Blurred Boundaries (4 page)

“Good call, boss. I’ll get on it.” Evan gave her a wink and they went their separate ways. She watched him as long as she could through the closing elevator doors. She fanned herself and finally remembered to press the button for her floor. Maybe it was for the best that she’d only be around him this week. His charisma was so much less lethal when she was ticked at him. However, as far as problems went, she could do so much worse.

“You are out of your mind,” Audra declared and speared a cherry tomato with such force that the poor thing split in half on her plate. Evan put his own fork down to give her his full attention. It was time to play hardball.

“You love what we do, right?” He gestured around his trailer where they’d holed up for dinner and to run lines. “Enjoy the perks?”

“You know I do. What does that have to do with anything?” Audra narrowed her eyes at him.

“We’re three days behind and have a totally new script to shoot. We’ve got to make cuts somewhere. And this is the easiest.”

She sat back in her seat and stared him down. He hated when she did that. “Why don’t you just level with me, Evan? You played your diva card over that awful script to get that writer here to fix things. Now all of a sudden you’re her biggest fan? What the hell is going on?”

“So you don’t like the new script?”

“I love it. The old one… ick.” She shuddered and took a sip of iced tea. “Every other line was a candidate for my Gavinism board. I almost had to change the name to Gavin/Kellerism there’s so much shit my character would never say in that thing.” Evan smiled at the reference to the cork board she kept in her trailer. Every time she came across a line of dialogue she hated, she posted it on the board. Strangely enough, every single line had come from scripts Gavin had written. Hence the name.

“I almost had to start one of those boards myself.”

She grinned at him. “No wonder you finally played your diva card. I didn’t even think you knew how. Good call.” She chomped on a cucumber and studied him. “But how do we get from there to me giving up my suite at the hotel which is part of my contract by the way. I mean, the network wanted the change, right? Why doesn’t the time and budget come with it?”

Evan recognized her tone. They’d worked together for too long for him not to. Their brief romantic fling solidified his expertise in all things Audra. She was putting two and two together. It wouldn’t be long before she got to five because four was just too unbelievable. He was going to have to level with her.

“We started shooting the wrong script.”

Audra’s eyes went wide and she nearly choked on the tea she’d just sipped. “I’m sorry. What? How does that even happen?”

“We’re not sure,” Evan hedged. “All I know is that Tamara freaked out when she arrived and saw what we were actually shooting. What we read tonight is the approved network draft. That’s what we’ve got to turn in. Preferably like nothing happened so Rock doesn’t lose his career.”

Audra sighed and studied her plate for a moment. “Can Tanzi bunk with me? I really like that suite and she’s hilarious.”

There was a knock on the trailer door. Evan smiled at the concession as he stood to answer it. Once word got out that Audra was on board sharing hotel rooms everybody else would fall in line. “We’ll get her moved in tomorrow.” He opened the door to find Tanzi standing there. “Speak of the devil.”

“What?” She asked and climbed inside.

Audra spoke up. “Hey, roomie.”

“Ah. You guys are up to speed on the money situation, I see.” She shoved some papers aside and sank onto the couch. “I really don’t know how we’re going to pull this off. Everything has to go perfect and we all know the likelihood of that.”

Evan leaned against the desk and folded his arms. “What choice do we have? It’s not like we have the option to do nothing.”

“What does Gavin say about all this?” Audra asked. She frowned. “Where is he anyway? I haven’t seen him since I don’t know when. Does he even know what’s going on?”

“I keep calling him. Texting. Nothing.” Tanzi checked her phone then shrugged. “Should we be worried about him? As in, I-should-be-tracking-his-credit-card-usage worried?”

Evan raised an eyebrow. “You can do that?”

“Yeah. Marty gave me account access. It’s the best way to locate folk who should be on set, but aren’t.”

“So you’re saying I should stop visiting all those adult websites.”

Tanzi shrugged. “If you want. I just figured you were just trying to see how good you looked.” The smirk she’d been holding back finally surfaced.

Audra laughed. “Ouch. She’s got you there.”

Evan feigned hurt over their teasing. “There are no nudies of me out there.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Audra pointed out. “When’s the last time you cyber stalked yourself?”

“Let me rephrase. I’ve never posed in the buff.”

Audra shrugged. “Don’t have to. There’s this thing called Photoshop. You should look into it someday.”

