Stevie Astra was shaking. She wanted to run, but she couldn't, not with Thelwell trailing behind her. The well lit corner of the stage was just ahead of her and buzzing with people, half salvation half humiliation waiting for her. Once she was there she could take back the composure that was slipping from her. It would be the same as being on stage, if she let a spotlight burn into her eyes then she could enter the oblivion and focus on the moment. She could play the scene as it needed to be played.
Even if that meant letting Thelwell into the boundaries of that oblivion.
She couldn't stand her co-star, he made her want to scream in frustration. He was so certain of himself, calm and confident as filming approached, that he made Stevie feel like a fraud. And yet, when he had stood close to her and spoken softly in her ear that hate had been tempered by intense interest.
Stevie rallied against her nerves. She could shape her need for him to respect her, the desire for his approval into Mae's love for Edward. It was better, she realized, to start here at the big romantic sequence because if she knew the longer she stayed close to Thelwell the harder it would be to hide her anger. The tension between them would sour quickly and that would be bad for the production.
"Where were you?" Fast called out as Stevie entered the bright circle of crew.
"Talking to Mei," Stevie answered with a smile. She hoped that made her seem engaged and professional.
"Mei's here?" Fast whispered to the AD to his right. The AD shrugged and turned the pages of the storyboard to show the hotel room. Fast waved Stevie over. She walked closer and bent towards the drawings.
"We're going to be bouncing around a bit, Sunshine," Fast opened the script. "We couldn't get a ballroom full of extras on short notice so this is gonna be two days- Thelwell come here, I am only saying this once."
Stevie froze as Fast's eyes turned to someone just over her shoulder. She kept her gaze on the storyboards, trying to ignore the tingle going up her spine as Thelwell approached. True to his word, he stayed out of her eyeline. Fast glanced between them, but said nothing.
"Like I said, we are doing this over two days. Today, I am getting anything with just you two; hotel room, limo, balcony, lobby. A couple pick ups, but don't worry about those. Tomorrow will be ballroom only. Sound good?"
Stevie wanted to argue that it sounded exhausting but she bit the inside of her lip and nodded.
"I wasn't kidding about this shoot being packed," Fast continued, picking up on Stevie's hesitation. "We roll through a lot. If you mess up your line, if it starts to go sideways whatever you do don't stop until I call cut. You would be shocked what I can use. Got it?"
"Understood," Thelwell said from somewhere above and behind her. Stevie bristled, did he assume she would make so many mistakes that Fast's words were for him alone? She hardened her resolve, she would do well. Well enough that they wouldn't stop on her account.
To her frustration, as she stepped onto the set Stevie could hear Thelwell's voice reading to her.
'Mae Bright is pacing in her room at the Ambassador Hotel. It is too luxurious for her. It overwhelms the senses. She looks at her red ballgown in the mirror. She runs her hands over the embellishments as if she cannot believe it is real.'
Stevie tried to focus on what Mae would be feeling, what it would be like to live in that moment. She looked around the room, it was luxurious in very exposed way; the crew stared in through the missing wall. She sat on the bed, bounced a little to feel the give of the mattress.
The crew was quiet behind her, only the odd creak of a fixture being fine tuned. Stevie resisted the urge to fall back onto the silk sheets. Her hand moved instinctively to her hair.
What if her hair had lost its smooth style as she wandered around?
She got up and checked her face in the mirror, Mae looked back at her. Mae was softer than Stevie; her lips only a shade darker than natural and her hair framed her face in blond curls. No racoon eyes, only a delicate smoky curve. Stevie stuck out her tongue at Mae. If only Mae knew what her Edward was really like, he wasn't humble or bumbling. Thelwell wouldn't catch her gently if she was on a tipping ladder, hell he had tripped her.
"Rolling," Fast murmured, like a symphony tuning the crew gave one last rustle as Fast counted down. "Action."
Mae ran her hands over the gown. Looking at her reflection before glancing around at the room, hand going to her hair before pulling back and resisting the urge to touch. She smoothes the comforter where someone had sat, making it perfect once again.
"I can do this," she says under her breathe. She repeats it again for good measure.
Time slows down as she waits. It feels like a mistake, it feels like he isn't coming for her. She looks around the room, wondering if they are waiting for some forgotten direction, a lost string of actions she was meant to do to make him appear.
When the knock comes it makes her jump. She stares at the door, for a moment accusatory as if this has been planned to make her worry.
Before he can knock again, she charges at it.
Ready to throw it open and ruin the take. Tell him off for letting her hang in the nothingness of the set.
She opens it, not knowing what she is going to do, what will come out of her mouth.
"Oh, wow," she exhales when confronted with him. To her surprise all she feels is relief in seeing him, she sags as she exhales and gives him a small smile.
Stevie was right not to look at him before, because in this costume and in this fantasy place he wasn't the man who irritated her.
On the other side is Edward. He pauses and takes her in.
Thelwell does exactly that, he looks at her like he has never seen her before. He manages to look hesitant and hungry with the same flash of a smile.
Mae doesn't step aside and let him in, but she doesn't join him in the hallway either. Instead she clings to the doorknob as if it is the only thing holding her up and stares at him. He looks like he is about to laugh, not in derision but with some shared joke. Possibly at himself.
He bends slightly at waist, partly a bow partly to share a secret with her. "You look beautiful."
Now she wants to laugh too. She sputters as she thanks him, holding his gaze and trying to desperately not to cackle hysterically. He is willing her with his look to keep it together just a few moments longer.
He offers his arm and she takes it. She is going to close the door, step out of the hotel room and into Cinderella's role. She pauses to make sure her dress won't catch.
Edward bends a little to brush the skirt closer to her legs so she can exit gracefully. She steps out into the hall, and for the briefest moment she lets herself look back. Her eyes glancing over the room, and falling for the a millisecond on the crew.
She pulls the door shut tight to hide the faux pas. On the other side was Fast's voice "Cut, change set up."
Stevie sagged to the floor, holding her knees. Thelwell looked down at her with one brow raised.
"Alright?" he asked in a tone that was less concern and more annoyance. Stevie nodded.
Fast came around the edge of the set, taking in the picture. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Thelwell answered, his hands raised.
Stevie was drifting somewhere near the end of the fake hallway, calling back to her body like the twins in the shining.
"When'd you last eat, Astra?"
Stevie turned her head to look at Fast, confused how he found them. Not that they were hidden.
She left the question unanswered.
"Okay, someone get Astra some juice and a cookie," Fast grabbed a passing PA by their radio. "Okay kid, congratulations you have been promoted. Make sure she eats every three hours. I don't care what but if she passes out, I am sending you to the Devotion Channel Lot to lint roll the Wisemen, got it?"
Thelwell's attention was on her again as a PA came running up with a tiny bottle of orange juice and a banana. He noticed her hands were shaking as she took the food.
Her manager appeared, summoned by the emergency plundering of the craft table.
"Hey Kid," she knelt beside Stevie, taking the banana to peel it. "Can't I take one morning off?"
Stevie smiled at her, and accepted the banana.
"Did I do okay?" she asked, her voice more vulnerable than Thelwell would have imagined possible.
"You're a natural," her manager assured her, taking the empty juice bottle. She looked at him, for a moment judgement flashed across her eyes as if Thelwell had somehow failed her. "Morning, Thelwell, you did good too."
Thelwell suspected he had been insulted but as they returned to their ones, he couldn't fathom a reason why or why he felt so offended.