“Right.” Cece tapped acrylic nails against each other, the sound carrying over the microphone. “Well, it’s not my job to play at negotiating. Higher ups have authorized me to offer you as much as a twenty percent increase on your current terms for Pine Point Fixer-Uppers, retroactively applicable. Can’t go higher than that. And of course your travel down to Georgia would be covered, as well as temporary housing. It’s not flashy housing, but it’s suitable and it’s free while you’re on the job.”
Dane had to make himself breathe. Somehow, he’d forgotten how his own lungs worked. “Can I just…clarify that I’m understanding this correctly? I’d get a place to stay down there, not a hotel. Plus an increase to my pay, including all the work I’ve already done?”
“I’ll pretend you drove a really hard bargain.” Cece smiled and folded her hands. “They’d be happier with a five percent increase. But they’d also be happier with you begging to do lighting work for free. But at twenty percent, they figure they’re still coming out ahead, not having to train someone through the systems, sign new contracts, all that stuff. Don’t ask me if it’s right, but that’s the math.”
Twenty percent was a lot to turn his nose up at. And retroactive? “You’re sure this isn’t a fantasy and I’m not about to snap back to the reality where lighting grips are just useless cogs?”
“We’re in that reality, but Homescapes have always been good to me and my crew.” She nodded to Kyle. “He’ll probably tell you the same thing. They’re as good a company to work for as I’ve found.”
Kyle did, in fact, nod. “I’m happy with them.”
Dane looked up to the ceiling of the trailer, letting his eyes go unfocused until the pattern of lines above him swam and doubled. It would make a big difference in making his half of the rent, and give him a nicer cushion. And, if they were both telling him that Homescapes actually gave a crap about crew members, maybe this was more of a chance to take a step or two toward a real career than he’d given it credit for.
The image of Aras’s face filled his mind’s eye. Under that blanket, dimly lit and so close to be almost out of focus. “How long until I need to head down?”
“Well, don’t want to send Kyle up shit creek by taking away a grip in the middle of a shoot.” Cece tapped her nails a couple more times. “I think the end of this shoot should give you just enough time to fly down here, get acquainted, and we can start. But if I’m being totally frank with you, if Kyle would allow me to steal you away sooner, that’d be a fuck of a lot easier. Pardon my French.”
“Fine by me.” Kyle clapped Dane on the shoulder firmly. “I can work with one less grip. Dane here deserves his chance.”
He had to admit, hearing that from Kyle felt damn good. Dane knew that his work wasn’t the most glamorous, and it wasn’t even his own preference, but he was proud of the job he did. A TV show didn’t look right as a product if the lighting wasn’t good. It changed the mood, the tone, the presentation of the people on camera, everything. Dane as one lighting grip was a small part of it, but a small part could crash the whole machine apart if it failed.
Aras had told him, with basically no equivocation, that he should do this, and that he wasn’t planning on turning tail and running over this.
Dane nodded. “All right. Give me a couple days to make sure everything transitions properly on this end?”
Cece whistled low, the sound crackling over the connection. “Faster than I expected, but I’ll take it with a smile. HR will ship you over the updated contract, and once that’s signed, you’ll get your travel arranged.” She shot a look over her shoulder. “Shit. Sorry. I’ve got pizza delivery knocking at the door. Gotta split, but I’ll see you soon.”
Then she cut off the call and the reality descended as quickly as the window closed. “I did that.” With minimal hesitation…it was real, and he and Aras were about to be functionally over.
Chapter thirty-two
Aras
Thehousewascomingtogether faster than expected, which meant they could take a leisurely pace. Not that they did. The front yard was basically done, and Ozzy seemed pretty close with the back yard and the patio. Robinson and Evander only had one little last minute spat about the kitchen, and now that was close to finalized. Mason’s daily meetings to go over their jobs were getting progressively shorter as they crossed more and more shit off, and Eliza was happier than Aras had seen her since they started filming all the way back in Springfield. Not that she was ever particularly unhappy, other than the couple times she’d gotten into it with Ozzy back on the Michigan job, but there was even more of a spring in her step than usual.
