Friends With Way Too Many Benefits (31 page)

"So before when you said you didn't know who I was, you were lying?"

"Well, sort of."

"Sort of?" He scoffed with his palms raised.

"Yes, I lied." She sighed.

His mouth fell open and he sat back and let out a long, slow breath. "So you used me."

"No. I just—"

"You wanted to get on this movie." He glanced at her and shook his head. "Fuck... you don’t give a shit about me."

"That’s not true."

He broke into a laugh. "I underestimated your acting abilities. I mean, I knew you were good, but obviously I had no idea how good."

"That's… no." Placing her feet back on the carpet, she moved close to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm falling in love with you."

He refused to look at her. "All that acrobatic sex and the whole production, you are very good, you know that, I, uh… wow. You were playing me."

"No, that was all real," she pleaded.

"I'm such an idiot."

"You're not."

"Wait, just so I get this straight." He turned to look at her. "You're saying you started seeing me just so you might get a chance to be in this movie."

"No, I—"

"So you're saying…" He gave her a skeptical look. "…you fell in love with me in the yoga class."

"No, I… Look, Paul, yes, I did follow you and join the class in order to meet you, but once I did I was attracted to you and okay, yes, maybe I let the physical relationship between us move faster than I might have otherwise, but—"

"So you're like some acrobatic whore and I'm just some moron director with a hard-on." He scoffed then broke into a sad chuckle.

"No, Paul no. All I can say is I'm sorry." She gave him a sincere look. "Whatever way this started I've… I've grown to have real feelings for you. In fact, I'll leave this movie and return the money I've been paid so far. I'll do whatever you want me to do."

Turning to look her at her once again, he narrowed his eyes. "Wait, I'm trying to think back how all this happened. I meet a woman and she's beautiful and fun and… like way, way too flexible and I invite her to Miami for the weekend. The next thing I know I'm losing my body double and this new woman happens to be right there to fill in." He put his finger up. "Wait, it gets better… see if you can follow this. Then somehow... somehow the actress who's playing the part she's doubling for gets thrown off the movie and she takes her role."

"Well, I, um—"

"Jillian was right about everything. You arranged for the body double to get that…" He made quote marks in the air. "… once in a lifetime opportunity with Playboy, right?"

Giving him a sorrowful look, she shrugged.

"But that was the easy part right?" He rose to his feet, nodded and ran his fingers through his hair, pacing around the room. "Okay, here's where it gets complicated. How in the world did you get Lindsey out of the way… hmmm… let's see, you must have been fucking Chance."

"What? No." She stood and put her hand on his arm. "I didn't. I haven't."

"He told me he was attracted to you."

"Yeah, but—"

"So you're screwing him." He glared at her, sickened. "It all makes sense now."

"That's not true. I swear."

"Oh, now you’re telling the truth."

"I am."

"Just like when I asked you if when we met you knew I was directing this movie and you told me no, right?"

"I lied to you then." Closing her eyes, she sighed.

"You were lying then about a lot of stuff, but now you're telling the truth," he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"I am now. I never want to lie to you again. I'm sorry. I tried to tell you a couple times before, but I just—"

"You just what?" He widened his eyes, waiting.

"Every time I tried, I, I… got scared."

"Scared?" Looking away from her, he rubbed the back of his neck and let out a sigh.

"And that morning I started to tell you, you had to leave early, remember?"

He scowled. "You should have tried a little harder."

"I promise I'll never ever lie to you again."

"I know you won't because I'll never give you the chance."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This…" He waged his finger between the two of them. "…whatever this was— is over."

Turning away from him, her eyes filled with tears and she covered her mouth with her hands. After a few seconds of sniffling, she turned back to him. "I'll leave Miami tonight."

"No. You can't," he replied, angrily.

"What? Why?"

"You're going to finish this movie. I went out on a limb for you with the studio and you’re going to finish what you started here. You may have fucked me in here." He pointed to the bed. "But you’re not fucking me over completely. We have most of your scenes shot already. You will finish this… this project you so desperately wanted to be on."

"But how can we work together?"

He took a step closer to her and cleared his throat. "Do you really think you're the first actress I've ever fucked in one of my movies? Do you?"

"Um, I—"

"Because you're not." Turning away from her, he brought his hands to his face and took a deep breath. He picked up his wallet from the desk and without looking at her, he said, "I'm going to the bar and when I get back I don't want to find any evidence of you left here."

"Paul?"

He looked at her with his eyes red and his lip quivering. "Don't… I'm sure there are rooms available in this hotel…" He shrugged. "…or go somewhere else, I really don’t care, but I expect you to be on the set tomorrow."

She nodded her head slowly. He closed his eyes, turned away and walked out the door. She fell onto the bed, wrapped her arms around a pillow and burst into tears.

Jillian walked into the production trailer at 7:30 a.m. and found Paul sitting in front of a computer screen. "Paul, do you have a minute?"

Looking like he hadn’t slept but a few hours, he lifted his gaze to her and grumbled, "What is it?"

"I just, uh... I wanted to be sure you were okay. Natalie came by to see me last night and—"

"I know."

"I, um—"

"I know..." He glared at her. "...you're here to say I told you so. Well, go ahead say it."

"No, I..." She shook her head. "I wanted to make sure she told you the truth."

