Page 62 of Doc Hollywood

“If you don’t try. That’ll be worse,” Sadie told her again.

Clara finally groaned, “Fine. If he asks me out, which he won’t, I’ll say yes. Okay?”

“Brilliant,” Sadie cheered, a wide grin splitting her face, and she held her glass up to Clara, clinking it against her best friends.

CHAPTER 17

Clara parked in front of the old hospital, which was being used as one of the sets for Taylor’s movie. Checking her phone, she saw she was ten minutes early.

Placing her hands on the steering wheel, she took deep breaths, trying to slow her erratic pulse, as the thought of seeing Taylor again had her heart racing.

She felt ridiculous. They texted each other all the time, multiple times a day, but seeing him in person after a few months felt so different. She noticed her hands trembling a little and shook them before giving herself a silent pep talk about her own stupidity. Taylor was a kind and generous person who was so far out of her league that they weren’t even on the same planet, despite what Sadie and George tried to tell her. She reminded herself she was here to do a job and not moon over a movie star.

A knock on her window had her releasing an involuntary scream, and she spun to see who it was.

A uniformed security guard stared back at her, indicating that she should wind down the window so he could talk to her.

“Can I help you, miss?” He leaned down to look in the window.

“Yes, hi. Sorry, you startled me. My name’s Clara Upford. I’ve been hired as a medical adviser,” she informed him, impressed that she managed to keep the tremor of nerves out of her voice.

“Let me check the list.” The guard lifted a clipboard up and ran his fingers down it, looking for her name. “I’ve found you. I’ll get someone to come and meet you.” He pulled a radio off his belt, bringing it to his mouth to talk. “I have the medical advisor, Doctor Clara Upford here. Can you send someone down to meet her?”

A crackly voice replied that they were on their way.

“I’ll show you where to wait,” he said, looking at Clara expectantly, as she had made no move to get out of the car.

“Oh, sure,” she mumbled, hurriedly grabbing her bag and winding up the window before leaping out of the car to follow him.

As she walked, she reminded her pounding heart to calm down; she was here to do a job, however much Taylor’s constant texts and phone calls made her hope otherwise.

She debated texting Taylor to tell him she was there, but that seemed a bit too needy, so she left her phone in her handbag.

The security guard left her at the main entrance of the hospital. Clara giggled to herself as she sat on a hard plastic chair identical to the ones at her work, clearly no one had wanted the uncomfortable seats when the hospital closed.

“Doctor Upford?” A young, very fashionably dressed, blonde woman, clutching an iPad in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, said as she rapidly approached her.

“Yes,” Clara confirmed, trying to smile through her nerves.

“Great. I’m Lacey, the third assistant to the director. I’ll be liaising with you. I assume you’ve read the briefing notes that Mr Atrosky sent. He wants total authenticity, and you have hispermission to stop filming if it deviates from reality in any way.” Lacey looked at her expectantly.

Clara nodded. “Yes. I read that.”

“Excellent. He also wants to thank you for the notes you attached to the medical scenes in the script. The changes you suggested have been made.”

“That’s great.” Clara smiled, pleased she had been able to help, even though she hadn’t needed to change too much, as they had obviously researched extensively.

“You’ve got today to check over the equipment we’ve already got. Then we’ll spend four days doing actor and technical rehearsals and be ready to film next week.”

“Okay.” This was exactly the timeline that the second, actually maybe it was the first assistant to Mr Atrosky had previously given to Clara.

“Follow me. I’ll take you straight up to the set,” Lacey said briskly and took another sip of her coffee.

Clara stole a glance at the coffee. She would have loved to grab another cup, but it didn’t look like that was an option as Lacey rushed along the corridor, so she didn’t ask, instead just said brightly, “Great.”

Lacey led the way through the building and up two flights of stairs to the operating theatres. Clara followed close behind, trying to suppress the shivers that ran up her spine as they weaved through the deserted building. She had never felt spooked when she walked around the hospitals she worked in, even in the dead of night. This place was different; it felt empty. She could tell there weren’t wards full of patients around her, and there were no doctors, nurses, or auxiliary staff anywhere in the building; it felt dead.

Unconsciously, she moved a little faster so she was closer to Lacey.

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