Page 74 of The Boss I Can't Stand
“I’m just getting read in by X now,” she said. “Where do you want to start?”
“I need to see the footage before I can say for sure, but I’m assuming we’ll be doing reshoots. I need cast and crew back on set ASAP,” I told her. “Third act shootout up until Tommy’s death. That’s all the leads. Some background. Can you start reaching out to agents now to figure out availability?”
“On it,” she said. “I’ll make the calls and get back to you within the hour.”
“Just meet me in post-production. Sierra and I are headed back now.”
When I hung up, Sierra was on the phone with Paisley, discussing how to remove the fake blood and which scraps of material were salvageable. I heard her say a few things about a seven-day turnaround that had me grimacing.
We didnothave time to wait a week for new costumes. I ran my hand down my face. I hadn’t watched the dailies for this particular sequence because I’d left early to take Sierra on one of our fake dates.
Dammit!
Frustration surged through me. This was what happened when I took my eyes off the prize and let my lines get crossed between what was real and what was a PR necessity. Because what use wasEvery Daytrending over that damn war movie if we now needed to push the release date because of unexpected reshoots?
If we didn’t get this sorted ASAP, this movie wouldn’t make it to theaters before the end of the year, and we could kiss the upcoming awards season goodbye. That would mean we’d been doing all this PR bullshit for no reason.
By the time we reached the car, my jaw ached from how hard I’d clenched my teeth. Sierra caught my eye over the roof of the Ferrari. “Maybe it’s not as bad as they think.” The tense look on her face said otherwise. “Maybe it’ll be salvageable.”
“I fucking hope so.”
“Is that your mother’s car?” Sierra asked when we pulled into the studio lot fifty minutes later. She was right. It was.
“What the hell is she doing here?” I was already seething; I didn’t need to add dealing with her today to the long list of shit I now needed to tackle.
“Do you think X called her?”
“I don’t know why. We don’t need the historical consultant for a couple of reshoots. Those scenes are locked.” Frankly, it was about time for her to be getting back to San Francisco. I didn’t know why she was still hanging around LA other than to annoy the hell out of Liam and Mia. That was a later problem. I got out of the car,slamming the door a little too hard as I set off for post-production, Sierra chasing at my heels.
When I stormed in, I found X and my mother deep in conversation with Anthony and several other editors.
“Mr. Lockhart!” one of the assistants said, jumping to her feet. She rolled a chair out for me. I waved it away.
“Where’s Pedro?” I snapped. I wanted the best on this fix.
“He’s on his way in,” Anthony said. “But I don’t think there’s anything he can do.”
“Show me the scene,” I said.
The assistant jammed her hand down on a button, and the ruined scene played on the massive screen in front of us. The scene itself was fine, but the audio was a nightmare, because overlaying the dialogue was X and my mother,flirtinglike they were the only ones on set!
“…just want to get you alone,” X said.
Oh, God!
“Lucky for you I can make that happen,” my mother replied in a tone I’d never heard before. “Liam’s place should be free tonight.”
What the absolute fuck was going on?Were they seriously planning to hook up?
“We had fun there last time,” X said.
They’dalreadyhooked up? Jesus Christ!
Sierra latched onto my arm like she was trying to stop me from exploding as I whipped my head around to face my mother and X. Mom had gone so red it looked like she’d attempted to tan on the surface of the sun, and X had covered his face with his hand. They were acting like a pair of teenagers I’d caught on the couch.
It felt like my brain was oozing out my ears. Why the fuck was X flirting with my mother? Why was he doing anything other than his job, which was directing this goddamn movie?
“Finn,” Sierra started, but I yanked my hand out of her grip.
