Chapter 12
Doug
Sleeping in my bed again was a pleasant perk, but I missed my late night games with Willa. I missed her pestering me in the mornings and while I judged. She reminded me that it was okay to play a role even when you were supposed to be representing yourself—the weirdness that was reality TV.
With the auditions over with, we had a four-week lull before we began taping our path to the top twenty-five in the theater Alan had booked.
The producers of Strength Warriors decided this was the perfect time to squeeze in production of an hour-long Halloween special. One look at the script they handed me while the hair team put on my new bad guy wig, and I knew my importance to the show had exponentially gone up. I was in every scene except one. It was time to call my agent and put him to work renegotiating my contract.
And it was all Willa’s doing. She’d shaken up my ho-hum existence and had me hoping for more—with my career, and though I almost dared not think it, with my love life. I would not delude myself into believing Willa held some real romantic interest in me, but hope is a sneaky beast. Maybe I’d use this upcoming fake relationship experience to hone my dating skills. Someone else was out there, though it was hard not to picture Willa when I thought about this hazy future someone.
“Hey, Dougy. How’s life?”
Chad sat down in the swivel chair next to me and smiled up at the new makeup girl. She naively smiled back. It’s hard not to trust a handsome face. You want them to be nice.
“Life is great.”
Chad leaned over. “I’ll bet. Ads for your new show are all over the place. They’re really pumping money into this thing with some super desperation. Then there’s the behind-the-scenes photos they keep ‘accidentally’ leaking. I guess Willa’s like the whip cracker over there. There’s this one picture, where she’s leaning over the desk and reaming you out. Her backside looks top notch, by the way. You can tell her I said that. Anyway, they juxtaposed that picture with a Strength Warriors fight scene where you two are face to face. It’s everywhere man. People are making memes of it. Like, ‘When your boss is hot, but also evil.’ Okay, well, maybe I made that one up. ‘Cause I’m awesome.”
I would not be passing on Chad’s regards to Willa or his comment about her backside. The guy had a special gift of ruining all his compliments with a mix of insults and the ol’ Chad charm of complimenting himself at the same time. Though, I had to admit, I was dying to pull out my phone and investigate these pictures for myself.
“How’s the new warrior?” I asked.
“The girl who replaced Willa? Ah, she hates me already. Too young for me anyway.”
That was a relief.
They finished Chad’s hair and makeup and other cast members filtered in and out while the team continued to attach my wig with glue and tape. If I renewed my contract, I’d have to grow my hair out again to avoid all this nonsense. When they were done, I was back to the old Doug with the long hair. It was surreal how close it looked to the real thing. Unfortunately, I had a feeling removing it would be as much of a hassle as putting it on.
The fight scene choreographer worked with us all morning, and the rest of the day was spent filming the five minute climax of the episode, where I temporarily team up with the rangers to fight mutant jack o’ lanterns which would be added in later with the studio’s limited CGI budget.
It was nice to get back to clear expectations and goals. Everything was mapped out for me—when I should kick, where I should aim, what I needed to shout out, and when to turn and punch.
The rest of the Halloween special took place at a costume party where I would mingle with the ‘teenagers’ while searching for a special amulet one of the warriors wore as part of her princess costume. The party extras, the costumes, and the full set would all be in place by morning, but we walked through the whole thing a dozen times before they let us go for the day.
By the time makeup and wardrobe removed all the adhesive around my head from the wig and let me go, I was starving and my limbs were stiff. I wanted dinner and a shower and some quiet time to relax before waking and doing it all again.
I drove straight home and sat down on the tile area just inside so I could unlace and pull off my boots. Tiger ran across the carpet in front of the couch and leapt into my lap.
“Hey, when did you get here?” I asked, stroking his fur. I hadn’t found a good time to meet up with Owen to get him back, and I felt bad. This was the longest I’d gone without seeing my cat.
“About two hours ago.”
I scooted back and hit my shoulder blades against the door. Willa had scared me half to death. Looking around, I finally spotted her on a kitchen stool reading the gaming magazine Nelson had left the last time he was here.
It was more than a little disturbing that I’d missed her when I first walked in, and that she’d been quiet and motionless enough to miss.
She flipped a page. “Owen was here returning your cat when I walked up, and I said I’d wait with it. He and Tracey had dinner plans.”
“Oh.” That still didn’t explain why she’d come over, but knowing Willa, she wasn’t going to say anyway. Admitting she liked spending time with me was a little mushier than we ever got with each other. “How did you get through the front gate?”
“You mean your high-tech security? I followed another car coming in.”
Of course she did. “What have you been doing?”
Willa raised an eyebrow. “Sitting here with this nerd magazine. Don’t worry, I haven’t given myself the grand tour. Oh, I did eat a string cheese from your fridge, and Tiger and I had a staring contest. He won.”
I finished taking off my boots and looked around for anything embarrassing she might have seen. Were there clothes on the floor of my bathroom?
