To Love Jason Thorn (13 page)

She shook hands with Jason, talked with the
director for a few seconds, then took her place in front of the camera with her
script in her hand and waited for Jason to take his place.

“You guys ready?” Bryan asked, giving them
all his attention as he got up and sat down next to the cameraman.

Both Jason and Claudia nodded.

“Let’s start reading from the top. I want
to record the ending from two different angles so we’ll stop and take the last
part again.” When they started reading their lines, Bryan was watching them
through the little screen that was on the table. I tried to lean to my left to
take a peek, but they were in my way, so I settled back and focused on hearing
Isaac and Evie for the first time.

“How could you leave me, Evie?” Jason
asked, already sounding like a different person—tired, broken, hopeless. He was
becoming Isaac right in front of my eyes.

Claudia took a step toward him and tilted
her head to the side. “I’ve never left you, Isaac. I tried, but I can’t leave
you. But I won’t come after you either; I won’t force this on you.”

Jason’s voice turned harsh as he laughed.
“Force this on me? What is this, Evie? Is there even anything left of us in you?”

She took another step toward him and lifted
her hand, but then dropped it as both of her hands formed fists.

“Do I disgust you now? Is that why you
can’t touch me?” Jason all but spit the words at her as his eyes took in her
movements.

Claudia flinched and shook her head, her
voice beaten and small. “I don’t want to hurt you any more.”

Jason dropped the papers and clasped
Claudia’s wrists, lifting them up and pulling her against his chest in one
quick move I wasn’t expecting. “You think your touch can hurt me? You killed me
the moment you let me go in your heart, Evie.”

“Isaac,” Claudia murmured, and when she
looked up at Jason, there were tears swimming in her eyes.

Holy cow! If only I had some popcorn and
tissues.

“You were the one who left me,” she
continued. “You broke my heart into so many pieces that I never fully
recovered, Isaac. But none of it matters, does it? You aren’t here to stay. You
will never stay.”

Whooaaa there!

That was most definitely not my dialogue.
They had turned a perfectly romantic scene into a cheesy one.

She looked heartbroken.

I saw a teardrop fall from her eyes and
Jason let go of her wrists as if they had burned him.

“I came back. I came crawling back to you,”
Jason choked out. Leaning down, he cupped her cheeks in his hands, forcing her
to look at him. “Evie. You’re my only one.”

They both closed their eyes and rested
their foreheads against each other’s.

“Take me with you,” she whispered into the
silence. “Don’t leave me bleeding again. Don’t let them take you away from me.”

Jason kissed her nose, her eyes, and then drew
back a few inches, his hands still holding her face. “Say you still love me,
Evie. Give me the words.”

She stood up on her tiptoes and whispered
her love for him against his lips. Then they were going at each other as if the
world was ending.

Well, mine kinda ended anyway. I was
supposed to watch this take place in front of my eyes two more times with two
different actresses? What in the world had I been thinking when I’d told Jason
I would love to come along?

Someone say cut, goddamn it!

Then it was over and they parted. Bryan
thanked them and asked for another take from a different angle. I refused to
watch it for the second time. Seeing the same scene in a movie set would be a
different story, but in here, with only a few people around…it looked intimate,
real. Each and every one of us was an outsider, intruding upon their moment.

Finally, Bryan was happy with what he got,
and after thanking Claudia, they sent her away.

I watched the same thing happen with two
other beautiful, very well known, very talented actresses. The third one,
Lindsay Dunlop, pretty much blew it out of the park. Bryan asked her to do
three different scenes with Jason. At the end of it all, they had their Evie, and
Lindsay was smiling just as big as Jason.

Even though I wasn’t being specifically
ignored or anything, I was still sticking out like a sore thumb sitting in the
corner like that. I had a feeling I was just there because Jason Thorn had
brought me in. They didn’t care that I was the author at all.

Feeling overwhelmed with the kisses, the
acting, the words…I sneaked out of the room—not that I needed to sneak out. No
one gave a damn about what I was doing.

I was digging into my bag looking for my
phone when someone came around the corner and collided with me. I stumbled
back.

A second of shock, then I yelped in pain.

I glanced down at my front and saw that my
entire shirt was soaked with some kind of green liquid. It smelled like coffee,
but it was green.

Scalding
green liquid.

“Jesus! Are you okay?” someone asked.

“Oh, shit! Shit! Shit!” My eyes burning
with tears, I dropped my bag onto the carpeted floor. Peeling the shirt away, I
started to blow on my skin to find some relief.

Some girl came running to the guy’s side.

“Sir, is everyth—”

“Go get me something to clean her up with,”
the guy snapped at the girl.

“Olive Taylor?” He softened his voice for
me.

Hearing my name, I looked up and saw Keith,
the exec with the bleached teeth, hovering over me.

“Oh. Hello,” I said, my lower lip slightly
trembling. I peeked into my shirt and realized my chest was already red.

Wonderful
.

The girl reappeared next to us and handed Keith
a wet towel.

“Let me,” Keith murmured, taking a step
toward me.

I was in too much pain to decline his help,
so I pushed my hair out of the way and let him gently press the cold towel onto
my skin.

“Thank you,” I murmured. “That feels
great.”

He met my eyes and gave me an apologetic
smile. He was probably in his mid thirties, but for his age, he looked good—minus
the teeth situation. When he slowly reached the swell of my breasts, I
swallowed and looked away.

