Page 21 of Love At First Fright

“Cut!” Vincent shouted, and Rosemary blinked, coming back to herself.

A few more crew members left the room, as they were going to have a five-minute break before the next scene.

She spied Vincent already leaving, cigarette dangling between his lips.

Should she leave now or stay to watch another take?

Too late, Ellis was partly dressed, toweling himself dry and walking towards her.

“Hello,” Ellis said, “I didn’t spot you in here.” So he’d caught her, knew she’d stayed to watch him. He was back in his costume trousers, but was still topless, a towel draped around his neck. Honestly, did he have to parade his ludicrously attractive body so much?

“I assumed I was necessary crew,” she replied.

“Of course you are. What did you think of the scene?”

“I think it’s interesting that you have a topless scene written into all your contracts for your ‘fans.’?”

Guilt streaked across Ellis’s face. “For what it’s worth, I did ask them to remove it, I told them it wasn’t in the book, and it wouldn’t be adding anything to the movie.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.”

“But your contract?”

“That’s all my agent’s doing. He only agreed to let me go for this role if we put that in the contract, since it’s something he pushed for in all my action franchise contracts.”

“Why would you have someone like that as your agent?”

He sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Alright, Ellis, we need you back,” came a voice from the hallway, and Ellis flashed her a smile as he headed back to work. Rosemary had to get out of this room before she collapsed into a puddle of desire.

—

The afternoon softened into evening, and before Rosemary knew it, she was being ushered into a taxi by Lyn.

Someone had booked a big table at the Thimble the kind of place where everyone was in everyone else’s business, but you could also breathe away from the city air and hear yourself think a little better.

The Thimble some Dutch courage wouldn’t be a bad idea if she had to sit at a table with Ellis tonight and remain calm.

They ordered at the bar, two local ciders, and chatted on for a minute about the types of movies Lyn’s parents had made back in the eighties and nineties. Turns out that you could meet the love of your life filming a movie titled When Harry Ate Sally.

“Alright, you’ve got your drink, so now you can stop procrastinating with me and go and sit at the big boys’ table.” Lyn said, sipping the tart but sweet cider they’d ordered.

“I’ve got this.”

“You’ve got this. And if you don’t have it, I’m sure Ellis Finch will be more than happy to find it for you.”

Rosemary rolled her eyes and felt her heart begin to beat faster in her chest as she laid eyes on Ellis in a corner of the pub.

He was back in his modern clothes, a relaxed cream shirt that he’d rolled up his forearms (sinfully attractive) and appeared to be having a rather stern, intense conversation with Lance and Arthur opposite him (she liked that serious, scorching-hot look on him) as he took a small sip from his drink, which looked like an old-fashioned.

She’d decided, back in her room, as she got ready for the pub, that there was no harm in letting herself have a little crush. Nothing would come of it.

“Oh, Rosemary, how delightful, you can weigh in on our little désaccord. Ellis, here, believes that Sense and Sensibility is Austen’s best work, whereas I have been trying to explain to him that Northanger Abbey is structurally superior, being a satire of the gothic horror genre.”

Arthur chimed in to say, “I wish I could agree with you, darling, but I’m with Ellis on this one.”

“Spousal betrayal!” Lance barked, but pressed a kiss to his husband’s cheek all the same. Rosemary couldn’t help but smile, sliding into the seat beside Lance, because they were both so flustered over…Jane Austen.

“Don’t let him talk you around to his opinion by dropping words like gothic horror, ” Ellis teased, leaning forwards.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I have to disagree with all of you. Her best book is Persuasion. ”

“ Persuasion ?” Lance guffawed good-naturedly. “My dear girl, I am sorry, but how can you think that?”

Rosemary shrugged. “I guess I’m a romantic at heart.

Anne spent all those years in love with Wentworth, even though she believed there was no chance of a happy ending.

And when he said, ‘I am half agony, half hope’…

well, let’s just say that teenage Rosemary would lie in bed dreaming about hearing someone speak to her like that. ”

Ellis’s hand paused as he brought his glass to his lips, his intent gaze on hers.

Lance patted her hand. “I see, there is no hope for you, you are indeed a hopeless romantic. And although I would consider myself one, I am afraid that in this instance, I shall continue to believe that Northanger is the better novel since neither of you have convinced me otherwise.” He sniffed, before pivoting in his chair to answer a question from Arthur, who was now locked in conversation with Vincent.

Rosemary turned her attention to Ellis, who was looking back at her from across the table.

“So, Sense and Sensibility ?” she asked.

“The best book.”

“Arguable. But try me.”

“It’s hard to explain. The first time I read it I used to think that Marianne and Willoughby had this dashing romance, and never understood Elinor and Edward.

And then I hit my late twenties and I just…

got it. To have someone like that, a person who can be your best friend and your confidant and your lover?

That is the ideal relationship right there.

A lot of people I know, straight men especially, treat their wives and girlfriends like this separate category in their lives—they’re not friends with them.

I want to be with someone who, even if there happened to be nothing romantic between us, I would want to spend all my time with, does that make sense? ”

Rosemary took a sip of her drink to hide her slightly shaking hands. No biggie, just the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on telling her about his ideal romantic partnership and its basis in Jane Austen. She was entirely calm about this whole thing.

“I think I understand. Maybe I’m due a re-read.”

“Perhaps I ought to read Persuasion again, too, see what all the fuss is about.”

“You know, I never would have taken you for a romance reader,” Rosemary said.

“I think you’ll find I’m full of surprises.”