“Yeah, about Gavin. He’s unavailable at the moment.” Evan dropped his gaze and dumped the bag’s contents onto the bed between them. He rummaged through the food until he found a bag of sliced red peppers. The way his focus lasered in on the food told Tam there was something he wasn’t sharing with her.
“Out with it.”
“Out with what?” He looked at her, innocence personified. That couldn’t be good.
“Every time I mention Gavin, people get all squirrelly and quiet and change the subject.” She rewrapped her sandwich and put it aside. Gave him her full attention. “What’s going on?”
He started playback on the dailies and bit into a pepper. “I’m almost afraid to watch these.”
Knowing she’d have no shot at getting the remote away from him, Tam did the next best thing. She went to the TV and unplugged it. Silence fell between them as she stood facing him with her hands planted on her hips.
“You want me to produce this episode, don’t you?” She didn’t even wait for him to finish nodding before demanding, “Then level with me. What is going on?”
Evan studied her for a moment then sighed. He tossed the pillows to the other queen sized bed and sat resting against the headboard. “There’s no proof or anything. And telling you my half-brained suspicions isn’t really all that productive.”
“You wanna see productive? Then watch how fast I repack my stuff and catch the first flight out of here. That’ll be a show-stopping example of productive.” She gave her head a challenging tip and leaned against the TV cabinet. “Literally.”
His gazed narrowed at her. “You wouldn’t.”
Tam was done. With a shrug, she retrieved her luggage from the closet and opened it on the bed. She pulled her packing cubes from the dresser drawers and started stuffing them back in her large duffel. Evan hopped up from the bed and started unpacking as fast as she was packing.
“Stop it. This is a great opportunity for you. You can’t just walk out on it now.” Evan dumped the cubes back in the dresser while she retrieved more. They had a pretty bizarre packing dance going and she was not amused.
“This is not an opportunity. This is a career-ender. In case you hadn’t noticed, this is my first shot. I’m not going to let it be my last. And the way things have gone so far? How do I come out of this unscathed?”
“By producing that kick ass episode you wrote. Don’t you want to see it on screen?” She paused in her packing long enough to glare at him. That was a low blow. Of course that’s what she wanted. Writing a television show had been her sole raison d’etre for such a long time that she couldn’t even remember ever wanting anything else. She’d sacrificed so much for it. Friends, parties, boyfriends, financial stability had all taken a back seat to this particular goal. No way was she going to squander her career for the sake of one single episode.
“What I want is for you to be straight with me. If I’m going to take this on, I need to know what I’m getting into. If I’m about to step on Gavin’s toes, I need to know why so I can have an apology ready.”
Evan snorted. “He’s the one who needs to be apologizing.”
Tam tossed up her hands and started packing again. “That’s what I’m talking about. These little cryptic comments only remind me that I have no idea what’s going on here. Anything I do has the potential to make things worse, not better. I’m not about to—”
“Gavin switched the scripts on purpose,” Evan blurted, bringing her mini tirade to a halt.
“I’m sorry. What?” Tam stared at Evan in what she wished was more disbelief than it actually was. To be fair, she was starting to suspect the same thing. Shows didn’t just “accidentally” shoot the wrong script. There were far too many checks and balances for that. Still, she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. Hearing Evan give voice to her concerns confirmed that she wasn’t crazy. She remembered the article she’d found earlier when they’d been trying to reach Schenecki. Stephan Tancradi. She finally put it together why the name rang such a bell with her. “Son of a—” Tam tossed a cube on the bed and rubbed her eyes.
“You don’t sound all that surprised.” Evan frowned at her. “Why aren’t you more surprised?”
“While we were breaking this episode, Gavin was very attached to his iPad and not contributing all that much. I have freakishly good eyesight. I might’ve read some things over his shoulder.”
Evan glared at her. “Oh. Is this payback? Holding me in suspense like this?”
