The sound stage was much quieter than Rome liked. Often, when a movie was being filmed, the down time between shoots was full of incidental noise. Workers in the background preparing the next set. The technicians moving their equipment. The chatter of other cast members as they discussed the upcoming scene or simply sat around carrying on a conversation. Today, since Rome was the only one on the set other than a robot, it was relatively quiet. Even the next set being constructed mimicked the soft pitter patter of rain rather than the torrential downpour he would’ve normally been listening to.
Ella stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror and smoothed her top out one more time. Now would’ve been a great time to have a girlfriend--a friend her age who could tell her how she looked. Unfortunately, the only person she had who came close to fitting that bill was Mary, and she’d stayed behind in paradise with Gus. Lenore wasn’t going to be any help, and Ella wasn’t about to call Rome and ask him what he thought of the outfit she’d be wearing to have dinner with Henry.She thought she looked okay. The clothes she was wearin
“Juliet,” Henry said, stepping forward and opening his arm as she arrived at his table. “You look stunning.”“Thank you,” she said, forcing a smile as she took his hands. Henry kissed her cheek, as was the custom in Hollywood, and she air kissed his, which she could get away with at the moment. The thought of her lips touching his body had her fighting bile again. He released her, offering for her to have a seat across from him, which she did. Her legs stuck to the red leather seat slightly, but she didn’t let it bother her. J
Waiting for his wife to get back from a date was the most unnerving experience of Rome’s life. Well, maybe not quite. Being locked in his parents’ house in Verona, and then in their apartment in Milan, had been pretty unnerving, especially when he’d been told Ella had killed herself. Also, witnessing Mark’s murder and Tim’s drowning had also been unnerving. But other than those tragic incidents… sitting on the sofa in the living room, waiting for Ella to come through the door, was more difficult than anything he’d ever done.
“It’s a shitty movie, Rome,” Jeannie Stokes, the director of Cop with a Side of Robot, declared standing next to the new set that was just completed, her hands on her hips. “It’s a shitty script, a shitty concept. Everything about it is shitty, shitty, shitty, Rome.”“Tell me how you really feel,” he muttered, looking at the robot in front of him as if it was a plate full of vegetables he had to eat before he could get up from the table.
“If you use an angled brush, like this,” Fae was saying as she showed Ella how to create a specific textured look in the sand on the painting they were creating together, “you’ll get those darker clumps of sand to really pop off of the canvas.”Ella watched carefully as Fae demonstrated the technique. When the mentor handed the brush over, the student did her best to mimic the same style. “Like this?” she asked.
For the first time in almost three months of filming, Rome walked onto the sound stage with a smile on his face. Granted, he was a good two hours late, but that was actually early compared to his recent schedule. He had been coming in anywhere from three to four hours late. He knew it was driving the director, Jeannie, insane, but for the most part, he hadn’t made them wait on him. Every day except for two or three they hadn’t been ready to start filming when he walked in because there was some sort of issue with that stupid ass robot, and he’d ended up waiting anyway.
Rome slept in late the next day. So relieved was he to be done with the robot movie that he determined not to set his alarm and to just wake up whenever he wanted to. It was a freeing feeling, one he knew wouldn’t last forever, but at least he could enjoy it for a day or two.When he finally opened his eyes, the sunlight was already pouring into the bedroom window, and Ella was gone, her side of the bed cold. He looked around, wondering where she might be, and checked the clock. It was almost 11:00.
It wasn’t like Henry to be late. If anything, it was Juliet that was the one running behind schedule most of the time, even though that drove Ella crazy. She checked the time on her phone again and took another drink of her cocktail. The vodka wasn’t well mixed, and it stung the back of her throat slightly. Where the hell was he? If he didn’t show up soon, she was just going to go. Maybe it would teach him a lesson about wasting her valuable time.“Juliet? Juliet!”
