Page 30 of The Grumpy Actor

“I’m very sorry, and I promise to behave better,” Liam says, smiling awkwardly. “I know it will be hard for you to forgive me, but I hope you do.”

His sincerity is shocking and, at the same time, overwhelming. I quickly look away from him and fold my arms across my chest. “We’ll be late. Can we go?”

Liam doesn’t say anything, and after a few minutes of awkward silence, he starts the car and drives away from the resort.

***

“Cut! Still not there, Liam!”

The director’s voice booms from the microphone in his hand. He drops the microphone in a way that makes his frustration clear, and he isn’t the only one feeling this way.

Liam looks like he’s going to throw in the towel any minute now. The sun bouncing off his head can’t be easy on him and considering how long they’ve been retaking this particular scene; he must be tired.

“Today is going to be longer than I thought,” Dina mutters beside me. She lets out a heavy sigh. “We might even end up shooting into the night from the looks of it.”

“We were always going to do that, considering there are two scenes for nighttime on schedule today,” I say, patting her back. “Chin up.”

I glance toward Liam. His obvious frustration makes me feel bad for him. It’s obvious he’s trying his best to deliver this monologue, but he just isn’t using as many emotions as the director wants.

I’m not an actor, so it doesn’t look bad to me on the surface level. However, I know I wouldn’t be convinced by his words if I was on the receiving end of his speech.

It lacks sincerity.

If only he could muster a little of the sincerity I saw in him this morning.

Hold on. Does that mean he wasn’t acting then? If it had just been acting, he shouldn’t have so many issues now, right?

Or does he just have a hard time talking about deep emotions like love? After all, the monologue includes him professing his love for the female lead.

I shake my head, pushing the thoughts out of my mind.

This is an issue for him and the director to deal with, not me.

The director stands up and walks over to join Liam by the water, where he’s standing with Celeste. I watch the conversation from afar, and even though I can’t make out what they’re saying, it’s clear that it’s pretty tense.

A few minutes later, the director walks back to his stand and picks up his microphone. “We’ll take an hour break and return to continue with this scene.”

Several people let out sighs of relief. The extras disperse quickly while Dina rushes to meet Celeste. I turn to Liam only to find him storming down the beach.

I pick up the script, a towel, and a bottle of water, and rush after him even though I’m not sure how to help him.

Liam finds his way to my favorite spot. This action warms my heart a little, but I stop myself from thinking too much about it.

I walk over to where he is and hand him the bottle.

He glances at the bottle and raises his eyes at me. I get lost staring into his tumultuous blue eyes, and I don’t even notice when he takes the water out of my hand.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, yes.” I clear my throat as I hold out the towel to him. “Here.”

Liam takes several gulps of the water before accepting the towel and dabbing at the beads of sweat on his handsome face.

He pauses to glare at the script in my hand. “What did you bring that for?”

“I thought I could help you work on the scene.”

“And you think that, why?”

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