Page 59 of Love Unscripted
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Aaron took a look at the menu, “I think I’ll have a bite of that blueberry pie,” he said handing the menu back to the man.
“And you, ma’am?”
Camille returned the menu. “Just a cup of coffee. Black. No sugar.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “What? No sugar? Are you having an off night?”
She looked baffle. “What do you mean?”
“The last time at Frank’s diner. You ate like a horse, vanilla shake and apple pie, the works.”
She laughed in spite of yourself. “I don’t eat like that routinely, Aaron. That only happens when I’m nervous.”
“So you were nervous that night?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”
“You didn’t seem nervous to me. In fact, you were rather sassy as I recall.”
“It was all an act. I’m an actress remember,” she teased.
“But why would you be nervous?”
She played with the edge of the tablecloth. “I thought you were going to fire me,” she muttered.
“You what?”
She cleared her throat and spoke up. “I thought you were going to fire me.”
“Yeah. You did say something about that but I didn’t think you were serious.”
“Be honest it crossed your mind though, didn’t it?”
“Well, to begin I really had no authority to fire you. I could recommend to the studio but it wasn’t my call. Secondly, I dismissed making that recommendation because it would come at a cost.”
“Financially?”
“Yes since we would have to start over with a whole new actress and I didn’t want such a failure on my record and also there would be a cost emotionally. I invested heavily in this project. In fact, it was my idea. I really wanted to see it through. It had started out so well. You were like a dream to direct in those early days before you went rogue.”
She looked at him in mock outrage. “I went rogue did I?”
“You stopped listening to me and went off on a frolic of your own,” he said with a teasing smile. “I wondered where my obedient little Camille had gone.”
She wagged a finger in his face. “You are on very thin ice here, Mister. You’d better choose your next words carefully.”
He caught her finger and brought it to his face. She tried to pull away, but he held fast—then gentler.
“I’m not letting go until you tell me what changed.”
Her gaze turned serious. The contact suddenly felt intimate—charged.
“I’ll tell you,” she said softly.
Their elbows rested on the table now. Hands entwined. His thumb brushed her finger—absently, tenderly. “Go on,” he said.
“I ran into Simon during my break in filming. It seems that he had gotten hold of some early screenings of the film and he told me that my Esther was nothing like Queen Aradia. He told me that Aradia had been bold and captivating and that my Esther was muted and submissive. I dismissed him but he had planted a seed of doubt and I kept replaying his words for days. Eventually I began to think that maybe he had a point. I felt maybe I could do more with Esther. Make her stand out more…” she looked down and shook her head in regret.
