12

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

Sophia opened the book, her expression unreadable. For a moment, Ricardo was afraid that this book might not be any better than the last. He took a breath, ready to stop the action again, but Sophia's expression changed subtly. He stopped, watching her intently. "Get in close on this," he told the cameraman, his voice barely a whisper.

Ricardo watched on the monitor as the shot closed in on Sophia's face. Her normally cool expression had transformed. Her eyes flicked across the page of the book, and there seemed to be a hunger inside, as if she couldn't get enough of the story. Ricardo let the cameras roll as Sophia read for several minutes. She seemed to forget that the rest of them were still there. Once, she shifted her position, turning on the bench so she could prop her feet up and rest the book on her knees. She chewed her lip gently, and Ricardo grinned - he never would have seen these reactions with that piece of crap book that they had started with.

Finally, satisfied that they had sufficient footage of Sophia enjoying the book, Ricardo made a motion with his hand, cueing Blake's entrance.

From across the set, Blake gave a thumb's up signal before starting his walk towards the bench. He approached from the side. Had Sophia stayed in her initial position, he would have been coming from her left, but with the way she had shifted, she was now facing him. Unless she looked up, however, she probably would not see him. Watching the scene play out before him, Ricardo wondered why he hadn't thought of this positioning on his own - it was going to look much better than the planned shot.

As he got closer to the bench, Blake slowed down. Both in character and out of character, he watched Sophia. There was something different about her... something more human than he was used to seeing. He stopped at the side of the bench and just watched her as she read. He smiled as he looked down towards her, trying to keep his mind on his character - he had just spotted the woman who was exactly what he had been looking for all of his life, and now he had to get her, without scaring her off.

"Hello," he said, breaking the spell that the book seemed to cast on Sophia.

"What?" she replied, startled as the book dropped from her hands.

Blake reached down and picked it up, handing it back to her, smiling at the confusion that was in her eyes. It looked as if she had forgotten where she was, if just for the moment. "I think this is yours," he said.

"Thank you," she replied, offering him a slightly dazed smile as she tried to figure out how to get back to the script. The director hadn't stopped them yet, so it would appear that he was comfortable with the slight ad libbing that was going on.

"I'm Zach," Blake said, extending his hand towards Sophia.

"Kat," she replied, shaking his hand. "Um, I'm sorry, should I know you?"

11

As the director led Sophia away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up."

"Thanks," Laura said wryly. She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that a bad start didn't necessarily lead to a bad day, then followed behind Ricardo and Sophia. By the time she arrived at the set a few minutes later, the actors were all in place, and the lighting guys were turning on their equipment for the first scene.

"And, action!" Ricardo called.

Sophia picked up her book and crossed her legs, getting comfortable on the park bench. In the bright lights, she flipped through the pages, looking bored.

"Cut!" Ricardo yelled. "Sophia, darling," he said, approaching her so he didn't have to shout. "Let's try something different. Your character is... bookish. She likes to read. I need you to look excited about this book - it's interesting to her."

Sophia huffed and put on a pout. "But this is a boring book!" she protested, holding it up. "It's old and hard to read."

Laura was already on her way to the props people when Ricardo called out, "Can we get a new book?"

"I'm on it!" Laura called back. "What can you give me?" she asked the nearest prop technician.

"Give me a minute," he said, scrambling into the trailer behind him. A few moments later, he reemerged with a paperback book in one hand and a hardcover book in the other. The paperback was clearly a romance novel - the scantily-clad woman and the muscular man on the cover left no doubt. The hardcover book looked to be of a similar genre. It seemed likely that Sophia would appreciate either of them, at least compared to what she was reading now, but Laura wasn't sure about the character.

"Give me the hardcover," she decided. "But keep the dust jacket." The man handed it over, and without the dust jacket, the romance novel looked much more like the book that Sophia was already holding. Laura glanced at the title - "In the Garden" - and decided that it could pass as a non-fiction title, something that Sophia's character was likely to read. Hurrying back over to where Sophia waited, Laura handed her the book.

"'In the Garden'?" Sophia half-asked as she read the title. "What is this, a gardening book?"

Laura tried to hide her smile. "No, it's a romance novel, with a gardening title. Hope you like it." Before the actress could say another word, Laura hurried off with the other, boring book in her hand.

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

10

Anna put her arm around the younger woman and gave her a hug. "Hey, it's a foot in the door. I take it that, uh, Sophia doesn't know about..." She tilted her head in Ricardo's general direction.

