Blurred Boundaries (8 page)

“You don’t mind?”

“Sharing is caring, right?”

“Maybe I’ll just have a little taste.”

Tam chuckled. She and Marc made short work of her dinner. She was glad Charmagne’s portions erred on the generous side. Otherwise, she’d have one heck of a time trying to explain how one of the show’s stars ended up dead from a fork stabbing in a dispute over some garlic mashed potatoes.

The festive atmosphere continued while they watched the dailies and long after the bloopers were over. And dare she say, they got a little rowdy laughing and just having a good time with one another in general. Tam took a moment to be grateful that this show is where she’d landed. If only for a brief time.

In the few days she’d been around, she’d noticed a few rivalries, but for the most part, everyone got along great and enjoyed each other. That was not always the case with a production.

Tam glanced Audra’s way. She was laughing with Angelisa and Evan. Realization dawned. That’s what that wardrobe test had been about earlier. The woman was good friends with Audra and saw Tam as an outside threat. Angelisa caught Tam’s look and gave her a tentative smile. So. Audra was the final nut for Tam to crack. She longed to stick around tomorrow afternoon to watch Evan film his scene, but there was no way she was going to miss the bar outing with Audra.

Someone plugged an iPhone in the hotel-provided speaker and really got the party started. Marc introduced Tam to Paul, who was the hair department head. Kyle joined them. Thus far, she’d only seen the man in passing since they’d both been running around. It was cool to finally get to chat with some of the folks who were making the impossible happen so she could see her work on the screen.

Just when Tam felt like she was getting a second wind, the music abruptly cut off. All chatter ceased and everyone’s eyes swung to Gavin who had managed to make his way in without too many people noticing. Once they had, they couldn’t wait to leave. The festive atmosphere turned strained and oppressive in seconds.

Gavin cast a disapproving look around the room over the wire rims of his glasses. Even in the warm and humid city of Atlanta, he stuck to his usual outfit of a tweed jacket complete with leather elbow patches over a sweater vest and button down shirt. His slacks were baggy on his slight frame and his loafers had seen better days. The only thing missing was the bow tie that he even wore while in the writer’s room.

Tam glanced around the room. The people who hadn’t been lucky enough to escape before he’d made his presence known all had extremely guilty or sheepish looks on their faces. Audra, Evan and Rock were the exceptions.

Despite an immediate urge to throttle the man, Tam smiled her welcome. “Gavin. You’re back. We’ve been wondering where you’ve been?”

“Where
I’ve
been?” He shoved his glasses back into position with an angry finger and glared at her. “What are
you
doing here? Alan did not inform me that you were coming.”

Tam felt the weight of everyone’s gaze on her. On the one hand, Gavin was still her boss. On the other, he’d actively tried to screw her and a whole lot of other people over. Many of those people were here in the room witnessing this little showdown. She’d gone to great lengths to gain their respect. She wasn’t about to lose it now.

Besides, she hadn’t heard Gavin’s side of the story. Perhaps switching the scripts really had been an accident. Of course if she truly believed that he’d also have a bridge to sell her. Still, she wasn’t sure who knew what at this point and didn’t want to throw him under the bus. She also didn’t want to give him the opportunity to derail what they had going here.

“There were some last minute changes. They sent me out with them.” Tam was quite proud of how reasonable, friendly and non committal she sounded.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Evan turn to look at her. He looked impressed that she hadn’t thrown him under the Gavin bus since he was the one who’d thrown the fit.

“What changes would those be?” Gavin’s question might have been quietly spoken, but the reddening of his pasty white face was a dead giveaway that he was furious. Not just at Tam, but apparently at everyone in the room. No matter. She’d taken this on and was not about to back down.

“The network wanted a page one rewrite. They got it,” Tam informed him.

This time Evan added, “At my request. The script was horrendous. I’m the one who demanded that the no-talent hack responsible for that mess be sent here at once to fix what was broken.”

Tam cringed. Not because she for one minute thought that Evan’s insults were directed at her. But because she knew they’d been aimed straight at Gavin’s soft heart. Judging by the way his mouth puckered, they’d hit their target.

Desperate to save face, Gavin straightened his back and jabbed a finger at Rock. “You. Come with me. You need to bring me up to speed on this new script.” Without another word or even waiting to see if Rock followed or not, Gavin strutted from the room. The people between him and the door parted like the Red Sea to facilitate his exit.

Rock gathered the dailies and handed them to Kyle. “You will keep them safe, yes?” Kyle nodded and Rock trudged after Gavin. When he walked by Evan, the actor squeezed his shoulder in solidarity and they exchanged nods. With that little bit of encouragement, Rock strode from the room with more confidence in his step.

Talk about a party killer. Everyone just stood in Gavin’s wake in stunned silence. Suzie, the script supervisor, spoke up from a corner near the bathroom.

“So, how many of ya’ll knew Gavin switched the scripts on us before right this minute?”

Tam’s gaze swung to the woman in surprise. So much for keeping the whole mess a secret. There were shocked gasps and stunned, “Whats?” from all around the room. She couldn’t help glancing at Evan, Audra and Tanzi to see how they wanted to handle this. They all had equally guilty looks on their faces.

“That can’t be true.” Marc studied all of them with a naive eye. “Can it?”

“Okay. So what do we do? Gavin’s back in the mix now. Surely, he’s not going to let us keep going,” Suzie gave voice to exactly what Tam had been thinking. She knew that switching the scripts back had only gone as well as it had simply because there was no one present to object. Those ideal conditions were a thing of the past now that Gavin had resurfaced. Beyond that, she had no idea who on the crew might be loyal to him and assist in his sabotage.

Evan put his foot down. “We’re continuing with the new script.”

