Page 15 of Shooting for his Heart
“Gia! How about the two of you come down to my section and see your looks in action?”
“You’re asking us to sit with you?” she asked, knitting her brows together curiously.
“Yes.” I chuckled.
“I thought you told Anton you don’t allow anyone in your area.”
I chuckled again. “I did… and that was meant specifically for him. He doesn’t understand quiet on the set. I let him join me for a couple of days when I was makingDark O’clock,and he literally talked the entire time. I had to reshoot half of the scenes because he had me so distracted.”
“Dark O’clockis my favorite vampire movie,” Vonnie declared.
My face warmed. “Thank you. I think it’s some of my best work.”
The movie was critically acclaimed and grossed over three hundred million at the box office, but somehow, her compliment made me blush.
“You sure you want us in the way?” Gia quizzed.
“You would be doing me a favor,” I confessed.
“How?” Vonnie wondered aloud.
“I’m trying to keep Clarissa away from me. She’s been crowding my space and hanging up under me to watch every scene that she’s not in.”
To my surprise, Vonnie scoffed. “Oh, hell… Why didn’t you just say that?”
“We would be glad to step in and run interference.” Gia grinned.
“Anything to piss that witch off.”
I laughed at Vonnie’s accurate description of Clarissa.
“If you want to seem busy, bring your kits in case someone needs a touch-up,” I suggested as I finally dipped my head to go into the tent to get lunch.
“What the hell was that about?”I asked Gia as we dug into our pasta bowls.
I’d gotten blackened chicken pasta. The chicken was cooked and seasoned perfectly, and I didn’t even want to get started on the sauce. Oddly enough, the breadsticks were the standout of the meal. According to the menu, they used crusty bread and added mouthwatering roasted garlic butter. By the time filming was over, I predicted that I would have gained twenty pounds.
Gia’s New Orleans pasta smelled so good, but after my last encounter with shrimp, I had sworn it off. Who knew that at almost thirty years old, I would develop an allergy after eating crab and shrimp all my life? I got the scare of my life on the wayhome from a girl’s night out when my face started to feel funny, and my throat started closing up.
Thankfully, I was riding with Jahnae; I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t. She raced through traffic to get me to the emergency room in time to get the necessary treatment. I left the hospital with a new diagnosis of a shellfish allergy. It had been years since I had touched seafood altogether. I didn’t need the problems that came with it.
“What do you mean?” Gia asked after swallowing the mouthful of bread.
“Why do you think Marshawn is inviting us to sit with him on the set? You think he wants to give us an up-close lesson on all the ways our designs aren’t up to par?”
She laughed. “Maybe he’s just trying to be nice. He’s not a jerk 100 percent of the time, Vonnie.”
“I’m just curious. I don’t want to go down there to be berated. I get enough of that right here.”
Gia and I had watched a few scenes play out with the set builders over the past couple of days. Even though there were people designated for the job, she and I helped with touch-ups behind the scenes. It was crazy how quickly makeup and hair went out the window after a scene.
Gia explained that since this was a dystopian film, it was expected that the actors wouldn’t look perfect. I could only imagine how much work went into keeping the actors up to standard on a different type of film. I looked forward to it all. While we worked, I noticed that Marshawn was all over the place, giving directions and pointers to achieve his perfect shot. I was enjoying playing the background.
“Girl, all that man is trying to do is get away from that bitch of an ex-wife.”
“He did say that, huh?”
“He’s probably thinking we left him out to dry. They’re shooting with her for the next couple of scenes, though. I say we go down there after we finish eating.”
