Blurred Boundaries Page 3

  “You guys are so amazing,” she complimented. “Thank you.”

  Before she had time to get a big head, a tiny woman with short electric blue hair pulled back in two ponytails sidled over to her and stuck out her hand. “I’m Tanzi Harris. Can we talk?”

  “Sure.” Tam and Tanzi found a quiet corner away from the group.

  Tanzi gave her a wry shrug. “I just love being a Donna Downer, but if we shoot this, we’re going to be over budget by about thirty-eight thousand dollars.”

  Tam took a fortifying breath. “Wow. That much, huh?”

  Tanzi nodded. “Normally, that wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but we’re at the end of the season and Schenecki’s episodes next week sucked up our extra cash. They’re the two-part season finale.”

  Tam shot a glance Rock’s direction. “And Rock is done if we don’t cut that number down.”

  “Unfortunately, yeah.” Tanzi agreed. “But he’s also done if we don’t turn in a cut.”

  “Okay. So how do we cut thirty-eight thousand dollars and still finish in four days?”

  Tanzi bit her lip and studied Tam as if she were trying to decide if she should proceed.

  “Out with it,” Tam encouraged.

  “Okay. We’ve got to go guerilla. I can shift money from craft services and some other areas that will make you and me the most hated people on the crew, but I don’t see any other way. I’m not even sure why they insisted we shoot this on location. Aside from the airfare, this hotel is costing us an arm and leg.”

  Tam looked around the room at the milling actors. Some were rehearsing their lines, while others were horsing around. Most were chatting with one another and enjoying a snack.

  “When I checked in, I was given my own room. Is that the case with everyone?”

  “Yeah. Why?” Tanzi asked.

  “How do you think folk’ll feel about roommates for the rest of the week? That could save us some money right there.”

  Tanzi laughed. “I can get the crew to fall in line but the talent might be another story. Especially since they don’t know what really happened.”

  “Let’s start with the crew and move on from there. Let me see what I can do about the cast.” Tam flipped through the budget Tanzi handed her. “Any other cuts we can make?”

  The UPM shrugged. “Set ups. We have quite a few in this script. Fewer set ups mean more shooting time.”

  Tam nodded. “That’s on me. I’ll go over the script with a fine tooth comb tonight. Figure out what we can consolidate. Where were you planning to start in the morning? You know, so I don’t cut those by mistake.”

  Tanzi smiled. “Yeah. That would be bad. Scene 42a, interior Emmaline’s house is up first. I thought we should get the big stuff out of the way. Call time is at four tomorrow morning. We should be rolling by five.”

  Tam checked her watch. Ten hours seemed reasonable. She just had to get cracking. “Got it.” She started to walk away, but paused. “Is there any way I can see the dailies from today? Maybe I can salvage something.” Tanzi hesitated a moment so Tam backed off. Maybe she was overstepping. She’d already come in with a wrecking ball. No need to make things worse. “I don’t want to impose.”

  Tanzi shook her head. “It’s not that. I was here for most of the rehearsal. Let’s just say that your script goes in a completely different direction.”

  “That bad, huh?” Tam sighed. “Okay. I guess I really need to take a look now.”

  “Done. I’ll have them sent to your room.” Tanzi smiled at someone over Tam’s shoulder then walked away. Tam turned and nearly ran into Evan. He steadied her with a hand on her arm.

  “Oops. Sorry. What’s up?” Tam gave him a smile despite the enormity of her task settling hard on her shoulders.

  “Audra and I are running out for a bite and to run lines. Come with?”

  Tam was surprised that her mouth felt dry all of a sudden. Maybe it was the casual way he maintained contact with her. How many times had she sighed at her television screen and dreamed of just meeting the guy? Now here he was in the flesh asking her to join him for dinner. Of course it wasn’t anything romantic. After all, they worked together now. She couldn’t believe that either, but here she was, if only for the week. The thought brought her crashing back to earth. She had one shot at this. Besides, she’d see him tomorrow on set.