"No," Laura said, shaking her head, "And I want to keep it that way for as long as I can."

"She would probably treat you better if she knew," Anna pointed out.

Laura rolled her eyes. "Ricky told me the same thing yesterday. But this is something I really want to do on my own, Anna. I need to."

"I know, chica," Anna said, smiling. "Why do you think I've kept quiet about who my cousin is?" Laura smiled back. It was good to know that Anna had made it on her own - maybe she really could do the same.

"Hey!" Ricardo barked, coming over to the trailer. He sounded gruff, but he winked at the two women in front of him. "Where's my star?"

"Right here, Ricardo, dear," Sophia said, stepping out of her trailer.

"Sophia! You look beautiful - come and sit in the light for me, so we can share you with the world," Ricardo said theatrically, offering his arm to the actress.

"That sounds like a lovely idea," Sophia replied, taking his arm.

As the director led her away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up." "Thanks," Laura said wryly.

9

"Ms. Cornish?" Laura called, knocking once more. "Mr. Jarvis has called for places."

Inside her trailer, Sophia sat serenely as her personal make-up artist finished her work.

"Would you be a dear and tell that girl outside that I will be ready when I am ready?" Sophia asked the make-up artist, her voice almost too sweet.

"Of course," the woman replied, and stepped outside.

"Anna!" Laura jumped back as the door opened, surprised to see her cousin stepping out.

"She's in a mood today, Laura," the make-up artist warned after closing the door. "She's being really sweet..."

"Shit," Laura muttered. When Sophia started out sweet, things usually ended up being much worse than normal by the end of the day.

"Anyway, she's all made up, hair done, and she says she'll be ready when she's ready," Anna continued. "My stuff's still in there, so I'll just stick around until she comes out."

"Sure," Laura said, still somewhat distracted by thoughts of impending doom. "You aren't usually this late with her makeup - what's going on today?"

"I've got no idea," Anna replied. "All I know is taht Mikayla called me as soon as she was done Sophia's hair, and that was almost an hour later than usual. I've got no idea if it was Mikayla or Sophia getting in late, or if it was just a bad hair day."

Laura sighed. "Hopefully, it was just a slow morning."

8

As he walked away, Blake shook his head a bit. Sometimes, he felt a little guilty about leaving a girl hanging. However, if she couldn't pick up on the fact that he still didn't bother learning her name... well, she almost deserved it.

This intern thing, though, had caught Blake's attention. The girl didn't really give of an "I'm-sleeping-with-the-director" vibe, so it surprised him to hear that she was seen with him like that. He made a mental note to watch how the two of them acted - after all, food services girl didn't seem to be the brightest bulb, and it was entirely possible that she was wrong.

"Let's get rolling, people!" The director's voice interrupted Blake's musings, and the actor made his way over to his place, glancing around, trying to see where Laura was. He finally caught a glimpse of her over at Sophia's trailer, knocking on the door.

7

"That's her," the craft services girl whispered to Blake, pointing to Laura as she walked past.

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Really!" she replied. "I saw her last night, after we wrapped. She ran over and got into Mr. Jarvis's jeep - she put on some dark sunglasses and slouched down, like she was trying to hide, and he totally peeled out of here!"

"Really..." Blake said, this time sounding more thoughtful. The intern and the director? That was awfully cliche, but it did seem to happen all the time.

"Blake?" The craft services girl was looking at him, like she had just asked something.

"Sorry, baby, I missed that - what did you say?" He flashed her a smile, hoping it would keep her from getting upset with him.

"It's okay," she said, grinning. "I wanted to know if you were busy tonight?"

"Sorry, gorgeous, but something has come up," Blake told her, keeping his smile on. "I'll call you later, though."

"Okay," she said, giving a little giggle as he got up and left the cart.

As he walked away, Blake shook his head just a little. Sometimes, he felt a little guilty about leaving a girl hanging. However, if she couldn't pick up on the fact that he still didn't bother learning her name... well, she almost deserved it.

6

Laura waited until his door was shut, then breathed a sigh of relief. This job was way more stressful than she had expected it to be! Between Sophia's little fits and Blake's teasing, Laura was constantly on edge, waiting to see who was going to catch her by surprise next. After taking a moment to compose herself, Laura headed off in search of the director.

Ricardo was almost all the way to his car when Laura spotted him. She picked up her pace and arrived at the vehicle just as he put his hand on the handle.

"Laura!" he said, surprised. He hadn't heard her approach, although that didn't surprise him - he had been lost in though, trying to come up with some way to handle his two stars. He quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching, but it seemed that the coast was clear.