“But that’s not me.”

“Awww. That’s so cute when you go all naïve and innocent.” Bored with the conversation, Audra returned her attention to her salad.

“So, about Gavin. Am I tracking him or what?” Tanzi got them back on topic.

Evan snorted. His anger resurfaced with a vengeance, but he worked to keep his tone neutral. “Things would be easier if he just stayed away the whole week. Let us work in peace.”

The way the women turned their collective gaze on him told him he’d failed. Tanzi put him on the spot first. “You know something, don’t you? About Gavin.”

“You said yourself. Things have to be perfect this week. How often does that happen when he’s around?”

Audra sucked in a breath and nearly choked on a forkful of lettuce. “What the fuck? You think he did this don’t you? You think Gavin had us shoot the wrong script on purpose.”

“Why would he do that?” Tanzi asked. “Would he have the balls to do that?”

“Why does he do anything?” Audra snorted. “That son of a bitch. If he hates this job so much why doesn’t he just quit? Stop fucking over the rest of us.”

“I take it that we’re not looking to him to supervise production going forward.” Tanzi rubbed her temples and looked a little scared. “So who’s in charge?”

Evan shrugged. “Tamara’s been calling the shots so far. Let’s just follow her lead.”

“Are you kidding?” Audra turned an incredulous look on him. “She’s an obvious neophyte. You want to trust her to run a shoot?”

“You want to do it?” Evan asked. Audra clamped her mouth shut. “What other choice do we have?”

Audra folded her arms. “I hate it when you get all logical and right.” She sighed. “Anybody else think this is going to be a long week?”

Tanzi sucked in a breath and stood. “On that note, I’m heading back to the hotel. I’m going to go over budget one more time before I get some sleep. Rock said you had the dailies. Tamara wanted to see them. She thinks she might be able to salvage something.”

“I’ll give her one thing,” Audra remarked and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “She is a brave one.”

Evan smiled. That was high praise indeed coming from her. He looked at Tanzi and ejected a DVD from the player then paused. “Why don’t I drop these off? I didn’t get to watch yet and I’m kind of curious to see them myself.”

“Deal.” Tanzi yawned then scrambled out the trailer. “See ya’ll tomorrow.”

Tam blew out a frustrated breath and fought the urge to throw her laptop across the room. It was going on ten o’clock and she still hadn’t figured out the best way to consolidate locations in the script. Every time she tried, it was like she’d sucked the energy right out of the scene. With more care than necessary, she set the computer on the bed next to her and flopped back against the pillows.

She longed to take a break, but the looming deadline of the 4
a.m.
call time weighed heavily on her mind. Logically, she knew that she didn’t have to have everything figured out by then, but she wanted to give Tanzi as much time as possible to work her magic. Then there was the fact that she was such a Type A personality. She hated leaving things undone if she could help it. A knock on the door startled her. She wasn’t expecting anyone since Tanzi had texted her saying that she was still trying to track down the dailies. But that had been hours ago. She checked her phone. She had thirty-eight new messages, but not one of them mentioned coming by.

The person knocked again. Tam dragged herself off the bed and headed for the door. It wasn’t like they were staying in some run down dump. Surely, this wouldn’t be some random person off the street. No. More likely, it was someone from the crew and here she was looking oh so professional in her bright yellow flannel “Writer Chick” pajamas. The matching yellow chick on the black top never ceased to bring a smile to her face because it was so cute. However, her visitor might get a different impression.

She opened the door just enough to peek out. As always, Tam was keenly aware that she was still a woman basically traveling alone. While most of the hotel guests were working on the show, there were still plenty who weren’t. As it turned out, her safety worries were for naught. She pulled the door open all the way when Evan’s smiling face greeted her. Her relief was short-lived. Only a problem would bring him to her door this late.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

He strolled by her into the room and gestured with the DVD player under his arm. “Tanzi said you wanted to see the dailies.” He handed her a large paper bag she hadn’t noticed at first and headed straight for the TV to hook the player up.

“What’s this?” Tam gestured with the bag.

“Did you ever get dinner?” He grabbed the remote and tested the player’s connection. Touched beyond words, Tam sank on her bed and checked out the bag’s contents. She hadn’t had a moment to spare since the read-through. She kept meaning to go grab something, but the pressure to figure out the script had kept her in front of her laptop. Remote still in hand, Evan pushed aside the script pages she’d been working through and flopped on the bed next to her.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a variety.”

