“Cut!”
I sigh and tilt my head back and forth to try to stretch out my neck. Ten hours of shooting today, with only a couple of twenty minute breaks in the middle. I’m exhausted, but I know that as soon as I get back to my hotel room none of that’s going to matter—Spencer should be there waiting for me.
“Nice work today,” Jim says. “See you all tomorrow.”
I start to walk toward my dressing room.
“Amy, can I have a word?”
Ugh. I really wish I could say no, but he’s the boss. I turn around and put a smile on my face as Jim walks up to me.
“What’s up?” I say.
“You know the first scene we are shooting the day after tomorrow?”
“Yeah… the one where I spend the day with Jamie.”
“Exactly… there’s been a… slight problem. The girl slated to play Jamie had to have an emergency appendectomy this morning so she’s going to be in the hospital for couple of days.”
“Oh… is she OK?”
“Yeah… we can’t wait for her though.”
“Are you postponing the shoot?”
“No… God, no. We just need to find someone else to play the part. We are going to run a few girls through auditions tomorrow night and hopefully find someone. I just wanted to give you a heads-up because we might have to push the shoot a couple of hours, but I’ll let you know either way.”
“Sure.”
“That’s it.”
He turns and walks away. I really hope she’s going to be all right even though I don’t know her. The only positive to come out of this is that if shooting gets pushed back a few hours I’ll be able to spend that extra time with Spencer—one day really isn’t enough, especially since my next day off after tomorrow is twelve days from now.
I head to my dressing room, change back into my own clothes and grab my purse. I take my phone out as I walk out of the room and read the text from Spencer that was waiting for me.
I’m at the hotel… can’t wait to see you.
I smile as I write and send a response.
Eeee. I can’t believe you’re here! I just got done shooting… I’ll be there as soon as I can.
I put my phone back in my purse and hurry toward the front of the building. I push the glass door open and hurry down the steps and to the curb. I frantically wave down the first taxi I see and jump in. The ride back to the hotel seems to take forever even though I know it’s less than ten minutes. I pay the taxi driver and hustle to through the lobby of the hotel and to the elevators. I can barely contain myself on the ride up to the fifteenth floor. I take my room key out and slide it into the lock, pull it out and reach for the door handle… but the door swings open before I can touch it. Spencer is standing in front of me. I feel like I’m about to melt.
“Hi,” he says.
He wraps his arms around me and pushes his lips against mine. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I felt like it was never going to come… and it’s finally here.
We break our kiss and I smile at him as he stands aside so I can walk into the room. Spencer shuts the door and follows me into the living room.
“How was your flight?”
“Fine… I got in a couple of hours ago, so I grabbed a bite and hung out in the room. Nice view.”
I glance out the window before sitting down on the couch and look at him as he walks toward me. Spencer sits next to me and takes my hand in his.
“I missed you,” I say.
“I’m here now.”
I smile and look into his eyes. I can’t even put my joy into words—I would have never made it ten weeks without seeing him… I’m not sure if I would have even lasted one more day. I know we only get to have one day and maybe a morning together… but it’s so worth it.
“Do you really only get one day off?” Spencer says, as if he just read my mind.
“Yeah.”
“Ugh… I guess you are in the middle of shooting… I’m just being selfish.”
He squeezes my hand and I sigh. I just have to keep focused on the shoot and hope we get done a little early. I know our relationship is always going to be slightly strained by our work, but it also affords us other opportunities that make the whole thing worth it.
“You could always stay… and just spend time with me at night and in the morning.”
He shrugs. I know it’s wishful thinking, but I figured it was worth a shot to at least put it out there.
“I could… that’s true, but I’ve got a couple of auditions next week… I’m still trying to get my next role.”
“I get it… maybe next time.”
“Or we need to work together more,” he says, a smile on his face.
As much as I love that I know it’s not likely just because of how the industry works… not to mention I have a feeling audiences might get sick of seeing us together over and over.
“Are you hungry?”
