“Thank you.” I went to the room where my bed was made up and flopped down on it.
We were parked in a quiet grove of evergreen trees. Except for birdsong and the chitter of squirrels, it was quiet. I planned to keep it that way. It took a noisy generator to produce AC, but everything else operated on battery, and the weather had been mild.
I threw my things on the queen size bed. “You think they noticed I was early?”
“Sure. But that doesn’t mean they believe you’ve changed.”
“I’ve changed? I never did anything wrong to begin with.”
“Oh honey, you know what I meant. It’s all bullshit.” Her brown eyes met mine. “You don’t still care about that, do you?”
“Not really.” My unearned reputation for bad behavior followed me like stink from a trash truck. It stayed with me from project to project, despite everything I tried in order to win hearts and minds. “Did you see the guy with the eye patch and the wolves?”
“I was busy dealing with the AD. What about him?”
“Talk about sinister. He’s probably an animal handler, but he’d be great as a baddie on the show.”
“That’s not very nice, Sebastian.”
“I wonder if he got those scars on the job. The animals in the pen couldn’t have been wolves. They were too big. Plus, wolves are super shy. They weren’t huskies. I wish I’d gotten a closer look. They were gorgeous.”
“They were probably mixes, right?” she asked. “Don’t they use those in film?”
“Hybrids. Yeah, probably.
“You going to be okay here?” she asked. “I made sure you’re half a mile away from everyone else.”
I glanced out the window again. “I won’t know until full daylight, but this looks like a good place.”
“They had to move one of the handler’s trailers to accommodate you. I hope you’re suitably grateful.”
“I’ll send a note, but I told you. I don’t care what they think about me anymore.”
“Sure you don’t,” Molly said dryly.
Molly was the finest PA I’d ever had, and she taught me to allow people’s preconceived notions to work in my favor. Her chatty, slightly collegiate guise worked as a kind of distraction while I let my hauteur run wild. Like the odor of past transgressions, our mutual deception kept everyone at a distance—just the way I liked it.
It didn’t stop the whispers that followed us. It didn’t stop the irritated glances I got from other actors or the shoulder knocks from the crew. But I needed a wide bubble of human-free space around me, and as I got older, I got better at carving one out, even on a film set where everyone felt perfectly free to be all up in everyone else’s business.
If I hadn’t been looking out the window, I wouldn’t have seen eye patch man drive past in his van.
From what I understood, our hybrid wolf actors had come from a wolf sanctuary in Colorado. I’d read about it when I’d signed on to the production.
The sanctuary was not only providing a pair of wolfdog hybrids to film closeup work, but they were providing stock footage of real wolves in the wild, which the production team would seed into each episode for verisimilitude.
The two animals I saw earlier had been lovely creatures. I had a couple scenes with them, and I hoped I’d get to spend some time observing them up close if that was possible.
“Okay.” Molly had her tablet ready. “You’re due for makeup at seven a.m. You want to eat something here or take a bento?”
“I’ll eat here.”
“Fine.” She turned to the full-size refrigerator to see what we had. The motorhome had been stocked according to my lengthy rider. Boxed breakfasts and lunches from Bistro in nearby St. Nacho’s. Dinners from whatever place I chose each day.
“I’ll organize while you’re working today.” Molly placed a breakfast omelet in the microwave and arranged fruit and juice on a tray. “I’ve sent the day’s schedule to your phone along with the interview questions for BuzzFeed. They want those back tonight.” Her phone chimed and she scowled as she glanced at it. “Oh cripes.”
“What is it?” My unflappable PA was rarely blindsided by anything.
“Your mother. Apparently she’s been trying to reach you, and you haven’t picked up.”
“Has she?” Pleading ignorance was a go-to for me. “I didn’t notice.”
“Bullshit you didn’t. Don’t ignore her. She’s only going to keep calling me until I force you to pick up. Answer her, and put us all out of our misery. Please. And remember, whatever it is, it’s okay to tell her no.”
“Fine.” I took out my phone and returned her call.
“Finally. Oh my goodness,” my mother singsonged in her little girl voice. “Where are you, sweetheart? Your call is for seven a.m. Did you forget? I’ll make up some excuse if they call here, but it’s your first day on location. Can you at least try to be marginally responsible this time?”
“I’m here, Mom. In my trailer, on set, on time,” I said irritably. “I have been arriving early ever since I started taking responsibility away from—”
“Don’t take that tone with me, darling.” She didn’t sound relieved. “Why didn’t you let me know? I thought we said you were going to call and tell me that you were on your way so I won’t worry.”
“You said that, but I don’t report to you.” It was none of her business where I was anymore. I played high school–aged characters. I wasn’t in high school myself.
“All right, sweetheart. You don’t have to bite my head off when I’m only trying to help.”
“What else?” Because there was always something else.
“Don’t forget you have the watch ad shoot at the winery on Saturday.”
I glanced at Molly. “Transportation for the ad shoot on Saturday?”
“Taken care of.”
“I’ve got it. What else?”
The hesitation was her tell. “I hate to ask, you know I do. But this month I had to have the trees trimmed because the leaves kept clogging up the pool filters. I am absolutely tapped out by landscape expenses, and—”
“Tell Molly what you need. She’ll take it up with Dad.”
“Oh, I don’t think there’s any need to bring your father into this, is there?”
“It’s not like I can bring you a bag of cash, Mom. Dad cuts the checks. You know this.”
“Don’t you get mad money for unexpected expenses?”
“Nope. Dad no longer trusts me with cash.” This was another blatant lie—one of a hundred untruths I perpetuated to keep myself safe from people I should have been safe from in the first place.
She sighed heavily. “All right. Have Molly call me. But honestly, dear, I don’t know if you know this, but your dependence on your father is very unhealthy. Also, you give Molly far too much license. She’s not family. She’s not industry. She’ll only get a taste for the good life, and before you know it, she’ll think she deserves whatever she wants. It’s people like Molly who end up robbing us blind, you know.”