“I’m so hungry, I can eat a variety.” She selected a ham and turkey sandwich then squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He gave her one of those smiles that always made her heart beat a little faster whenever she saw it on screen. Seeing it in person was a whole different ballgame. She had to remember that he was her coworker. Whoa. She had to remember that he, Evan Josephs, sexy TV star, was
her
coworker. That was so freaking cool! If she wanted a shot at the job lasting beyond this one episode, she had a minor miracle to pull off. Evan loaded the DVD while she offered up a quick grace and tore into the sandwich.

“Oh that’s good,” Tam complimented. “There’s so much to do and so little time.”

“You should pick a PA to assist you tomorrow.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Tam could not imagine a world where she was important enough to warrant an assistant.

“Don’t be a hero. You’re one person and a lot of crap is going to come your way while you get us back on track. An extra set of hands is not only necessary. It’s essential.”

Tam nearly choked on her food. “Hold up. While
I
get us back on track? What happened to this being a team effort?”

“It’s still a team effort, but someone has to be the captain.”

“Dude. You know I’m not even a staff writer, right? It’s not my place to take this on. Gavin is co-EP. This is his domain.” Tam pulled one of the bottled sodas from the bag and took a sip.

“Yeah, about Gavin. He’s unavailable at the moment.” Evan dropped his gaze and dumped the bag’s contents onto the bed between them. He rummaged through the food until he found a bag of sliced red peppers. The way his focus lasered in on the food told Tam there was something he wasn’t sharing with her.

“Out with it.”

“Out with what?” He looked at her, innocence personified. That couldn’t be good.

“Every time I mention Gavin, people get all squirrelly and quiet and change the subject.” She rewrapped her sandwich and put it aside. Gave him her full attention. “What’s going on?”

He started playback on the dailies and bit into a pepper. “I’m almost afraid to watch these.”

Knowing she’d have no shot at getting the remote away from him, Tam did the next best thing. She went to the TV and unplugged it. Silence fell between them as she stood facing him with her hands planted on her hips.

“You want me to produce this episode, don’t you?” She didn’t even wait for him to finish nodding before demanding, “Then level with me. What is going on?”

Evan studied her for a moment then sighed. He tossed the pillows to the other queen sized bed and sat resting against the headboard. “There’s no proof or anything. And telling you my half-brained suspicions isn’t really all that productive.”

“You wanna see productive? Then watch how fast I repack my stuff and catch the first flight out of here. That’ll be a show-stopping example of productive.” She gave her head a challenging tip and leaned against the TV cabinet. “Literally.”

His gazed narrowed at her. “You wouldn’t.”

Tam was done. With a shrug, she retrieved her luggage from the closet and opened it on the bed. She pulled her packing cubes from the dresser drawers and started stuffing them back in her large duffel. Evan hopped up from the bed and started unpacking as fast as she was packing.

“Stop it. This is a great opportunity for you. You can’t just walk out on it now.” Evan dumped the cubes back in the dresser while she retrieved more. They had a pretty bizarre packing dance going and she was not amused.

“This is not an opportunity. This is a career-ender. In case you hadn’t noticed, this is my first shot. I’m not going to let it be my last. And the way things have gone so far? How do I come out of this unscathed?”

“By producing that kick ass episode you wrote. Don’t you want to see it on screen?” She paused in her packing long enough to glare at him. That was a low blow. Of course that’s what she wanted. Writing a television show had been her sole
raison d’etre
for such a long time that she couldn’t even remember ever wanting anything else. She’d sacrificed so much for it. Friends, parties, boyfriends, financial stability had all taken a back seat to this particular goal. No way was she going to squander her career for the sake of one single episode.

“What I want is for you to be straight with me. If I’m going to take this on, I need to know what I’m getting into. If I’m about to step on Gavin’s toes, I need to know why so I can have an apology ready.”

Evan snorted. “He’s the one who needs to be apologizing.”

Tam tossed up her hands and started packing again. “That’s what I’m talking about. These little cryptic comments only remind me that I have no idea what’s going on here. Anything I do has the potential to make things worse, not better. I’m not about to—”

“Gavin switched the scripts on purpose,” Evan blurted, bringing her mini tirade to a halt.

