“What do you mean, you will get someone else?” she screamed at poor Mr. Hamilton. He looked exhausted. “I said replace him. I will not work with him!”
Well, there went my perfect picture of her.
“Excuse me!” I stepped forward. Mr. Hamilton looked relieved at my presence even though he looked past me for Theo.
“And who are you?” she snapped.
Good question. “I’m Mr. Darcy’s personal assistant. He had another appointment today but wanted me to convey a message for him.” I turned to Mr. Hamilton, who stared at me in confusion. “Where is the other actor?”
“He’s in the living room.”
“Please follow me, Ms. Day. I’ll talk to you both together.” I didn’t wait for her. I was already moving into the house, which in my mind would always be Mr. and Mrs. Beauchamp’s home, despite whatever it may be in real life.
In the very same room I’d had my acting debut across from Theo, was a man whose real name, I believed, was Alexander something. I had seen him in action movies, but I couldn’t place him. He was dressed for the part of Ernest, only his black hair was more slicked back and he wore his suspenders off his shoulders.
“Who are you?”
I didn’t answer, looking around at the crew. “Ladies and gentlemen, do you mind giving us a moment please?”
They looked relieved to not have to be around either of the actors. Deborah sat on the other end of the red couch like she was repelled by him. He rolled his eyes at her and looked the other way.
“As I told Ms. Day, my name is Felicity Harper. I’m Theodore Darcy’s personal assistant.”
“Why isn’t he here?” Deborah huffed and crossed her legs.
“Because he doesn’t have time to deal with actors with inflated egos. He’s the CEO of a company, not your therapist or your fan,” I yelled at her. “And just so you know, if your fans knew this was the type of person you were, believe me, they wouldn’t waste their time with you either.”
Alexander giggled as if he were twelve but quit immediately when my eyes drifted to him. “And you… the fact that I can’t remember your full name proves you have not made it far enough to be acting like such a diva.”
“Told you,” Deborah muttered under her breath.
“Your options are simple: grow up and figure out how to work with each other, or not only will we replace you both, regardless of your contracts, but we’ll make sure to sue, forcing you to pay for every last wasted day of production. We will also publicly cite our reasons, and I’m sure there are more than enough people here willing to vouch for how horrible you’ve made this experience. I don’t give a damn about who you people are. This is supposed to be your work! In real life, millions of people wake up every day and work with someone they hate because they have to. I know people working in diners who would kill for this moment. Not only are you both unprofessional but a disgrace to every person who dreams of being in front of a camera. Get over yourselves or go away.”
I was sure my face was red, I was so angry at them.
Deborah coughed as she sat up. “I’ll talk to my agent—”
“You do that because I’m sure they won’t be your agent for long once we put out to every entertainment company and agency that you are impossible to work with. Hollywood isn’t as big as it seems. Besides, Deborah, aren’t you getting a little up there? Sad fact is it becomes much harder to be an older actress unless you are Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she thought about it for a moment before she looked at Alexander, who had his hands clasped together and was staring at the floor.
“And me?” he asked.
“I told you I don’t even know your full name. You would just disappear from the limelight. It happens all the time.”
“Fine,” she said. “We will do our best.”
“Yeah. We’ll try.” He nodded.
“Great. I’ll stick around for a few scenes, but do know if anything happens, I will be back and then you should have your agents and your lawyers present.” I headed out to the front of the house. Everyone was crowded around the monitors in the corner, but when they saw me, they jumped up and pretended to be working.
I moved toward Mr. Hamilton, who rose from a chair and smiled at me.
“What was going on out here?”
“We may have forgotten to turn off the audio inside the house,” he said innocently, giving me causal shrug.
“Well, hopefully they start acting a little better now.”
“Yeah, but when did Mr. Darcy change his plan?”
“What?”
He pulled out a phone. “He texted me he would speak with Deborah and look for a replacement for Alexander at the end of the week.”
Shit.
“Director, they said they’re ready!” someone yelled from the door.
“Be right there,” he called back. “Thanks, really. You even shocked a few of us back to our senses. I’ll have them put out a chair for you.”
I waved him off, hoping I hadn’t screwed up Theo’s plans.
Theo
“She what?” I sat up in bed, cell phone pressed to my ear.
“She didn’t want to go into town. Instead she claimed to be your personal assistant and gave both actors a tongue-lashing the likes of which I’ve never seen, then swore that Darcy Entertainment would sue them for the cost of disrupting the fill schedule,” Nolan said.
If my throat hadn’t hurt so much, I would have laughed. Only she would be bold enough to yell at a two-time Oscar-winning actress.
“How did they take it?”
“Filming has gone on smoothly, and she’s sitting in the corner like a hawk. A few of the staff are even afraid of her.”
Felicity was one of a kind. It seemed like even when she wasn’t working, she still gave herself something to do.
“Thank you, Nolan. Keep me informed if anything changes.”
“Of course, sir.”
