Page 8 of Beneath the Fame

It was a little different.

I only stayed on with Teagan a bit longer since the studio was only a few minutes away. I finally got her off the subject of my—currently nonexistent—sex life to catch up on how she and Ambrose were doing with the baby, and then…it was time to get to work.

With Alec today.

Kami

Give me one good reason I shouldn’t blow your head off.

Jude

It would traumatize the kid. I don’t think either of our people would appreciate that.

Kami

But we’d finally be rid of you—not have to look at your dumb ass pretty-boy no more.

Jude

You think I’m pretty?

Kami

That would be what you took from that. Why are you here?

Jude

To pick up my niece. Are you dumb?

Shit.

Today, it was abnormally hard to maintain my focus.

Usually, I was fully locked in with my character, my lines, the scene, everything.

Today…Alec—as Jude—was looking a littletoogood.

The lightweight black sweater against his golden skin, the fresh haircut, the fake neck tats, the gold chain…the goldfangs.

Add all that to the dark, moody atmosphere of the set for this scene, anddamn.

Whocould focus in these conditions?!

“My bad, y’all,” I said, tossing up my hands as I conceded defeat. “I completely blanked on my line.”

“You’re good,” Nolan, the showrunner, assured, popping up out of nowhere. “That was a nice long shot.”

Beside him, Charlotte—the head writer and director—had her mouth open to speak, but now that Nolan had spoken over her, she simply rolled her eyes.

“Let’s go ahead and switch to the other angle,” she said. “That should give you a second to gather your bearings.”

“Thank you.” I nodded, accepting a bottle of water from the production assistant that approached. I purposely avoided Alec’s gaze as I cracked it open, turning my back to him as I took a drink and closed my eyes.

Get it together, Vanessa.

I repeated the internal admonition to myself a few times, taking a deep breath between each repetition. In my mind, I pulled up the script for this scene—I knew the words by heart, I’d gone over it so many times.

I was just…frazzled.

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