Aras…couldn’t say he felt the same. And it wasn’t because of the work. The job was going well enough. Better than he’d expected, really. Sometimes, new construction could be questionable. If it was done on the cheap, or by some hacky company who just wanted the quickest buck possible, fixing it up could almost be worse than working on a total shithole. At least half a dozen times, Aras had been called in to help someone with shoddy wiring in their brand new McMansion. Not the case this time, though. He had officially finished up the last bit of work on the built-ins in the display room, and now it was time for the big test.
Mason stood next to him, looking at the room full of empty shelves. “You ready?”
Aras took the remote from him. Mason was definitely the tech whiz, so when it came to connecting everything up to make this a “smart home” scenario, he’d stepped in to help Aras. Now, in theory, the entire room should be connected to the remote in his hand. Or to an app on Caroline’s phone, if she ever misplaced the remote.
One tap and, slowly, the lights faded up. Pools of pure white blossomed over every shelf, growing until they were snow bright and the polished wood gleamed. There was no overhead light, but with these, it was more than bright enough to see everything.
Still, Aras didn’t smile until he pressed the next button. The white LEDs turned off and, in their place, purple UV lights shone. It actually worked. The whole system he’d tried to come up with. He looked at the remote to make sure he was pressing the right thing, then changed half the lights to white, leaving the rest as UV. And it worked. Each individual lighting set was designed to be independent, so if Caroline wanted to display some Vaseline glass or a lime green piece anywhere, she could turn on the UV and show the fluorescence at the literal touch of a button.
The central pedestal was also working just fine. It was a wide plinth that came up to about waist high, with a large circle in the middle that emitted light through a diffuser.
“Try the colors.” Mason circled his finger around, gesturing to the whole room. “Gotta try the colors, right?”
Aras obliged. Caroline could work up different presets if she wanted, but Mason had programmed in a rainbow effect. When Aras navigated there—the remote was all numbers for different settings, so it took him a little bit to remember which one that was—the cascade began. Everything was white again, and from the left side of the door, red came to life. Then it moved ahead, leaving orange behind it, then yellow, then green. A rainbow slowly rotated around the entire room until everything was lit up. The center pedestal didn’t join the color show, but instead slowly pulsed its brightness, growing all the way to full power, then fading back to almost nothing, all in time with the rotation of the band of red.
Aras turned them all off, then set the remote down on the pedestal. “I’d say it’s pretty damn good.” But the high didn’t last long. Once the lights were off, he remembered everything about Dane. He knew Dane had a meeting with the lighting director for this other project. Aras would never tell him to do anything other than take the opportunity, but that didn’t mean it sat right in his gut. It was like he’d swallowed mayonnaise and a bottle of tequila, and it was all he could do to keep himself from throwing up everywhere.
“I’ve got the spreadsheet all set up with her collection if you want to go through. You’re the one who’d have the best idea what to put where. Unless you’ve got something pressing going on that I’ve forgotten about.”
Only thing on my schedule is worrying about my dead relationship.He nodded. “May as well make myself useful, since nothing in this house apparently needs me anymore.” He shrugged heavily. “Lead the way.”
Mason opened his mouth like he was about to say something else, but then he shut it and they headed back out into the living room. Furniture was already arriving, both the new stuff and some of the pieces that Caroline wanted to keep, but could still function without until she got all the way moved in. That made the living room much more cramped than before, so they had to wind through a bit of an obstacle course before they got back to the lone folding table that served as Mason’s base of operations. Or as their morning meeting table. Or as extra storage a lot of the time. Apparently that time was now, as someone had left boxes and paperwork all but stacked on top of the computer. Mason took it in stride, just moving stuff to make room, but Aras had to bite back a comment about the contractors or production crew or Ozzy or whoever else might have left that mess.