“Believe it or not, things aren’t always all about you.” Tam shoved the packing cubes back in the dresser drawer. “I’m still piecing things together in my own head.”
Evan returned her luggage to the closet.
“I didn’t think much of it, but he was developing his own pilot. He was also exchanging emails with Stephan Tancradi.”
“Tancradi? As in the new head of the network? The same Tancradi for whom Schenecki is ignoring a major crisis in order to kiss the man’s ass?”
“Makes sense, though, doesn’t it?”
“What did the emails say?”
“I felt bad for snooping, so I tried not to read them.”
Evan tossed his hands up and started pacing. He stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. “You just said, ‘tried.’ As in you did read some of them.”
She smiled at his perceptiveness despite being angry as hell over the situation. “I’m sure this is out of context, but Tancradi mentioned things looking good if the schedule got light.”
If Evan were a cartoon character, his jaw would’ve dropped to his ankles under the shock of what she’d just told him. He regained control of his mouth, and anger flashed in his blue eyes.
“That’s why he’s tanking us. If we get canceled, there will be room for his pilot on the network’s schedule.” Evan shoved his hands in his hair and turned his back to her. “I knew the man was a slimy, rat-faced bastard, but to go to these lengths…”
“Do you think Schenecki knows what he’s up to?”
Evan faced her again with a shrug. “He must. I’ve tried texting him and nothing.” A steely look of resolve lit his eyes that made Tam just a little nervous. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“I’m scared to ask.”
“This is an attack on all of us. Like it or not, that means you, too. You’re one of us now. You’re not going sit back and let Gavin get away with this, are you?” He gave her a once-over. “I can’t believe that the woman who showed up at my trailer loaded for bear this afternoon would ever just roll over at the slightest little challenge and go home. Tail between her legs.”
Tam glared at him. Oh, he’d pegged her fast and he’d pegged her good. “‘Slightest little challenge’ is seriously understating things.”
“C’mon, Tam. Don’t you want to shine like a diamond? Roll with the dice? This is your chance to stand on a ledge and really show the wind how to fly.”
Tam frowned at him, but couldn’t help the amusement that was starting to blossom in her chest. “Are you seriously quoting Bon Jovi at me, right now?”
Evan lifted his eyebrows, apparently surprised that she was a fan. “Is it working?”
“No.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and made her decision. “But, I’m in. If I’m going to go down in flames I may as well be the one to light the match.”
Evan gave Tam a huge grin and plugged the TV back in. “You’re not the only one who’s going to go down in flames if we don’t get this shoot back on track. All of us are going to be out of a job.”
“No pressure.” She sank on the foot of the bed and put her head between her knees. The sandwich was trying to make a return appearance. What had she just done? She had no idea how to produce a television show. Heck. It had only been a fortuitous stroke of luck that her spec had landed on Schenecki’s desk to begin with. Writers are never supposed to spec the show on which they want to be staffed. However, Schenecki had mentioned a story they’d been trying to crack in an interview. She�
�d come up with a great take on it and balls to the wall with a spec script. She never expected it to land on his desk, but it had. He’d liked it and brought her in on a freelance episode. A one-shot deal. So for all Evan’s talk about her being one of them, she really wasn’t. She hoped she’d done a good enough job to be staffed next year, but if Gavin had his way, there would be no next year. For any of them. As someone who had yet to receive her first IMDb credit, recovery would be much harder for Tam than everyone else.
She felt the bed dip when Evan sat beside her. He draped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. We’re all in this together. Everybody wants this show to continue and will do what’s necessary to make that happen. Don’t forget that.”
Tam turned her head to look at him. The concern and kindness in his blue eyes gave her strength. She sucked in a deep breath. “Every problem is just an opportunity, right?”
He grinned. “Exactly. Oh!” He pulled his phone from his pocket and flipped through some apps. “This right here is what we’re going to do.”
The opening notes of Bon Jovi’s Have a Nice Day echoed through the room. She chuckled. Show the wind how to fly indeed.
