‘I only thought?—’
Riley spun to face her. ‘Well, save yourself the bother. You’re my assistant and don’t forget it. You do as I ask you. What Mike wants is nothing to do with you working for me.’
Embarrassed, Tasha concentrated on not showing that she was upset about him speaking to her in such a rude, condescending way.
‘That’s enough,’ Callum snapped, his voice low as he stepped in front of Riley. ‘You do not get to disrespect Tasha in that way.’
Riley stabbed Callum in the chest with his pointed finger. ‘And you don’t interfere with me and my assistant.’ He sneered before adding, ‘You might be sleeping with my assistant, but I’m her boss and I’ll speak to her as I like.’
Tasha had had enough. She gave Callum a grateful smile, thankful he wasn’t rising to Riley’s bait and giving in to the urge – which she could see clearly in Callum’s eyes – to hit him.
‘Thanks for standing up for me, Callum,’ she said, taking a steadying breath in an attempt to stop her voice quivering. ‘But I can speak for myself.’
‘Of course.’
She waited for Callum to walk away and follow Mile to his trailer. Smarting to have been put in this situation by Riley, Tasha clenched her teeth, willing herself to remain calm. She hated to think she was about to prove her parents right when they had argued that she was being foolish expecting to find a satisfying, long-term job working as a PA to an actor, but she had insisted that following her dream was what she wanted and assured them working for Riley would be her dream job.
There was nothing for it now though. She had struggled to justify her reasons for continuing to work for Riley as his behaviour deteriorated. She had her limits though and losing her self-respect was not something she could accept, regardless of how smug her parents’ reaction to her doing exactly as they had predicted might be.
She turned to Riley. ‘I’ve had enough of your nastiness. Your complete lack of respect for me is appalling. Actually it’s embarrassing, especially after all my hard work and dedication to looking after you for the past three years.’
His mouth dropped open. ‘Now look here, Tasha, I only meant to?—’
She shook her head dismissively. ‘You know what, Riley? I simply don’t care.’
‘About what?’
‘About you, about what you think, but most of all, about your stinking job. Today has been the final straw. I’ve had enough of you treating me badly. You can take this as my resignation. I’ll put it in writing as soon as I get back to the apartment.’
‘Now hang on a second, Tasha.’ He glared at her indignantly. ‘You can’t do this.’
Tasha was shocked to see that Riley really believed what he was saying. ‘That’s where you’re wrong. I can do exactly as I wish. And right now, that is to end my employment working for the rudest man I’ve ever met.’ He went to argue, but she shook her head. ‘Don’t bother. Now, I think you should hurry and get to Mike’s office before he’s had enough of you too and fires you from the series.’
Spotting several members of the crew trying not to seem as if they were listening to every word, Tasha just wanted to get away from the farm. The humiliation of being spoken to like that in front of everyone was mortifying and she couldn’t wait to escape.
The magnitude of what was happening seemed to slowly dawn on Riley. He looked from her to Mike’s trailer, then back at Tasha again. ‘Wait for me to speak to him, then we’ll discuss you leaving again. I have more to say on the matter.’
38
CALLUM
Callum made his way to Mike’s trailer, glancing over his shoulder to check Tasha seemed to be OK. It was probably a good thing she had asked him to go, because as much as he wanted to remember his place and let Tasha deal with her own boss, it had taken all his determination to resist thumping Riley. How dare the little snot speak to Tasha in that way? And to embarrass her in front of all those people too. It was unacceptable and he wished he could teach the nasty piece of work a lesson.
He walked up the few steps and knocked on the door.
‘Come in.’ Mike sounded snappy and Callum wondered if he had been expecting Riley. He opened the door and leant inside.
‘Sorry, I’m not sure whether you did mean for me to follow you here, or if you were just wanting to speak to Riley alone?’
Mike waved for him to get inside. ‘Close the door behind you, will you?’
Callum did as he was asked and took a seat that Mike indicated.
‘I’m sorry about that scene out there, Callum. How he gets away with the public believing he is such a sweetheart, I’ve no idea.’
Callum wanted to try and placate the director, aware the extra couple of weeks’ filming was adding pressure onto everyone involved. ‘I’m sure Riley will realise what he’s done and make amends.’ As Callum spoke, he knew that was not nearly enough and that Riley needed to learn not to behave in such a disgusting way in the first place.
‘Right, before Riley arrives, I want to ask you what you think about the promotional photos, videos? Will you be in agreement about taking part? Do you have an agent I can discuss this with?’
