“Cut!” Simon yelled. “Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut!”
Using the element of surprise, I cupped Tabs’s elbow and led her swiftly away from the cameras.
“I just need to go home and shower and change,” I said. “Could you come to my mother’s flat?”
Her head flung back in surprise. “Yourmother’sflat?”
“Yes, shall we say in a half hour? I need to tell you why I left this morning.” Hopefully Mum would be asleep, so I could explain everything to Tabs in private.
She narrowed her eyes at me, then gave a stiff nod. “Yes, okay.”
I was glad she agreed, but something was very, very wrong. This was what Tabitha reverted to when she was shutting down. Politeness.
“You two. Over here!” Simon yelled over at us. “Now!”
My head shot in his direction. What now? I desperately needed to get Tabitha out of here and find out what was wrong. He called again, and Tabitha and I reluctantly walked over.
“Nope. Not happening,” he said. “It’s all gone pear-shaped. You are being—Lord help us—courteous. Boring! What happened?”
I did a double take. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean—”
“Don’t want to hear it,” Simon cut in. “I got you two because youloathedeach other. And now you are—” he pointed to Tabs, then me “—beingpoliteto each other. Which is not good TV. At the minimum, I need your usual sniping. Seething is better. Out-and-out fury is best. Chemistry—the hating kind.She says something, you argue, she argues back. Get the picture?”
I stood there stunned and nauseous. I’d known he’d taken on Tabs because we had a lot of antagonism, but I supposed I’d fooled myself it was fine that we were getting on better. I didn’t like that we were now playing it for the cameras, but I needed this money for Mum.
Like everything else in my life, this production was starting to unravel.
Tabs shuffled from foot to foot beside me, seeming miserable. I wasn’t sure if it was because of whatever had happened to her today or Simon’s dictates.
“This doesn’t just affect the two of you. The rest of the production company will suffer because this willNot. Be. A. Hit.” He slammed his hands onto his hips. “And I’ll tell you right now, you will not win the prize money. Spoiler alert—it doesn’t go to the best design. It goes to the team with the best viewership numbers.” He smiled and waggled his head. “Congrats.Thank you very much.I don’t care. My grandmother doesn’t care. The bloody llamas don’t care. We want to witness thestruggle!”
More drama equaled more chance of winning. I was exhausted just thinking about having to have pretend scraps with Tabitha.
Simon wandered aimlessly in a circle, shaking his head. “How the feck did I get here?” he monologued. “I got top marks for my shorts at film school. The Manchester Scorsese, one critic said. My classmates voted me most likely to succeed. Now here I am, fifty years old, a never-was. I must have been a total wanker in my last life to be directing this thing.”
Simon had no power on this show, he’d told me that, but it was totally obvious now. Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’d still hoped he would help me in trying to edit out that awful, negative slant on Tabitha, but it wasn’t going to happen.
“Don’t fool yourself, Simon,” Freya said dryly. “You’re a total wanker in this life too. That ‘award-winning short’ you made when you were twenty-one was a brutally self-conscious, overwrought depiction of a young lad who couldn’t pull the trigger when it came to the girl sitting in a lecture hall next to him.”
Normally, I would have been entertained and intrigued by this little demonstration of how well she and Simon knew each other, but I was consumed by the fact that we might not win.Fuck. Would these last few weeks mean nothing at all?
42
Tabitha
My heart hammeringinside my chest, I was nervous to knock on the door, not even sure why I’d agreed to come to his place anyway.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Tim said, opening the door immediately. “You know Mum, of course. And this is Macy.”
I gasped. His mother had visible bruises on her face as she got up from her chair and limped to me.
Oh hell, had she been attacked?
“What happened, Mrs. Langston?” I asked, moving toward her.
“I took a tumble.” She looked shamefaced.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “It looks like a very nasty fall.”