Hanging up, I thought of calling her but instead dialed Deborah Day’s agent. Technically Felicity had been wrong. We couldn’t sue Deborah Day personally. And due to her contract, we couldn’t just kick her off the movie. But it seemed she hadn’t read her contract in detail, and I wasn’t about to tell her that.
“Your assistant yelled at my actress,” her agent said when he answered the phone.
“She did, and you should be thankful. This won’t be the third movie Deborah would have been taken off for personal reasons. It’s been six years since her last film. She needs a hit. People are forgetting her name.”
He sighed. “I never said I wasn’t thankful. I told her to do her job. But why are you so involved in this, Mr. Darcy? It isn’t even your movie.”
“Technically any movie by Darcy Entertainment is my movie even if I’m not directing. Just make sure she stays in check. This will get messy otherwise.”
As soon as I hung up, another call came in. My mother. I didn’t want to do this with her now, but she would just keep calling. “Mother.”
“You sound sick.”
I coughed. “I am but getting better.”
“Where are you? I called the office, and they said you were on the set of a movie?”
“I’m in North Carolina. I’m producing a movie.”
“Honestly, Theodore, you shouldn’t overstretch yourself. Between management and the gala, you don’t have time to produce. Make sure to do something for yourself.”
“I am. I brought someone with me.” I smiled.
“Not the girl you brought to the house?”
Here it came. She was very particular about the women around her sons. Sometimes I even pitied Tori. “What about her?”
“She’s a waitress.” No matter how she tried to say it, it still came off snobbish.
“Well, as of this morning, she apparently became my personal assistant.” I got out of bed, still a little bit dizzy, and headed to the bathroom.
“You can’t be serious. Did she even go to college???
?
“Mother—”
“Theodore, I’m glad you’re moving on, but I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
Why was everyone so damn worried about me getting fucking hurt? I was a grown man. If I got hurt, I got hurt and moved on.
“Mother, I like her. As of now, I’m with her. I really don’t care if she’s a waitress, or whether or not she went to college. Please get used to that. I’m sorry. I have to go.”
“Fine. Love you.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I heard her sigh before hanging up. She was still waiting for me to say the words back, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Felicity
1:04 p.m.
“So, you’re his personal assistant?”
I glanced up from the script to look at Charlie, the woman with short blue hair, who had done my makeup yesterday. She handed me a bottle of water and took a seat beside me.
“Whose personal assistant?” I accepted the water.
She tilted her head to the side. “Mr. Darcy? That’s what he said.”
“Oh… yes.” This was the thing about lying. Once you started, you had to keep at it. “Sorry. I was so focused on this story. I’m doing my best not to skip to the end.”
“It must be really interesting working for a man like him. I can’t figure him out. He’s very cold, yet he does things like fund a brand new director’s movie.” We glanced at Mr. Hamilton, who looked much better now that the filming was going fine. “All of us were wondering where he came from. But apparently he was working as a hotel janitor. He basically threw this script at Mr. Darcy while he was on the way to the bathroom. The next day he’s being called into Darcy Entertainment, and now he has his film. Crazy, right? Who does that?”
Theodore Darcy.
“It just goes to show you,” she went on, slipping me a photo. “Sometimes real life is better than the movies. I hope you have a good day.”
I pulled the sticky note off the photo and read: No one else saw but me. We got there as the rain started. It was so cute I had to take it. :)
She had taken a photo of me in Theo’s arms, kissing under the rain. The only light was coming from the movie screen, but she’d captured our faces perfectly.
“Ms. Harper?”
Nolan was beside me. “The crew is about to break for an hour or two. Would like to go anywhere or have me bring you anything to eat?”
Eat! I’d completely forgotten. Theo might not have gotten up yet.
“Do you know any place I can get soup or something?”
He nodded. “Would you like me to go for you?”
“No, I’ll do it.” I gathered up my things and went to the car. He rushed in front of me, making sure to open the passenger side door for me. “You don’t need to do that.”
“Didn’t you just give a speech about people doing their jobs? Well, Ms. Felicity, this is my job, and I’m proud of it.”
I hadn’t thought about it like that. I wondered how annoyed I’d feel if someone came into the diner and told me not to serve them. Instead of getting in front with him, I took a step back and allowed him to open the door for me.
“Of course, ma’am.”
Leaning against the backseat, I flipped to where I was in the script. I wanted to know how Margaret and Ernest ended up, and as I read I thought they wouldn’t get any happy ending, despite the fact that they both loved each other. Ernest tried to get back to the life he had before the war, but he just couldn’t. He was breaking down and pulling her with him. The scene Theo had read to me was actually the saddest. Margaret didn’t get into the car. She didn’t choose him, which was ironic because she so badly wanted him in the beginning. The story skipped to Ernest alone in the house, holding the handkerchief Margaret had made him. His final line was:
I’ll always love her, I’ll always think of her, and hopefully one day, she’ll find room in her heart to love me again.
