Page 81 of Love on the Byline

“I prefer to work with my guy.” Bran had opened anotherbottle of wine. He indicated Blake’s glass, and she nodded.

“Doesn’t it seem a bit…excessive, though?”

“What do you mean?” Ollie asked.

“Watching what you eat, working out for hours every day, andnot for your health but for a character. From the outside, it seems weird.”

“If I were…a ballet dancer or an athlete, would you think itwas strange?”

She cocked her head at Bran, surprised she hadn’t made thecorrelation herself. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”

“Why do you think it would be different for actors?” He tooka sip from his glass and waited, but Blake didn’t know what else to say. He hada very valid point. “See, people who aren’t in this business—hell, in thistown—can’t really wrap their heads around everything it takes to make a movielike the ones I make.”

“Here we go,” Ollie said, shaking his head.

“I’m serious,” Bran continued. “Do you have any idea howmany people worked on my last film?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. A hundred?”

“More than two thousand,” Ollie said, sounding proud.

As her jaw dropped, Bran added. “And franchise properties,like the Marvel films, can employ even more.”

“I think the Black Panther crew was more than threethousand,” Ollie said.

“Wow, that’s...a whole ass village.”

“More like a small town,” he replied. “The village where mygrandparents were born had around fifteen hundred residents.”

“Each person has a specific job, from the make-up girl…”Bran held up his hand. “Person, sorry…to the grip to the caterer to the stuntdouble. We all train to be the best at what we do, or at least be what the filmneeds. It’s more than, how did you put it? Shrugging on a pair of tights andswinging from cables on the ceiling.”

What the hell? “Were you reading my notes?”

“You left them sitting on the table.”

“Bran,” Ollie warned.

“What?” He speared another shrimp.

“It’s…fine.”

She reigned in her kneejerk reaction, which was to lay intoBran for invading her privacy. But it was her fault for leaving her stufflaying around. This wasn’t her home. She was a guest. More than that, she wason assignment. All the scenery and the food and the wine and the…Ollie…had goneto her head.

“What drew you to acting?” she asked Bran. “And be honest.”

His jaw flexed a few times, and he looked at Ollie.

“Don’t look at me, I’m curious, too.”

“Traitor,” Bran muttered. “Fine. I read an article, aninterview with Ryan Reynolds, and it made me think yeah, I can do what hedoes.”

She frowned. “Own a team in a sport he doesn’t follow?”

“Oi!” Ollie said. “Ryan and Rob have done a fantastic job inWrexham.”

“He’s got a similar sense of humor, similar laid-backstyle,” Bran said, cutting Ollie off.

“Laid back?” She glanced around the expansive, expensivehouse.

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