Cara had turned to retrieve sheets of tissue paper to protect his clothing when Chandler surprised her by pulling his shirt over his head revealing, what she had to admit, was an impressively muscled torso. “Don’t worry about the tissue paper.” He winked.
Even though Cara was new to the job, she was fairly certain it wasn’t normal for an actor to disrobe in the makeup chair. Cara looked to Skye for guidance. She only glared at Chandler, but Lia’s thin shoulders had curved inward and she’d closed her eyes.
“I’m just trying to make it easy on you girls.” Chandler smirked, his eyes sliding to his co-star. “Lighten up, Lia! It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.”
Cara thought Lia flinched, but she wasn’t sure. Ignoring his antics, Cara concentrated on doing a good job, and thankfully, Skye took over a minute later telling Cara to finish Lia’s lipstick.
Cara painted another layer of the crimson color on Lia’s full lips, and then covered it with powder again for good measure, while Skye began creating a long scar that ran down the length of Chandler’s face and the side of his neck.
“Poor Bob took some shrapnel in the war,” Chandler said, when he caught her looking. He reached out to pat Lia’s hand where it rested on the arm of the chair, chortling when she jerked it away. “His faithful Helen waited for him. Such a good girl.”
Cara wasn’t the only one who caught the slight sneer in his voice. Skye looked troubled and turned her attention to Lia, her eyes running critically over her face.
“Looks good. Keep the rollers in. Jerrod will finish your hair once you’re in costume.”
Skye had barely finished speaking before Lia bolted from the trailer with a muttered, “Thanks.”
“I don’t know why you bully her,” Skye snapped, dabbing a taupe color to the wound.
“It’s not bullying. She’s wound way too tight. Lia is talented,” he said grudgingly. “But if she doesn’t develop a thicker skin, she’s never going to survive in the industry.”
Skye didn’t disagree with him. However, Cara’s questions about the interaction would have to wait. The door to the trailer opened again, and the first of the extras entered.
Skye continued to work on the fake war wound, while keeping an eye on what Cara was doing. Fortunately, not much was needed for the extras who would make up the other customers in the diner. Skye explained, “Just enough foundation and color so they don’t look out of place on camera with the principals.”
Cara finished with the extras and was cleaning her station when the walkie-talkie Skye placed on the counter crackled. A voice announced that everyone had five minutes to get to set.
“You better hurry.”
Chandler didn’t seem concerned and blew Cara a kiss before leaving. “See you around.”
“You did good,” Skye said, once they were alone. “Nice job not reacting to Chandler. He’s basically harmless, but he’ll push as far as he thinks he can get away with.”
“What’s the deal with him and Lia?”
Skye’s eyes became cautious. “They were dating a while back, but it didn’t work out. I’m sure the studio will have them get back together any day now, for publicity.” She looked at her watch and then her clipboard. “We’ve got about an hour before we need to be available for touchups. I’ll give you a quick tour.”
They claimed a golf cart nearby and Skye began pointing at various buildings they passed. “That’s mainly production offices and HR,” she said, pointing at a large, mirrored building with a low pull-thru portico and then to a large warehouse next to it. “That behemoth is wardrobe and storage. I’ll introduce you to Jerrod in a bit. You’ll love him—or not—it’s a toss-up. I have to love him though because he’s my brother-in-law. In fact,” she mused, “now that I think about it, I like him more than my brother, Todd.”
Cara laughed as Skye wheeled them through the open spaces between large soundstages arranged in a square. “Normally we use this area as base camp, but Brian, he owns Peachtree Pictures, only has two films in production. Our film,Love in Arms, and a romcom—but they aren’t shooting yet.”
The lot wasn’t large, and soon they had circled back to the trailer adjacent to soundstages three and four. Pulling to a stop, Skye asked, “So what do you think?”
“It’s great.” Cara smiled, but her doubt must have shown through.
Skye grimaced. “Peachtree used to be bigger, but the last couple of big-budget films were a bust, and then the superhero movie that was supposed to save the studio got leaked before it was ready. That ruined everything. Social media destroyed the film before it was even released. Which wasn’t fair because everyone knew it hadn’t cleared postproduction. When it was officially released, it bombed. That’s why Brian hired Wes’s company. Brian’s super paranoid about the dailies being leaked.”
Before Cara could respond, Skye’s walkie-talkie crackled again.
“Skye to channel four. Skye to channel four.” Instead of changing the frequency, she set the device down, and grinned at Cara.
“That’s Jerrod. It’s our code forcome here I have gossip.”
A short, bald man, dressed in herringbone tweed pants and matching vest, greeted them when they cleared the massive warehouse door. Jerrod didn’t hide his perusal of Cara, going over her from head to toe and back again. Cara didn’t mind. She was too busy taking in the massive rows of clothing hung from racks layered almost to the ceiling.
“Chanel?” Jerrod quirked a brow at her.
It took Cara a second to realize he was looking at her sneakers. He pursed his lips taking in her black pants. “And Prada Gaberdine.” She couldn’t tell if he was impressed or not.