Theo
When I heard the door open, I sat up on the couch and closed the book I was reading. She came in with an assortment of bags and kicked off her heels.
“And here I thought you didn’t go shopping?” I smiled, getting up and going to her.
“You’re up.” She smiled at me as if seeing me for the first time in weeks. “I got food!”
“All of this is food?” I asked, taking a few bags from her.
“Yep. I was originally going to get just soup, but I got hungry, and each place Nolan took me to was better than the last.”
Proving her point, she pulled out pimento cheese sandwiches, damson plum jam, butter biscuits, clam chowder, something called muscadines, which looked like blackberries, and scuppernongs, which looked like fat grapes. Adding to her haul were two bottles of wine and finally the soup she’d mentioned.
“Do you have enough food, Felicity?” I tried a muscadine; they were really sweet.
“I haven’t eaten all day and besides, I figured this would be better than me trying and failing to make something again,” she replied as she grabbed the wine bottle and looked for a corkscrew in the kitchen drawers.
“I heard you became my personal assistant today?”
She froze and slowly turned to me. “Who told you?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Skirting the kitchen island, I took her hand, bringing her closer to me. “Thank you for your help today.”
“It was really—”
Kissing her was stiff for a second, the first ever since I had met her. It was only when I cupped her ass that she finally relaxed into me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
She forced a smile, which was a shallow imitation of the one she’d had before. “After this week we should… I’m going to stop this. I just want you to know.”
Nodding, I moved back to the food while she searched for the corkscrew. I was annoyed, but it didn’t last long. The moment I saw the photo of us sticking out from her copy of the script, I slid it to me before turning to glance back at her.
“Honestly, where is that thing?” she muttered to herself, kneeling to reach a lower drawer.
Burying the picture into the script, I went to help her.
“We should have taken a picture while we were in costume yesterday, don’t you think?” I opened the dishwasher and pulled out the corkscrew. Taking the wine bottle from her hands, I opened it.
“Oh well. Besides, we don’t need photos anyway,” she lied as she grasped the script and tucked it into her bag.
I fought the urge to smile. She was trying so damn hard to push me away even when she didn’t want to.
“True. One more week, and we’re done,” I lied and poured her a glass.
I had five more days to make her realize she didn’t really want this to end and neither did I.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sweet, Sweeter, Sinful
Felicity
Day 3
5:56 a.m.
My legs were on fire.
“Theo, where the hell are we going?” I gasped as I walked up the trail behind him. Taking the bottle of water out of my backpack, I drank deeply.
He had woken me up a little over an hour ago, saying he had to show me something. Grumpily, I agreed, and when I got of bed, he’d already laid out hiking clothes for me, along with some shoes.
“Were almost there,” he said, stopping beside me as I took another break. “Or at least we would be if you didn’t stop every few feet.”
“You just had the flu. Shouldn’t you be resting in bed? In fact, we could both be in bed right now and not in the middle of the woods.”
“It’s technically a forest.” He laughed, and I glared at him. “And fresh air is good for the body.”
“Whatever is up this hill better blow my mind,” I muttered, moving past him as if I knew where we were going. “Oh shit!”
“What?”
I jumped behind him, allowing him to see the fucking big-ass snake that had just crawled in front of me. “Kill it!”
“How about if I just move it out of the way?” He reached for a branch, but I took his hand.
“What if it’s poisonous? I like you, Theo, I really do, but there is no way in hell I’m sucking venom out of you.”
He laughed. “Felicity, it’s not poisonous.”
Taking the branch, he lifted it easily and moved it to the side of the road while I checked to see if any of its family was nearby.
“Another new thing I’ve learned about you. You’re afraid of snakes.”
“As everyone should be. I’m worried about the people who aren’t.” I shivered in disgust just thinking about it.
“Come on.” He headed back up the trail, and I stayed closer to him. “Is there anything else you want me to kill on sight? Maybe a baby rabbit?”
“Ha ha. I don’t mind rabbits or anything that has four limbs. But snakes, spiders, and anything else of that nature…. I once saw a spider in my bathroom, and I honestly thought of moving.”
“Also slightly unreasonable.”
“I’m sure you have a fear of something, and when I find out what it is, I’ll never let you live it down.”
He looked to me. “What makes you think you’ll be around that long?”
It kind of felt like he’d slapped me across the face with that.
“We’re here.”
“Wow.” I stopped when we reached the clearing at the top of the hill. There in the center was a giant, colorful hot-air balloon. A man stood inside the basket, waiting for us.
“I wanted us to be in the air when we saw this, but it took us longer than I thought to get up here.” He put his hands on my shoulders, and I tried to ignore the desire to lean into him. He turned me around slowly, allowing me to see the sun as it rose over the treetops. The sky was a mixture of pinks, reds, and golds. Everything went still, and it was stunning.
“Worth waking up early and battling snakes for?” he whispered.