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PART X

Cooper met with William the next day.

It wasn't on set, so Flash had come onto the movie set and sat with Selene as she went through her longest day to date.

She was busy filming various shots of the concert scene throughout the day so he knew she'd be busy.

When he arrived at Cooper's home, he was surprised to see the man opening his own door.

"Come in, Gunny. I'm glad you could stop by."

William walked in and waited while Cooper locked the door behind them.

The man's hands didn't shake, but they were paler than he'd remembered.

Cooper looked up at his face and smiled, folding his hands in front of him. "I need a tan. It happens in New York. Too many concrete buildings and too little sunshine."

They moved out onto the balcony where there was a pot of coffee and some biscuits.

"Sorry," Cooper gestured at the table, "my appetite has been off for a few days."

William sat in his chair and offered to refill Cooper's coffee.

Cooper gestured at the pot. "Thanks. Pour yourself a cup. And eat..." he gestured at the plate, "if you want."

"Selene's worried about you."

Cooper smiled. "I like that about you, Gunny. You cut to the chase."

"No sense in mincing words," he agreed. "I want to get back to set."

Cooper arched a look at him. "Yeah, why are you here when I'm paying you to watch my star!"

"Now you're deflecting." William shook his head enjoying their little fencing match.

"Let me make this simple, hmm?"

William nodded.

"Yes, I'm not feeling well, and yes, it's likely stress related. I'm not as young as I used to be," he sighed. "I wish I was. I remember nights, just a year ago when I could go out and party until after midnight," he chuckled, "and walk into the office functional the next day. "

Cooper took a sip of his coffee and looked out over the balcony at the garden beyond.

"But this production is the biggest we've ever done and as sure as I am that this is all going to be a giant blockbuster, I eat like shit most of the time and I definitely don't work out as much as my doctors tell me to. Would you believe I used to jog around Central Park every morning?"

William nodded. "You can again."

"Maybe," Cooper took another long sip of his coffee. "I think I need to hire a few more people."

William thought about Mandy and how she might react to that."

"Oh," Cooper chuckled, "I think I know what you're thinking."

William raised a brow.

"Mandy?"

He nodded in reply.

"She already does so much. I'm going to get 'her' help. And I know she's going to get upset and try to handle more, but I don't need her to get sick like me."

Cooper leaned back in his chair.

"I'm thinking of getting full time staff around here, too. It's a lot to do around the house and if I want to get out the house, I'm going to need to stop doing all the chores."

The producer snapped his fingers when an idea came to him .

"I'm going to start with one of those vacuum spinning things. The Roomma? Roma?"

"Roomba?"

"Yes." He laughed. "One for each floor." He started to shake his head and stopped, lifting his hand to his head, pressing his fingers against his temple. "Maybe I'll explain it like that? Getting an assistant for different things. I'll figure out something before I talk to her. She might end up grateful for the time she can get back and the bonus I'm going to give her."

William's phone chimed and he looked at his watch. "It's almost lunch time on set. I'm going to head back."

Reaching across the table, William shook Cooper's hand.

"Thanks for seeing me."

Cooper stayed in his seat. "Happy to. I'm glad we've gotten a reprieve from the... the pranks on set."

William nodded. If things stayed quiet, he'd be happy to think of things the same way as Cooper.

Maybe it was just that?

William allowed the words to sit there in his head, but his gut didn't buy it.

"You want me to lock the door on my way out?"

Cooper looked at the clock on the wall. "No, that's okay. Mandy will be back soon."

William headed for the door, but Cooper called out to him and he turned back to look .

"If you see Mandy, please don't say anything to her. I want to talk to her personally."

William shrugged. "Sure. No problem."

And he meant it, he didn't think Mandy liked him at all. She always seemed to give him a wide berth when she saw him.

He didn't take it personally. He was a big guy. Tall. He had muscles. Some thought that was good. Some thought he was scary.

Mandy was likely in the second group.

Moments later he was back in the car and on his way to Lincoln Center.

The filming was going fine, at least that's what everyone was telling her, but Selene was struggling with it.

Every time they called ACTION she was on! She felt good while it was happening, but when they called CUT, that's when the worries started.

It didn't help that just before one of the close-ups was filmed, a mic stand fell over and ripped her dress.

As if by magic, Jessica appeared on set and walked her into the wardrobe trailer.

The first words on Selene's lips once the door closed was an apology. "I am so sorry."

Jessica shook her head. "Since when are you responsible for something falling over? You didn't touch the mic stand, did you?"

Selene shook her head.

"Then let's talk about other things. I think," Jessica lifted her arm to peak under and used her fingers to feel along the tear, "we can fix this. I don't think you'll even have to take it off."

