The Director's Cut Read Free Page A

okay?”
    â€œOf course.” She giggled. “Sorry about that. Back in south Texas, everyone was ‘Miss.’ Well, except the women who were married.” She laughed. “Anyway, I meant it in a nice way. We just call folks ‘Miss’ to be polite. Ya know?”
    â€œRight. I’m sure that makes sense.” Deep in the heart of Texas. “Now, go ahead and get that script for me, okay?”
    â€œSure!”
    In her haste to cross the studio, she tripped over a row of cables attached to Jason’s camera. For a minute I thought he would scold her, but he managed to get things under control. In fact, he appeared to be smiling, and his gaze lingered on her. Was he interested in our young prodigy? Surely not. She definitely didn’t seem his type.
    Not that I knew his type, come to think of it.
    â€œNew girl?” he asked as he came over.
    I did my best not to let his nearness distract me, but that early-morning stubble on his face was strangely endearing. He usually showed up to work clean-shaven. I liked the new look—so much so that I apparently lost the ability to construct an intelligible sentence with Jason in my sight line.
    â€œY-yeah,” I finally said. “Erin Brady, my new PA.”
    â€œAh.”
    As he smiled, two perfectly placed dimples arose. I’d seen them before, but today they seemed to hold me spellbound. Pay attention, Tia. To something other than Jason, anyway.
    â€œShe seems energetic,” he said.
    â€œWeren’t we all energetic when we first started out?” Immediately I wanted to bite my tongue. How dare I sound so jaded after only a few years in the industry myself? Forcing a smile, I tried to smooth things over. “She’s in her first year at LAFS.”
    â€œBest film school in the country.” He nodded.
    â€œAgreed.” I did my best not to sigh as I reminisced about my days at the Los Angeles Film School. I was a different girl back then . . . ready to take on the world, to prove my worth—to my family, my peers, and myself. “She reminds me of myself a few years back.” I coughed. “Well, maybe more than a few years back. She’s got that ‘I can conquer the world’ look about her but is plenty green around the edges. I recognize that for sure.”
    â€œMe too.” His laugh caught me off guard. “But I hope her enthusiasm and innocence catches on. We could use a dose of that around here.”
    Hmm. Was that all he hoped was contagious? Surely he wouldn’t be interested in her. Not that it was any of my business. No, I had no claim on Jason. Sure, we made a sport out of bickering, but beyond that, we had no relationship. Not really.
    Before I could help it, a sigh escaped.
    â€œJust seems like . . . ” He lowered his voice. “I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But ever since those Golden Globe awards a few months back, everyone around here’s gone a little crazy. You know what I mean?”
    â€œOh? How so?”
    He shrugged. “Paparazzi everywhere. People doing interviews around the clock. Writers in a frenzy, trying to come up with newer, better scripts just to keep the audience hooked. It’s a lot of work to keep things going.”
    I lowered my voice. “Maintaining momentum is critical, especially at this stage of the game. Stars Collide has been on the air for several seasons now, so it’s more important than ever to keep things fresh so the viewers won’t abandon us.”
    â€œRight, but . . .” He raked his fingers through his sandy hair. “I dunno. Things have been just a little too perfect. You know? Kind of feels like we’re all in a pressure cooker, and sooner or later someone—or something—is going to explode.”
    Interesting image. I’d never really thought about it from that angle. Still, I did recognize the fact that we needed to keep our audience