“Just once,” she said with a winning smile. “My agent has been pushing me into more roles ever since my injury two years ago. Wants me to diversify my portfolio for when I inevitably retire.”
Mickey laughed, coming up along side her. “Huh, sounds just like my agent. I swear, sometimes I worry that he’s planning something.”
She tilted her head back, white teeth flashing as a pearl of mirth escaped from her lips. Oh geez, no wonder they had hired her. She was vivacious in a way that was instantly noticeable, and I could feel myself already caught up in it. Oh yes, if I gave her the right choreography, she would really shine. She could be my first crowning achievement, if I did my best.
“Alright, let’s go over what we have so far. Mickey, you’re red team. And of course, you, Miss, uh…”
“Amelia Felton.”
“Ahhh,” I said, recognition kicking in. “The Olympic triathlete! I didn’t recognize you without your, uh…”
“Uniform get up?” She laughed again and gosh, I saw why her agent was pushing her towards the screen. “I understand. The goggles usually help with that.”
“Oh, so you’re telling me that all I need to do is wear some goggles and that will get all of the fanboys off my back?” Mickey said, his lips curling into a charming smile.
The two shared a look and then a laugh and I felt something strange bubbling in my gut. It was sharp, and a bit like a hissing cat.
…that was weird.
I shoved it deep, deep down and pasted on my most professional smile. “Alright, this way for Blue team blocking.”
We went through walking them through the general steps quickly enough, explaining how the general flow of battle was going to go. The b-reel, the a-reel, and things of that nature. After a solid hour, we wrapped up and I told the two of them to catch a break while I checked in with the rest of my team.
“And what do you want us to do after?” Mickey asked, standing a bit too close to me. I took a step away and cleared my throat.
“We’ll, uh, we’ll go over the two of your choreography. So, if you want to warm up once you’re done with your break, that would definitely be, uh, productive.”
“Right. Of course. See you in an hour then?”
“Yeah, an hour.” I nodded absently. “I’ll see you then.”
I hurried away, leaving with the hissing-cat feeling deep in my gut at the thought of leaving the two of them alone together. I didn’t understand what it was, or why it was there, but it made me uncomfortable and I had too many things to worry about to be uncomfortable.
I reached our tent and grabbed a water bottle from one of our coolers and chugged that down, giving myself a few minutes to collect myself. Once I felt like I was a bit sorted, I headed out to where the rest of my team was supposed to be.
* * *
Just like I hoped they would, the rest of my team was doing well. They were already doing a couple of movement run throughs and a group of extras were in full costume and make up for the beginning close ups. The producers all seemed pleased with the progress while tech was setting up the camera tracks and other thing, while the scattered assistants and PAs were running around at a reasonable pace instead of chickens with their head cut off.
But all that smooth running meant that I had about twenty extra minutes before I was supposed to meet up with Mickey or Amelia again. Which I obviously wasn’t looking for, so maybe I could afford to be a few minutes late to that.
Yeah. And I could use a snack too. Nodding to myself, I headed back to our company tent, eager to just sit by our little field air conditioner and maybe do some stretches on our mats.
But what I didn’t expect as I walked into the plasticine flaps was for Mickey to already be on the matts, doing some push ups with only the faintest glimmer of sweat already shining on his massive arms.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in an echo of my earlier statement, staring at him like he had grown another head.
“You know, you say that a third time in one day and I might think you don’t like me.”
He stood, unfurling to his full height. I didn’t know if it was his very slightly heaving chest or the flush on top of that beautiful bone structure of his, but I was struck by just how big and broad he was. The perfect example of strength and masculinity with a disarming sort of grin that just drew me in.
“Did I do something to upset you?” He asked, walking over and stopping just a bit in front of me. “I can’t help but feel like you’re not happy I’m here.”