Page 29 of A Lucky Shot

“We’re not shooting for months, although you never know when we might get surprise snow.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Nope.” Stephen rolled up his sleeves and turned his face to bask in the sun pouring in through the open windows. “Man, it’s good to be home.”

“Home’s a ninety-minute flight away. You could go back every once in a while and stop eating all my food.”

“Nah. You’d miss me too much.”

“Doubt it.”

“You finally going to add me to your DND list?”

Josh hissed out a pained sigh. When—no, if—any emergencies happened during filming, Stephen would need full, immediate access to him. “Yes,” he said grudgingly.

“Oh sweetheart, I love this new step in our relationship.”

“Fuck off.”

A series of chirps pinged Josh’s phone as he flicked it off airplane mode, adding Stephen’s contact info to his short emergency list. After a quick reply to his mom and swiping a few conversations with women into the trash without reading, a twinge of disappointment plucked at his ribs. Nothing. He didn’t expect anything from Cass anymore. It had been weeks since she’d replied to his texts, his last one being

Heading out of town for a bit

You should call me sometime

If he found out she’d been in Van while he was away, he’d bust down a wall.

Or maybe not. He thought they’d had fun. Trading movie recs and spicy pics, more of the former than the latter. No more of her morning selfies with her giant fancy coffees and sweet smile. Or that one pic where she’d had her curls held back with a scarf like a fifties movie star. Too fucking cute.

For some reason, she’d ghosted. Who knew why. Maybe she got bored. Maybe she got a boyfriend.

Josh scowled at his phone one last time before shoving it in his pocket.

The town car zipped through the mid-morning traffic on unfamiliar streets. The city was still a black box. He’d been out once for a meeting, flying home the same evening. Seen photos of location checks, but not enough to get a feel for the place. He felt like he was going in blind.

It was a good fucking thing he trusted Stephen.

Between landing and the team-lead production meeting starting in an hour, there was no time to stop at their rental apartments. The car dropped them in front of what passed for a heritage building in the west. A brick building still shy of a hundred years old. The scaffolding affixed to the front showed renovations underway.

Great. Now they’d have to deal with construction noise during production meetings.

A perky young woman who introduced herself as Bex the PA, bounced out of the front doors to lead them to the meeting room, pointing out Josh’s office and Melanie’s corner suite as she led them down the hall. He glanced in as they passed by. He wouldn’t argue for the bigger space, even if she’d rarely be here. There’d be other battles he’d need to fight.

He hadn’t argued for much after he’d gotten what he wanted. The most important thing was that he was directing. He could work his way around everything else. Melanie got who she wanted for casting, because of course she did. Hiring Stephen as his first AD meant he didn’t have his usual production coordinator. The entire grip and electrical department were based in Calgary. Location scouts, too, obviously. Plus, props and costume and everything else the storm of emails had covered in the weeks since he negotiated the deal to get him out here.

He and Melanie had spent enough time together hammering out every detail of the next several months that Josh knew what she wanted from makeup to set design. Hell, he could probably name her brand of tampons.

Of course, Melanie insisted Brynne have the lead role. Good thing he had gender-flipped the main characters. Brynne would never accept another arm-candy role, and she pulled enough star power that, save the most misogynistic “fans,” movie goers would laud, or at least tolerate, the changes. He hoped.

Miraculously, film rights for the novel hadn’t been secured, and the author had been so passive through initial negotiations that Josh had quietly asked her who her representation was. When she replied she didn’t know she’d needed one, Josh sent her the names of a few contacts. Negotiations were rougher after that, but fuck if he would let someone get creamed from lack of savvy. Josh had combed through the contract for a day and a half after the studio’s lawyers had their fingerprints on it and found a few loose ends to tie up before he’d given the go-ahead for the final sign off.

Dozens of people had their fingerprints on his baby before a second of film had been shot.

“Look at you, being a team player,” Stephen said, beaming like a proud dad. Josh scowled in return.

Josh claimed a seat in the empty meeting room, facing the door, ready to stare down anyone sauntering in after the scheduled start time. He scoured the agenda: twelve people, and not a single one was early for their first in-person meeting. A bunch of people he didn’t know and therefore didn’t trust, but Stephen knew Terry from when he worked here early in his career, and Josh trusted Stephen, so by proxy …

“Chill, dude,” Stephen said, fidgeting with his pen and snatching glances at the door.

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