Evan popped up off the bed. Using the remote as a makeshift mic, he lip synced along with the song. Tam watched his antics with a smile. When the chorus started, he came over to pull her to her feet and shoved the “mic” in her face. She shook her head. He was ham enough for the both of them.
Tam tried to back away so he could have the “stage” to himself. He wouldn’t let her. He twirled her around then pulled her close so they could share the mic. They were just lip syncing, so she figured what the hell. She joined him in the middle of the second verse. He grinned his approval.
When they got to the end of the chorus, she frowned at him and smiled at the same time in her version of the album’s artwork. She was curious to see just how big a fan he was. Evan’s eyebrows shot up in surprise then he started cracking up. “The pissed off smiley face!” And there was her answer.
As the song wound to a close, they made pissed off smiley faces at each other every time the lyrics said, “Have a nice day.” By the time it was over they’d dissolved into a pile of giggles. They fell on the bed exhausted from all the jumping around and laughed hard. Tam couldn’t believe how good it felt. She was still up a shit creek, but she may have just found a paddle. She looked at Evan and marveled at the random direction her life had just taken. When they’d bought her freelance episode, the most she’d hoped for was getting a chance to meet him. She couldn’t believe that she’d just been dancing while lip syncing Bon Jovi, and just being a general goof with him.
He caught his breath and looked at her. “Gavin deserves a nice day. Don’t you agree?”
His brilliant blue eyes beckoned like a siren. Why did they have to be so easy to get lost in? Focus, girl! On something other than Evan, she admonished herself. Tam shook her head trying to clear him from her mind. Talk about a losing battle with him lying right there next to her. She forced her thoughts back to why she was there in the first place even though she really didn’t want to. The episode she’d written had been strong; she’d believed in it, in herself. There was nothing more important than getting her first hour of television produced and on the air. So what if Tam didn’t have clue one about how to go about it. She was surrounded by people who did.
A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She let it take form as she gazed at Evan. “Payback hates it when I call her out, but she really is a bitch.”
“That’s my girl.” He sat up and switched back to the DVD input. Tam went to gather Gavin’s script pages from the other bed to try and follow along with the dailies. Surely that would be less painful than trying to read the stupid thing.
She settled back in her original position to watch the video. It didn’t take long to realize that she’d been wrong. No wonder Evan had insisted on her flying out her to fix what he’d thought was her script. Even on film, it was horrendous. She cringed at the stilted dialogue that had the actors tripping all over the place and ruining take after take. When they finally got it right, it was so boring, Tam wanted to cry.
Remembering that she still had about thirty-eight thousand dollars to cut from the production was almost enough to make her curl up in the fetal position until everything just went away and left her alone.
She hardly took note when Evan stretched out on the other side of the bed and munched on his peppers again, she was so focused on trying to figure a way out of this mess. A quick glimpse at his expression told her he wasn’t happy either.
“Oh, Drew. Isn’t my hair simply divine, today?” Evan narrated over Audra’s actual line which surprisingly wasn’t much different. Tam stifled a giggle when Audra did her customary hair flip and exit. The camera stayed on Evan’s back for a moment, prompting him to say, “Emmaline. No. Don’t go and take your hair from me.”
When he finally turned to face the camera, his expression was pained, as if he were actually longing for the company of Audra’s hair. Tam laughed out loud. Evan tossed a wry look her way. “What? That may as well be what we were saying.” She didn’t want to say it, but he was right.
On the screen, Marc rushed down the stairs and looked at the door. Beside her, Evan changed the line again. “Was that Emmaline? Did I miss her hair? Again?” Right on cue, Marc turned to give Evan a scandalized look and delivered his actual line. Evan’s inane improvisation was a definite improvement and totally fit the timing.
Tam sat up abruptly when an idea struck. “Oh my God. That’s it!” She reached for the remote to rewind the scene. Evan held it aloft.