  “Wish I could. I’ve got some tweaks to make based on the rehearsal. Oh yeah, and I’ve got to cut about thirty-eight grand worth of locations to keep us on budget.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Rain check?” she asked.

  “Of course. You’re saving our collective asses.” He affected a stern expression. “Now hop to it.”

  “Yes, sir!” She gave him a mock salute and shouldered her laptop bag. “Talk about saving asses. Thanks for bringing this over. I can’t believe I forgot it.”

  “Glad I could help. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.” Already on the same wave length, they left the ballroom, together.

  “Actually. There is something that might be best coming from you.” Tam paused to see who might be in earshot. Other than a well-dressed woman who wasn’t with the show and the hotel employee completing her check in, they were alone in the lobby. Designer heels clicked across the blue marble floor when the woman gathered her bag and headed for the elevators. Confident that no one was paying them the slightest bit of attention, Tam brought Evan up to speed on the plan to share rooms to save money.

  “Audra might be the only tough sell, but it’s doable. I’ll handle it.”

  “You’re a lifesaver.” Tam tapped the button on the elevator to bring it back to the lobby after the woman had already gone up. “Tanzi just needs a list of roommates. We’ll do the move tomorrow.” The elevator doors slid open with a dignified ding worthy of this five star hotel. She stepped on and held the doors open. “Rock and the DP? I don’t know his name, yet. Are they besties?”

  Evan snorted. “Not even close. Although, they seem to have called a truce lately. Why?”

  “Got it. Make sure they don’t room together. Give the two at least some time apart. The days are going to be long and stressful enough without them having nowhere to take a break from each other.”

  “Good call, boss. I’ll get on it.” Evan gave her a wink and they went their separate ways. She watched him as long as she could through the closing elevator doors. She fanned herself and finally remembered to press the button for her floor. Maybe it was for the best that she’d only be around him this week. His charisma was so much less lethal when she was ticked at him. However, as far as problems went, she could do so much worse.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “You are out of your mind,” Audra declared and speared a cherry tomato with such force that the poor thing split in half on her plate. Evan put his own fork down to give her his full attention. It was time to play hardball.

  “You love what we do, right?” He gestured around his trailer where they’d holed up for dinner and to run lines. “Enjoy the perks?”

  “You know I do. What does that have to do with anything?” Audra narrowed her eyes at him.

  “We’re three days behind and have a totally new script to shoot. We’ve got to make cuts somewhere. And this is the easiest.”

  She sat back in her seat and stared him down. He hated when she did that. “Why don’t you just level with me, Evan? You played your diva card over that awful script to get that writer here to fix things. Now all of a sudden you’re her biggest fan? What the hell is going on?”

  “So you don’t like the new script?”

  “I love it. The old one… ick.” She shuddered and took a sip of iced tea. “Every other line was a candidate for my Gavinism board. I almost had to change the name to Gavin/Kellerism there’s so much shit my character would never say in that thing.” Evan smiled at the reference to the cork board she kept in her trailer. Every time she came across a line of dialogue she hated, she posted it on the board. Strangely enough, every single line
had come from scripts Gavin had written. Hence the name.

  “I almost had to start one of those boards myself.”

  She grinned at him. “No wonder you finally played your diva card. I didn’t even think you knew how. Good call.” She chomped on a cucumber and studied him. “But how do we get from there to me giving up my suite at the hotel which is part of my contract by the way. I mean, the network wanted the change, right? Why doesn’t the time and budget come with it?”

  Evan recognized her tone. They’d worked together for too long for him not to. Their brief romantic fling solidified his expertise in all things Audra. She was putting two and two together. It wouldn’t be long before she got to five because four was just too unbelievable. He was going to have to level with her.

  “We started shooting the wrong script.”

  Audra’s eyes went wide and she nearly choked on the tea she’d just sipped. “I’m sorry. What? How does that even happen?”

