I was going to go to prison. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I was going to murder Ryan Jacobs on camera and end up in prison for the rest of my life.
When we came back from lunch, Ryan had arrived on set. I had been so excited to work with him. He had an amazing reputation, and his movies were box office gold.
He also thought that he was God's gift to women.
“You aremuchmore gorgeous in person than you are in pictures,” he said as we waited for Erin Brock, the intimacy coach, to arrive. The crew was buzzing around, putting the finishing touches on the bedroom set.
I blinked at him. “Thanks, I guess.”
Ryan beamed at me. If not for Ethan, Callan, and Foster, I would have found him attractive. He was conventional Hollywood gorgeous with a strong jaw and nice eyes and a body that had been sculpted by the best trainers money could buy. He was lauded as a sex symbol in the tabloids... but he fell short of my men.
“Lee showed me some of your rough shots from earlier,” he said. “They were good. You’re going to be a powerhouse in a few years.”
He sounded more surprised than complimentary, and I ground my teeth and looked for Foster and Callan, who were sitting off to the side, perfectly visible to me. My shoulders unwound a bit. Luckily, I was spared from any further attempts at small talk when Lee brought over a small, grey-haired woman to us.
“Ryan, Adrianne, this is Greta Sharpe. She's your intimacy coordinator.”
Greta smiled, and it instantly reminded me of my grandmother, and I smiled back automatically. “Hello. It's good to meet you both,” she greeted. “Shall we go find a comfortable place to chat?”
We settled in the chairs that the hair and makeup crew used. Greta had Ryan and me sit near each other so that we could look one another in the eye.I’d just as rather not, I thought.
“So, you may be thinking that I’m here to help you craft a love scene,” she began, “but that isn't what an intimacy coordinator does.”
I thought that was entirely what she was meant to do. “So, what is your job, exactly?” I asked.
Greta turned those kind eyes to me. She was big on eye contact. It would be unnerving if not for that comforting smile. “My job is to make sure that no one is uncomfortable during any scenes that are intimate in nature. We’ll agree on what we are all comfortable with before we ever get in front of the camera so that we all know what to expect.”
Where was she on my first rom-com?
“You’re the panty police?” Ryan asked, breaking into my thoughts.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. “Thatis exactly why I’m glad she’s here,” I snapped.
“Wha—”
I looked at him, and like Greta asked us to do, I made sure to catch his eyes with mine. “She’s here to make us feel safe, and you made a snide comment. How is that helpful?”
Ryan had the decency to look embarrassed. “I didn’t think about it like that.”Shocking, I thought. He didn’t apologize for his comment, but he did turn back to Greta and actually pay attention to what she had to say, so... it was a win in a way, I suppose.
“The characters you’re portraying have a very intense relationship. They love intensely before it sours as Ryan’s character becomes a villain. I want that to be shown in all of your actions, so we need to create some boundaries so that we’re all comfortable.”
Greta walked us through the scenes in which Ryan and I had any sort of touch that wasn’t fighting—that was the fight choreographer’s job—and the number of times he was going to put his hands on me was shocking. There was only one love scene in which we were meant to roll around on a bed, but Greta had mapped out every time in the script that he was going to touch me. It was a little overwhelming.
“So, look through the list,” she said, “and if there’s anything that you simply cannot do, let me know.”
She handed us each a piece of paper containing all the “intimate acts” that Lee wanted in the movie. It was all standard, kissing and the like, but there was a marked difference between “kissing” and “open-mouthed kissing”. I raised an eyebrow at that.
“Some people don’t mind faking a kiss,” Greta explained, “but open-mouthed kissing is something that they reserve for their intimate partners.”
I smiled at that, but Ryan scoffed. He reached over and touched my shoulder. “I’m sure Adrianne and I can work out the kind of kissing between the two of us.”
Greta gave him a hard look. “No,” she said simply. “We’ll work it out together now before filming starts.” I could have cheered. “Now, are there any objections to our list?”
I looked at it again. “I don’t want to be topless,” I said and handed it back to Greta. “I understand that I need a bare back for the camera, but I don’t want my breasts on display to any of the cast or crew.”
Greta made a note. “I can make that happen,” she said before turning to Ryan. “Anything that you would like to add?” Ryan shook his head, and she clapped her hands. “All right, I will inform Lee that we may begin filming. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, we will stop and revise, yes?”
We both nodded, and Greta left us to talk before we started filming. Ryan sulked. “You’re seriously going to be covered up the whole time?”