"She told me everything, or I guess she told me everything." Shrugging, he ran his hands over his face. "Let's just say she told me enough."

"I didn't want you to get hurt, like she hurt Brian and well—"

"Thanks for that." He shot her a sarcastic look. "Yeah, you saved me. I'm just fine."

"I'm sorry."

He returned his attention to the screen. "Is there anything else? I've got a lot of work here."

"No." Sighing, she slowly moved down the steps and closed her eyes, feeling like a giant piece of crap.

About an hour later, Jillian watched as the college party scene was being filmed. Paul didn't say a word to Natalie during the morning session and was snapping at everyone else. After lunch, they setup the shot where Natalie was standing with Chance and the actors portraying Ryder and Ryder's girlfriend.

Paul boomed, "Action!"

Natalie delivered her line, "Brice, I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Cut! Come on Natalie, you've got to be more convincing than that."

"But, I don't understand what you're looking for."

Paul sighed and walked to her. "In this scene, you're lying, right?"

"Yeah."

"You can do it a little better than that." Turning to the other actors in the room, he lifted his hands in the air. "Is anyone else believing her? Anyone?"

No one said a word. He let the silence linger for another moment before he shook his head and stepped to Natalie. "Look, we need a little more of your
natural
talent to come out in this scene. Do you think you could do that for us?"

"Yes," she said softly.

"What was that?"

"Yes," she repeated louder.

"Great." He turned away quickly. "Places people, we're going again and I don't want to be here all day. Let's get it right."

Jillian shook her head, took a few steps backward and moved behind a portable light hoping to remain unnoticed.

Chance gave Natalie a wide-eyed look and whispered, "Geez, what the fuck's his problem?"

She shrugged and turned away from him, covering her mouth with her hands and taking a deep breath.

"Okay..." Paul yelled as he stared down at the monitor. "Action!"

Natalie began, "Brice, I've been looking for you ev—"

"No! No!" The angry director held his head as he stepped to the front of the production crew. "Let's take a break. Twenty minutes everyone." Tossing his headphones, onto a chair, Paul headed off leaving the rest of the crew watching him in dismay.

After the break, Paul returned and held it together enough to finish Natalie's scenes. Over the next few days, things returned back to normal on the set, but mostly because Natalie wasn't on the call sheet.

Two months into the production it was to be Victoria's first visit to the set. Being a big fan of Chance Hart there were two scenes in particular that she wanted to watch being filmed. The first was the bedroom scene where the sleeping young man was being, let's call it, admired by the somewhat older and super-hot mother of his best friend.

After arriving a bit late to the location, Victoria waited on the first floor until Jillian could be located. As Jillian led her up the stairs, she reminded her of the rules to follow while they were filming. Her excited friend barely paid attention.

In one corner of a large room a bedroom set was staged. Cameras, microphones, lights and a dozen people stood around the room. Victoria's eyes lit up when she spotted Chance sitting up in bed with a makeup artist putting some final touches on his face. Her eyes traveled from his strong chin, down his shirtless chiseled shoulders and chest then to his ripped abs. She sighed. Tearing her eyes from his body, she spotted the world famous Amanda Joseph and she poked Jillian in the ribs with her elbow and opened her mouth wide.

"Oh, you can talk now," Jillian said quietly, "Just once the director says action, then you need to be quiet."

"Okay." Victoria whispered. "Oh my God, this is so weird. You see someone on TV for years and you feel like you know them. Then just seeing them in person, is, is like so surreal."

"I know. I know." Jillian pointed to Paul. "That's the director."

"Places," Paul announced.

"They're going to start," Jillian whispered.

Chance laid down on the mattress. A member of the crew moved in front of him, blocking Victoria's view as she adjusted the sheets and prepared the shot.

Victoria frowned. "I can't see."

"Shhh." Jillian grimaced.

When the crew member moved away, there was a huge tent under the sheet at the hunky actor's groin?

"I knew he was big," Victoria whispered.

"What?" Jillian chuckled quietly. "No, he's–"

"Action!"

Jillian covered her mouth with one finger and Victoria nodded, biting her lips together.

Amanda Joseph got down on her knees and gazed mesmerized at her young costar's shirtless body with the sheet draped just over his belly button. Slowly, hesitantly she reached for the sheet, taking hold of it and folding it down exposing his tented boxer shorts. She gasped.

"Cut!" Paul stepped on to the set. "Great. Quickly let's set up for the next shot."

Chance remained still as the crew member returned and this time kneeling down, went to work on the star's boxer shorts.

Victoria smiled, turning to Jillian. "This is going to be great."

Jillian narrowed her eyes. "Wait, you don't really—"

"Action!"

Turning back to face the set, Victoria saw none of Chance's supposedly massive penis as it was blocked by the back of Amanda's head. She took a step left then her jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide as she spotted the black dildo sticking out of Chance's boxers. She cried out, "WHAT!"

All eyes turned to Victoria. Paul scowled. "CUT!"

Jillian froze horrified. "I told you that—"

"He's not really hard." Victoria interrupted, scowling. "What the hell is this?"

"Shut up!" Jillian whispered.

"Who are you?" Paul headed over, glancing first to Jillian who returned an apologetic shrug.

"Um, this is my friend Victoria."

"Paul is it?" Victoria asked.