Page 107 of At the Heart of It
“So what are you thinking?” Kate asked Chase. “How soon?”
“Now. In the next couple days.” Chase folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the table. “It seems smart, don’t you think? If he learns the divorce isn’t final after Viv’s been throwing herself at him for weeks, he’s going to react with suspicion, right?”
“Right,” Kate said slowly, knowing that was probably true.
“But if we do it now, when it’s truly coming from out of nowhere, we catch him on tape with shock that’s authentic. He’d be truly stunned.”
Kate nodded, knowing that was true as well, and also that she hated it.
“But is that really worth it?” Amy asked. “Like you said, we can edit in a shocked reaction from some other scene.”
She sent Kate a frantic look, and Kate recognized she was grasping at straws. Amy knew better than anyone the importance of continuity. The fact that she was even trying to convince Chase otherwise made Kate want to hug her.
“Nah, we need things to be authentic,” Chase argued. “We need footage to show Joe in the same outfit, sitting in the same setting, wearing the most genuine look of shock we’re ever going to get from the guy.” He snorted and leveled Amy with a look. “Come on, he’s no actor. Besides, how’s he going to react if he finds out at the end of the season that we knew all along about the divorce?”
“Pissed,” Amy said, and Kate felt grateful that she wasn’t the only one weighing in on Jonah’s emotional responses. That they weren’t counting on her to be the authority on Jonah Porter.
Still, it was Kate that Chase turned to when he spoke his next words. “We want him a little pissed off,” Chase said. “That’s part of his persona. It makes for good ratings.”
“You’re messing with a man’s life here,” Kate pointed out. “With Viv’s life, too, but at least she’s in on the plan.”
Not all the details, of course. She didn’t know about Kate and Jonah sleeping together, or that Viv’s quest to win back Jonah wouldn’t likely succeed.
“We’ve got him on contract for fourteen episodes,” Chase said. “He’s not going anywhere.”
Amy shifted a little and lowered her notepad. “I agree that Joe might not react well if he thinks we’ve been hiding things from him.”
“Exactly,” Kate said, telegraphing silent thanks to Amy. “There’s a difference between having him a little angry in general and having him pissed off at the whole show. At everyone involved with it.”
Chase looked at her again, and something in his expression made her wonder how much he knew. Made her question whether the elevator or her hotel room or her breakfast tray had been bugged after all. She knew that wasn’t possible, but she got a slithering feeling down her spine from the way he stared at her.
“Then you need to do whatever it takes to keep him around.” He held Kate’s gaze for a few beats longer, and she fought the urge to look away. “It’s your job to keep him happy, isn’t it?”
Kate swallowed. She opened her mouth to respond, but another voice echoed in the room.
“It’s no one’s job to keep someone else happy.”
Kate turned to see Viv floating into the room. She was beaming from ear to ear and wearing an ivory tank top printed with a mandala and olive-green yoga pants that made her look like a cross between a ballet dancer and a pixie.
Viv swept through the entrance and put a hand on Chase’s arm. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “I just overheard the last of what you said and wanted to point out that people are responsible for their own happiness and no one else’s.” Her smile faltered a little then as she glanced from one face to the other. “I’m sorry, did I come in at a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine,” Kate offered her best imitation of a smile and hoped like hell Viv hadn’t heard anything too damning.
“Vivienne,” Chase said, putting an arm around her and steering her toward the head of the conference table. “It’s lovely to see you again. You’re a little early, aren’t you?”
“I know, I’m sorry. I had a yoga class just down the street and decided to pop by.” She glanced back at Kate and Amy. “Were you talking about the show?”
“Employee relations,” Kate said before anyone else could speak up. “Just making sure everyone who’s part the show is taken care of financially, spiritually, emotionally?—”
“Physically,” Chase added, his eyes still locked on Kate. “I know we can all trust Kate to handle everything, though.”
“She’s very good at it,” Viv chimed in, offering Kate such a genuine smile that it nearly broke her heart. “The best at making sure everything and everyone is handled with care.”
“The very best,” Chase agreed, sending a shiver down Kate’s spine.
Jonah had distinct memories of basic training as a young Marine. Of twelve-mile night marches and three a.m. stick battles designed to test a recruit’s stamina and hand-to-hand combat skills.
But the filming schedule they followed over the next few days was making that look like a cakewalk.
