Page 60 of Best Served Hot
Nicole took a deep breath. ‘You’re right. OK. I’m ready.’
‘Good, make sure the puddle’s ready. He won’t be long.’
Nicole did as she was bid and poured out a fair bit of water from her bottle to join the tiny splat that had lubricated Alex’s feet to start with. It was now a very noticeable puddle that even Lena wouldn’t have missed. The stage was set. Lights, camera,action.
Thirty-Five
The doors thumped open. Ethan was among them. It was the first time Nicole had to share oxygen with him since his little audio-visual presentation yesterday. It was unpleasant, but she would bear it.
‘What’s all this?’ he asked. He sounded annoyed but also worried.
That was all Lena. She’d have gone in there like the aggrandising drama queen that she was and probably screamed Ethan’s office down about snapped spines, just as they’d hoped.
And now Ethan was sweating. Not because he cared. It was a bad accident on his set. It could be a problem if it was due to negligence. That was exactly what they wanted him to feel. Blinding panic.
‘It’s Alex. She slipped,’ Nicole told him. She didn’t look at him because she didn’t want to. But luckily, that played into the whole thing. She was focused on Alex, as he would expect.
‘On what?’ Ethan demanded, coming over, looming over Alex and examining her like she was a problem he didn’t need.
‘Water. Someone must have spilt,’ Nicole said, gesturing to a very large puddle.
‘Fuck me! This is a catastrophe! How could you let this happen?!’ he demanded. He turned to Lena. ‘You didn’t see this?’
Lena looked at it, shocked. ‘No. How the hell—’
‘It must have happened as people were leaving. It wasn’t there during shooting,’ Nicole explained. ‘Anyway, this would fall to the production manager.’
‘She wasn’t here. So it falls to you!’ Ethan said, clearly very concerned about the injured person on his set.
‘Can we talk about this later? Alex is hurt!’ Nicole shouted. She didn’t have to fake the anger.
‘Christ!’ he swore, looking down at Alex, making actual eye contact with her for the first time. ‘What’s the situation? How hurt are you?’ he asked her. There was no care in the question.
‘I don’t know,’ Alex replied quietly. ‘But I can’t move yet.’
‘Oh, for fuck…’
‘This floor is hard. Could you give me something for my head?’ Alex asked the room.
Nicole looked around. ‘I don’t have anything. Ethan, can I take your jacket?’
Ethan sighed and took off his suit jacket. This was the tricky part. Nicole took the jacket and began to fold it up, feeling it, squeezing it, pretending she was trying to make it comfortable. She couldn’t find the bump she was looking for. Ethan, who put his phone in his inside pocket ninety percent of the time, had left it elsewhere. This had failed.
But just as she began to put it down, lifting Alex’s head gently and sliding it underneath, she heard a clunk as the jacket hit the floor. Something hard in the jacket. It was in there. Nicole had just missed it.
‘Let me just get you comfortable,’ Nicole said to Alex, who, as ever, understood exactly what Nicole was trying to say. She lifted her head, giving Nicole the space to keep fiddling about. ‘Just unfolding it a bit to make sure your neck is supported.’ Nicole found the entrance to the inside pocket pretty quickly this time. She put her hand on the object it contained. It was the phone.
Now she had to slip it out without Ethan noticing. ‘Ethan, can you please help with her head? I’ve got to make sure we don’t exacerbate anything.’ She hoped he’d focus on the job and be less likely to see her pilfering his device.
Ethan blew out a pissed-off breath and stepped over to help. But his eyes were everywhere. Nicole felt he’d spot her slipping the phone out easily. This wasn’t going to work.
And then Lena said, ‘Should I call the insurance company to let them know?’
Ethan turned to her in wide-eyed panic. ‘What! No! Why would they need to be called?’
‘Well, just in case—’ Lena asked quietly.
‘Would you shut the fuck up?!’ he said furiously.