“Eh… I’m not famished or anything, but I could eat. You?”
“Starving… all I’ve had since breakfast is a banana.”
“Should we go out or do you want room service?”
I shrug. Room service is tempting just because it means we wouldn’t have to get changed and do that whole thing, but I’ve been eating it pretty much every night because I’m too tired to do anything else.
“Whatever you want,” I say.
“Have you been eating room service a lot?”
“Yeah….”
“I kind of figured… that’s what I always do.”
He smiles at me, squeezes my hand and stands up from the couch.
“Where are you going?”
“To get changed… we should go to dinner in one of the hotel restaurants.”
“Yeah?”
“Sure… let’s do it.”
“OK,” I say.
I stand up from the couch and follow him into the bedroom. He’s got his suitcase open and he starts to look for something to wear. I walk over and pick up one of the wrapped bathrobes and set on the bed next to his stuff.
“This is the surprise I have for you.”
He picks it up, rips the package open and runs his fingers over the fabric.
“Nice… thank you.”
“I know it’s not that exciting, but they offered to give me one for my husband, so I figured you might want one.”
“Husband, huh? I love it… I actually needed a new bathrobe. It’s just one of those things I never think about buying until I put my old one on.”
I smile at him and then walk over to the closet. Every morning I look at the dress I bought when I first got here… I’ve been longing to wear it and this is the perfect chance. I wash my face, brush my teeth and get changed. When I walk into the bedroom Spencer has his back to me, so I clear my throat to get his attention. He turns around and raises an eyebrow when he sees me.
“Well,” he says, “aren’t you something….”
“Do you like it?”
I spin around so he can see the back.
“It’s super cute… I love you. It’s very… you.”
“Thanks… I saw it and I just had to have it.”
Spencer takes a blue plaid sport coat out of his suitcase and puts it on. He’s still wearing the black jeans he had on before, but now he looks significantly more dressed up. He walks over to me and runs his fingers down my cheek before kissing my forehead. I sigh and close my eyes… he’s too much.
“Ready?” he says.
“Yes.”
I take his arm and walk into the living room. I grab my purse and we head into the hallway.
“Where should we eat?” I say.
“Did you eat at the terrace?”
“Yeah… that night with Jim and Ethan.”
“There’s another restaurant… the woman at the front desk recommended it when I got here today… it’s on the tenth floor. It’s supposed to be good, it just doesn’t have the view the terrace has.”
“That’s fine… I’m not exactly dressed for being outside.”
“Also,” he says, “I want to eat somewhere with a little more light… I want to be able to look into your eyes.”
Whoever made him must have broken the mold. Every passing minute that I spend with Spencer makes me realize how lucky I am to have him in my life. He’s really the perfect man in every conceivable way. We get on the elevator and he hits the button for the tenth floor.
“Sorry,” he says, “I have to kiss you again.”
The door opens as we reach the tenth floor, but we are so focused on each other that we don’t even notice. As the door starts to close again, Spencer sticks his foot out and stops it. I sigh as I pull away from him. We walk into the restaurant, which takes up this entire part of the tenth floor. There is a woman at a hostess station just feet from the elevator and she winks at me as we walk up. Whoops… I guess she must have seen us kissing. The old me would have been embarrassed, but after not kissing Spencer for ten days… I couldn’t care less if anyone saw.
“Table for two?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me.”
She picks up two menus and guides us to a table next to the windows on the back wall. It’s the last table before the wall and gives us a bit more privacy which is nice because the noise level is a little lower than the center of the restaurant.
“Oh,” I say, setting down my menu before I really even start to look at it, “I almost forgot. A girl that was supposed to play a small part in the movie had to have emergency surgery… her appendix I guess, so they are going to recast. Jim told me about it tonight and said depending on how that goes they might push back the shooting schedule for the day after tomorrow.”
“That’s too bad about that actress… that’s really unfortunate.”
“I know… I feel bad for her, but it’s a small enough part that I guess they can’t afford to wait for her to recover.”
