Page 43 of Best Served Hot
‘Well, I think I’d better be getting home,’ she said.
‘To Ethan? You gonna be OK?’ Alex asked, concerned.
‘I’d be kind of shocked ifheshowed up tonight. I’ve got a feeling he’ll beworking late,’ she said with enormous finger quotes.
‘Oh. Good?’
‘It is good, yes. Keeps him out of my hair, at least. Need a lift home?’ Nicole asked.
‘No, I’m parked around the corner.’
‘See you tomorrow,’ Nicole said, scampering off as quickly as her feet would take her. But as she fled from Alex, she couldn’t stop thinking one thought. Another question. The kind of question that feels like it could ruin your life given half a chance.
If she’d tried to kiss Alex, would she have kissed her back?
Twenty-Six
‘Don’t you dare!’
‘Get back! This doesn’t concern you.’
‘The hell it doesn’t!’
‘I’m saving this woman’s life, nurse! Now you can either help me or get out!’ the doctor declared.
‘It’s not the procedure to treat—’
‘CUT!’ Nicole called. ‘Kendall, sorry to cut you off in the middle of a line. I know it’s obnoxious, but I need someone to check that light over there. I thought I saw it wobble when the actors moved, and I’m getting a bit worried something is wrong with it,’ Nicole explained. ‘Can we get a spark on it?’
A woman in a snapback leapt into action. Alex busied herself looking at the details for the next scene.
‘Fucking hell!’ the spark yelled. ‘Who assembled this redhead?’
Nicole went over to inspect while Alex watched from a distance. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘It’s on the wrong stand. One good shake and it would have gone over. It’s a good job you caught it,’ the spark told her.
A teenage trainee shuffled over. ‘Sorry, boss,’ he said to his elder.
‘We need a word. Actually, two words. Corporate manslaughter,’ the woman told the kid. And she took him off for a talking to while someone else dissembled the light.
Alex caught the words, ‘This is how you kill someone and get sued in the process. The kind of lawsuit your grandkids inherit.’
Alex knew the woman was just trying to put the frighteners on the kid so he’d take his fuck-up seriously. But the words were a cold draft on Alex’s already withered soul. She hated thinking about that, but being this close to the set again, the reminders were flying thick and fast.
But worse was the might-have-been of it all. The cut and thrust of the set. It made her feel something—regret. If she’d held her tongue with that young actress, just acquiesced, what would her life be now?
She might be like Nicole, confident and in command. Look at her just now, averting disaster without turning a hair. Alex had to wonder what it looked like when she gave a shit.
Alex had been silly last night. Her mouth had been, anyway. Who the hell did she think she was, complimenting Nicole like that? They weren’t pals.
She couldn’t just toss a compliment like ‘catch’ around like it was nothing. It didn’t work like that when you were attracted to the person. They could smell the insincerity, the impure motivation. Alex had to cool it. All that MSG had gone to her head.
‘Hey, it’s gonna take a minute to get this sorted, everyone, take twenty,’ Nicole announced.
‘Hello, all,’ said a booming, self-important voice. They turned to see Ethan among them.
‘Ethan, two visits in two days? You’re spoiling us,’ Kendall said.
