Jessica

After months of budgeting, contracts, negotiations, and table reads, here I was at 3 o’clock in the morning, on set in Vancouver. I would be playing Blake Prescot. A socialite from Texas who had been missing for a year. Charlie’s character was named August Riley, joined by Rob Kazinsky who was cast as Charlie’s older brother Mark and a few others to play the smaller characters.

I was first on the call sheet. Wrapping up with makeup and wardrobe, I joined the rest of the cast on location for rehearsal.

Hugh was with Arnold, one of the writers, looked over the script going back and forth regarding the need for dialogue before he turned to me.

“This is a pretty high intensity scene, Jess. I’m going to need a lot of emotion from you. Tears, rage, fear. Can you give me that?”

“Of course.”

Child’s play.

“Okay good.” He nodded, adjusting his wide, dark rimmed glasses up on his nose. “Feel out the scene. Forget the scripted lines, say what you feels right.”

“Gotcha boss.”

“How are you feeling on the stunts? We have a double in makeup right now.”

Reasonable stunts weren’t too big of a deal for me. It always looked more authentic if I did them myself.

“I’ll see  how much of it I can do on my own. It’s pretty similar to the one you had me do for Golden Years.”

“Exactly.” He nodded. “Alright, good. Dan!” He called out to the stunts coordinator. “Go over the directions with Jess.”

An older man came over, shaking my hand in introduction before walking me through the spot markers.

“Okay, doll face. Truck’s going to get hit right here.” He hit the bed with his hand. “Once it collides, it will swerve but we’ve restricted the wheel just enough so that it takes you to where you need to be. There’s plenty of cushioning inside for the impact but you might feel some whiplash. You sure you don’t want to use a double?”

“No, I got this. Is the door going to be a problem once the truck crashes?”

“Shouldn’t be, but give it a kick if it gives you trouble.”

“Alright. Let’s skip rehearsal and run it through. I want as few takes as possible on this.” Hugh directed.

I jumped into the truck. The cast gave me a few moments to get into character. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes, remembering the backstory. Blake was stronger now than she’d ever thought possible. For years she’d been beaten and broken, convinced that she was nothing. Less than nothing. From the outside the marriage was perfect. He was handsome, wealthy, respected. On the inside, it was a living hell. The smallest thing would go wrong at work and she’d spend weeks hiding bruises and making up lies about her clumsiness. She’d taken it all until she caught him in bed with someone else. Then something in her snapped. She died her hair, changed her clothes and packed whatever she could. He caught her when she tried to escape. They fought but she managed to get away, throwing him off of her track.

Up until now. Up until right this moment.

He’d found her. He’d found me.

But there was no going to go back. Not now. Not ever again.

Bingo.

I shot Lee a nod, letting him know I was ready.

“And go!”

The knuckles on my hands were turning white from the tight grip on the steering wheel, as the car picked up speed. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I shifted my eyes between the headlights in the rear view and the dark road ahead.

The high beams started flashing erratically and the car behind me sped up.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I muttered in a panic.

“Beautiful, sweetheart.” Hugh came through the walkie-talkie. “You up for the crash?”

“Yup.” I replied.

“Get ready, truck’s going to get hit in 3… 2… 1.”

The truck was hit in the back, causing the car to swerve. I held the wheel as tightly as I could to steady it, screaming at the top of my lungs as it swerved off of the path, crashing into a river bank. My body whipped around, throwing me into the door. Water splashed everywhere. Smoke came over the car.

God. We better fucking nail this in one take. I’d be feeling this in the morning and this was just the rehearsal.

“That was amazing. You okay in there?” He asked.

I groaned, adjusting my shirt. “I’m fine. We should cut to an outside view of the truck once you get me screaming, ain’t so pretty in here.”

“Hadn’t thought of that. Sounds good. Let’s complete the scene.”

I kicked the passenger’s door open. It was stuck but not as difficult as I’d thought. The door flew open and I fell out, landing on a pad hidden under the water. I whimpered, dragging myself across the shallow riverbed as the actor who played my husband  screamed out my character’s name from the road.

“Dear god. I know I haven’t prayed in a while.” I said in a hushed whisper between tears. “But I’m here now. Please. Please don’t let me die. Not this way. Not tonight. Please!”

The other actor called my name. I could hear his footsteps moving through the grass before hearing him mutter “shit.”

