Mr. 365 (10 page)

He looks wary as I approach. “What was that about?” He doesn’t even try to hide his anger.

“I swear, Will, I didn’t know about the shirts… and I sure as hell didn’t know about Mr. Christmas.”

Will gazes off into the distance and shakes his head. “I don’t feel good about any of this. You said they weren’t going to make me look like a fool.”

“Please don’t be upset. I’ll say you won’t do the shirts. It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Sophia, don’t make me promises you can’t or won’t keep.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I say softly, my eyes glazing over with the realization that this has damaged his hard-won trust in me.

He glares toward the house and squints. Then he turns toward the back of the yard. “Follow me,” he says gruffly.

I rush after him to the back corner of the yard and come to a stop behind a towering shrub. He turns to me and grinds his boot heel into the hard soil.

“Will?” I ask, trying to control the concern in my voice.

“I need to know something.” He jams his hands in his pockets.

“I’ll tell you whatever I can.”

“Sophia.” His eyes are so intense it’s as if he’s looking straight through me.

“Yes?” I whisper, fear bubbling up in me about whatever dark thing he’s apparently thinking.

“For this shoot… to get me to do this”—he pauses and looks down— “did you play me?”

“What?” I say, now fighting back tears. “How can you ask that?”

“I need the truth.”

“I’m telling you the truth. I did
not
play you.” I drop my chin and close my eyes. “I wouldn’t do that to you,” I whisper.

When I finally look up at him he’s watching me intently.

“I swear Will.”

He studies me and then looks away.

I step closer to him and put my hand on his forearm. “Will?”

He lifts his chin and looks up at the sky. “Sophia, when we first met you asked me to trust you and I decided I would. But since then some of your actions have made me wonder if I made the right decision. I’m just hoping I didn’t make a mistake.”

I curl over and press my hands above my chest like I’m trying to protect my heart. It’s as if his words slapped me and I can still feel the sting. “How can you say that after all of our talks? Don’t you know how important it’s been to me to earn your trust? Why would I jeopardize it like that?”

He shrugs, and looks off into the distance.

I step even closer until we’re almost chest to chest. “Last night you told me I could be your girl. I may not have had all the struggles you’ve had in life, but I’ve been hurt too. My heart is on the line here as well. But I believe in you. I believe in the possibility of us.”

He watches me and I can see there’s a battle raging in his eyes.

“Don’t let this shoot mess it all up.” I turn to walk back inside the house.

Before I can take more than one step, he grabs hold of my arm. “Come here,” he says softly.

I step into his embrace, and he holds me tight. “I’m sorry, Sophia. I just got really freaked out.”

“I know,” I whisper, my lips against his shoulder.

“I’m falling for you, woman, and I don’t do that easily.”

“No?” I ask, feeling a mix of haunted and hopeful.

“But you….You just do something to me.”

I take his face in my hands. “Will, can’t you see what you do to me? I think I started falling for you from the moment I saw you in the cafe.”

“Yeah?” A smile breaks across his face as his hands take hold of my hips.

“Hell, yes! I’m standing in the shrubs… with a client… on a shoot… pouring out my heart… not caring that I may lose this job. You’re making me crazy. Can you please just kiss me so we can forget about everything for a minute?

His lips are on mine so fast I don’t have time to breathe. It’s an amped-up kiss fueled with unguarded passion and edged with fear. He groans and lifts me up. Then he slowly slides me back down against him.

I sigh when we part. “Look at what we have. Please, don’t give up on me.”

He nods looking determined. “I’m gonna try because I want to trust you.”

We fall into another kiss.

“Yeow!” I say, jumping back and shaking my leg. “I think this has become a threesome.”

“Dude! What the fuck. Get off my girl!” He pulls Romeo, who is frantically getting it on with my leg, off me and holds him down while I step away. “How’d you get out, you horny bastard?”

I glance over my shoulder. “I better get back in there anyway. Let me go in ahead of you. Okay?”

He doesn’t look completely convinced but still looks me intently. “Yeah, okay.”

For most of the morning Will stays in the yard, hanging with Romeo. Maybe it’s easier for him to be away from whatever the hell is happening in the house. At ten-thirty, Lindsey calls him into the house to sit for Gia, and I join them.

He stands next to me and waves his hands as he talks. “I don’t wear makeup, so thanks but no thanks.”

“It’s not like that, Will,” Gia explains patiently. “I make sure you’ll look like you don’t have makeup on. The thing is, video washes people out and any shine on your face becomes a beam of light. So actually what I’m going to do will make you look natural.”

“Trust Gia,” I tell him.

Will raises his eyebrows skeptically. “I’ve got to admit,” he says, “I’ve spent all these years on the lot and didn’t pay attention to the makeup and wardrobe crews. It’s a completely different world than my set and scenic people.”

“It is.” Gia agrees.

“So let me get this straight. You put makeup on me to make me look natural on camera?”

She nods. “That’s right.”

I smile at him, realizing that he’s coming around.

“So that’s like how they have a writer write the reality show to make it seem real.”

She laughs and gives a knowing smile. “You’re better off not having these deep thoughts, Will. This is La-La Land after all.”

“And I work in the business, but this reality show stuff is new to me,” he says.

