HOT SET: Playing with Fidelity (A romantic suspense novel) (13 page)

Kate
stopped outside and filled her lungs with air-conditioned oxygen, mortified beyond living. It was her first day on a big movie and rather than the controlled, experienced professional she’d been planning to portray, a toddler would have left a better impression. Where was that swallowing earth when she needed it?

S
he looked for the door to the Stage before realising she had no idea where it was.

“
Left.” Rhys Bradford’s deep voice startled her and she snapped her head around so fast, she strained a muscle in her neck and grunted. He looked amused. An older woman in a well-cut black suit stood in the door behind him.

“
Thanks,” Kate rasped, rubbing the ache out of her neck. Taking a few steps in that direction, sure enough, across the entrance atrium, was the heavy sound-proof door. She scurried along the dove-grey carpet trying to outrun the humiliation and the mega-star strolling leisurely behind. She had a feeling he was observing her but not giving in to curiosity, wandered through the sound lock and into the impossibly huge void that was Stage 6.

Kate
immediately felt insignificant in the enormous concrete cavern. There were no windows, only an exceptionally large yellow door on one side big enough for a semi-trailer truck to drive in. Thick, multi-coloured pipes coursed each wall through thick, navy-coloured sound proofing foam. Suspended from the roof were wide air conditioning ducts located above a large grid of red steel beams strong enough to support sets and lighting equipment.

The
enormous space was busy with dozen builders constructing sets that would eventually be the inside shooting locations. To her left was a laboratory that looked like it was straight out of scene from High School Musical. Otherwise, three other 2 x 4 board skeletons were spread evenly across the white painted floor. Piles of props being organised were spread in ordered squares with a prop master and set dresser buzzing around them.

To her right, against the wall she’d just entered
, were a few groupings of chairs and two large fold out tables. One carried coffee and tea; at the other was Barry trying to reorganise his piles of papers into understandable chaos whilst simultaneously reading today’s production report.

She walked straight over with her hand extended to Barry in a gesture of
peace. “Hi, I’m Kate.” She thought it was cool her voice didn’t echo.

“
Nice to meet you, Kate. Next time, please be on time. I need you to start work on scene two with Astro Boy, there.” Kate grinned at Barry and moved off towards Rhys, who was talking to the dark-suited woman she presumed must be his EA, and going over some paperwork with her.

Rhys
saw Kate coming, said, “thanks Mira” to the woman who left quickly, and the two of them walked to a set of chairs against the wall where Kate dropped her bag. She felt awkward and unusually uncommunicative.

“
I suppose we should introduce ourselves,” Rhys said, breaking into the awkward silence. Kate nodded.

“
You start,” he prompted.

“
Right. Umm, I’m Kate Johnson. Born and raised in New Zealand, came to Sydney to study at NIDA…”

“
Ah, a NIDA girl,” he interrupted.

S
he paused and raised an eyebrow. Sitting down and crossing a leg she asked up at him, “Something wrong with NIDA?”

“
Nothing if you’re from Sydney.”

“
I’m not from Sydney. So what’s wrong with it?”

“
I went to the Conservatory in Brisbane – direct competition. Sort of like the Broncos and the Manly Sea Eagles.”

“
Oh, soccer, right?”

“
Good grief, surely you know who the Broncos are?” She looked amused and he laughed and plopped his long frame in a chair opposite her.

“
Only someone who went to NIDA would think the Broncos are a soccer team.”

“
Well, it must be a one-sided competitiveness. NIDA students know they’re at the best acting school in Australia so there was no need to acknowledge the other academies.” Kate lifted one eyebrow at him.

“
Of course you’d think that – the whole false security, thing.”

“
I don’t have a sense of false security; it’s your inferior education that’s mistaken.”

Kate watched in
amazement as Rhys burst out laughing. Even more amazing was she’d just had an easy sparring conversation with an A-list movie star. She’d actually forgotten who he was for a moment.

Over Kate’s shoulder, Rhys noticed
Barry’s thin lips disappearing into a scowl.

“
Oops. As much as I’m enjoying you being wrong, we need to get going or Barry will lose his lips.”

“
I’m at your bidding.”

“
Oh, I hope so,” he mumbled.

Kate
blushed uncomfortably at his low words and picked up her script, turning to scene seven.

“
You read the girl bits,” he said.

“
Thanks Einstein.”

“
I’m helping.”

“
Like a match underwater.”

“
Because you’d been to NIDA, I figured you’d need to know what parts to read.”

“
Stuffy aren’t you.”

“
Completely. Now are we going to do these lines?”

“
Yes, when you stop talking to me.”

“
That’s right, we’re not meant to be talking.”

“
Makes it hard to read our lines, huh.”

“
Only if you’re from NIDA. I can multi-task.”

“
This NIDA thing is getting old really fast.”

“
Only because you’re losing.”

“
Childish.”

“
You know me well already.” He grinned his mega-star grin at her and she felt her insides melt just a little. She pulled the image of Mark into her head and regaining her focus read the slug line at the top of the scene to get into character.

“
Stephen, have you seen this?”

“
Stephen? Oh yeah, sorry.” Rhys flicked through the script folder until he found the page.

