to do that. So they’re all gonna be here on Monday.”
I looked back out the window in time to see Dryden, his arm slung along Shaughnessy’s shoulders, strolling by calling. “See you Monday.”
I lifted a hand to wave. “See you guys Monday.”
“Later, uh . . . Rebel,” Shaughnessy said.
“Later,” I replied.
Shaughnessy smiled at me. “Rebel’s the only name more kickass than Tallulah.”
I smiled back, relief—real relief this might work—starting to invade.
Over the next ten minutes, this happened with half a dozen more of my cast and crew, before I noticed Janna making an approach.
I drew in breath, though this didn’t surprise me. Janna was really good at what she did. She did all hair and makeup and costuming. She had a way with hair and makeup, but her real talent was in putting clothes together, making them look good but doing it in a way it subtly but assuredly helped to define a character. Half the class of the films we’d done so far was about her making the actors look classy.
She could easily get a job elsewhere. A stylist at a store. Starting up her own shop. Moving to another production.
She was one of the few who really didn’t have to hang for a week without pay then come back only to be let go in a couple of weeks.
It still would suck without her, and I wondered if I could pay her to draft boards for the rest of the scenes that needed filming so we could at least dress our actors.
I forced myself to seem light and casual when she hit the door.
“Hey, Janna,” I greeted.
“Hey, uh, Rebel. Can I have a minute?” she asked.
I looked out the window.
More folks were passing by, waving, nodding, but now also looking curiously at Janna.
I turned my attention back to Janna.
“Sure,” I said.
She gave Rush a careful look.
I smiled at her. “He doesn’t bite. Let me introduce you. Rush, this is hair, makeup and costume, Janna Adrian. Janna, this is my boyfriend, Rush Allen.”
They looked to each other, and Janna didn’t appear any less careful, in fact she was more so, when Rush stood, held out a hand and muttered, “Nice ta meet ya.” Then he offered, “Take my chair.”
Something new.
My man.
A gentleman biker.
Nice.
“I . . .” she took his hand, let it go, “okay, sure.”
She then took his seat, sitting on the very edge of it.
Rush assumed his position with shoulders against the wall behind her, watching her attentively.
“I understand, Janna,” I assured in order to make this easier on her since she seemed so nervous.
“I’m not licensed,” she blurted.
I stared at her.
She kept blabbing.
“I didn’t mind pulling one over on Rodrigo. Rodrigo was a jerk. So I didn’t mind lying to him, or Mr. Valenzuela, though I kinda did with Mr. Valenzuela since he’s scary. But I was small potatoes to him. He wouldn’t care. But since they’re gone, and it’s you, I don’t want to lie to you. I don’t have my cosmetology license. In hair or makeup. And I didn’t work as a stylist at Nordstrom for three years.”
“I . . . uh . . .” I mumbled, surprised at this news, and in light of it, wondering where she got her mad skills.
“I’d like to . . . like to . . . stay. Finish the movie. But I understand if you want to let me go.”
Well, thank God.
I leaned into my forearms on my desk and smiled at her. “I don’t wanna let you go. You’re really good. I’m not sure we could finish without you.”
“I curl hair.”
“You give a feel to the production no one could imitate.”
Janna’s head jerked.
“You’d be a loss and it’d mean a lot if you stayed,” I told her.
“I . . .” she seemed to get stiffer, move more to the edge of her seat to the point I thought she’d teeter off, then she declared bizarrely, “Your man might not want me.”
I felt my brow furrow. “He’s just here to—”
Her voice was pitched high when she declared, “Beck’s my boyfriend.” She woodenly twisted to Rush and repeated, “Beck’s my boyfriend. Throttle’s my boyfriend. Though he’s not Throttle anymore. Throttle is gone. But he’s my boyfriend.”
I felt something beating out of Rush that made me look at him, see the tight in his jaw and around his eyes, so I started to get up.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Janna jerked around to me.
“You need to know it all. I was there. I was,” her voice cracked but she pushed through