“
Reality
is a concept. It’s open for interpretation, isn’t it?” She challenges.

I roll my eyes, but the idea stings that reality shows are rarely real regardless of what I hope them to be.

When Gia’s finished, Will remembers the list he made of the children’s charities and shelters he supports, along with the schools that have visited the house during the holidays. He goes to grab it and returns.

Lindsey and I are in the hallway going over the schedule. I turn and smile as he approaches.

He hands a page to each of us once he has our full attention. “So here’s the list of the charities the proceeds from the house tours and benefits go to. Sophia said that they could be listed and mentioned in the special.”

Lindsey casually accepts the paper and tucks it partway down the stack of papers on her clipboard. “Sure Will,” she says, giving him a warm smile before turning back to continue her discussion with me.

I touch her arm. “Lindsey, this is important. Okay? We need to make sure that happens.”

Lindsey tips her head but nods. “Okay, Sophia, I’ll see what I can do.”

I nod to Will. “I’ll make sure it happens.”

He walks away with a huff. I step away from Lindsey and follow him as he heads up front. He dodges all the open equipment cases and steps over the cords snaking all over the floors. I imagine it’s unsettling to have his furniture shifted around and all the lights they’ve brought in. It must not feel like his house.

Aaron looks up from where he’s hunched over the camera and notices us. “Hey, guys. How you doing, Will?”

Will shrugs. “Okay, I guess. You getting what you need?”

“Yeah, it took a while to get the balance of lighting right, but I think we’ve got it now.”

“Good,” Will says.

“And we’re almost ready for you. You ready for us?” he says with a laugh. “You look uncomfortable, but I bet you’ll come off great on camera. And Paul’s a kick. He’ll make it fun.”

“Listen to Aaron,” I say.

“Okay,” Will says, trying to give him an unforced smile. “I’ll take your word for it.”

When we wander back out to the hall we, run into Paul.

“Good, I was about to go find you,” Paul says, slapping Will on the back. “So we thought we’d start with you welcoming us in the front door. If you’re ready we can do a run through?”

“Let’s get it over with,” Will says.

Paul motions to Lindsey and me to join them, and we head out to the front porch.

Paul turns to Will. “Okay, this is really straight forward—the opening shot. When we say action we’re going to have you open the front door and then say your line. Then you’ll step back and open the door wider like you’re letting us in. The cameraman will actually do a tracking shot going through the door.”

Will nods.

“I’ll show you the walk through.” Paul steps inside and closes the door.

A second later Lindsey yells, “Action!”

Paul pulls the door open with a huge grin on his face. “Hi, I’m Will Sander, and—”

“Saunders,” Will says.

“What?” asks Paul, barely restraining an eye roll.

“Saunders, my last name is Saunders.”

“Right. Well, you get the idea. Let’s start over.”

“Action!” Lindsey shouts.

Paul swings the door open. “Hi, I’m Will Saunders and welcome to my magical Christmas wonderland!” He steps back and does a dramatic arm sweep, then waits several beats, pretending to watch the imaginary cameraman entering the house.

“Cut!” Lindsey yells to end the scene.

“Magical Christmas wonderland?” Will’s face twists in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding. That’s so corny.”

Will looks over, and I cringe a little.

“Is he always this literal?” Lindsey whispers.

“Corny? Corny?” Paul asks, the edges of his ears turning red. “We’re talking about a house full of Christmas decorations, are we not?”

“Paul,” I say with a warning tone.

“Where’s his shirt, Sophia? I thought we had an understanding.”

“He’s not wearing the shirt, Paul,” I say firmly.

Will folds his arms over his chest and shakes his head.

Paul presses his lips together and glares. “We’ll discuss this later,” he says to me in a low voice.

He motions to Will. “We need to get going. Come on, you do this now.”

Will reluctantly steps inside the door and closes it.

“Action!”

He opens the door and stares straight ahead at a tree in the front yard then starts speaking in a monotone voice. “Hi, I’m Will Saunders and welcome to my home.” His movements are robotic as he pulls the door open further and counts to four before looking back at the threesome.

“Cut,” Lindsey says with a weak voice.

“Sorry, Will. No can do. We need more energy or it will fall completely flat on camera. Flat as a dead fish,” Paul says.

“I’m flat as a dead fish?” Will says, amused at the idea of it.

“No, no.” I jump in. “He just means to use a little more energy so it appears like you actually want us to come in.”

“And how about sticking to the script while you’re at it,” Paul adds.

“We throw that word around, but I’m not saying m
agical
on camera. That’s misleading. There’s no actual magic,” says Will.

“You’re right, Lindsey,” Paul says, turning toward her. “He’s not Mr. Christmas, he’s Mr. Literal. We’ve got him on the wrong show.”

“Paul,” I say, sounding more threatening this time.

“Okay, take out
magical
, but say the rest as I wrote it.”

I step close to Will. “Is it really a big deal to say it’s a Christmas wonderland? It is, you know?” I smile, hoping he’ll cooperate.

He thinks about it for a moment. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Thanks.” I turn back to Lindsey and Paul and nod. Aaron steps outside with his camera and sets up for the sequence.

Three takes later, Paul decides to move on since Will was at least smiling on the third attempt.