Maybe a wet towel wasn’t the best solution,
but it was working. For now. I still had to lose the shirt somehow. It was completely
soaked through and right then competing in a wet t-shirt contest was not on my
to-do list.

Just as he opened his mouth to say
something, someone grabbed my wrist and I was wrenched away from Keith. My head
jerked up and I saw Jason pushing me behind his back, glaring daggers at Keith.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing
touching her?”

“Jason!” I gasped, a little belatedly. His
hand was still around my wrist, but his touch was gentle.

Keith appeared calm, but upon hearing
Jason’s tone, he raised his brows.

“Jason,” I said, tugging at his arm, trying
to get his attention. “There is coffee all over me, he was trying to help.”

“It is smoothie, Olive,” Keith said looking
at me with a small smile.

Hot smoothie?!

Seriously?

“By groping your breasts?” Jason growled. He
looked down at me with his flushed face and I frowned up at him.

“Jesus,” he exclaimed when he finally
dropped his eyes enough to get a look at me. “Jesus!” he repeated. Looking into
my eyes, he asked, “Are you okay, little one?”

“I’ll be fine.” I looked at Keith over his
shoulder and decided an apology was in order.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was
going. Thank you for your help.” I looked at Jason, lifted my arm, and eyed my
wrist that was still in his grasp. “If you can let me go, I’ll just leave.”

He didn’t let me go, but at least his face
wasn’t flushed with anger any more.

Glancing at Keith, he said, “Sorry, man.
When I saw you two…I assumed wrong.”

“Understandable. She is your friend.”

Jason’s mouth tightened.

What in the world is going on?

“I hope we’ll see each other soon, Miss
Taylor,” Keith said to me and walked away from us.

Jason dropped my wrist and gently brushed
the hair that had fallen over my shoulders away from my chest.

“We’re going to the emergency room.”

“No, we’re not. What’s wrong with you?” I
asked, genuinely curious. “He was helping me. What did you think he could be
doing out in the open like this?”

He had the decency to look away.

“How can I help?” he asked instead.

I sighed. “You should go back in there,
Jason. I was leaving anyway.” Again, I peeled the shirt away from my skin. If
another Uber was close by, maybe I could make it back to the apartment without
being seen by too many people.

“We’re done with the reading.” He put his
hand on my back and urged me forward. “Let’s go. I should have an extra shirt
in my car. We’ll look at the damage as you change and then decide if we’re
going to the emergency room or not.”

“Fine, Mom,” I mumbled, and he gave me a
dark look.

“Your car really looks adorable from the
front,” I said, once we reached the parking lot.

“It’s a Venom GT Spyder, Olive. It’s
not
an adorable car.”

I shrugged behind his back. To me, the eyes
and the small mouth looked adorable.

Unlocking the doors, he leaned in and
reached for something behind his seat.

A gray t-shirt.

“Take off your shirt,” he said,
straightening up and turning to me.

“What?” I gaped at him.

His fingers reached out to lift the hem of
my shirt, but I slapped his hand away.

“What are you doing?” I hissed quietly as
two girls hurried passed his car, their phones glued to their ears.

“Olive,” he started. “I need to see how bad
it is. Take it off.”

His hands came at me again. I slapped his
hand harder.

“You want me to take off my shirt out in
the open?”

He met my eyes. “We’re in the parking lot.
No one who isn’t supposed to be in here is allowed to be in here. No one will
see you between the SUV and my car. Go on.”

He reached at me again.

So, naturally, glaring at him, I slapped
his hand even harder.

This time he laughed.

“Don’t make me take it off for you, Olive.
I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Your car doesn’t even reach your chest,
Jason. I doubt it will do much to hide me from sight.”

“Face the SUV. I’ll turn around and cover
your back. Or we can go straight to the ER. Your choice.”

“No,” I snapped.

“Then do as I say.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re
annoying.” After a short staring contest that only ended up making me hot, I
was the first one to turn away.

Grumbling under my breath, I gingerly
lifted my shirt off of my stomach and took it off. It wasn’t hurting as much as
it had a few minutes before, but I wouldn’t say no to rubbing some ice cubes on
my chest either. Dropping the shirt to the ground, I…

Shit!
The
extra shirt was still in his hands.

“Hand me the damn shirt,” I whispered,
looking to my left to see if anybody was walking around.

“Why are you whispering?” he asked right
over my shoulder, his hot breath tickling my neck.

The annoying-hot-jerk chuckled when I
squealed and jumped around.

“You were supposed to turn around,” I
accused him hotly.

His eyes dropped to my chest. His jaw
hardening, he quickly looked up and away.

“What is
that?
” he gritted through
his teeth.

Covering my breasts with my forearm, I
snapped, “They’re breasts. What does it look like?”

Did he think they were too big? He probably
did. I definitely didn’t have those small elegant breasts where you could go to
bed without wearing a bra.

“Why aren’t you wearing something white and
simple?”

Despite the stupid situation, I looked down
at my chest and laughed. “Why do you care what I wear? And what is wrong with
this one?”

He looked up at the sky. “It’s…it doesn’t…do
anything. You can see through it.”

“So?” I asked.

“You aren’t supposed to wear stuff like
that.”

“Says who? I’m sure you must’ve seen much
better stuff than this.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “Just give me the
damn shirt, Jason,” I said impatiently. “It wasn’t my intention to disgust you
or embarrass you or whatever it is happening right now.”

“Disgust me?” His eyes shot back to my eyes.
“Olive,” he said, taking a step toward me.