Page 14 of Hot Set

He sauntered away without another word. I frowned and looked at his carton of Chinese. I’d been reduced to cleaning uphismesses now. What a jerk! But damn, there was something kind of admirable about his boldness, his sheer level of just not caring. I wished I could manage that, to care a little less sometimes.

Chapter five

Brandon

There was a time in my life when I thought Seth Doxon was the biggest pain I’d ever have. I was certain many times that I’d actually died, landed myself in Purgatory, and ended up with Seth as my eternal torment, like a harpy with a pitchfork. That was before I met Caitlyn Braden, the leading lady of my film. When I arrived on set and was told she demanded to see me, I knew something bad was coming. I just didn’t knowhowbad.

I walked past Bioncia, brushing glitter on her arm, and Samuel, pinning up the hem of a massive, colonial ballgown. There was Caitlyn, a lanky blonde with an innocent, angelic face and large, blue eyes. Although I’d never been attracted to women, she was unquestionably pretty. Unfortunately, that positive attribute didn’t extend to her attitude. She always hadsomething.

Caitlyn looked up at me and rolled her eyes. “So, there you are.”

“Yes,” I said. “I was checking in on Seth.”

“Oh, well,” Caitlyn said, “I just wanted you to know that I’m not going to be able to pursue this project any longer.”

I stared at her, uncomprehendingly for a few seconds. “I’m sorry?” I eventually asked.

“Look, I just can’t keep dealing with this,” Caitlyn said. “This environment just isn’t conducive for my development as an actress.”

“Not conducive to your development as an actress,” I echoed.

What did that evenmean?

“That’s right,” Caitlyn said, “So, I’ll stay out the week, but after that, I’m out. It’s nothing personal, Brandon. I just have better opportunities that I could be pursuing.”

Seriously? I didn’t doubt that Caitlyn, being pretty and with a semi-impressive CV, could find another acting job. But was she seriously going to drop and leave us in the middle of a production? How were we going to replace her? She was supposed to be our Final Girl, the only survivor of the time-traveling zombie apocalypse. How much could we film in a week? I didn’t know everything there was to know about film, but I’d at least gotten a good gauge on how much we could accomplish.

There was no way we could possibly film all her scenes in a week. We would have to have rewrites. I pinched the bridge of my nose and gazed helplessly at her. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Cait, if there’s something actually bothering you, surely, there’s something I can do. You can’t just leave in the middle of a production.”

“Of course, I can,” Caitlyn said. “Look. I’m sorry, Brandon, but I’ve given this a ton of thought. And I’m not staying longer than a week. You guys are just going to have to deal with it.”

And byyou guys, she meant the writing team and I would have to pull an all-nighter, scrambling to rewrite the script in order to compensate for her absence. No, just the writing teamand me wouldn’t be enough. It would take everyone to get this script ironed out and fixed. We’d probably have to kill off her character, which would have been easier if we hadn’t already planned her arc as the Final Girl.Andwe hadn’t filmed all the scenes chronologically, so we’d have to figure out what we’d filmed and hadn’t. This was a disaster. Kill off her character? How about kill off her.

God, why hadn’t I just stuck with nude modeling? That was easy. Sure, it had threatened to send my father into an early grave, but I wouldn’t have had problems likethis.

“Okay,” I said. Because what else could I say?

“Thank you,” Caitlyn said.

Then, she strode past me on her high heels. Absolutely no remorse at all. I pulled out my phone and texted Scott to come to the set right away. I’d considered just spilling everything on the phone, but knowing we were going to be pulling an all-nighter rewriting a script was something best shared in person.

I ran a hand through my hair and glanced up, pausing when I saw Alex. His dark head was leaned in close to Bioncia’s, and the two of them were looking over a wide spread of brightly colored powders. Celeste, one of the extras, sat in the make-up chair. Her face looked about half-finished; her pale skin was covered in blotches of green and blue that, I knew from experience, would become rotting flesh.

Alex lifted a bright red pot of powder to Celeste’s face and said something to Bioncia. Well, at leastsomethingwas going right. Alex seemed enthusiastic enough, if his smile was any indication. He knew make-up at any rate.

And he was cute. And straight.

Meaning I needed to be careful around him. Obviously, I had no problem taking “no” for an answer. I didn’t expect every single man in the world to swoon over me, but I didn’t want Alexto think I was trying to pressure him into something. I didn’t want him to misinterpret anything or make things awkward.

I still hadn’t seen Seth, but that would probably be a headache, too. At least I could depend on Seth not to quit. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe Alex and Bioncia weren’t quite the distraction I needed, but at the moment, I really just needed to see something go right. I headed over to them as Bioncia began dabbing a pasty liquid on her wrist.

My phone pinged. It was Scott, announcing that he was on his way. Scott had a tendency to abuse emojis, and he’d put an enthusiastic smiley face at the end of his text. He probably wouldn’t smile much longer.

Bioncia pursed her lips together. “I think you’re right, Alex,” she said. “We should try spackling the blush on. We might be able to mix it with the foundation, and that should help it stick a bit.”

“And then, blend it in over the prosthetic?” Alex asked, tracing his finger over Celeste’s half-latexed jaw.

“I like it,” Bioncia said.

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