I dragged myself behind the nearest tree, cameraman following closely. Tucking myself behind some grass, I covered my mouth, eyes searching the area wildly while I listened to footsteps. They got further and further away before the sound of a car driving away brought me relief.

Clapping from the crew caught my attention and I stood, wiping the dirt off of my face with a towel handed to me by an assistant. I laughed as Hugh  came over, throwing his arms around me.

“That was beautiful! I knew you were perfect for this role.”

Rob came over, still clapping with Charlie behind him. “Wow, that was amazing to watch. Are you alright?”

“Did you get it all?” Charlie asked Hugh.

“Every angle we could. We weren’t sure about the dialogue written into the script, told her to ad-lib but she nailed it.”

---

Charlie

We filmed a few more takes before Rob’s wife called and he had to go. With her being 7 months pregnant, Hugh knew better than to stop him from being by her side. That also meant that we had a limited amount of time to get his scenes done before he took time off for her birth. The situation wasn’t ideal but we were going to make it work.

I finished up for the day and stepped out of my trailer to find Jessica locking hers up for the day.

I’d worked with a lot of people since the start of my career, but i’d never been as mesmerized as I was watching her. There was a switch that flipped inside of her when the cameras turned on. She was no longer Jessica Valentine. She was Blake Prescot. You could see it in her face, her demeanor, it all became real. Then at the end of the day she was back to being the most normal down-to-earth woman I’d ever met.

Freshly showered and makeup-free, a phone in one hand and a designer weekender bag in the other, she walked down the steps from her trailer, lifting her head to see me.

“Hey!” She smiled, shoving her phone in her pocket as she walked over. “You guys done for the day?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, locking my door. “Rob had to go meet his wife. I shot a couple scenes then we called it a day. You hungry?”

“You know what I’m craving?” She asked, her eyes suddenly larger with excitement. “I know I’m going to hate myself tomorrow, but I’m dying for some ribs. Smoked barbeque ribs with mashed potatoes. You in?”

I laughed, wondering how a girl so small could have an appetite like that but I nodded. “Yeah, definitely.”

“Okay, you drive. I’ll find a place.” She said, already pulling her phone back out to google nearby restaurants.

“Sounds good.” I smirked at her determination, leading her towards the car park to my rental. Morgan would be up in a few weeks with my car and my bike but until then, the rental SUV would do.

I held the door open for her and she thanked me as she took her seat in the passenger’s side. I walked around, getting inside before leaving the lot and exciting the set. There was a few minutes of silence between us while she checked yelp before she finally perked up.

“Got it!” She chimed, entering the address into her phone and turning on the navigation. “Should be a few miles from the apartments.”

“To be honest, with the training they had me do for this role, I haven’t even seen ribs in months.” I confessed, mouth watering from the thought of food other than chicken and salads.

She laughed, nodding understandingly. “Same for me, except I got to cheat on mother’s day. Nobody makes comfort food like my Mama. I got to go down to Nashville, hide out for a couple days. Nobody thinks to look for me there.”

I smiled, thinking about my mom’s cooking. “Yeah, my mum was never one for cooking. Hated it. Hated thinking about it. We ate out most of the time.”

“We’re from the south, honey.” She lifted her eyes to meet mine again. “You come out the womb knowing your way around the kitchen.”

I laughed, following the directions of the gps and taking a left. “Is that so?”

“Mhmm!” She declared proudly.

“Well, I’m just going to have to see ain’t I?”

“Sure will.” She smiled, turning her gps off as I pulled into a parking spot.

We both got out of the car, walking inside and asking for a table for two. The hostess knew who we were, trying desperately not to stare between Jessica and I but failing horribly.

“Here you go! A waiter will be right with you!” Her voice came out in a squeal.

We both smiled as she walked away, immediately walking over to her friend and telling her. The two looked over, her friends eyes widening as she opened her mouth in surprise.

Jess laughed, lowering her baseball cap further before looking at the menu.

“Guess you never really get used to that huh?” I broke the silence, glancing over at my menu.

“Nope.” She returned with a chuckle. “So! Baby back ribs, mash and gravy, with a side of corn?”

“Damn, Jim’s going to kill us.” I joked, knowing our trainer wouldn’t approve of this by any means.

“Not if we don’t first with the shit we have coming up tomorrow.”

I cringed thinking about the amount of running our scene would require. “Definitely going to regret this then.”

She nodded in agreement and the waitress came by, just as starstruck as the hostess but she calmly took our orders and hurried back to the kitchen.

