Page 36 of And They Had a Great Fall

It was just after 1:00 a.m. when they finished both the scheduled scenes, and Jake’s extra reshoots. When Garren announced they were wrapped for the night, Savannah scurried over to Jake with some wipes to clean off his makeup, chatting as they walked toward Kat. She handed him another cloth, taking his dirty one. “I imagine you’ll want to get out of here quickly. Your call time is 9:00 a.m.,” she said. “I’m going to walk you both over to wardrobe so Jake can change, and I’ll grab your bag and bring it to you. I’ll meet you at the gate—a car is already waiting.”

Kat admired her efficiency and in a different world, she would’ve hired her. She knew why Jake took her to each shoot. The three of them walked to wardrobe, and Jake was quiet. He intertwined his fingers with hers, and for a brief moment leaned his head on Kat’s shoulder and snuggled into her neck. She reached up and brushed her fingers through his hair.

“Savannah,” he started. “You haven’t told Kat stories about me, have you? My ridiculous demands and the overall monster that I am?” he teased.

“I’ll never tell, sir,” she said with a wink.

This was their schtick, and Kat could feel the camaraderie between them. When they arrived at wardrobe, Savannah disappeared in the maze of trailers.

Kat waited outside while Jake changed in record time. He jumped down the two steps from the wardrobe trailers and threw his arms around her, his lips on hers before she could react. Warmth spread though her body as their lips moved against each other. She met his tongue with hers, and his hand trailed up her back causing shivers down her spine. She felt lost in his kiss until he pulled back.

“I’ve been waiting all night to do that,” he said. “Let’s go, I’m damn tired.”

“Okay, I knew you were tired, but if you’redamntired, that isa state of emergency,” said Kat, linking her hand with his again and matching his brisk walk to the gate.

When they walked into the apartment, it was after 2:00 a.m. Kat’s eyes were heavy, and she couldn’t wait to lie down. She could only imagine how Jake felt. He looked like he would be asleep as soon as he hit the bed. She did the math in her head. He had less than seven hours before he was required to be back on set. They were trying to get the production on schedule, and she was getting a sense of how grueling it would be to get back on track.

“Did you have fun?” he asked, yawning as he walked into the bathroom where Kat was brushing her teeth. He brushed his teeth next to her and playfully bumped her hip. She bumped him back and spit into the sink.

Kat wiped her mouth and nodded. “I loved watching you work, Jake. Thanks for asking me to come,” she said, walking into the bedroom with him and pulling back the covers. “It was so much more technical than I expected.” Climbing into bed, feeling the weight of the blanket envelop her body, she was delighted to know that sleep was imminent. As he climbed into bed next to her, she continued, “Of course, I didn’t love seeing you kiss Sloan Stevens. God, she is so damn gorgeous. Wow. I mean, I practically wanted to kiss her,” Kat teased.

He laughed, his voice sounding hoarse. “Well, sheisa witch, so I didn’t like kissing Sloan Stevens.” And with that, he pulled her close to him, curled his arms around her, and she fell asleep.

chapter fifteen

The pinging was incessant. Jake looked around to see a game show all around him. In order to win, he had to act out a scene from a random movie in fifteen seconds or less. An annoying tone would sound every time the scene changed. He felt an inescapable panic and could not control the game.The Godfather… ping …Karate Kid… ping …Pulp Fiction… ping … The audience was cheering, but he just wanted it to stop. How could he make it stop? Why wouldn’t it fucking stop?

“Jake!” His eyes flew open to see Kat sitting up in bed. “Who’s texting you?” she asked, reaching over him to pull his phone off the nightstand. She thrust it into his hand before flopping back down on her pillow.

He shook the dream out of his head and swiped open his phone. Putting on his glasses, he looked at the time: 6:30 a.m. He had a dozen texts, most of them from Cindy.

C: Hey, call me when you’re awake, doesn’t matter the time.

C: There are a few things surfacing. I want to know what you want to do.

C: There are two different reports.

C: One is that you’re filming in Copenhagen. No shit, right?

C: One is a leak from the set that you had a woman with you last night and you both seemed very “close.”

C: Assuming that’s Kat but let me know if there’s someone new I need to know about.

C: Good news: The exposure is limited for now.

C: Bad news: it’s only a matter of time …

C: We should get ahead of this … please.

“Shit,” he said and let out an audible sigh as he rang Cindy. He put her on speaker. Kat was giving him a questioning look, and he motioned for her to slide next to him.

“Hey,” Cindy answered on the second ring.

“How bad is it?” Jake asked her, blowing past any normal pleasantries.

“Hold on, I’ll send you a screenshot.”

His phone pinged with a picture of the tweet.

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