When Carter walked off, as nervous as I must have been, Nicole looked TERRIFIED. She stepped forward around the same time that Clarke said:
"We hated to lose you, Chloe. But congratulations on your new job. Nicole told me about it, it sounds fantastic."
I didn't know what to say. I stared at his beautiful mouth and just blinked like a crazy woman. Seconds passed. Long, painful seconds, and Nicole jumped in, her mouth moving quickly, a jumble of words tumbling out with no rhyme or reason. "Oh my god, Chloe, we have to talk about that idea that you were helping me with — before you left, I mean — you know the — oh." She turned to Clarke, her hand at her mouth as if she was about to clean her fingernails with her teeth. "Sweetie, can you give us a moment. Chloe was helping me a surprise of sorts for you…" she literally batted her eyelashes and if there had been an Academy Award for bullshit, she'd have won it.
"No problem," Clarke said graciously. He stepped forward and gave me a hug, our first physical contact ever, his lips soft as they brushed the side of my cheek — our second physical contact. Old Chloe would have swooned. New Chloe had a man fetching her champagne who made Clarke's sexuality look like amateur hour. "It was great to see you, Chloe. Congrats again."
"Thank you," I said softly, watching Nicole, whose eyes narrowed on us. This woman was ridiculous. Humped anything that moved and then got jealous when her husband gave a hug to another woman.
MORE FROM BEDROOM BLOG
20 articles
He stepped away and then it was just the two of us.
"I have a new job?" I raised my eyebrows. It occurred to me that I was still owed a final paycheck from Nicole. Our last moments, with Paulo lurking around, hadn't exactly seemed like the right time for me to have requested a check.
"I had to tell him something," she snapped and I saw a bit of old Nicole.
"You could have told him the truth."
"That you were a busybody who was sticking her nose in—" she stopped and composed herself. "I'm sorry for the way that things ended. I was stressed and I handled it poorly. Things have been a mess since you left, especially on set." She twisted her watch on her wrist and met my eyes. "I'm going to end things with Paulo. As soon as the movie wraps. It's normal, Chloe — this kind of thing. I don't walk into your life and dictate your relationship choices."
She actually, with that last statement, had a point. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life. If I had an assistant following around behind me, pointing them all out, I'd probably have fired her too. Not that I'm saying her affair is OK. It's bullshit. Ugly, marriage-damaging bullshit.
"But I may have been too hasty in letting you go," she said quietly, staring at the closest Presa Little piece as if it were a teleprompter, giving her the next line.
Her comment caught me off guard and I stumbled. "Hasty?" I repeated.
"Yes. I know you have some moral issue with working for me around Clarke but would you consider working for me on the set? It's normal — anyway — for the studio to pay for an assistant for each lead."
I stared at the toe of my heels and tried to think, tried to sort this out. My job hunt, so far, has been unsuccessful. Unsuccessful in that the only thing I qualify for, without a college degree, seems to be in the service industry or retail. I have zero experience in either industry and have gotten no callbacks on my résumé. Still, slinking back to Nicole's seemed weak. What good was it to take the high road if I was just going to run back with the first offer of re-employment. And not to sound materialistic, but what did the on-set job pay? Because, let's face it, the money was high on the list of factors.
I looked up and she was watching me, waiting. I inhaled deeply and then said something I would probably regret.
0 comments:
Post a Comment