Suzie nodded, accepting Evan’s word as law. “New script it is. See ya’ll bright and early in the morning.” With that, she made her way out of the room, taking some more crew members with her.

Kyle squeezed Tam’s elbow. “I might’ve come across some nooks around the stage that can be padlocked from the outside if need be.”

She chuckled at his unexpected offer to lock Gavin up somewhere. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that, but thanks.” He nodded and exited with the dailies.

When she was done with Kyle, she turned to see Audra comforting Marc. The man looked to be an inch from passing out. Now she understood why Evan hadn’t let him in on what they’d been up to. She sincerely hoped Audra could talk him off the ledge because the last thing she needed was one of her actors to be off his game. Tam bit back a sigh. Nothing like having her fate rest in the hands of the one person who still outwardly distrusted her.

“How could he do such a thing?” Marc asked.

Audra sat next to him and draped her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t know, sweetheart. Some people are just downright mean.”

Tam was surprised that Audra didn’t shoot a withering look her way along with the insult. She took it as a good sign that Audra didn’t consider her to be mean. To be fair, she wasn’t sure what the woman’s problem was with her. Evan moved closer to Tam just as Audra looked up. Her gaze lasered in on Evan’s hand that squeezed her shoulder. Tam finally caught a clue. So that was the basis of Audra’s continued hostility. Evan was showing Tam too much attention.

“Come on, hon. I still have my suite with the Jacuzzi. You’ll feel better after a nice long soak.”

“With bubbles?”

“Is there any other kind?” Audra urged Marc to his feet. “We’ll see you guys in the morning.”

The door closed behind them, leaving Tam alone with Evan in the room. With an unconvinced nod, she said, “That went well.”

Evan shot her an incredulous look. “Did you and I witness the same conversation?”

She slumped down on her bed. “Hey. Let me indulge in my delusions for a few more minutes. Okay?”

“Deal.” He rubbed his temples then stretched out beside her like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Poor Rock. I hope he’s surviving. He and Gavin have butted heads in the past, but this… I don’t know.”

“You think he’ll be okay?”

“Rock is tough. He’ll need some space for tonight, though.” He looked at her. “Which brings me to… Do you mind if I crash here tonight? Rock is my roommate.”

Tam raised an eyebrow at his question. She started giggling. It turned into a full blown laugh. He stared at her puzzled.

“You’re not having a nervous breakdown, are you? I can crash in my trailer if you need space, too. We’re going to need at least one of you on your game tomorrow.”

“You’re actually serious, aren’t you?” Tam caught her breath enough to ask. Evan nodded and kept staring at her with a concerned look. “You do realize that you’ve slept here every night since I arrived. And now you ask permission?”

Evan frowned and looked to be deep in thought. “Oh, crap. You’re right. In that case, scoot over and give me room.” He smirked and nudged her with a playful elbow.

Tam grabbed a handful of the bedding that was between them and held on for all she was worth. She finally got control of her giggles. Sort of. “Not on your life. This is my bed. You take the other one if you need so much room all of sudden.”

“Don’t you know who I am? I’m a star, baby. You should be pandering to my every whim.”

“How about you pander this?” She swung her feet up to brace them against his hip and shoved. She got one of his legs to slide off the bed, but the rest of him stayed put. He was a surprisingly solid and strong little bugger.

He grabbed her foot robbing her of her leverage. She tried to pull from his grasp before he discovered the secret that would give him the advantage in this turf war. Too late. His hand brushed the bottom of her foot and she barked a laugh. His eyes opened wide when he caught her reaction a split second before his expression turned positively devilish. Time for a strategic retreat.

Tam tried her best to extricate herself from his grip, but he held on tight. He wiggled the fingers of his free hand, to torture her. She flopped backwards off the edge of the bed hoping that her weight would be enough to work free. He looked stunned at her determination to get away. Still, he just rolled with her.

“Just how ticklish are you?” He peered over the side at her where her torso was on the carpet, but her legs were still on the bed.

“I’m not ticklish at all,” she lied through her teeth and hoped for the best.

He shot her an evil grin. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?”

“No!” His fingers lightly brushed the bottom of her foot sending her into a wild spasm of laughter.

“Holy crap, that’s ticklish.” His tone was so delighted that she would’ve loved to smack him if her muscles would only cooperate. Instead, the only thing she could do was laugh uncontrollably.

She gasped for air. “Stop! Stop! I have to pee!” If that didn’t get him to stop, she didn’t know what would.

“Go ahead and pee. You do know you’re kinda upside down, right?” Evan laughed evilly, but paused in the tickling. She took the moment to catch her breath. She almost wished he hadn’t stopped because his response was so reminiscent of her late father that it was almost painful.

She used the lull to pull her foot from his hand and did a clumsy back somersault away so he couldn’t catch her again.

“What is this? You want to do your own stunts now, too?” He let both his arms dangle off the side of the bed.

Her phone rang on the nightstand. “Whatever it takes to get the job done.” She checked the ID. “It’s Rock.”

Evan got serious again real quick and nodded. She answered on speaker.

“Hey Rock. I’m here with Evan. We were wondering if you’re okay.”

“Yes. Yes, but I think I will see about checking out other room. I need some time to cold down.”

Tam raised an eyebrow at Evan. Rock was so angry that he was losing his grasp of the English language.

“Don’t worry about it. Tam has an extra bed. I’ll crash here for the night.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Get some rest. We need you tomorrow. We have your back.”

The was a long pause on Rock’s end. Evan and Tam shared a puzzled look. Had the phone dropped the call?

When the man next spoke, there was deep emotion in his voice. “You have done much for me. We press forward. On schedule.” He hung up.

Tam stared at the phone for a moment. She looked to Evan for translation.

“Gavin must have pushed him way too far. It was one thing to go along with the correct script with no opposition. It’s something else entirely now that he’s going against someone in authority.”