"Get in, and keep your head down," he told her, climbing into the red Jeep. Laura hurried to the other side and climbed in, pulling on a pair of sunglasses from her bag and sitting low in the seat. Ricardo fired up the engine and pulled out of the lot before he glanced over at Laura again.

"So what's up? I thought you wanted to avoid being seen together," he said.

"It's just been a bad day, Ricky, and I wanted to talk to you," Laura said with a sigh. "Between Sophia's sulking and Blake laughing at me... it's just sucked."

"I told you about Sophia before you started," Ricardo said. "I knew it would be hard to deal with - but you insisted that you could handle it."

"I didn't come here to have you say 'I told you so,'" Laura pouted. "And I can handle it. Usually. It was just today."

"You can always quit... I'm sure I could find someone else -"

"No! Ricky, please - I can do it! And if I can get through this, I can work anywhere in the business." She looked at him, her expression fierce.

Ricardo chuckled. "I know you can, kiddo. Don't worry, every day can't be this bad. Of course, it could be much better for you..."

Laura sighed as Ricardo trailed off. "I want to do this on my own, Ricky; I want to actually earn my respect, not just have people being nice to me because of you."

"I'm just saying, it's handy to know the director," he said with a shrug.

"Nepotism is not the way - I don't want to just be Ricardo's baby sister."

"So you'll just be 'that intern over there,'" he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

Laura sighed. "For now."

5

Laura did her best to keep her expression neutral until Sophia was inside the trailer. Laura shut the door gently, then stuck her tongue out at it - childish, yes, but it made her feel a bit better.

"Nice," said a voice from behind her. Laura spun around, mortified at the idea that someone had just seen that.

"Mr. Herrington!" she managed to squeak out, her cheeks growing red. "I, um... that is, it wasn't what it looked like..."

Blake grinned. "Oh?" he said, his tone playful. "You mean you didn't just -"

He stopped mid-sentence and laughed at the expression on the intern's face. It was clear that she was terrified that Sophia would hear him. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks had gone from bright red to ghostly white.

"Don't worry," he told her with a wink. "Your secret is safe with me." With that, he turned around and opened the door of his own trailer, disappearing inside.

Laura waited until his door was shut, then breathed a sigh of relief. This job was way more stressful than she had expected it to be!

4

"Really? Just to see me?" Sophia asked, suddenly looking sweet and innocent, every trace of irritation gone from her face.

"Just to see you," Blake repeated. He leaned in again, wrapping his arm around her. "Seeing you makes my day a bit brighter." He slid his hand down her arm, but left it on her elbow this time.

"You know," he said softly, "I'd really like to see you again... on purpose..."

She blushed and looked down, then laid her hand gently on top of his. "I'd like that," she said, looking up to meet his eyes.

Blake lifted his free hand and ran the backs of his fingers along Sophia's jaw, then gently turned her face towards him. Her gaze flickered between his eyes and his lips, her cheeks flushing with anticipation. Slowly, he brought his mouth towards hers.

Her eyes closed as their lips met, and after just a moment, Sophia lifted her hand to Blake's cheek.

"And cut!" Ricardo called out. "Beautiful! That's a wrap for today - we're out of light, so go home and get some rest."

Blake slowly pulled away from Sophia, still caught up in his character. It didn't take him long to drop it, though, and he nearly jumped up from the bench. "See ya tomorrow," he said with a grin as he started back towards the craft services cart.

Sophia blinked as Blake leapt up, once again irritated at how dismissive he was being. Taking great pains to keep from looking as irate as she felt, Sophia rose and walked back to her trailer, snapping her fingers at Laura when she saw that the door was closed. The intern barely hid her exasperation as she opened it, and Sophia frowned at her - the girl had a lot left to learn.

3

"Ms. Cornish?" Laura, a young intern, knocked on the door to Sophia's trailer as Ricardo gave his call. She had been assigned to do nothing but convince Sophia to come out on to the set, and after only a week, she was starting to consider looking for other work. Luckily, the cast and crew were already aware of Sophia's infamous moods, so Laura had no need to worry about being fired if the actress decided not to come out on time.

"Ms. Cornish? Mr. Jaris has called for places," she tried again.

Inside her trailer, Sophia heaved a sigh. She really had no desire to go back out there. Working with Blake was a challenge, and not in a good way. She found it really quite frustrating to work with a man who found it necessary to flirt with nearly everyone around him, especially when he virtually ignored her. If he wasn't so damn talented, she would have asked Ricardo to replace him after the first day of filming.