  “We’re not sure,” Evan hedged. “All I know is that Tamara freaked out when she arrived and saw what we were actually shooting. What we read tonight is the approved network draft. That’s what we’ve got to turn in. Preferably like nothing happened so Rock doesn’t lose his career.”

  Audra sighed and studied her plate for a moment. “Can Tanzi bunk with me? I really like that suite and she’s hilarious.”

  There was a knock on the trailer door. Evan smiled at the concession as he stood to answer it. Once word got out that Audra was on board sharing hotel rooms everybody else would fall in line. “We’ll get her moved in tomorrow.” He opened the door to find Tanzi standing there. “Speak of the devil.”

  “What?” She asked and climbed inside.

  Audra spoke up. “Hey, roomie.”

  “Ah. You guys are up to speed on the money situation, I see.” She shoved some papers aside and sank onto the couch. “I really don’t know how we’re going to pull this off. Everything has to go perfect and we all know the likelihood of that.”

  Evan leaned against the desk and folded his arms. “What choice do we have? It’s not like we have the option to do nothing.”

  “What does Gavin say about all this?” Audra asked. She frowned. “Where is he anyway? I haven’t seen him since I don’t know when. Does he even know what’s going on?”

  “I keep calling him. Texting. Nothing.” Tanzi checked her phone then shrugged. “Should we be worried about him? As in, I-should-be-tracking-his-credit-card-usage worried?”

  Evan raised an eyebrow. “You can do that?”

  “Yeah. Marty gave me account access. It’s the best way to locate folk who should be on set, but aren’t.”

  “So you’re saying I should stop visiting all those adult websites.”

  Tanzi shrugged. “If you want. I just figured you were just trying to see how good you looked.” The smirk she’d been holding back finally surfaced.

  Audra laughed. “Ouch. She’s got you there.”

  Evan feigned hurt over their teasing. “There are no nudies of me out there.”

  “You don’t know that for sure,” Audra pointed out. “When’s the last time you cyber stalked yourself?”

  “Let me rephrase. I’ve never posed in the buff.”

  Audra shrugged. “Don’t have to. There’s this thing called Photoshop. You should look into it someday.”

  “But that’s not me.”

  “Awww. That’s so cute when you go all naïve and innocent.” Bored with the conversation, Audra returned her attention to her salad.

  “So, about Gavin. Am I tracking him or what?” Tanzi got them back on topic.

  Evan snorted. His anger resurfaced with a vengeance, but he worked to keep his tone neutral. “Things would be easier if he just stayed away the whole week. Let us work in peace.”

  The way the women turned their collective gaze on him told him he’d failed. Tanzi put him on the spot first. “You know something, don’t you? About Gavin.”

  “You said yourself. Things have to be perfect this week. How often does that happen when he’s around?”

  Audra sucked in a breath and nearly choked on a forkful of lettuce. “What the fuck? You think he did this don’t you? You think Gavin had us shoot the wrong script on purpose.”

  “Why would he do that?” Tanzi asked. “Would he have the balls to do that?”

  “Why does he do anything?” Audra snorted. “That son of a bitch. If he hates this job so much why doesn’t he just quit? Stop fucking over the rest of us.”

  “I take it that we’re not looking to him to supervise production going forward.” Tanzi rubbed her temples and looked a little scared. “So who’s in charge?”

  Evan shrugged. “Tamara’s been calling the shots so far. Let’s just follow her lead.”

  “Are you kidding?” Audra turned an incredulous look on him. “She’s an obvious neophyte. You want to trust her to run a shoot?”

  “You want to do it?” Evan asked. Audra clamped her mouth shut. “What other choice do we have?”

  Audra folded her arms. “I hate it when you get all logical and right.” She sighed. “Anybody else think this is going to be a long week?”

  Tanzi sucked in a breath and stood. “On that note, I’m heading back to the hotel. I’m going to go over budget one more time before I get some sleep. Rock said you had the dailies. Tamara wanted to see them. She thinks she might be able to salvage something.”

