her decision not to live with him. He wasn’t a student and resented that she wanted to have the full college experience because it was an aspect of her life where he couldn’t fit in. It was a pivotal scene so Maddie could understand why it was so important to get it right.
“I kind of like the shadows,” Maddie said to herself.
“What was that?” Gavin asked.
Maddie blushed. “Oh, sorry. I was just talking to myself.”
“No, it’s okay. What were you thinking?”
“Well, I admit that I haven’t finished Duncan’s book yet, but isn’t Abigail starting college the catalyst for their breakup? Caleb is intimidated by her higher education because he already feels inferior to her. In contrast, Abigail is happy with this new direction in her life. The shadows almost look like dark clouds hanging over Caleb’s head as he stands in this otherwise brightly colored dorm room.”
“Hmm,” Gavin mewed and glanced back to the computer screen. His reaction emboldened Maddie to continue.
“She feels like school is the first page of her promising f
uture and Caleb feels like it’s going to be the end of their relationship. The shadows behind him kind of foreshadow that turmoil they’ll go through as the movie plays out.”
“Are you an English Lit major?”
“No, biology,” she replied embarrassed.
“Could have fooled me,” he said with amusement.
For another hour Nathan and Maddie stayed with Gavin as he reviewed the footage. He was curious to hear more of her opinions, knowing that she was a fan of the first movie. Maddie asked a few questions here and there too and it made Nathan happy to see her engaged in the process. She was comfortable speaking her mind and Nathan felt guilty for having thought she would be too nervous to talk at all. Gavin seemed to like her as Nathan knew he would. In his opinion there was nothing about Maddie not to like.
They chatted until nine thirty when everyone began to converge on set and Gavin had to get downstairs. “Are you coming to watch the filming?” he asked Maddie.
Nathan smiled when she looked to him for the answer. “Do you want to?” he asked.
“Yes, if we won’t disturb anyone by being there.”
As they walked downstairs together, Gavin assured her that guests come to the set all the time and she would be no bother. Maddie was excited to see more of the studio but nervous about meeting more of Nathan’s cast and crew.
“Thank you for being so kind to allow me to sit in on the dailies and visit the set,” Maddie thanked him at the entrance to the sound stage.
“It was my pleasure, love. I’ll meet you inside; I need to hit the John and find my notes before going in,” he replied.
“Are you okay meeting Katie?” Nathan whispered as Gavin walked away.
Maddie bit her lip nervously but had already prepared herself for this. Even if she cowered away from the encounter that day there was no way to avoid meeting Katie forever. It might as well be now. “Coming here I knew I’d have to meet her. But will she be okay meeting me? I don’t want to surprise her right before she goes in front of the camera.”