They went again, and Dana only pretended to kiss her on the neckagain. Samara pretended she liked it and moved her hands haphazardly over Dana’s back, trying to focus on being Stella and not thinking about the fact that it was Dana. She was Stella right now, and this was Bray, and they were falling in love.
“Let’s try it again,” Reed said on the fifth take. “Ladies, I know we’re really just getting some coverage here, and we’ll use the two-shot from the other day for most of this, but I still need to see that you actually like each other today. Can we try that, please?”
“Sorry,” Dana said this time.
“Let’s go one more time. Everyone ready?”
Reed gave them their cue once more, and Samara mustered up all the acting talent she could, but it still didn’t feel like enough. She’d never had this problem before. With any other co-star, she had been able to act like she liked them for the scene. Of course, she had never kissed a co-star for real the night before filming.
“Cut,” she said.
“Sorry?” Reed asked. “Did you just say, ‘Cut?’”
“I’m sorry,” she said, and Dana looked at her in confusion, but Samara leaned in and whispered, “Put your lips on me.” She hoped the boom microphone didn’t pick that up, but she knew it had. “It’s okay.”
“Isit, though?” Dana asked and shook her head. “Let’s just get this over with, please. Whatever you want. The camera is onyourface, so can you maybe pretend I’m some buff actor you’d actually do this with so that we can move on?”
“Dana,” she began softly. “I’m–”
“Ladies, we’re running out of time here,” Reed said.
“We’re ready,” Dana replied. “We’ve got it.”
Reed went through the motions, and Dana leaned back in. When her lips pressed to Samara’s neck this time, Samara closed her eyes. She didn’t need to pretend that it was some actor.Danadid it for her. When Dana actually sucked on her neck lightly, Samara’s hands went to work, moving over her back, pressing and squeezing, and not just for the camera. She wanted to apologize to Dana, but she didn’t know how, and she couldn’t exactly do that here anyway, so she gasped a little and waited because Reed would surely be telling them to cut soon.
Dana’s lips moved to Samara’s earlobe, and she sucked it into her mouth. Samara gasped again becausethatwasn’t in the script, and no one would be able to see it anyway due to the camera angle. She knew this had nothing to do with the movie. This was all Dana, not Bray. She held on to Dana now, trying to let her know that she understood that, and Dana’s hand slid under her shirt, resting on Samara’s stomach.
“And cut,” Reed said.
“What? No,” Samara replied.
“No?” Reed asked.
Dana pulled back and stared into Samara’s eyes. Dana’s green ones were darker than they had been moments earlier. Samara wondered if her own eyes were just as dark, and she swallowed as she stared into those greens because she knew she’d just hadDanasucking on her earlobe, not Bray.
“Are we okay today?” Reed asked after a minute.
“We’re good,” Dana said.
“Okay. Well, I think we finally got it. Thank God! Let’s move on. Reset,” Reed said.
Dana turned and quickly walked away from her, like she couldn’t get away fast enough. Samara wished it hadn’t gotten to her, but it had. She cleared her throat and tried to fix her shirt in an attempt to pull herself together.
“Everything all right there?” Bryce asked.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” she replied, forcing a smile before she grabbed her phone and walked to her trailer.
She needed a minute to herself, but when she got there, she grunted loudly. The room was seventy-three degrees and climbing. She smacked at the thermostat and tried to change the temperature, but it didn’t respond.
“What the hell?” she asked no one and walked back outside. “Jana!”
“Hey,” Jana said, walking over to her. “What’s up?”
“The thermostat is broken. It’s too hot.”
“In your trailer?”
“No, on the golf cart behind you. Yes, in my trailer.”