  “I’ll give her one thing,” Audra remarked and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “She is a brave one.”

  Evan smiled. That was high praise indeed coming from her. He looked at Tanzi and ejected a DVD from the player then paused. “Why don’t I drop these off? I didn’t get to watch yet and I’m kind of curious to see them myself.”

  “Deal.” Tanzi yawned then scrambled out the trailer. “See ya’ll tomorrow.”

  chapter three

  Tam blew out a frustrated breath and fought the urge to throw her laptop across the room. It was going on ten o’clock and she still hadn’t figured out the best way to consolidate locations in the script. Every time she tried, it was like she’d sucked the energy right out of the scene. With more care than necessary, she set the computer on the bed next to her and flopped back against the pillows.

  She longed to take a break, but the looming deadline of the 4 a.m. call time weighed heavily on her mind. Logically, she knew that she didn’t have to have everything figured out by then, but she wanted to give Tanzi as much time as possible to work her magic. Then there was the fact that she was such a Type A personality. She hated leaving things undone if she could help it. A knock on the door startled her. She wasn’t expecting anyone since Tanzi had texted her saying that she was still trying to track down the dailies. But that had been hours ago. She checked her phone. She had thirty-eight new messages, but not one of them mentioned coming by.

  The person knocked again. Tam dragged herself off the bed and headed for the door. It wasn’t like they were staying in some run down dump. Surely, this wouldn’t be some random person off the street. No. More likely, it was someone from the crew and here she was looking oh so professional in her bright yellow flannel “Writer Chick” pajamas. The matching yellow chick on the black top never ceased to bring a smile to her face because it was so cute. However, her visitor might get a different impression.

  She opened the door just enough to peek out. As always, Tam was keenly aware that she was still a woman basically traveling alone. While most of the hotel guests were working on the show, there were still plenty who weren’t. As it turned out, her safety worries were for naught. She pulled the door open all the way when Evan’s smiling face greeted her. Her relief was short-lived. Only a problem would bring him to her door this late.

  “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  He strolled by her into the room and gestured with the DVD player under his arm. “Tanzi said you wanted to see the dailies.” He handed her a large paper bag she hadn’t noticed at first and headed straight for t
he TV to hook the player up.

  “What’s this?” Tam gestured with the bag.

  “Did you ever get dinner?” He grabbed the remote and tested the player’s connection. Touched beyond words, Tam sank on her bed and checked out the bag’s contents. She hadn’t had a moment to spare since the read-through. She kept meaning to go grab something, but the pressure to figure out the script had kept her in front of her laptop. Remote still in hand, Evan pushed aside the script pages she’d been working through and flopped on the bed next to her.

  “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a variety.”

  “I’m so hungry, I can eat a variety.” She selected a ham and turkey sandwich then squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He gave her one of those smiles that always made her heart beat a little faster whenever she saw it on screen. Seeing it in person was a whole different ballgame. She had to remember that he was her coworker. Whoa. She had to remember that he, Evan Josephs, sexy TV star, was her coworker. That was so freaking cool! If she wanted a shot at the job lasting beyond this one episode, she had a minor miracle to pull off. Evan loaded the DVD while she offered up a quick grace and tore into the sandwich.

  “Oh that’s good,” Tam complimented. “There’s so much to do and so little time.”

  “You should pick a PA to assist you tomorrow.”

  “I don’t think that’s necessary.” Tam could not imagine a world where she was important enough to warrant an assistant.

  “Don’t be a hero. You’re one person and a lot of crap is going to come your way while you get us back on track. An extra set of hands is not only necessary. It’s essential.”

  Tam nearly choked on her food. “Hold up. While I get us back on track? What happened to this being a team effort?”

  “It’s still a team effort, but someone has to be the captain.”

  “Dude. You know I’m not even a staff writer, right? It’s not my place to take this on. Gavin is co-EP. This is his domain.” Tam pulled one of the bottled sodas from the bag and took a sip.