I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of her her phone vibrating against the table.

“Excuse me.” She said, sliding her finger across the screen and holding the phone to her ear. “Hey babe.” She answered, her face breaking out into a smile.

I didn’t know she’d been seeing someone but I should’ve figured. A woman like her wouldn’t be on the market for long. Although, the fact that it hadn’t broken into the tabloids yet was a surprise.  They followed everything she did like a hawk.

“Yeah, that’s great! …. Look I’m having dinner with Charlie though. I’ll call you when I get back to the apartment?”

A moment later she hung up the phone, putting it in her bag, before turning to look at me. “Sorry, i hate talking on the phone when I’m with other people.”

“Nah.” I waved it off. “It’s cool. I get it. My girl checks up on me too. It’s hard moving away from everyone, especially for as long as this is going to take.”

Something like sadness crossed her face as she looked down at the table but she chimed right back up with a smile. “It’s all part of the job right? What can you do?”

---

Jessica

Charlie nodded in agreement. Being this far from my mom made it hard to focus. With everything going on with her, I needed to be right by her side, and I would’ve been if she didn’t push me into this roll. It didn’t matter though. I’d see her every weekend and any break from work that I could. She’d be okay. She was a tough broad.

“You okay?” He asked, noticing my attention drifting elsewhere.

“Hmm?” I looked up at him. “Yeah. I’m fine.” I answered, quickly thinking of changing topics, last thing I wanted was more of my business getting out onto stupid blogs. You didn’t know who you could trust in this industry. “So, tell me about your girlfriend? You two been together a while?”

He looked like he was blushing for a moment, lowering his head to hide the smile. Good for him.

“Going on 8 years now. Her name’s Morgana.”

My eyebrows flew up into my head. “Eight years? Wow. Must have something good. Why haven’t you put a ring on it?”

He chuckled at my response. Must’ve gotten that a lot. “Timing’s been off.” He shrugged. “I’ve been busy from one project to the next. You know how the life is. We just haven’t had a period of time when it was just the two of us together.”

“I get it.” I nodded in understanding.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“How long have you been seeing – ?” He motioned towards the phone sticking out of my bag.

“Oh, Chris? Less than a year. We met at a shoot for this commercial. Haven’t stopped talking since.”

“Classic Hollywood romance, huh?”

I laughed, shrugging my shoulders. “Yeah. The only reason we’ve lasted is because of how private we both are.”

“Morgana’s like that.” He admitted. “Hates getting photographed and walking the carpet. As nice as it is, I wish she’d understand the life more.”

“The grass is always seems greener on the other side.” I offered.

The food finally came. We dove in without even acknowledging the waitress. The only other thing we’d eaten was around noon so it went without saying that we were starving. The conversation with Charlie was non-stop. There was an ease and comfort to it that I didn’t get from most people. I could see why every gave him such high praise.

At the end of the meal, we went back and forth but ultimately decided to split the bill. The restaurant staff stopped us on our way out asking for a few pictures and autographs. As tired as we both were, we stopped and posed. Might was well get acquainted with the locals since I’d be spending the next year here, plus the food was amazing so I was definitely coming back.

Charlie drove us back to the apartment complex after that. He parked his car in the garage and we made our way towards the elevator. I swore my stomach hurt more from laughing than it did from the car crash scene earlier.

The dinging of the elevator doors broke us out of our fit and we walked out. Our rooms were conveniently across from each other at the end of the hallway. He leaned against his door, I leaned against mine and we stood in silence for a few seconds, relishing what was the most pure, fun evening I’d had in awhile.

“See you tomorrow?” He smiled. “Crack of dawn?”

“Don’t remind me.” I groaned. “Sweetdreams.”

I closed the door behind me, locking it securely before immediately stripping off my clothes and getting the tub ready for a relaxing soak. I thought about calling Chris, but the night had ended so well, the last thing I wanted to do was accidently gush about Charlie on the phone. Not that there could ever be something between us, but it was surprising to see someone who was still such a gentleman. He opened every door, he tried to pay the bill, he even technically walked me to my door. I didn’t know there were many men left out there like that.

Letting my body relax in the hot water, I looked out at the skyline from the glass-paned wall of the skyscraper. One of the perks of this job was the location of our apartments. If i was going to live here for a full year, I was sure as hell going to enjoy it.

Chris could wait. Mom was already asleep. For a little while I could just go numb and not think about anything.

Except that wasn’t the case.

I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Charlie.