The Billionaire’s Bun In Her Oven - Ellie Rowe Page 0,52

step out of the office. Tug calls out to me and I stand there with the door open, half-in and half-out.

“You know, Stephen,” he says, and I can tell he’s starting to have second thoughts. “You and Cynthia being gone like you were has me behind the eight ball. I’m supposed to be turning this footage around and getting it to the network to air tonight.”

“I guarantee you I’m a better chef than Nadia. I know how to make dessert, too.”

“Is that what this is about? Nadia?” Tug asks. “She really seems to get you worked up. What’s that about?”

I consider my next words carefully. I know how fast rumors fly around a set (almost as fast as they do around a restaurant). Tug works closely with Rachna, and Nadia has clearly been working overtime to get in tight with Rachna.

I simply offer, “She’s a piece of work.”

Turning back toward the dining room, I nearly smack my face right into the business end of a camera. I quickly do a little limbo move while stepping to the side, narrowly avoiding both the camera and the dude behind it.

“Careful,” I say.

“Sorry, Stephen!”

“It’s all good,” I respond as I get myself upright again.

I pat him on the shoulder as he moves on. I’m in a good mood, after all. I’ve just fixed the edit. Cynthia has shown she’s on my side. I’ve finally come to grips with my feelings for her…

Everything’s going just great.

Thirty-Nine

Cynthia

I pour myself a glass of wine and prepare for the worst. They had to work fast to get this episode out and keep us on track. Maybe they won’t have time for all their creative editing? The bulk of the episode should be boring, too, straightforward, cooking bullshit.

My little pep talk does nothing to brighten my mood and I keep the bottle nearby. As I slump into my little loveseat, I remember sitting next to Stephen, watching the first episode. The embarrassment and shock; how gently he handled it, how good he made me feel.

Then he really made me feel good.

I groan and click my TV on, searching for the episode. I can’t think about that now. It’s too late anyway. I’ve rejected him, haven’t I? I take a deep drink of wine and hit play. Here we go...

There’s Stephen’s stupid sexy face and sexy intro. I mouth along to the lines I’ve heard so many times. ‘And this is, Into the Fire’, the whooshing of flames. The camera pans, and oh fuck. Surprise of all surprises, they’ve actually begun with my little heart-to-heart with Nadia.

I don’t know what I expected, I really don’t. I tried to be careful. I tried not to step over the line. But this is brutal, this is dramatic television.

I blow up at Nadia. Lots of shots of her looking shocked, shots that were never even filmed during the actual shoot. When did they get those?! I sound whiny, defensive, but not for Stephen’s sake, for my own.

They cut out pretty much anything to do with Stephen being a great chef and twisted the argument to sound like I’m a stalker fangirl with an unrequited crush! I scoff and pour more wine.

“It’s not unrequited!” I holler at the television. Is it?

More shots of Nadia looking wounded and frightened for her life. Blah, blah, blah. I’m not sure if it’s the wine or the trauma, but I’m feeling pretty dead inside about it.

If you step back and remove the fact that they’re destroying my career, the editing team should be commended. They had all of six hours to get this episode together, and they’ve completely altered reality as we know it.

“Here’s to reality television!” I toast and sit back gloomily into the cushions. I sound fucking ridiculous. But my hair looks nice, I think tipsily. “Can’t edit that out!” I curse at the TV.

“Cynthia, he literally spent days hitting on me —”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean by that?” I hear myself say. Completely out of context. I really do sound jealous and edgy.

“As far as slinking off, I simply — needed — Stephen.”

The shot was on Nadia’s surprised reaction, so they had every opportunity to hack up my sentences, stringing them together. Nice. That charming little interaction ends with a shot of me racing off, with Nadia looking bewildered.

Next, it’s on to the episode’s cooking challenge. They cut to shots of us in the kitchen together, me flying around tables like an idiot, when in actuality, I was trying to avoid