Page 41 of Affinity

“Wow,” she said excitedly by my side. “I never imagined it looking anything like this. There’s a police precinct and a house in one building.”

“Wait until I’m on a movie set, and you see the scale of everything then. This is small in comparison. This is a baby set, and there’s more for the show, but for my scenes today, I’ll be in here. Being sick.” Until now, I had forgotten my makeup when we were in the trailer, but now I remembered how sickly Clara made me look. “Did you like kissing a dying man?” I could only pray my character was sick enough I’d die and be let go from the show. Today wasn’t my finest look.

Abbi scoffed. “You’re still handsome, even sick.”

“You might not think that if I was sweaty with a fever and lying around all day.” I laughed. Playing sick and being sick were two different things. I rarely got sick, but when I was, I could admit I was a horrible patient; maybe it had something to do with the people who’d taken care of me—rather whohadn’ttaken care of me.

“Jenner, stop fucking around and get into position. We need to make up for yesterday!” Rick, the director, yelled from across the set at me. He hated me; I swore, he tried to make each day here as miserable as possible.

“I’ll introduce you to everyone later. You can sit in my seat,” I pointed toward the row of director chairs as I made my way into the bedroom setup.

Abbi’s eyes darted around as she looked at all the chairs for a moment until she found the one with my name on it. She gave me a thumbs-up before she sat down on it.

Today was going to be a boring day for me since I was delegated to lay in bed for every scene. Luckily, with my character being in a bad way, it was going to be a short day for me. Maybe I’d ask Abbi if she wanted to go out to dinner instead of making us something. It would be a real date. Something I’d never attempted before.

Slowly, I was starting to like chasing after Abbi and wooing her with my charm.

I may have been on top of my game for the day, but it seemed no one else was. Even from across the room, I saw Abbi’s eyes flare as Rick called cut for what had to have been the thirtieth time, and it was only the first scene of the day. Rick had every right to call cut each and every time because my two co-stars were fucking up almost every line. Courtney’s eyes darted up to the ceiling every few seconds, and Martin looked as if he hadn’t slept in two days. He had to have every other line called out to him.

“Do not make me call it a dayagain,” Rick growled out as he stormed up to where they were standing next to my deathbed. “Has hell frozen over? Jenner is spot on while the rest of you are acting like it’s your first day acting. I’m giving you all an hour break for lunch, and you better have your act together when you get back, or I’m going to dock your pay five thousand dollars for every time I have to say cut before the scene is finished.”

It took everything in me not to smile because Rick was on Courtney and Martin’s asses like he was usually on mine, except I always knew my lines. Instead, I stayed in the bed where I’d been for the last two hours, and watched them all walk away while Abbi watched everything unfold.

Once everyone cleared out, I crooked my finger to the beautiful brunette who’d occupied my chair all morning. She smiled shyly before getting up and walking toward me.

Sidling up to the edge of the bed, she looked down at me. “Are you staying in character?”

“No,” I patted the space beside me. “Come join me here for a second.”

“Why?” She scrunched her nose at the bed.

“When will you ever get a chance to lay on a set bed?” The moment I said the words, I knew they were wrong. They could be taken to mean she’d never be on-set again. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her down next to me and turned on my side to look down at her. “Don’t take that the wrong way. What I meant to say is I can’t say this bed will be here the next time you’re here.”

Her small hand lifted to cup my cheek. “It’s okay. I understand.”

Turning onto my back, I pointed up to the left. Do you see the light that’s out?”

“Yeah,” she answered quietly.

“That whole metal part is what fell yesterday. I’m not sure how Jim didn’t get injured worse than he was. If that would have . . . ” I couldn’t even voice thinking aboutifit had hit me.

“But he’s fine, and you’re fine.”

I didn’t want to think about what could have happened, so I asked her, “Are you hungry? We should get something to eat while we can.” Jumping up from bed, I moved to grab my robe off the back of a chair. When I looked back over my shoulder, Abbi’s eyes were glued to my ass. “Do you like what you see?”

“Ugh,” she rolled her eyes. “Take me to lunch.”

With my arm around her shoulders, I directed her out to the catering tent.

“Is it always like this?”

Looking down at her with the sun glinting off her shiny chestnut hair, I asked. “Like what? The food or being on set?”

“Both?” She shrugged as if she didn’t know.

“The food is always catered. Some days it’s good and some days not so good.” I leaned down to speak quietly in her ear. “Most of the time, it’s not great, but I have to eat.” Her body tensed beside me. “Today, it looks good. They’re trying to make everyone forget about what happened yesterday.”

Abbi pulled back with her brows pinched together. “That’s fucked up. I have to say being here is killing all the Hollywood ambiance I had about making a TV show.”

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