“It’s understandable,” he says, picking up his menu.
I lift my menu and quickly scan the appetizers to see if anything sounds good. It looks like the food is just American cuisine, but there’s at least a few things that look interesting and I wouldn’t mind trying.
“What about that girl?”
“What girl?” I say, looking at Spencer.
“The one you told me about… the one who you convinced to quit her job.”
“Rose? The girl from the store I was shopping at?”
“Yeah… maybe you should get her an audition.”
“I guess so… why not?”
“I don’t suppose you have her phone number or anything?”
We both stop and turn to the server as he walks over to our table.
“Are you ready to order?” he says.
“I am… Amy?”
“I guess so,” I say. “You go first.”
“I’ll have the tricolore and the roasted chicken.”
I scramble to try to find something while he talks.
“And for you, Miss?”
“Uh… I guess… the cucumber salad… and the ravioli.”
“Wonderful… anything to drink?”
“I’ll have a glass of the Grüner Veltliner.”
“Excellent choice, Sir… and for you?”
“Just water, thanks.”
He nods as he finishes writing down our order on his pad.
“I have no idea how you knew so quickly what you wanted,” I say, “you just spit it out and I was still scrambling to find something.”
“I looked at the menu earlier, while I was waiting for you.”
I roll my eyes and shake my head. He smiles… he knows exactly how ridiculous and cute he is.
“Of course you did. What did you even order?”
“A salad and chicken.”
I can tell he’s quite enjoying this.
“I know you ordered chicken, but I didn’t see the… whatever salad you ordered… on the menu when I was looking.”
“The tricolore. It just means tricolor, it’s Italian. They call the salad that because it has radicchio, endive and arugula.”
“You think you’re so clever,” I say, with a flirty tone to my voice.
“I know I’m clever.”
He raises his eyebrow again and I do my best to not laugh at him. I’m so glad he’s here.
“Oh,” he says, “I don’t mean to change the subject… because I quite enjoy talking about how clever I am, but you don’t happen to have Rose’s phone number do you?”
“No… I didn’t even think of that, it would have probably been a nice gesture just so she at least felt like she was moving there with one person she could call if something happened.”
“Well, you can make it up to her by getting her an audition.”
“You’re right… would you mind terribly if I called Jim right now? I just want to check and see when and where the auditions are… and if he minds if I send someone.”
“Of course not… I need to use the restroom anyway.”
He smiles at me and stands up from the table. I watch until he disappears down a dark hallway and I turn my attention to my purse. I fish out my phone and pull up Jim’s number. It rings three times and he picks up just as I think it’s about to roll over to voice mail.
“Yeah?”
“Jim… it’s Amy.”
“Right… I know.”
“Oh… sorry.”
“What do you need?”
I’m pretty sure I’m not imagining it… but it seems like he’s more irritated than usual. I didn’t think that would even be possible.
“Sorry to bother you… but I know someone that would be good for the role of Jamie… and I was wondering when and where you were doing auditions so I could send her.”
“Five o’clock, tomorrow, at the shooting location. I’ve already got ten girls ready to audition, so they are going to get one shot at it because it’s happening during the dinner break on set. Tell her to be there and be ready.”
Before I can say another word, much less thank him, Jim hangs up. I put my phone away just as Spencer walks back to the table and sits down.
“How’d it go?”
“It was weird… pretty much a standard conversation with Jim… but he said if she was there tomorrow at five he would let her audition, but that there’s already ten girls who are ready. He’s doing it during the dinner break, so they only have a couple of minutes… so, one shot to get the lines and delivery right.”
“Has Rose ever acted before?”
“I have no idea… she didn’t mention it to me.”
“I guess we better go find her first thing tomorrow.”
“Is that horrible?” I say, “We only have the one day together.”
“No… it’s not. She works close to here… how long could it possibly take?”
I shrug and smile at Spencer. It's really a good idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of trying to get Rose a part in the film… I guess this opportunity has presented itself for a reason—I hope she has an amazing audition and she gets the part.