Page 5 of Stunts and Sparks

Heather yanked her hand back and walked away from him. She left her mark, and she could see the director shaking his head in disapproval out of the corner of her eye. But Cole Reynolds was nothing short of infuriating. Heather usually had a long fuse — she prided herself on it, in fact — but there was just something about this man. His smirk. Infuriating for sure.

“I need some water,” she said as an excuse.

Great. Day one, and she was already making a nuisance of herself. After all that self-talk she did into the mirror that morning, too. One pretty face later, and she was useless. She needed to pull herself together. She sipped her water. Gulping too much would be a mistake considering the stunts she was expected to do today.

She could feel the impatience of the crew all around her, and she couldn’t blame them. She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and went back to work.

They started the dance again, and Cole was every bit as cocky as he had been all day long. When they wound up frozen in the same position, he at least had the decency to not wink at her again — though, there was the slightest cocky smirk. She had to give him credit for trying.

“You good?” he said during the pause.

“I’m fine,” she answered defiantly. “And you? You’re looking a bit pale.”

His hand tightened around her wrist, and he pushed in closer by a hair. It was enough to send her heart into overdrive, though. “Oh, I’m doing beautifully, sweetheart,” he said, and she ground her teeth at him. “I’m especially enjoying the view from this rooftop.”

Heather scoffed and started to tell him there was no view before she realized he was talking about her. She was the view. She scrambled to think of a comeback, but before she could, the director restarted the metronome and shouted, “Action!”

They repeated their dance and continued beyond the point where they had stopped on the previous take. Cole shifted their position closer to the edge, just as his character was supposed to do. He gripped her wrists, spun her around, and stood with his back to the green screen behind him. Heather knew the city skyline would be something else when it was superimposed. This film was going to be gorgeous when it was finished.

She ran at him, a precise number of steps that she had to make look spontaneous. Then she kicked him in the chest. The kick was gentle in reality. She pivoted, lifted her foot to his chest and leaned in a bit. He was meant to act as though he were taking a hit, jerk back a bit, and begin to fall. The whole scene would be sped up in post, and so it would look like a quick, dangerous fight. As he fell, Cole was meant to reach out, grab her coat, and pull her down with him. Instead, he took her by the foot and pulled her over with him.

For a moment, Heather panicked. She wasn’t meant to fall in this position. She hadn’t practiced it. It wasn’t something she was confident she could roll away from without an injury. Shewas furious and terrified, feeling so many things during her short fall that her life may as well have been flashing before her eyes.

Somehow, though she couldn’t have said how, she found the time to twist and position herself for a better landing. The mat was generous and exceptionally soft, thank God. The only part of the fall that bruised her was the fact that she fell on top of Cole rather than beside him, which was what she would have been able to do if the fall had gone the way it was supposed to.

Heather lay on top of Cole, straddling him like they were a romantic pair, but instead of kissing him, she screamed down at him and slapped him on the chest. “You asshole! What were you thinking? You could have gotten both of us injured. We’d be out of a job before they even got one scene out of us!”

Cole caught her wrists, then shrugged at her. “I was thinking the director might appreciate a spontaneous, realistic cut.”

“Did you even ask him?” she shouted.

“No. He would have had to say no for contractual reasons. Now he has the cut without needing to risk his own career over it.”

“Oh, so you were just willing to risk mine instead?”

“Risk it?” He sat up as she slid off him and crawled toward the edge of the mat. “I just advanced your career with that move, sweetheart. Directors want people who are willing to take risks on their behalf. You’ve just been elevated as a stunt double.” He jumped off the mat after her. “So, I mean, you’re welcome.”

Heather let out a frustrated scream rather than shout the words she really wanted to say to him. They were unprofessional, to say the least.

“Enough!” the director called out to them. “Take ten, both of you. Pull it together.”

Heather clenched her fists and marched away from the set. She had to cool off before she lost it completely. Her eyes were already welling up a bit. The whole incident had brought back her past injury, how quickly her life had veered off course. She wasn’t prepared for it to happen again, and shedefinitelywasn’t prepared for the one stupid mistake that would make her life jump the tracks to be made by anyone other than herself.

The one thing Heather had always been able to tell herself when she started panicking about things that could go wrong was that she was in control. As long as she was careful and learned from her past, she would not make the same mistake twice. No matter what, she would never be that stupid again. Apparently, she had failed to take into consideration the possibility that someone else might be that stupid on her behalf.

Behind the set was a maze of dark corridors and dressing rooms, racks of costumes and random props scattered around. As well-funded as this film seemed to be, it hadn’t paid enough for an organized crew. Or maybe such a thing just didn’t exist.

Under the assumption she had finally found a moment to herself, Heather leaned against the wall and bowed over, holding her knees while she caught her breath. The way the stunt had gone wrong had triggered memories of her past injury and the years of depression that followed, after she realized the life she had planned for herself was no longer possible. It was all over in the blink of an eye. She took several slow, deep breaths to keepfrom hyperventilating, and she stayed that way until she heard footsteps.

“Hey,” a voice said, and she recognized it as Cole’s, though she didn’t look up to see him. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she snapped. Had she ever been this furious before? She didn’t think so, but she didn’t want to let him know just how much his behavior had affected her. “That was a stupid move, Cole. That’s not how I rehearsed it, and I’d bet a thousand dollars that’s not how you rehearsed it either. Because you would have been fired if you had, idiot.”

She could almost hear him shrug. “It was a natural, spontaneous choice.”

Now she straightened up and actively glared at him. “There’s no room for spontaneity in stunt work!”

He gave her one half of a smile that she guessed was supposed to charm her. But it didn’t come close to its objective. “How much do you want to bet the director chooses that take? He couldn’t ask for it, but we took that risk off his shoulders and now he has his ideal take.”

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