Page 54 of Behind the Scenes

And that gets exhausting.

I locked my phone and grabbed my computer. At least work would distract me from these feelings in my chest.

But my pounding head was still a problem, so when room service knocked on the door, I reluctantly went to get it.

Harley had ordered a feast, including coffee and pancakes.

“Damn her,” I murmured as I took it in.

She’s making it really hard for me to keep her away.

I took the coffee and small box of Tylenol she probably had someone buy for me.

I promised myself to come back for the pancakes. I just needed to reply to a few emails.

harley

. . .

“She’s still working?” I asked Penelope over the phone after Laura decided not to reply to any of my messages.

My chest was tight, anxiety crawling up my spine.Couldn’t she just rest?

I had fallen asleep the night before and woken up far later than I should have, pushing everyone’s schedule back. I wanted to stay longer with Laura, especially when I felt how hot her head was.

But if I did, I would be putting the fucking movie at risk, as well as my reputation.

So I told her I’d go see her during our lunch break. I’d take care of her. I wanted nothing more than to have her here with me, but I also knew she needed time.

And then my fucking manager…

Someone had complained about my tardiness, and Julian decided to fly in, showing up to give me that stern look of his.

He’s fucking annoying.

He made sure to stand at the edge of the set, watching my every move. Every time our eyes met, he would be giving me a look that made my blood boil. He was older than me, but not by much, and somehow thought that he could treat me like a child.

If only he knew I could killhim in ten seconds…

I hadn’t even done anything wrong.Fine, people were probably annoyed about me being late, but I had been on time every single day. On top of that, I was doing great with my lines and scenes.

My co-star, on the other hand…I was starting to question why she was even there in the first place.

I had watched a movie of hers once or twice but never noticed how mediocre she was until I was forced to shoot scene after scene with her because the director wasn’t satisfied with her performance.

Not mine.Hers.

It seemed like the whole universe had decided to piss me off.

Not only was my mind preoccupied with the love of my life working herself to an early grave, but every single person decided to have a problem with me.

If it wasn’t the director making us redo take after take, it was my co-star trying to cozy up to me. If they decided to leave me alone for a couple of minutes, Julian would be there to pick up the slack.

When I tried to sneak off during our breaks, he made sure to lecture me abouthow important it is that I don’t fuck around with this job.

Like I didn’t fucking know that? Like I didn’t take every single job seriously?

I was close to exploding. I could feel the invisible time bomb ticking down inside me. Most of the time, I could handle my manager. He was useful for my image. He got me nice parts.