“I’m sorry. What?” Tam stared at Evan in what she wished was more disbelief than it actually was. To be fair, she was starting to suspect the same thing. Shows didn’t just “accidentally” shoot the wrong script. There were far too many checks and balances for that. Still, she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. Hearing Evan give voice to her concerns confirmed that she wasn’t crazy. She remembered the article she’d found earlier when they’d been trying to reach Schenecki. Stephan Tancradi. She finally put it together why the name rang such a bell with her. “Son of a—” Tam tossed a cube on the bed and rubbed her eyes.

“You don’t sound all that surprised.” Evan frowned at her. “Why aren’t you more surprised?”

“While we were breaking this episode, Gavin was very attached to his iPad and not contributing all that much. I have freakishly good eyesight. I might’ve read some things over his shoulder.”

Evan glared at her. “Oh. Is this payback? Holding me in suspense like this?”

“Believe it or not, things aren’t always all about you.” Tam shoved the packing cubes back in the dresser drawer. “I’m still piecing things together in my own head.”

Evan returned her luggage to the closet.

“I didn’t think much of it, but he was developing his own pilot. He was also exchanging emails with Stephan Tancradi.”

“Tancradi? As in the new head of the network? The same Tancradi for whom Schenecki is ignoring a major crisis in order to kiss the man’s ass?”

“Makes sense, though, doesn’t it?”

“What did the emails say?”

“I felt bad for snooping, so I tried not to read them.”

Evan tossed his hands up and started pacing. He stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. “You just said, ‘tried.’ As in you
did
read some of them.”

She smiled at his perceptiveness despite being angry as hell over the situation. “I’m sure this is out of context, but Tancradi mentioned things looking good if the schedule got light.”

If Evan were a cartoon character, his jaw would’ve dropped to his ankles under the shock of what she’d just told him. He regained control of his mouth, and anger flashed in his blue eyes.

“That’s why he’s tanking us. If we get canceled, there will be room for his pilot on the network’s schedule.” Evan shoved his hands in his hair and turned his back to her. “I knew the man was a slimy, rat-faced bastard, but to go to these lengths…”

“Do you think Schenecki knows what he’s up to?”

Evan faced her again with a shrug. “He must. I’ve tried texting him and nothing.” A steely look of resolve lit his eyes that made Tam just a little nervous. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“I’m scared to ask.”

“This is an attack on all of us. Like it or not, that means you, too. You’re one of us now. You’re not going sit back and let Gavin get away with this, are you?” He gave her a once-over. “I can’t believe that the woman who showed up at my trailer loaded for bear this afternoon would ever just roll over at the slightest little challenge and go home. Tail between her legs.”

Tam glared at him. Oh, he’d pegged her fast and he’d pegged her good. “‘Slightest little challenge’ is seriously understating things.”

“C’mon, Tam. Don’t you want to shine like a diamond? Roll with the dice? This is your chance to stand on a ledge and really show the wind how to fly.”

Tam frowned at him, but couldn’t help the amusement that was starting to blossom in her chest. “Are you seriously quoting Bon Jovi at me, right now?”

Evan lifted his eyebrows, apparently surprised that she was a fan. “Is it working?”

“No.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and made her decision. “But, I’m in. If I’m going to go down in flames I may as well be the one to light the match.”

Evan gave Tam a huge grin and plugged the TV back in. “You’re not the only one who’s going to go down in flames if we don’t get this shoot back on track. All of us are going to be out of a job.”

“No pressure.” She sank on the foot of the bed and put her head between her knees. The sandwich was trying to make a return appearance. What had she just done? She had no idea how to produce a television show. Heck. It had only been a fortuitous stroke of luck that her spec had landed on Schenecki’s desk to begin with. Writers are never supposed to spec the show on which they want to be staffed. However, Schenecki had mentioned a story they’d been trying to crack in an interview. She’d come up with a great take on it and balls to the wall with a spec script. She never expected it to land on his desk, but it had. He’d liked it and brought her in on a freelance episode. A one-shot deal. So for all Evan’s talk about her being one of them, she really wasn’t. She hoped she’d done a good enough job to be staffed next year, but if Gavin had his way, there would be no next year. For any of them. As someone who had yet to receive her first IMDb credit, recovery would be much harder for Tam than everyone else.