Page 32 of Love On and Off Set

“Just about?”

A little laugh burst out of him. “The evening janitorial staff don’t know, but it’s not likely to affect them. Still, they’ll probably hear about it. This is a big deal.”

“Surely this isn’t the most interesting thing going on right now.” Vague unease settled. If everyone knew about the vase, that meant even more people who might want to steal it. I fell into step with him as we walked toward the massive building.

“Well, I’d say Julie Reyes’s and Cole Hamilton’s love lives create more gossip.” He held open the door. “Do you know the show?”

How was I supposed to answer that? I cleared my throat. “I did watch some to prepare for this assignment.”

“Oh, okay.” He sounded neither disappointed nor excited. “So fans are always debating if Justice and Lyric are going to get together. And, until recently, the speculation was that Cole and Julie had a thing going.”

“And they do not?”

“No.” Seamus guided me down a long corridor. “That’s all you really need to know. I mean, I could give you the details—”

“As you said, that is irrelevant to my job.” I clutched the box a little tighter.

“Right.” He pointed to an open door.

Obligingly, I stuck my head in.

A woman with dark-brown spikey hair waved. “Hey, I’m Tanya.”

“Hallstein.”

“Got it. Anything you need…just ask, okay?”

“Uh, certainly.” I followed Seamus down the hall.

“That’s the production office, and Tanya’s one of the PAs. If I’m not around, she can do anything you need.” He then proceeded to show me several more offices and introduced me to about twenty people.

My head spun.

We stopped before a door that said Props.

“Mr. Jarvis’s office, I presume?”

Seamus cocked his head. “You know Myles?”

“I was informed I would be working closely with the gentleman.”

Seamus snickered. “Don’t let him hear you refer to him as that.”

This time, I cocked my head.

My guide waved me off. “All good. Nothing to worry about.” He opened the door and gestured me in.

The clutter of the room struck me first. The work table in the center of the room had all manner of things on it. The shelves were crammed with all kinds of objects—both identifiable and not.

A petite woman with light-brown hair, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, bent over a lamp and muttered something—apparently completely oblivious to our arrival.

“Hey, Sally, have you seen…” The man to whom the voice belonged halted when he spotted Seamus and me. “Well. Okay then.”

I had no idea what he meant, but I took him in quickly.

Then went for a second look. He was shorter than me, with a shock of white-blond hair, and wore stretchy, stonewashed, tight jeans—that fit him perfectly—with pristine, white sneakers. His shirt was almost as shocking as his hair—lime green with neon-pink stripes. Possibly one of the most obnoxious things I’d ever seen. All that being said, the clothes fit his slender frame like a second skin. Waifish. Lean. Twinkish.

Exactly the way I liked my men. Although I couldn’t, for certain, know he was gay—I was about ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure.