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.