Filthy Beast(34)

“Oh, uh, okay,” I say to her. “I like to have the actor around to—“

“Do your job, script girl.” She brushes me off and stalks away across the set.

I stare at her, not sure what the hell just happened. She just acted like I was asking her to do something absurd and outside of the norm. She’s stayed behind to watch the monitor with me before, and it’s always easier with the actor to help double-check everything. It’s a common practice on set, although the actors don’t necessarily have to do it.

I stare after her for a second before sighing and shaking my head. I don’t know what the hell that was about, but if Holly suddenly hates me, things are going to be freaking tense on this set. I have to work with her every day for the next few months, and it’s awful if she can’t stand to be near me. This is going to make my life totally miserable.

I manage to get through the scene on my own and the rest of the day passes without any issues. We do a few minor shots that go smoothly, and Holly basically pretends like I don’t exist, which is better than her actively hating me. Finally, when the set is wrapped and we’re done for the day, I head over to my locker to put away the script.

“How was it out there?”

I turn to find Jackson leaning against the wall, smiling at me.

“Not bad,” I say to him, getting my things set up. I can’t help but smile back. I shiver, remembering the feeling of his body against mine.

He’s wearing a tight white shirt and he’s a little sweaty, which makes my heart start to race in my chest. Clearly he’s been working hard today with the stunt guys, and he looks amazing. I totally understand why he’s becoming such a big action star. Women want to sleep with him and men want to be him.

“How was my favorite fake girlfriend?” he asks me.

I hesitate a second. “Actually, something weird happened.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Tell me about it.”

I turn to face him, chewing my lip. “I don’t want to gossip. It could be nothing, honestly.”

“Tara,” he says. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well, we had some trouble on a scene. Afterward, I was going over the footage for continuity, and I asked Holly to help me out.”

“Sure,” he says. “Standard stuff.”

“Well, she blew me off. Actually, she acted like I was the most awful person she’s ever met for even asking her.”

He looks surprised. “I thought you got along.”

“We did… until today, apparently.”

“Shit,” he says softly.

“What?” I ask him.

“I mean, it’s probably nothing.” He crosses his arms, looking worried.

“Jackson, tell me.”

“Well, I had to… I had to tell her about you.”

I take a sharp breath. “About yesterday?” I ask him softly, afraid someone might overhear.

“No,” he says. “But that I’m not doing this relationship with her for real.”

“She came on to you?”

He nods. “And I told her I’m not interested. Because of you.”

My heart starts to race faster. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel in this moment.

“Shit, Jackson,” I say softly. “Why did you do that?”

“I had to say something.” He steps toward me, but I move away.

“Now she hates me,” I say, realizing how bad this is. “She thinks I’m her enemy or something. Holy shit, this is going to be so bad.”

“Tara, I didn’t mean to—“

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “God, I knew it was a mistake to do this with you. We work together. We can’t get involved.”

“I can talk to her again. Tell her to back off.”

“No,” I say forcefully, meeting his gaze. “Don’t. Stay away from her.”

“I just want to help.”

“You helped enough already. Now Holly hates me, and I’m going to have to deal with it.” I slam my locker shut, lock it, and turn away from him. “Thanks for that.”

I storm off, so angry I can barely think. I don’t want to stick around and keep arguing with him.

I’m torn about this. On the one hand, he did turn down Holly for me, which is kind of a huge deal. He’s supposedly a big player, but not sleeping with her for my sake might actually mean something.

But on the other hand, because he told her that, now she hates me. And my working relationship with her is screwed up. I know you’re not supposed to get involved with your coworkers, and Jackson is my coworker. He’s making things so much more complicated than I ever wanted.

I’m torn on how to feel about this, but in the end, I’m angry with him. I don’t want him talking about me behind my back, even if it’s just to say that he wants me or whatever he said. I want our history to remain private.