Page 89 of Stone Promises

“Thad, move your hand up higher,” David says. “You need to cover her nipple. Yeah, that’s good. Now tilt your shoulders to your right so we can get a clean shot. Okay, good. Courtney, lean your head back against the rock a little more; expose your throat. Nice. Okay. Let’s go people. Let’s get it this time. Stand by.”

“Cameras rolling,” Jonah, the lead camera operator says.

The clapboard makes an appearance and then David calls, “Action.”

And then I watch my boyfriend, my love, my life, kiss and grope another woman for the third take today. And this isn’t even the worst part. They’re not naked yet. They still have their pants on. They’ve been shooting close-up shots of their heads and chests for the last two hours. Unfortunately for me, they left these scenes to do last thing, and all I’ve been doing today is obsessing over how it would go.

The cast and crew have been giving me strange looks all day. I guess they feel sorry for me, having to stand around and watch this. Chad tells me it’s quite common to have significant others watch love scenes. I don’t know how they handle it. Because I just want to vomit.

I close my eyes and hope it will be over soon. David yells, “Cut! Nicely done.” Then makeup and costume rush to them before the next scene. They spray beads of sweat on Chad’s back and fix Courtney’s hair to look more mussed up.

When David calls action again, I watch Courtney and Chad tear each other’s pants off and then Chad presses her into the rock, grinding against her while kissing her once more. The scene ends and makeup comes over to brush something across Chad’s ass. I guess they don’t think it’s perfect the way it is. Stupid, stupid women. I bet they love their jobs right about now.

Chad looks over at me while his hands are still on Courtney. He knows what’s coming next.Iknow what’s coming next. He gives me the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen. He holds my stare, telling me with his eyes all the things I need to hear. Then he tells me with his lips as he mouths,I love you.

Then he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them, I can see the transformation from Chad Stone to Lt. Jake Cross. He’s not my boyfriend anymore, he’s a superstar. He’s a man doing what he was born to do. And despite how I feel about what he’s doing right this minute, I have an overwhelming sense of pride when I look at him.

“Let’s do this in one take, people,” David says as John looks at me with sympathetic eyes.

I move off to the side so I can barely see what they are doing. The more obscure I can make this, the better. I don’t watch the monitors; those make it look too real. I watch the actors. I watch Chad lift Courtney into his arms, pressing her back against the massive boulder as he simulates moving inside her. I listen to them moan with pleasure. I watch his lips move down her neck like they have a hundred times on mine. And when it gets to be too much, I look over at the cameras and the microphones and the tents and trailers just to remind myself it’s not real.

Then I watch Courtney throw her head back in ecstasy as my boyfriend makes her come. I hear Chad shout into the canyon as he simulates his own orgasm. I feel my heart lurch in my chest as a vise grips it, getting tighter and tighter until it almost snaps me in two.

I feel hot tears stream down my face as I watch my boyfriend make love to his ex.

I double over and put my hands on my knees, embarrassed that I’m having this visceral reaction. I’ve never been so happy to hear the words, “Cut. Print that.”

I discreetly wipe my eyes as I watch Chad and Courtney put their robes on. I take a breath for what feels like the first time in hours. Finally, Noreen comes up behind me. She’s left me alone this afternoon. I think everyone knows I didn’t want to be handled. I needed to get through this myself.

Chad is watching me, clearly needing to get to me, but someone has pulled him aside. Courtney is walking back to her trailer but stops when she sees me. We haven’t talked much over the course of filming, but when we have, she’s been nothing less than professional and insanely nice.

She smiles at me, but it’s a sad smile. “He’s all yours now,” she says. “You are one lucky woman. I hope you know that.”

There’s no ill intent. No malice in her words. Just sincerity. I wish she and Chad hadn’t dated. Not just for obvious reasons, but because I like her. I think we could have been great friends. I watch her walk back to her trailer. And I’m almost positive I see her wipe a tear off her face when she gets there. She loves him. She loves him like Julian loved me. She gets to pretend Chad is hers, but at the end of the day, he goes home with me. And for the first time, I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for her because I know what she’s missing. And I’m pretty sure she does, too.

There’s some commotion by Chad. He’s being put back into costume which confuses me because I thought they were done. Usually, when David goes off set, that means they call it a day. But John asks everyone to get set up for one last shot over at the rock formation they used for Chad’s climb scene last week. As everyone scrambles to get the cameras and the gear, John walks over to me. “We need to re-shoot the climb. It shouldn’t take long. You can wait over there.”

Chad shrugs at me and walks over to take his place.

There isn’t much pomp and circumstance, they don’t even go through all the normal motions of shooting a scene. I guess if they just need some extra footage to work into what they already have, it’s not such a big deal.

Chad easily scales the rock that is only fifteen feet high where they have him climb. It looks much higher from the viewpoint they get on camera. When he gets to the top, he looks down on me with a huge smile. “Mallory, you have to see this,” he calls down to me. “The sunset will be awesome from up here.”

I look around at the crew, embarrassed that he’s spoken to me when he should be filming. Nobody else seems as surprised. I give him a ‘WTF’ look and he laughs. John’s assistant comes over, bringing me a harness. She kneels down and waits for me to put my feet through. “What’s going on here?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “I just work here,” she says. “I do what they tell me.”

She secures me into the gear and I put on rock-climbing shoes that just happen to be my size. She escorts me to the bottom of the rock formation. I look up at Chad, still freaked out by what he wants me to do. He wants me to climb up to him. In front of everyone. I’ve only done this a half dozen times. I’m awkward and unskilled. They will laugh at me. If he wanted to go climbing, why didn’t he just send everyone away?

“Come on, Mal,” Chad yells down at me. “Live a little.”

I look at the crew just standing about. And I think someone left the camera rolling. “Uh, you guys don’t have to hang around.”

“We know,” John says, but nobody moves an inch.

I guess they don’t think I can do it. Or they plan to catch me if the rope breaks and I fall. I find my footing and climb as fast as I can. Faster than I’ve ever done it before. The last thing I need are people staring at my ass longer than necessary.

When I make it to the top, Chad pulls me into his arms. I reluctantly let him, after all, there are people watching us. And I’m pretty sure the crowd grew bigger on my way up.

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