Her train of thought was interrupted by another soft knock. Sophia rolled her eyes and stood up - the new girl was persistant, if a bit annoying.

Pulling the door open, Sophia walked out of her trailer, head held high, leaving Laura to close the door. She sat down lightly on the bench, waiting for Blake to find his place.

"And... action!"

"Really? Just to see me?" Sophia asked, suddenly looking sweet and innocent, every trace of irritation gone from her face.

2

Blake shook his head as his costar stormed off. He really couldn’t stand Sophia Cornish, but he had been cast alongside her in this movie, and he needed the part – no actor in his right mind would pass up a part in a Ricardo Jaris movie. Still, there were moments, like this one, that made him question whether taking the part had been a good idea.

Standing up, Blake headed over to the craft services cart. If he was going to have a break, he was going to have a snack. Of course, it didn’t hurt that there was a cute little brunette working over there today. He ran a hand through his black hair, making sure it still looked good, then turned on his best smile as he approached.

From the other side of the camera, Ricardo shook his head. He had made dozens of movies, and worked with hundreds of actors, but this pair had the worst off-screen chemistry he had ever seen. Again, he wondered how he had missed it during their auditions. Despite the palpable tension between the two of them when the cameras were off, Ricardo was always impressed with the way they interacted on film. He could truly believe that they were in love – if he ignored everything that happened after he yelled, “Cut.”

Ricardo shook his head again as he watched Blake sauntering over to flirt with the craft services girl. Blake Herrington was an impressive actor, but he was more than a handful when it came to publicity. He was one of those young men who managed to have a different girl on his arm every night, and broke a new heart every morning. Trying to keep his hormones on a leash while they were promoting this movie – if it ever got finished! – would be a trick.

Of course, it would be just as tricky to get Sophia to play her part and show up with Blake at the openings and parties. The little diva had a knack for throwing a tantrum when things didn’t go her way, and she had disappeared from an important event on more than one occasion in the past.

“What have I gotten myself into?” the director asked himself softly, reaching for the flask inside his vest. He took a small swig, then replaced the flask swiftly before taking a deep breath. “All right! Let’s get going from Sophia’s line, ‘just to see me?’ Places!”

1

Blake tilted his head from side to side, sighing as his neck popped quietly. He shook out his arms gently, then moved his feet, trying to get himself psyched up. Taking a deep breath, he walked over and sat on the bench. He closed his eyes, hoping to clear his mind. He felt the bench shift slightly, and opened his eyes to see Sophia sitting on the opposite side. It was time.

"Action!" came the call from behind the camera. In an instant, both Blake and Sophia changed their expressions.

"Hello," she said. She lowered her chin just a touch, looking both coy and shy at the same time as she stared up at him through her eyelashes.

"Hello," he replied, letting a small smile touch his lips. "I was hoping to run into you again."

"Have you?" she asked, her voice sounding surprised. She looked away and blushed slightly.

"Of course," he said, turning his body slightly. He slid over on the bench, closer to her, but not touching. Casually, he laid his arm across the back of the seat, barely letting it touch her shoulder.

A shiver visibly ran through her at the contact, and she turned to look at him with wide eyes. "I wasn't sure you would want to... after all, we've only spoken twice before..."

"And they were the best conversations I have ever had," he told her. Again, she turned away and blushed, but turned back to him with less hesitation.

"Thank you... have you been here long?" she asked.

"No. And yes."

"Which is it?" she asked. "No or yes?"

"No, I haven't been here long today," he replied. "But I did stop by yesterday... and the day before..."

"Really? Just to see me?" she asked, turning more fully towards him. She moved slightly closer to him on the bench, and her knee brushed against his, but she did not move away.

"Just to see you," he confirmed. "Seeing you makes my day brighter." He leaned a bit closer, letting his arm surround her more completely. After a brief moment of hesitation, she relaxed against him, her head on his chest, his chin on her head. Her eyes closed briefly, and her chest rose as she inhaled the scent of him. His fingers traced a path up and down her arm, bringing a smile to her face. Up and down, up and down...

"Stop that!" Sophia half-snarled, half-giggled. "It tickles, you ass!"

"Cut!" yelled the director. "Okay kids, let's pick this up in five."

"Bitch," he muttered as she sat back.

"Jackass," she retorted. She stood up and gave him the finger before flouncing off towards her trailer. Some people were just awful to work with.