“Edward, could you please grab my computer for me? It’s under your feet. Then we can get started,” Dana said pleasantly enough.
“Sure,” he sighed, reaching for the computer. He knew where it was. He saw her put it away an hour ago. He’d been tempted to open it while they were gone and look at her latest work, but then he thought better of it.
“Here,” he said, placing it on the table. He sat down next to her. “So, how do we do this?” he asked, knowing she was about to give him some lame ass story about working alone or telling him how he’d get in the way.
She finished her small cup of yogurt and threw it away. Then she tossed the paper brown bag that she'd carried into the trailer in front of him. “I took the liberty of getting you a sandwich and chips.”
He looked at the brown bag in front of him. He was stunned. People usually bent over backwards to make him happy. They could be a pain in the ass with their twenty questions over something as simple as what he wanted to drink out of fear that he wouldn’t be happy with something that wasn’t perfect, as if he would take a fit or something if god forbid there wasn’t enough mayonnaise on his sandwich. He didn’t understand that at all. Dana didn’t seem to care. She wasn’t trying to kiss his ass or please him. She was just being considerate.
“Thank you,” he murmured as he opened the bag and pulled out a thick roast beef sandwich. Dana stood up and walked over to the mini fridge.
“Okay, there are sodas, juices, ice teas and waters. What do you guys want?” she asked.
Edward and Amy looked at each other in shock. Most people would have tried to order Amy to take those ten simple steps to the fridge. Hell, not three hours ago Jennifer tried to order Amy to sort through twenty bags of Hershey Miniatures. Ordering Amy to throw out the dark chocolate and then separate the rest of the flavors into bowls. Edward sent Amy to his dressing room to get her away from the spoiled actress. He always put his foot down when someone tried to order Amy around. That didn’t mean people didn’t try when he wasn’t around. He was more shocked, because in this case Amy was also working as Dana's assistant.
“Two Cokes, please,” Edward answered, trying to hide his smile when it dawned on him that Dana just might treat him like a normal guy. There would be no ass kissing or acting weird for his benefit. She would probably hand his ass to him on a silver platter if he tried to act anything but normal around her as well.
This was great!
She handed them each a Coke. She sat down and sipped from a bottle of water.
“So, what did you have in mind for the book?” he asked.
“This is about you, Edward. Tell me what kind of movie would be your dream movie.”
He studied her face to see if she was pissed after making that comment. At first he'd been upset that they used her to lure him into another contract, but then he was excited. The only thing he didn’t know was how she felt about being pressured into babying him.
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it,” he said, trying to sound casual.
“That’s not true! All month you’ve been going on and on about what type of book you'd love to write!” Amy said.
All of a sudden he felt all of those antics he pulled on her as a kid were completely justified. Even the time he poured Nair into her body wash. Dana laughed softly making it worse.
“Okay, Amy, what did he tell you?” she asked, her blue eyes were wickedly amused.
Amy folded her hands in front of her and looked at him. She smiled making him grind his teeth. He couldn’t remember why he let her work for him. Was he crazy? Oh no, that's right his mother begged him. Dana Mathews was Amy’s favorite author after all and she was dying to do this. Their mother guilt tripped him for weeks until he caved.
“A vampire book,” he mumbled while shooting daggers at Amy.
Dana looked at him quickly. All signs of humor were immediately gone. “Are you serious?” she asked him.
He suddenly felt self-conscious and began playing with his sandwich. “Well, it was just an idea. We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.” He felt like an idiot.
“No, that’s perfect. I was just afraid you would want to do some macho shoot ‘em up book or something like that. This is perfect!” Her excitement made him smile.
“You’re not just saying that, are you?” he asked, trying to sound relaxed.
She opened her computer. “No, Edward, I’ve wanted to do this story for a while. I’ve been playing with it in my head for years now. No, this is definitely perfect.”
“Really?” He couldn’t stop himself from grinning at her enthusiasm.
“You’ve just made my day!” she said, logging onto her computer. Edward watched with great interest as she pressed her finger onto a little piece of glass set on the laptop.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s a fingerprint scan. That and a password allow me to gain access to the computer,” she said. After a moment she looked up at him. “Okay, pick a name for our main character.”
“I didn’t think of one,” he said uneasily. He watched as Dana’s brows came together. She looked over at Amy expectantly.
“He likes the name Shea,” Amy said.
“Amy, I swear if you don’t cut that out I’m going to-”
“What?” she asked, perking up. “I have job security, brother dearest,” she said smugly.
He ground his teeth. One day, very soon he would get her back. “Edward, if this is going to work you can’t hold back. Whatever you’re thinking I need to know,” Dana said encouragingly.
“Fine, I like the name Shea,” Edward said, turning his attention to Dana.
“Okay, let’s talk about our story. When you were thinking up this idea what did you picture?” she asked him.
The encouraging smile she gave him made him relax. She wasn’t judging him, wasn’t expecting him to meet certain expectations. She really wanted to know what he thought. They began talking about what they wanted to do. She warned him not to settle into a plot, to allow the story to tell itself. He stopped himself from smiling. This was one of her secrets and she was sharing it with him.
A pager went off. Amy took it off her belt and looked at it. “They want both of you on set now,” Amy said.
They both sighed and laughed when they saw their shared expressions. Dana closed her laptop and placed it in her bag and put it over her shoulder before Edward could help her with it.