“What’s it, Grabby?”
Tam raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Really? You’re one of those who needs control of the remote at all times?”
Evan’s guilty look told her all she needed to know. “Maybe.”
She shook her head. “Fine. Back it up to the beginning of this take.”
Evan did as she asked while she scrolled through her version of the script on her laptop. When she found the scene she was looking for, she turned the screen so he could see it. “Okay. Play it and read this when the door closes behind Audra.”
Evan did as she asked. She marveled at how easily he slipped into character as Drew for just a few words. He finished reading while the camera stayed on his back. On the screen, his turn to face the audience was perfectly timed.
Tam looked between the TV and the laptop. She scrolled a couple lines down. “Now this, in three, two, one.”
Evan read his next line. It was slightly too long for the length of time that the camera was on Marc’s entrance. He noted the overage. “Let me try that again.”
He rewound the footage and gave it another shot. He sped the line up just a hair and got it in just under the wire. He smiled at her. “I think you’re on to something.”
“It’s not the most perfect solution, but I think we can salvage this.”
“Gavin is going to be so delightfully pissed. I can’t wait.” Evan sat up and rubbed his hands in glee.
Tam smiled at his evil enthusiasm. Her thoughts exactly. “How much footage do we have?”
“About two and half hours.”
Tam checked the clock on the nightstand. It was closing in on ten thirty. She stretched her fingers. It was going to be a long night. “Back it up again.”
Evan complied. She matched the script with places that could potentially be dubbed with the correct dialogue. With Evan running the footage while reading the lines, Tam was free to revise the script since she only had to listen for what was needed. She didn’t want to think about much longer this would’ve taken without Evan’s help. It also surprised her at how easily they settled into a working rhythm. They made quite a team.
“Try it this time without “really” in the sentence.” Tam glanced up from the laptop when Evan didn’t respond. The man was fast asleep. She checked the clock again and was shocked that three hours had almost gone by. “Never mind.”
She bit her lip and wrestled the remote from his hand. Despite being knocked out, he still had a pretty firm grip on the thing. She finally got it free and rewound the footage to keep working. If she were honest, she was pretty beat herself, but she needed to get this to Rock first thing, and she still had some revisions to do on the pages they were going to shoot the next day.
Tam continued without him. Her obsessive nature kept her going until she’d finished. It was close to 1 a.m. when she turned her attention to the revised pages. Having handled most of the set up with the previous footage, she found that the changes weren’t quite as extensive as she’d feared. Still, it was 2:45 a.m. when she sent them off to Tanzi and Kyle, the 1st AD.
She looked at Evan who was oblivious to the world. No sense waking him now. She’d just get in the other bed. In a minute. She just needed to rest for a moment. Then she’d go over there.
Her moment ended when her phone beeped, scaring the crap out of her. Who in the world was calling her so late? She pried open one eye to check the ID. Tanzi. She must’ve just gotten the pages and needed to talk. Tam stifled a groan, but answered.
“‘Lo?”
“Have you seen Evan? He was supposed to be in makeup thirty-eight minutes ago.”
Confused as all get out, Tam frowned. “I thought 4 a.m. was the call time.”
“It was. It’s now…” Tanzi paused. “…4:39 a.m. and no one has seen Evan.”
Stunned, Tam rolled over. Sure enough, Evan was snoring away beside her. He was sporting almost a full beard. “I’ll see if I can find him,” she hedged and immediately felt bad for misleading the woman. Still, she wasn’t about to admit to sleeping with one of the stars on the first night. She wasn’t that kind of girl. Tam looked at their still fully clothed bodies. She really wasn’t that kind of girl. Bummer.
“Thanks, Tam. I got the revisions. They look great.”
“Thanks. I’ll get on the Evan situation.” Tam hung up and shook him. “Evan. You gotta wake up.”
He stirred and stretched a bit, but not much else. She shook him harder. “C’mon. You’ve got to get to makeup. Now.”
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