Amelia and Sam both nodded.
It was Alex who was speaking, giving notes on a scene. Sam and Alex were both in Los Angeles, in the same house. They were sitting in different rooms, on the same Zoom call with five other people, some of whom were in the house with them as well. The television series, Paths Crossing, would finally start filming next month. It was written and directed by Alex Stockton, one of Sam's good friends from college. It was a passion project for Alex, and it was based on the true story of his great, great, great grandmother who changed identities with another young woman on the trail out west in the early nineteen-hundreds.
Alex's real relative was the one who left her life in Missouri to go to California. Alex had researched for over a year—two now that the project had been delayed. He had heard stories from relatives of the people involved. It was a historical fact that Lottie Logan, Ty's character, was the wife of Tommy Logan, Sam's character, and that they had four children. It was also confirmed that Lottie from Missouri was born as Chloe, and changed her name to Lottie as a teenager when the two girls switched lives in Missouri. It had been a bit confusing to Sam at first, but he knew the script and characters well by now.
The story had Tommy fall in love with Chloe the instant she came into town. Their romance was a significant part of the storyline. In recent days, Sam had been working directly with the woman who was playing his love interest. They had a lot of scenes together, and he had spoken with her and read with her on the phone several times before. He had seen her face on the rare video call like the one they were doing now, but he had never met her in person.
She was not a trained actress. She was a childhood friend of Alex's with no acting experience, and yet she and her sister had the two biggest roles in this series. Alex had faith in her, and so far, she was doing a good job in spite of how little she knew about the whole process. Sam wasn't the type to mix feelings with work, but he could have easily developed an actual crush on Ty Banks. She was tenacious and funny, and she was beautiful.
There was no chance anything would happen between them because she had a boyfriend. She had mentioned him. There were a few kissing scenes, and apparently, her boyfriend took issue with them. In one scene, the new Lottie stood at the stove to cook eggs, and Sam, who was at her house at the time, noticed that she wasn't doing it like the old Lottie would have done. They have a lighthearted exchange about eggs, but it quickly becomessincere, and things escalate between them. It would be the first time they kiss in the series.
It's a moving scene, one that Cameron, the assistant director, referred to as toe-curling and her new favorite. It had been a recent addition to the script. The plans for it had to be altered, though, because Ty's boyfriend didn't feel comfortable with her kissing anyone. Alex had made a note saying that the kiss at the end of the scene would be filmed with a stand-in Lottie.
Sam, who was a trained actor, thought it was an insane thing to ask, and he couldn't believe Alex had gone along with it. It wasn't that he was disappointed not to be able to kiss Ty. He didn't care either way. But she was asking a lot. Sam liked Ty in general, though, and he was going to have an easy time playing someone who was interested in her. She was interesting, beautiful, and easy to like.
"All right, gang," Alex said, closing the meeting. "I think I've given you enough notes for today. I can't thank you enough, and I can't wait to see you all in a few short weeks to start filming this thing."
They all started waving at each other, saying goodbye and smiling.
"Hey, Sam and Ty," Alex said. "You two, please stay on the line while everyone else disconnects. I have a few other things to go over with you."
Sam nodded, and he focused on Ty, who was doing the same thing.
One by one, everyone else left the call.
"Hey, you two, thanks for all the preparation you've been doing. Ty, your character is not my blood relative, so I'm not sure why I'm so focused on this, but I am. The love story between Tommy and new Lottie is surprisingly my favorite part of the series. Okay. That being said, I want you two to have a certain level of familiarity with each other. I've given you some factsabout each of your characters—random lore about each of them. You each have a set of questions and answers in your email. It should only take about fifteen minutes for you to go through the questions with each other, but please go ahead and do this right away."
"So, we're going through them together?" Ty asked.
Alex nodded. "Yes, I want you and Sam to gain some trust with each other before we show up in Montana to start filming. Any time you two could spend together around the set would be amazing. I'm looking for comfort and familiarity. Chemistry. I need good chemistry here. Okay, if neither of you has any other questions, I'm going to disconnect and let you two—you need to start another call since I'm the host."
"Is it something we could just do over the phone?" Ty asked.
"Are you opposed to staying on a video call?" Alex asked her.
"No, no, I just wasn't sure," she said.
"Okay, do a video. Thanks, guys. I'm disconnecting. Just let Cam know if you have trouble accessing the questions."
Alex's screen went blank.
"Hey, I'll just FaceTime you since I have your number," Sam said.
Within a couple of minutes, the two of them were staring at their phones instead of their computers.
"Did you read the questions?" was the first thing Ty asked him when the call connected. "It's basically a script."
"I'm looking at it right now," he said, glancing to the side so that he could read Cameron's message on his computer screen. He smiled at the email. Cameron was a perfectionist, and she had everything clearly marked. "Do you have questions and answers?" he asked, glancing back at his phone.
"I do. This is crazy. Is this something actors typically do?"
"No, not really. I've never done it. All directors are different. Alex just has something in mind for how we see each other, and he's trying to help us get there."
"How long have you been acting?" she asked.
"Since I was five," he said.
"Whoa, I didn't expect you to say that," she said, her eyes growing big.
