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Chapter Thirty-Two

The summer temperatures hit the Gold Coast early, in late spring, with the heat climbing rapidly even as the weather worsened. Rain fell on and off for a week, sometimes accumulating into storms that split the sky with thunder and lightning.

They’d been lucky with the location shoots, and the crew were grateful to be filming in the huge sound stages, despite the rattle of the wind against the walls. One thing that had surprised Hannah about filming was the fact that sound was usually re-recorded in a separate studio later. But they also liked to record it during filming too – she supposed this would give post-production as many options as possible.

The cast would remain for a few more weeks for this sound recording, but it wouldn’t require the rest of the cast and crew, like herself and Caleb.

Things had definitely changed between them since the desert shoot, and she wasn’t entirely sure why. Caleb had said their relationship would end when the filming finished, but it seemed as if he were already pulling away from her. He’d definitely been defensive over her prying about his feelings regarding Baz, which was unexpected. He’d been so open to her advice before.

He slept in his own room at night, always training late after rehearsals or filming, and then claiming exhaustion when he did return. She’d stopped waiting up for him.

Was he bored of her already? Had she done something to make him think she was getting too clingy? The idea caused her stomach to churn, and she tried to put on a brave face as she concentrated on her job.

She had to admit the filming of the stunts had been back-to-back this week. So, maybe he was tired. Baz’s operation wouldn’t have helped either; maybe he was anxious? He’d been quite irritable and stern towards Jackson a few times regarding safety checks, and she wondered if he were worried about a similar accident happening to him.

Caleb had filmed the drop into the river this week, which had meant hours of falling onto a giant cushion surrounded by green screens. Then he’d filmed hitting the water in the tank, followed by a few ‘dangerous rapids’ swimming shots with Sarah. No wonder he was exhausted. She could be overthinking his behaviour.

Except she knew she wasn’t.

There was one glimmer of hope for Hannah, and it had nothing to do with Caleb, but with the friends she’d made here.

One of Zach’s flatmates had decided to move out to be with his boyfriend, which meant Hannah could take over the lease. The room was spacious, and in a building that had a pool. Best of all, she’d be sharing with someone she liked and trusted. Her book club met at the coffee shop around the corner, and they were close enough to the beaches for her to enjoy the surf and practise standing on the board.

The only downside was the cost and the fact she didn’t have a permanent job. But she’d saved enough on rent recently to cover herself for at least a couple of months, and Kirra had given her a great reference. The nursing agency she’d found had added her to their books immediately and seemed keen to place her after her contract at the studio was up. So, hopefully, she was worrying over nothing. Kirra had also promised to call both Zach and Hannah first for any future studio jobs.

Everything was going well, apart from with Caleb.

But hadn’t she always known that was going to be the case?

Today, the rain had eased and the sun was out. So they’d moved away from the water tank scenes and were filming ‘storming the desert temple’ instead. This was in a spectacular life-size set that had been built in an old quarry at the back of the studios.

The fact they’d built an entire temple was impressive enough, but they’d also added sand around it and colourised it perfectly to match the red of the desert location.

The production and set designers had done an outstanding job. It was only a shame it would be burnt to the ground by the end of the week. But perhaps a Viking funeral was a fitting end – better than being broken up and recycled. Especially when filming its fiery destruction would be so spectacular.

Hannah had been keen to work this part of the filming schedule. Until she realised that the temple scenes meant the extras would be back – including Patrick.

She couldn’t help but laugh when Patrick sauntered onto the set with a big green bat, looking like a complete idiot in a motion capture suit. Presumably, he would be playing one of the monsters that Caleb and Sarah had to fight.

But the suit was an extra special delight – sallow grey and covered with hundreds of dots and triangles. It clearly showed his lack of ample assets beautifully. The skullcap highlighting his receding hairline was the icing on the cake. Hannah was desperate to get a photo to cackle at whenever she was feeling low.

She doubted he’d seen himself in a full-length mirror; otherwise, he wouldn’t be walking towards her with such confidence.

‘Hey H. You good?’

‘Yep,’ said Hannah, busying herself with needlessly checking her paperwork, uncomfortably aware that sat in a chair as she was, she was about eye-level with Patrick’s unsavoury down under.

A dark shadow was cast on the floor beside her, and she glanced up to see Caleb stood at her side, his arms folded across his silky shirt and leather military-style jacket, a sword strapped to his hips, and his muscular legs poured into tight leather trousers. The costume and make-up department were really worth their weight in gold; Caleb looked every inch the vampire prince, and it was doing strange things to her libido. Especially considering she’d had a taste of that magnificent body and had now been starved of it for nearly a week.

Patrick shuffled closer. ‘Hey, Caleb! I was wondering if you’d be up for a bigger collab. I know you’ve been working with Hannah, but there’s no harm in having a greater reach, right?’

Caleb’s attention shifted towards Patrick as if he’d barely been aware of his presence until now. ‘No, thanks.’

‘How about some pictures of us together? The terrifying monster and the vampire prince? It’d be really—’

‘You’re a golem,’ Caleb interrupted, in a deadpan tone.

Patrick gave a nervous laugh. ‘Yeah, it’s a monster though, right?’