Selene let out a relieved sigh. "Good. I think it took half a dozen people to sew me into this thing."

Jessica laughed. "Just three, but yes. Let's get this done quickly so you can get back out there and finish today's scenes."

"I can't wait to get home."

Pulling out a wristlet studded with pearl-headed pins, Jessica put it on her wrist. "I bet," she whistled under her breath. "Your William is a fine-looking man."

Jessica touched the back of her arm and moved it out of the way.

"Tell me that he chews with his mouth open."

Selene wasn't sure she heard her correctly. "What?"

"Or that he leaves the toilet seat up?"

"What?" Selene started to laugh out loud. "No. He doesn't do either of those."

"Careful." Jessica leaned to the side and started pinning the fabric under her arm. "Hold still."

Selene nodded her head carefully, not that Jessica could see it .

"He gives the most amazing foot rubs."

Jessica looked up and sighed. "That sounds lovely."

"It is." Selene couldn't help but smile thinking about him. "And he got me some lovely cushions so we can sit on the living room floor and watch movies."

"He sounds thoughtful."

"He is thoughtful."

The rolling chair that Jessica was sitting on rattled a little as she moved. "You're a lucky woman, Selene."

"I know it."

Jessica crossed to a worktable and Selene followed her with her gaze.

She picked up a spool of thread and a needle and quickly threaded the needle.

A couple of costume images in full color were on the wall of the trailer beside Jessica. One image was unmistakably familiar. "Hey. Is that my costume?"

Jessica looked up and smiled. "Yes. It's one of my top six designs."

Six?

Jessica looked up and then back down as she knotted the thread.

"I know, six sounds weird, but it looks better on a wall."

Selene nodded. The image next to her gown was one that looked familiar.

"Hey, the picture next to mine. The... the thirties beaded dress? "

Jessica looked up at the images and grinned. "Yes! Another of my favorites."

"Oh," Selene beamed at Jessica. "I remember that. The whole film was visually breathtaking," she gushed, "I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really pay attention to the names of the production staff. So I didn't know it was you."

Jessica waved off her apology. "If I wanted to be the big name that everyone pays attention to, I would have been a fashion designer and have shows at Fashion Week. I just love putting clothes on people and on screen. I spent years learning history just to get a real appreciation for the fashions of different time periods. So the thirties? All that beading and clothes cut on the bias? It was like heaven and hell."

She held out her hands, palms up as she moved back over to Selene.

"You can't see it now, but I had cuts and pin pricks all over my hands doing that movie. I had a feeling it was going to end up being messy, so I started with all the light-colored dresses first. By the time I reached the end? Working on dark fabric was the only thing saving the outfit from looking like it came from a crime scene."

Selene shook her head. "The most elegant crime scene in history."

"You should ask Mandy about it."

"Mandy?" Selene turned her head and winced when something pricked her skin. "Sorry. "

Jessica winced in reply. "Try not to move, please."

Selene felt bad. She'd been standing still, but finding out that Mandy had been in the movies? That had shocked her. Down to her core.

"But she's... she's so..."

"So quiet?" Jessica nodded. "I don't know what happened, but at one point she was the belle of the ball. She's so bright and that girl had talent. It was after that film," Jessica sighed softly, "she just disappeared. When I met her again, she acted like she was someone entirely different. I can't get her to say more than three words to me at any given time. If I could crack that shell, even just a little bit, I'd want to tell her that I'm here if she needed someone to talk to."

"Yeah..." Selene stood there for what seemed like a few more seconds as she looked at the hand painted images on the wall.

"Okay," Jessica stood up and smiled at her. "You've been put back together. Time to head on back to the stage."

Selene leaned forward and hugged her. "Thank you for everything."

Jessica picked up a French curve ruler and waved it over her. "Now, as your fairy wardrobe designer, get your butt back to the ball and show this dress off!"

Selene laughed all the way back to the stage.

She'd been so worried up to this point, but now she had a new lightness to her step .

Yes, there had been a problem, but they'd fixed it, and she was headed back on stage.

As she made the last turn toward the stage, she saw the door at the end of the hallway open up and a man step through.

It was William. She knew it in her heart.

He watched her walk down the hallway and she couldn't help the little swish of her hips as she got closer to him.

His eyes were fixed on her and she liked it.

She had a feeling that tonight was going to be the time to finally cross over the final line in their relationship. To make matters better and worse, Cali had gifted her with a box of condoms. Half a dozen in the box.

Her cheeks were flaming as she walked past him.

Right before she walked through the doors to the stage, she turned back to look at William and found him staring at her. The look she saw on this face?

Yes, they were definitely going to cross that line.