Page 33 of Between the Lines

Thank goodness for a team that was committed to not just putting on a great show but maintaining a great work environment as well. Everybody was on the same wavelength, committed to bringing in the right energy and making sure it was maintained.

It wasn’tsexyon set.

That wasn’t the vibe—we were working.

We talked with the intimacy coordinators and Charlotte, going through what we’d been over and loosely rehearsed the night before one more time, just to make sure everything was understood.

And then…we stepped outside of ourselves.

Not Elodie and Shaw.

Luna and Silas, passionately kissing and unable to keep their hands off each other, stripping clothes off, making love, all perfectly choreographed. We shot it all several times—close-ups, wide angles, different directions, everything the editors would need to take it from a bunch of raw footage to a real scene.

It was…difficult.

I was grateful for every break built into the day—I needed them to recenter myself.

It was a stressful line to ride—staying disconnected enough to not be a fucking creep, while infusing the acting with the real intimacy, vulnerability, and passion the scene required…

It was a relief to be done.

Finally.

We’d both gonestraightto our private spaces in our trailers as soon as the scene was wrapped. I didn’t know what she wentto do, butIwent directly to a shower to release everything that had built up over the day.

Thank God we wouldn’t have another scene like that for several weeks. We were both done for the day now, actually—Charlotte and Nolan had agreed, after coming in hot this week.

No pun intended.

After the incident with Ellie at the restaurant, they made her take two days off, and then we went immediately into catch-up mode, blazing through scenes as fast as we could while maintaining the quality. Because of that, now that we were a week removed from that whole mess, we were back on schedule with everyone else.

And now that we’d finished that pivotal scene, wecouldtake off early today.

Once I was dressed though, I went to the little kitchenette to attack the early dinner someone had dropped off—I was ravenous. We’d been at it all day, with little more than a snack here and there—not that food hadn’t been provided, but neither of us apparently had the stomach for it.

I was making up for it now.

“Come in,” I answered, mouth full, when I heard a knock at the door. I looked up as it swung open to see Ellie’s face peeking in.

“So…that was intense.”

“I was kinda thinking a different word,” I admitted with a cringe, and she laughed.

“Awkward? Yeah, that too. You don’t think it’ll come across on screen, do you?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Nolan is an asshole—he would have said something.”

She nodded. “You’re probably right.”

I didn’t mind Nolan Brooks that much personally, and I didn’t get the feeling Ellie did either.

Charlotte, though?

Charlotte hated his ass.

He was the showrunner brought on by the network, put in place to keep the budget in line and make sure the network values were ever-present in the show. He had a talent for making a good show for sure, but, per his reputation, he wanted the most out of everybody, for the least possible—while still paying everyone fairly—expense.

An energy was antithetical to Charlotte’s way of doing things.

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