Page 32 of Lights, Camera, Love

‘Stop that,’ she hisses, snapping her hand back to her side.

I edge between them. ‘Everything okay here?’

‘Everything’s fine,’ Evie says quietly, her cheeks aflame.

‘Ohhh, here he is,’ Buzz drawls, pushing off the bar. ‘The pretty-boy who’s so fucking desperate to be in the “room where it happens” that he never fucks off.’

It takes astonishing effort to keep my composure as I turn my ear to him. ‘What’s that now?’

Buzz makes a ‘pfshh’ sound and waves a hand at me.

Evie’s alarmed eyes dart between us until the director brushes roughly past me to grip her tightly by the waist. She tries to wriggle away but he presses harder into her and says something in her ear, his fingers sliding up her torso.

‘Let go of her!’ I snap, snatching hold of Buzz’s arm and wrenching him off her. With my other hand, I grip his chin hard and shove him backwards, speaking in his face. ‘Keep your fucking hands off her, you perverted piece of shit.’

Gasps ripple around the room, conversations halt, and partygoers freeze and gawk. Evie’s mouth is hanging open. My pulse is pounding in my ears, and one of my hands is clenched into a fist at my side. I step back from Buzz. Calm down, Kye.

Louis, the boom operator, darts in to wrap an arm around the director’s shoulder.

‘Should we go outside for a minute, Buzz?’ he stammers.

‘I’ve got a funny story about the horse statue across the street.

The dog I had growing up, Lexington, tried to attack it once.

Lex used to freak out at everything; I could tell you a million stories. ’

No one gives a shit, Louis.

‘Shut up,’ Buzz sputters as he jerks away from him, his cheeks crimson and his eyes glassy.

He turns to Evie and sinks into an exaggerated bow with his arms held out, tipping so far forward that he nearly face-plants into the bar.

‘I’m so sorry, dear ,’ he mumbles, then stands back up.

‘The problem, you see,’ he continues in a drunken slur, ‘is that it is very, very hard to work with someone I want to fuck. It makes my brain go …’ He points a finger at his head and twirls it around, his eyes going loopy.

Disgust shoots up my windpipe, and appalled sounds break out around the room.

While I want to introduce Buzz’s jaw to my fist, this time I decide to do and say nothing, and I hope Evie will make the same decision.

Let Buzz be the one to raze his reputation to the ground.

I can’t imagine what his uncle Harold would think of this.

That thought sparks an idea, and I subtly pull my phone out from the inside pocket of my suit jacket. Positioning it at my thigh level, I start recording, just in case Buzz and his foul mouth isn’t finished.

As I focus the camera on him, Evie blurts out, ‘I’ve had enough of you speaking like that to me, Buzz! Okay? It’s extremely inappropriate and unprofessional.’

The director’s brows leap up. Kiara, our location manager, slips beside Evie and takes her hand. Buzz cuts in front of me, aiming a finger in Evie’s face.

‘You!’ he snarls at her. ‘Who are you calling unprofessional? You don’t get to talk to me like that—I don’t give a shit who your daddy is. Which you should have fucking told me about, by the way!’

‘It wasn’t your business,’ she says shakily.

‘You know, I’ve had enough of your riddles and your teasing,’ he huffs at her, making no sense at all. ‘You’re lucky I ever took you seriously as an actress. You’re just a … a talentless piece of ass.’

My vision distorts with loathing for this prick. I glance around to see if I’m the only one filming this outrageous outburst. But the rest of the party guests still appear to be locked in a gobsmacked trance; nobody is moving a muscle.

‘You know … I can make you look very stupid in this movie,’ Buzz spits at Evie. ‘I would insist on having you fired, but the truth is that I don’t think anyone would come and watch my movie if your ass wasn’t in it!’

‘To be honest, Buzz,’ she says in a loud wobble, ‘I think you’ve already nailed making people look stupid in this movie.’

‘Huh?’ His brow contorts.

‘ Moving is a romantic, commercial dance movie ,’ she says, speaking slowly and clearly, even as her face remains flame-red.

‘It’s not a neo-noir thriller or an avant-garde arthouse film.

It’s a story about a little girl with a dream of being a dancer, a girl who lost her mum and believes her dad doesn’t love her.

All that’s keeping her from giving up on life is dance .

’ She holds up a finger. ‘And you only shot one dance sequence for the entire movie! Probably because you were too busy looking for any opportunity to boast about your infinitely more talented uncle.’

Everyone watching on looks like they want to be swallowed up by the earth. Buzz is squinting hard at Evie.

Me? I nearly bite my bottom lip off trying not to smile.

‘We all want this movie to do well, Buzz,’ Evie goes on. ‘But with you directing it? Well, we better start praying because only direct intervention from a higher power could save it now.’

Fuck yes.

A chuckle I can’t help slips out of me, and hot pride blooms in my chest as I stare at this goddess who had the gall to say what no one else—including me—would.

But Evie’s not smiling.

Her mortified face scrunches up, and she snatches her purse off the bar and pushes her way out of the party.