Page 47 of Home to Me

He had not even looked at her in the weekly production meeting.

He had skipped out on their wardrobe fitting, rescheduling (Barb and Marlene had informed her conspiratorially) for a time when she wouldn't be there.

And then, yesterday at the ADR session—which she learned on her own is when they dub over their lines—he didn’t make eye contact with her at all, even though they were in a small sound booth and sharing the same mic.

She should’ve learned her lesson. You would certainly think she would have after New York. Getting involved with people you work with was a bad idea. Yep. Bad with a capital B. She didn’t even think about that before she and Ben hooked up because, honestly, this didn’t feel like work to her. At least not the kind of work she was used to.

But even on short-term projects in the future, she would need to remember that “dipping your pen in the company ink”—as Karina had so brashly phrased it—was not a good idea.

Now they were about to head out of town again, this time to Palm Springs. She wondered if he would be able to pull off ignoring her for the length of a car ride, a flight, and then another car ride. She bet he could.

Not wanting to risk a repeat of last week's scrambling fiasco, Lauren stood outside waiting for the town car despite the freezing temperatures. This time was different all around. She had composed a detailed packing list and executed it the day before. Most importantly, she had set three separate alarms just to make sure she did not oversleep.

She sighed contentedly, though, thinking about the fact that today they were headed to shoot a property in Palm Springs. She loved Palm Springs. The air, the light, the scorching dry heat. She had stayed on the outskirts several times at Ranchos Las Palmas and had never failed to feel utterly rejuvenated after a weekend there.

But, she reminded herself, this was work, and she needed to keep that in the forefront of her mind. She needed to focus on the job at hand so that she wouldn't fall victim to temptation and start obsessing about Ben again, which could taint her performance.

The town car pulled up to the curb and Lauren climbed in, relieved to be out of the cold. Sure, she knew that she could’ve waited in the house, but she was still stinging from last week's humiliation. She was not a halfway kind of a girl. Go big or go home. She didn’t want them to have to wait on her for a single instant.

The driver, the same gentleman as the week before, quickly got out and opened the door for her while she got in, circling around after she was safely inside to load her luggage into the trunk.

She thanked him warmly and settled into the back seat of the town car.

Ben was typing away on his laptop and, for all outward appearances, was so involved in his work that he didn't even notice her getting into the car.

Heh.

Two could play at that game.

She got her laptop out and powered it up. She was behind on so much real estate paperwork that it certainly wasn't like she needed to fake a need to work, she told herself. Not like Mr. I Have Two Assistants I'd Trust With My Life over there, clicking away officiously on the keys.

She just knew that, if she were to sneak a glance, he'd probably just be updating his Facebook.

As it had so many other times in her life when she needed it to, work provided a welcome oblivion. She got involved in going over several contracts that needed her attention, and before she knew it, the ride to the Reno-Tahoe airport seemed to have gone by in a flash.

Hey, maybe Ben’s cold shoulder was a good thing, she thought.

But then why did she just really miss his smile?

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Oh, for the love of God, why did she have to smell so good?

Ben was trying everything in his power to block out any effect that Lauren had on him. It wasn't easy. Sure, not looking at her helped. It was slightly more difficult when she spoke. Damn, he loved her voice. When she spoke, it almost sounded musical.

And it wasn't just her voice he loved. It was also her words. She was careful, thoughtful, and articulate. Some people he knew used big words to try and make themselves seem more important, but it read false on them. Not Lauren. Her vocabulary was larger than the average person's and she knew how to use it. He found that sexy as hell.

Even that he could somewhat block out of his mind.

But her smell. Damn, her smell. It was intoxicating. It made it difficult for him to think. It infiltrated his brain with its feathery tendrils and wove her magic spell over him. He had never even noticed another woman’s scent before beyond the passing thought that he liked the perfume they were wearing that day. But with Lauren, he couldn’t un-notice it. It was always wrapped around him like a warm blanket. He couldn't shake it, and that pissed him off.

He’d been able to avoid her in makeup and even completely ignore her during their flight and car rides, but now he would have to face the music. They had to shoot, and as welcome a relief as it had been to allow himself the immature concession of pretending she didn’t exist, that would all have to stop now. He had a job to do, one that he was absolutely not going to allow to suffer due to his ego...or whatever part of him it was that she had damaged.

To his utter frustration, though, he found himself unable to be completely at ease with her, even when the cameras started rolling. Their dynamic was stiff and unnatural. There was none of the comfort and chemistry that made them, as a team, so compelling to watch.

He could see by the worried crinkling of Paul's eyes as he watched the monitor, that his suspicions were correct and this day of shooting was circling the drain.

Okay, he thought, maybe this tension between us only exists because we haven't addressed it. Maybe if we just had a quick conversation and agreed to be more civil, that would work.

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