Chapter One
ROMAN
“Are you kidding me?” I ask, fighting the urge to toss the phone across the room. Perhaps I’m not mymost patientself now that I’ve given up smoking. Pacing back and forth along the cool oak floor of my penthouse condo, I desperately will myself to be calm about this change. When my agent told me he needed to call me this afternoon, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Did I expect it to be this bad?Fuck no.
“Roman,” Bill sighs. I know he’s unimpressed and likely doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with my mood, but I can’t help it. I’m pissed off, and unfortunately, he’s on the receiving end of it.
“Part of the reason I signed on to do the movie was because of Hailey McDonald,” I explain through gritted teeth.
“I understand that Roman, but?—”
“She brought a huge fan base with her.”
“Yes, I know that, but?—”
“How sure is it that she’s out?” I cut in.
“It’s official, she’s signed departure papers,” Bill confirms grimly.
“Fuck.”
Bill ignores my cursing and continues. “The good news is the studio still wants to move ahead with the film, which means they’ll be recasting her role ASAP.”
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose as he talks.
To say I’m annoyed about this recasting news would be an understatement. Hailey and I were slated to co-lead a new superhero film that my family’s business, Starlight Studios, is producing. It’s going to be a huge production for the studio, with an astronomical budget. The pressure is on to make sure it performs well at the box office.
Especially since superhero movies have been flopping lately. If we fuck this up, the studio will be out millions of dollars.
What adds to the stress is the fact that my father will surely find a way to blame me and hand me my ass if this goes poorly.
Starlight Studios—and my father, in particular—are pushing me to sign a fake relationship contact with the other lead. The studio thinks it’ll help generate PR for the movie. They’ve been pushing my older brother, James, to enter into a fake relationship for the film he’s shooting too.
I know James is vehemently opposed to it, but honestly? I’ve kind of stopped giving a shit when it comes to Deacon. I’m used to disappointing him no matter what I do, so what’s the point in fighting it if it’ll be good for the movie?
Getting this film made is important to me. I’ve been a fan of theDarkness Risingcomics since I was a kid, and getting the chance to play Peter Hatch—aka Eclipse—is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Doing this film excites me, and that’s something I haven’t felt in a long time.
Besides, when it comes to doing one of these relationship contracts, there’s usually a bunch of stipulations and everything is laid out pretty clearly in advance. Nothing wild, but there’s an expectation of keeping up appearances inpublic. What we do privately is our own business and the studio doesn’t give a shit – so long as publicly we maintain a certain level of interest.
The idea of doing all that with Hailey seemed okay. Her and I got along well at the initial casting meetings, and we’d had coffee a few times since. She brought with her a massive fan base from her work on the show,Seasons. Which was a massive bonus.
“Did she give a reason?” I ask, trying to find some way to make it make sense.
“It was the stunts,” Bill says, his voice strained.
I can feel my blood pressure rising. From the get-go it was always made abundantly clear to us that this movie was going to be heavy on stunts. There’s been a big push from Starlight to have us perform as many of our own stunts as possible in an attempt to use that for marketing purposes. Hailey knew from the outset what was expected from her, and I’m pissed as hell that she signed on if she knew she wasn’t up to the task.Why bother making the studio go through all that effort? Why bother meeting up for the coffees?What a fucking piss off.
A groan is my only response.
“They’ll need you back at the studio on Tuesday for chemistry reads.” Bill adds.
Right.Chemistry reads. Where you’re shoved in front of a camera with a potential co-star and you act out an emotionally intense scene to see if you have “chemistry” or not. Hailey and I did one and since we got along so well, it was easy and the studio was happy with it. I’m not excited about the prospect of doing it again. It’s awkward at best and downright uncomfortable as fuck at worst.
“Fine,” I say as I lean against the cool granite countertop in my kitchen. The cool ledge beneath my fingers is helping to steadyme.
“Great. They’ll see you Tuesday at two,” Bill says, clearly desperate to wrap up this conversation.
“Do we know who they’re bringing in yet?” I ask, hoping to be able to do some digging on my potential co-star tonight.
