some dialogue. Just to see how it goes. You both know the script, but feel free to improvise if the lines don’t seem natural to you—we want it to feel real.”
“Got it,” said Jake, grinning.
“Got it,” said Ruby, without the grin.
“We’re at our midpoint here,” Amber said. “Mike’s taken Jessie up on the dare to face each other naked. They’ve been friends a long time, but they’ve held back so much from each other.”
Amber stopped short . Jesus , where had her subconscious been while she was writing this script? Friends who’ve held back from each other ? Friends getting naked?
She didn’t dare look in Nick’s direction, and she had to swallow hard before she could speak again. “This is make or break for them,” she continued, trying to keep her voice steady. “So it’s scary as hell.”
“Scary as hell,” repeated Ruby, shaking out her arms again.
Jake and Ruby started in on the dialogue—all those words about trust and taking chances —and Amber felt like she’d fallen down a mineshaft. How could she not have realized what she was really writing about when she put those lines on paper? If anyone had asked her at the time how she felt about Nick, she would have sworn he was just a friend, her artistic partner in crime. Hell, when she writing these words, she hadn’t even decided to break up with Louis yet. Even when she stripped off her shirt in the meadow yesterday, she would have said she was just following a spontaneous, wild impulse. Totally unpremeditated.
But holy crap —there it all was, being voiced out loud by a couple of actors.
Deep down inside, she’d wanted something more from Nick. Something much more. Her subconscious knew it. But her conscious mind had just been too stupid to catch on.
Oh, please, please God, don’t let Nick be paying attention to the dialogue .
At the moment at least, Nick was absorbed in filming, sliding quickly from Camera 1 to Camera 2, zooming in for a close up. His shoulder brushed hers as he moved, which was a pretty regular occurrence when they worked together so closely. Though it didn’t usually make her jump out of her skin like it did today.
And, oh Lord —it didn’t usually ignite a burst of heat under her skin.
Against all reason, a surge of need welled up. Despite her anger, despite how disgusted she was with Nick’s behavior, despite how confused she was by her own feelings, something deep inside her just wanted Nick to turn and put his arms around her again.
Like he was supposed to be doing that. Like he belonged to her.
Like the world was never going to feel right unless their bodies were wrapped up tight together, skin to skin.
Stupid subconscious. And stupid, stupid body.
She just wanted to cry.
Focus , she told herself again. Do your work .
She’d made a mistake with Nick, that was all. Gotten caught up in a stupid, unexamined little schoolgirl fantasy. A perfectly natural curiosity to explore, that she’d now tested out, and discovered was nothing but a dead end. It might hurt at the moment, but that was a predictable price to pay for not having much actual experience with men. She could learn from this, grow wiser, and her work would be the richer for it.
Do your work.
Just do your work, and everything will turn out okay .
The only problem with that plan, though, was that the work wasn’t going right either.
In fact, it was going rather horribly at the moment.
The actors looked gorgeous together, no question, and the lines were all getting spoken in the right order. Jake, actually, was doing beautifully, moving and talking and looking like a real, live human being, with genuine passion and tenderness and thoughtfulness in his gaze. Every muscle in his gorgeous, naked body seemed to be shifting forward, yearning for his partner. Audiences would eat him up.
But Ruby—something was off with her.
She seemed stiff, somehow. Wooden. More like a mannequin than a flesh-and-blood human. She might be
“Got it,” said Jake, grinning.
“Got it,” said Ruby, without the grin.
“We’re at our midpoint here,” Amber said. “Mike’s taken Jessie up on the dare to face each other naked. They’ve been friends a long time, but they’ve held back so much from each other.”
Amber stopped short . Jesus , where had her subconscious been while she was writing this script? Friends who’ve held back from each other ? Friends getting naked?
She didn’t dare look in Nick’s direction, and she had to swallow hard before she could speak again. “This is make or break for them,” she continued, trying to keep her voice steady. “So it’s scary as hell.”
“Scary as hell,” repeated Ruby, shaking out her arms again.
Jake and Ruby started in on the dialogue—all those words about trust and taking chances —and Amber felt like she’d fallen down a mineshaft. How could she not have realized what she was really writing about when she put those lines on paper? If anyone had asked her at the time how she felt about Nick, she would have sworn he was just a friend, her artistic partner in crime. Hell, when she writing these words, she hadn’t even decided to break up with Louis yet. Even when she stripped off her shirt in the meadow yesterday, she would have said she was just following a spontaneous, wild impulse. Totally unpremeditated.
But holy crap —there it all was, being voiced out loud by a couple of actors.
Deep down inside, she’d wanted something more from Nick. Something much more. Her subconscious knew it. But her conscious mind had just been too stupid to catch on.
Oh, please, please God, don’t let Nick be paying attention to the dialogue .
At the moment at least, Nick was absorbed in filming, sliding quickly from Camera 1 to Camera 2, zooming in for a close up. His shoulder brushed hers as he moved, which was a pretty regular occurrence when they worked together so closely. Though it didn’t usually make her jump out of her skin like it did today.
And, oh Lord —it didn’t usually ignite a burst of heat under her skin.
Against all reason, a surge of need welled up. Despite her anger, despite how disgusted she was with Nick’s behavior, despite how confused she was by her own feelings, something deep inside her just wanted Nick to turn and put his arms around her again.
Like he was supposed to be doing that. Like he belonged to her.
Like the world was never going to feel right unless their bodies were wrapped up tight together, skin to skin.
Stupid subconscious. And stupid, stupid body.
She just wanted to cry.
Focus , she told herself again. Do your work .
She’d made a mistake with Nick, that was all. Gotten caught up in a stupid, unexamined little schoolgirl fantasy. A perfectly natural curiosity to explore, that she’d now tested out, and discovered was nothing but a dead end. It might hurt at the moment, but that was a predictable price to pay for not having much actual experience with men. She could learn from this, grow wiser, and her work would be the richer for it.
Do your work.
Just do your work, and everything will turn out okay .
The only problem with that plan, though, was that the work wasn’t going right either.
In fact, it was going rather horribly at the moment.
The actors looked gorgeous together, no question, and the lines were all getting spoken in the right order. Jake, actually, was doing beautifully, moving and talking and looking like a real, live human being, with genuine passion and tenderness and thoughtfulness in his gaze. Every muscle in his gorgeous, naked body seemed to be shifting forward, yearning for his partner. Audiences would eat him up.
But Ruby—something was off with her.
She seemed stiff, somehow. Wooden. More like a mannequin than a flesh-and-blood human. She might be
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