Nervous energy bubbled throughout the theater. Dressed in probably the most amazing gown she’d ever seen in her life, including her wedding dress, Ella sat next to Rome holding his hand, and waiting for his award category to come up. The long red ball gown shimmered in the dim light, its full skirt moving and flowing when she walked like butterflies’ wings. If Rome’s category didn’t come up soon, she thought she might explode with anxiety. It already seemed like they’d been waiting for half a day, even though it had only been a few hours since they’d gotten into the limo and made their way to the famous theater in Hollywood where the biggest award show of the year was always held.
It was a gamble. Attending Henry’s funeral was a risk because there would be people there who knew her as Ella Sinders, and as Juliet stood on the periphery, watching the black clad mourners gather around the casket where the pastor was speaking, she spotted the one person she most needed to avoid in the whole world--her father.Of course he was there. Even though Henry’s father had disowned him after he stabbed Rome and then killed himself, refusing to even fly his son’s body back to his native France or attend the funeral himself, Lloyd Sinders had
The fuzzy feeling in his head radiated down his entire body as Rome tried to open his eyes and found it much more difficult to do so than he’d ever experienced in his life. The realization that his arms and legs were heavy, that there were tubes protruding from various body parts, and that there was a steady beeping sound in the darkened room reminded him of what had happened as his eyes finally opened a crack.“Oh, thank goodness!” His mother’s sobbing voice was not at all what he wanted to hear upon realizing he was still alive, that Henry ha
Sitting in the hospital waiting room, Ella was doing her best to keep herself together, but she was struggling. The ambulance had arrived quickly to the scene at Capressies, where Rome lay in her arms, bleeding from the wound in his back near his lung. Henry had buried a six inch steak knife to the hilt. Whether or not it had collapsed Rome’s lung, she didn’t know. No one would tell her anything.The police had arrived a few minutes after the ambulance. While the EMTs worked to stabilize Rome, the officers had asked her a slew of questions about what had h
Not seeing Henry had become nearly impossible. Juliet had absolutely no desire to see him whatsoever, but his constant calling and insisting that she go out with him was getting old. Now that he no longer had control of Rome’s contract, she decided it was time to rip off the band-aid. She’d already told Parker that they were just going to have to be friends, a realization he hadn’t taken well, but she thought he’d get over. She wasn’t sure how Henry would react.She walked into Capressies knowing he was there already. She was purposely tw
Rome walked into the sound stage building, dreading every step he took closer to another day of pretending to chase around unicorns and annihilate them. Drew’s acting was almost as atrocious as the script. The little girl wasn’t bad to work with, but she could only be there for a few hours each day. He spent most of his time listening to Guy argue with the set construction team, hating his life, and praying that the lawyers would hurry up and process the sale of his contract from Henry to Lloyd. It had been two weeks since the Montage show, and so far, nothing had changed, even though he’d only given Lloyd one week to get it done initially. Every day, he walked past the Vinune, wrapped and stored in his living room so that if and when the sale went through, he
“Well, tell me all about it!” Fae insisted as Ella came into her room at the nursing home and settled onto the couch. She had two cups of tea ready on a silver server. Ella wondered how she’d managed that without a kitchen but figured Fae had her ways. The staff absolutely adored her, for good reason. “Did you have a nice time?”Ella smiled at her, slightly amused that she was most concerned about whether or not Ella had had a pleasant experience. She honestly couldn’t say that she had, but she’d choose her words carefully for
Walking away from his wife when she clearly wanted to talk to him wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but Rome knew it was more important for Juliet to speak to Henry at the moment. She could talk to him later--at home. Besides, he wasn’t sure he wanted to speak to her considering what he’d done. The bottom line was, they’d gotten what they wanted. Or, they would, as soon as Sinders sent him the finalized contract.He stood in the back of the gallery, speaking to actress Chrissy Indiana, not hearing a damn word she was saying, despite the fact that
Schmoozing the filthy rich wasn’t something even Juliet enjoyed (Ella despised it) but it was part of her job as owner and chief executive officer of Montage, so she put her head down and did it. So far, it had made her a lot of money. After her first show, months earlier, she didn’t think it was possible to bring in much more revenue at one event, but she’d been very wrong. Even without the Vinune, she was going to make three times more money than she had at the first show, in profits alone. She was sitting in a good position to be able to buy Henry’s entire company outright if she wanted to.