Page 11 of Just for December

Willow-or-Dream leaves, and Evie takes off her coat to sit back in the make-up chair facing the mirror. She’s opposite Duke, and their reflections mean they immediately have eye contact. Evie notices how extraordinarily symmetrical he is, how angular his features are. In contrast she seems doughy and pale. The strip lighting of the trailer doesn’t even dim his handsomeness, let alone eclipse it.

‘Don’t say anything about my eye bags,’ Duke jokes, noticing her notice. He says it tentatively, double-checking that she has indeed thawed out and it’s okay to converse. Evie gives him her renowned closed-mouth smile, the best she can manage. It’s her way of saying:Fine. Let’s tolerate each other whilst we have to sit side by side. Again.‘Kayla has done her best, haven’t you? I’m just not sleeping well right now. Diet, exercise, make-up, it can do a lot, but nothing hides a lack of quality REM does it?’

Evie is unsure if it’s a rhetorical question or meant for her and Kayla.

‘You look … great,’ she says. It sounds hollow. She feels his eyes roam her face, perhaps in appraisal of her own eye bags, evidence of that jet lag. She swallows, unsure of the feeling in her stomach as he gives her the once-over, and before she can think of anything witty to say Kayla announces that she’s done and he’s free to go. There’s a knock on the door and a woman in a headset with a clipboard says there’s five minutes to go, although to what she doesn’t specify. Presumably the next shot, Evie thinks. There’s so much happening, so much action and movement and activity all the time, just like she remembers from her childhood.

‘So,’ Duke presses, lingering behind her as Kayla stuffs white tissues into the collar of Evie’s jumper.

‘To catch the excess,’ Kayla explains.

Evie takes a beat to understand he’s addressing her again.

‘It’s your first day on a set?’ he says. ‘Katerina said.’

Had he really been talking about her? Odd.

‘Pretty magical, isn’t it?’ he continues.

Evie narrows her eyes. She goes to speak, realises shedoesn’t know what to say, and closes her mouth again. Then she takes a breath, seeing him awaiting her words, and settles on: ‘Yup. This little old nobody can’t believe she’s here.’

She’s trying to sound gently mocking of herself. Duke issues a heightened guffaw. God, whatever energy is between them, it can definitely be filed underDoes Not Work.No matter how hard either of them tries, they seem to speak different languages, miss the point of one another.

‘You do know it’syourbook we’re filming here, don’t you?’ he asks, one eyebrow raised just enough to be infuriating in its cockiness. ‘I hardly think you’re a nobody.’

‘No, you misunderstand me,’ Evie says, regulating her voice to sound calm and rational. ‘Ilikebeing a nobody. Iwantto be a nobody. I’m not here on set because I want to hobnob with the stars. I’m only here because of a contractual obligation.’

Duke nods. He’s got the smoothest, cleanest-looking skin Evie has ever seen, like a real-life Ken doll but somehow even more attractive.

‘Yeah,’ Duke tells her. ‘I know. I asked them to put that in. I wanted to meet you.’

Evie blinks.

What?

‘Youmade them bring me out here?’ she asks. That doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that?

‘Yeah,’ Duke tells her, like it’s no big deal. ‘Like I say, I’m a really big fan.’

WHAT! Evie sees a red mist, her temper going from nought to a hundred.

‘I’m missing my deadline,’ she says, the control she had managed before ebbing away with speed. ‘Away from my dog,and my house, and my mother and my best friend who happens to be going through a very horrible divorce, at Christmastime, to freeze my ass off on the other side of the world because ofyou?’

Duke gives a little laugh that Evie assumes he thinks is self-effacing.

‘Well, yeah. I wanted to meet you, and everyone said you were up for the interviews and the behind-the-scenes documentary …’ he says, slowly, still acting like this is all one big rational conversation and not the start of the apocalypse. Evie is already getting out of the make-up chair.

‘Thank you, Kayla, but I’m all set on the glow. I’m sure I’ve got morecolourto mycomplexion—’she says ‘complexion’ with air quotes ‘—now that I amfurious.’

She turns her attention back to Duke.

‘Youmadethem fly me out here?’

He nods, seemingly unsure of why that’s an issue, which only serves to make her even more irate.

‘The rest of the world isn’t a puppet for you, you know,’ she spits, flabbergasted.

She’s been building some anger for a while, now, ever since the call from the care home about her mom’s fees going up right before she got on the flight. She’s been wanting to yell at somebody. She can’t yell at her mom. Or Carl. So it may as well be Duke Asshat Carlisle. She’s almost grateful to him for providing the opportunity. ‘That’s sohorrible.If you want to meet somebody you write an email andask.You don’t make it a contractual obligation, like you’re Christian Goddamn Grey!’

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