“
Seen what?”

“
This fax?”

“
No. Who’s it from?”

“
It’s from the Northern Territory Geological Survey.” She turned the page in her folder. “Dear Mr Connor. I’m writing to bring to your attention a recent discovery in the N’Dhala Gorge Nature Park.

“
Last week, after a freak rain-storm, one of our rangers went missing for five days. We found him unconscious on the side of a trail, barely alive. He woke up properly two days ago and has since told us that he was washed into an underground cavern and when trying to get out, found a very large, petroglyph gallery in a cave corridor. He can’t remember exactly where he saw it, but we’ve a pretty good idea of the general area. We made some calls and heard about your thesis on Northern Territory Aboriginal rock art and thought you should know. You can reach me on the below numbers and email if you’re interested… signed Richard Akala. Sounds good.”

“
Sounds dangerous.”

“
So?”

“
Not interested.”

“
Come on Stephen – it could be the petroglyph find of the century!”

“
I have the ANKAAA project…Ankah? Anka-a-a? How do you pronounce that?”

“
I think it’s just Ankar.”

“
Right.”

“
I think it’s a real organisation. Australian and Northern something or rather.”

“
Will Google it later.”

“
You do that.”

They continued to
alternate rehearsing and sparring with each other for the remainder of the morning. He then surprised her by inviting her to sit with him and his Executive Assistant at the lunch table and chat over assorted cardboard sandwiches, reconstituted orange juice and weak coffee. Mira, left soon after Kate joined them, leaving her boss to talk. Kate would soon realise this was normal behaviour for Mira.

“
She seems very efficient,” said Kate.

“
Mira? She is. I’ve become pathetically reliant on her. She comes everywhere with me and turns a blind eye when she has to. Do you have an EA?”

“
No, I don’t need one.”

“
Fair enough.” Rhys took a bite of his sandwich, “this is terrible”.

“
Yeah, but then surely you’ve eaten worse than this?”

“
Oh yes. I spent a year travelling across The States when I first tried to break into showbiz and there were some serious dumps I worked in. Deep fried fat sprinkled with sugar. Yum.”

“
Divine. Was it hard for you to get your break?”

“
Yeah. Demoralising. Cruel, mean business. I tried for eighteen months in L.A. then gave up. Found my first real break in theatre in New York and from there it was much easier.”

“
I can remember you in
The Big Blue
. It was one of your earliest?”

“
Yeah, my first big speaking part.”

“
Do you miss the non-famous life?”

“
Yeah, I really do. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I miss being able to walk down the road as an anonymous face. My family keep me grounded. It’s pretty lonely at the top, lots of pretenders you know.” For some reason he stopped. “Listen to me rattling on, what about you? How’d you start?”

Kate
gave a brief rundown on her brief career thus far and expressed how surprised she was to land this role.

“
It was crazy; my family went ballistic.”

“
So they’re in New Zealand?”

“
Yeah, just above Wellington.”

“
Do you miss home?”

The softly spoken question made her react unexpectedly: her eyes filled with tears
. She rubbed at them quickly, pretending her eye itched, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

She
sniffed, “yeah”.

She smiled at him and he felt
a squirming in his stomach that closely resembled attraction. He couldn’t remember talking with someone so easily outside his mates and family. Kate hadn’t mentioned a partner and she wasn’t wearing a ring… maybe there is some possibility of… no, don’t even think about it. Not on the first day he’d met her and not with Amelia waiting for him in Los Angeles.

He stood
up, “we’d better get back to it.”

On the way home, Kate was amazed at how well the day had ended. The first few hours would be relegated into the depths of obscurity forever but Rhys turned out to be such a nice guy, she was looking forward to working with him.

The only scene she was worried about was Scene 27… the kiss. Did kissing a movie star change your life? Turn you into a spiritual being or something equally
ethereal? But she had months before she had to worry about that.

S
he pulled into a local shopping centre car park to pick up steak and some indulgent ice cream for a celebratory dinner.

Kate
was on the side walk in front of the shopping centre, day dreaming about what flavour ice cream she’d get when she heard her name called, “Kate!”

Being pulled out of her reverie, she scanned the immediate area for the person who’d called
. A woman who looked familiar rushed over to her, pushing a pram whilst two other young children followed closely. Then, Kate recognised her.

“
Patrice?”

“
Kate!” Patrice threw her arms around Kate delightedly.

“
You look… incredible!” Kate exclaimed.

“
Thank you!”

And she did. Gone was the timid woman that
had served Norm Treyelli beef instead of his beloved prawns. Patrice’s hair had been cut into a becoming bob with loose feathers around her face and highlighted with blond streaks. Behind the trendy glasses, Kate could see some light make-up and silver hoop earrings. She was wearing black knee-high boots, dark slim fit jeans and a well-cut, loose silver top that hid her tummy but sat stylishly on her hips and showed a touch of cleavage. A short, multi-coloured unzipped jacket completed her outfit.

“
Kate, I’ve been hoping to run into you again!”

“
Why?”

“
To thank you! I kicked him out, Kate; I left the bastard.” The grin that followed was contagious; a stark contrast to Kate’s confused expression.