She works on me for a few minutes, and I’m happy to have an excuse not to watch. Then I find a quiet spot and close my eyes. I know what’s coming next. I’m going to be tortured by having to watch Crew in bed with four women. I’m supposed to saunter around the bed, singing as he makes love to them. I’m willing to bet Ronni was the one who scripted it that way.
During a break, David catches me glued to the storyboard. “I hear you and Crew have a thing.” He nods to the set. “This is entertainment. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“I know, but I wish we could have stayed true to the song. It’s about one woman’s battle within herself, not her battle with four sluts who want her man.”
He laughs. “After hearing it over a hundred times today, I can see that.” He stares at me. “I like you. You’re feisty. No disrespect to them, but you’re prettier than any of those girls. I hope you know that. I’ll take the girl next door any day.” He taps his lips, deep in thought. “I have an idea, but it involves us going rogue.”
I avert my eyes from the storyboard and give him my full attention.
“I’d like to try an alternate ending to the video. Something along the lines of good girl wins over bad girls. Maybe you throw them out of bed or kick them off the stage and the two of you drive off in the car.”
I smile. “Ronni would kill you.”
“I’m the director. I have creative control. Maybe we can distract her, and by the time she figures out what’s going on, we’ll be half finished. Might be worth a shot. I’m a huge music fan and a big believer that each song has deep meaning. If that’s what it means to you, I think we should give it a try. We show our videos to a test group before release. We’ll let them decide which ending they like.”
“Can I do anything?”
He gestures to Liam, Garrett, and Brad. “Maybe they could have some kind of emergency after the scripted ending scene.”
That’s the one where Crew abandons me onstage and leaves with the four girls.
“I’m on it,” I say, happily going over to conspire with the guys.
An hour later, I’m less upset seeing Crew in bed with four girls. Ronni has a smug smile on her face. I swear she wants him and is so jealous she’ll do anything to make me jealous, too.
It’s still hard to watch my boyfriend in bed, naked, with so many other women. They aren’t really nude. They have shorts on, and sheets cover their breasts. David has to cut when one of them reveals her boobs. She giggles, and I get ticked. But Crew looks away while she rights herself, and that offers me a tiny bit of relief.
“Again,” David says. “Crew, you’re in bed with four beautiful women. You’re not sure you should be, and maybe you’re having an internal struggle, but come on, you need to look a little excited about it. Don’t worry, they won’t bite.”
Crew looks at me apologetically.
I nod at him.
They start shooting and I sing my lines as he gropes the girls. Then I have to stand there and watch them during the guitar riff that seems to last forever. It’s all I can do not to stomp my foot and run off the set, but I’m not about to give Ronni that satisfaction.
Between takes, Ronni goes to the bed. “Crew, you have to kiss them.”
“No.”
“That’s ridiculous. We all know it’s pretend, but you have to make it believable. You’re not going to be in bed with four women and not kiss any of them.”
David says, “She’s right.”
“I’m not going to kiss someone in front of my girlfriend.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Ronni says. “You’ve already touched their asses. Can we be adults and get on with it?”
Crew cocks his brow at my silence. I love that he’s asking permission. “Just do it.”
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “All right, but I’m not using tongue.”
David laughs. “Nobody said you had to. Queue the music.”
I almost start crying when he kisses one woman, then another. Is he turned on by this? Is he getting hard? I fight tears, and then realize some of the cameras are on me and my reaction is exactly what’s needed. The scene ends, and I’m not sure I can