“I have a lot riding on this too, remember? You know, shitty old apartment, clothes in vacuum-sealed bags, and living off tips women give me, thanks to my body?” My reminder makes him roll his eyes.
“You’re here to do your job. Focus on it, and I’ll focus on mine.”
“Yes, captain.” I salute him and watch as his shoulders stiffen on his way out of my trailer.
Day one on set was mostly figuring out how everybody else’s wheels turned. Things they liked, and things they didn’t. I learned quickly that Jude was the type of director to be fucking pissed after three takes, and Mara was the type to roll her eyes and mutter immature insults under her breath every time the word‘cut’was shouted in her direction.
I could already tell those two weren’t going to get along. She made her distaste for him very clear, and her want for me even clearer.
She wasn’t in the room when I’d jokingly let everyone know that Jenna and I were a couple. If she were, I doubt she’d be hitting on me at every available chance.
When her takes were good, they were fucking fantastic. There’s a reason she’s Hollywood’s ‘it girl’, and from what I gather, she hates being told otherwise.
I sat in Jenna’s chair twelve times today—I counted—and each time, her colleague, Tahnee, did all the talking for both of them. I liked that my presence made her uncomfortable—liked that being around me made her squirm. But I couldn’t help wondering if her mind was racing with memories of all the things we’d done to each other on the night that we’d met.
She’s impossible to read, but I’d make a mental note to attempt conversation with her alone.
Looking around the now empty set, I take it all in.
Cameras, microphones and chairs with names written on the back of them are scattered everywhere, littering the entire space of what used to be an empty barn at Wingrove Estates. Now, it’s temporarily the set for a new movie.
Mynew movie.
Well, my first, anything, really, that doesn’t involve photographers demanding I take my clothes off and lather up my body in oil for hands to roam freely.
It’s already a nice change, but I’m not letting myself get too used to it.
I know opportunities like this can be ripped away from you at any given moment, so I’m trying to soak it all up as best as I can, and not fuck anyone over in the process.
I left the world of modeling three years ago. The money ran dry and I’ve been working and living in the Lotus ever since. I pay absolutely nothing to live there, so I can’t complain, but I do dream of a bigger and better life. Now that I have a taste of it living in these fully serviced apartments, I don’t want to go back. I can’t.
I can wash my clothesinsidemy home, and put them straight into my wardrobe without the need to lug my washing baskets two blocks to and from the laundromat. I also don’t need to keep them sealed away for them to smell fresh.
Getting into acting was my brother’s idea. He studied to be a sports agent in college originally, but people kept approaching him asking ifIhad an agent, and he took it upon himself to turn me into, well, this.
Cole Green, a model turned actor, staring in Hollywood’s most anticipated rom-com, out next summer. They originally wanted some big-shot actor who was in one of those blockbuster superhero movies, but his schedule was jam-packed, so they went with me instead.
When my brother got the call, he immediately shoved me into acting lessons, and covered all the costs—because he’s always been better with his money than I’ve ever been—and now here we are.
I worked with a dialect coach, a vocal coach, and an acting coach who insisted he live with me to ‘really help me perfect my craft,’but it was an easy ‘thank you but no thank you,’ from me.
My brother even tried to force me into dance classes, because, ‘you never know what type of role you could be up for,’ but there just wasn’t enough time in my day.
Regardless, my brother is the reason I’m here, and I can’t let him down.
He might be younger than me, but I owe it to him to succeed.
And I accepted this job hoping to do so.
The only downside to living away from home, is the non-existent beaches.
The nearest one is something like a day’s drive away.
That, in itself, made it hard to convince this Californian boy to accept the job. But then my brother showed me the contract they were offering me with more zeros than I’d ever seen in my life, and I physically couldn’t say no.
The check would clear once shooting was over, but the production company would cover all expenses while I’m here.
It was one of the conditions Tate put in my contract.
