Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss(16)

She checked her watch, which told her we had fifteen minutes until call, and makeup took about ninety. “It’s fine.”

“Should I go tell Remy or Noah not to wait on me?”

“No. Sometimes they’re running late. If they are, they won’t even realize that you were too. If they’re not, they’ll know we’re not ready soon enough.”

They were not running late. Noah was at our station at five minutes to call. “You don’t look ready,” he said, wearing his normal scowl.

I went to open my mouth to explain, when Leah said, “Sorry, makeup is giving me issues this morning. Tell Remy it will be another hour.”

“He won’t be happy.”

“Art takes time,” she said.

When Noah left, I said, “You didn’t have to do that. It was my fault.”

She waved something that resembled a small paintbrush at me. “It’s fine.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Hold still,” she directed as she pressed the premade section onto my cheek. “What happened anyway? Why so late?”

“Apparently I slept through my alarm. I was up late doing homework.”

“And you finished it?”

“No, actually. I fell asleep. There might be some numbers inked onto my forehead.” I rubbed at my forehead as if that was a real possibility.

“But I let a guy into your trailer the other day who said he was your tutor. Donavan? Isn’t having a tutor supposed to make homework faster?”

“Well . . . it would if I used him. I kind of made him leave.”

“Why would you do that? He seemed really nice. And cute too.”

“He is . . . cute, I mean. I’m not sure if he’s nice. He acts like a dad number two, so I’ve been treating him like that.”

She laughed. “Your dad’s not so bad.”

“You’ve met him. You know how overprotective he is.”

She waved her hand through the air like that shouldn’t bother me.

“The point is, I don’t need another dad. The one I have is already doubling up. But I really thought I could do the work on my own. I hardly get any alone time and I needed it yesterday. And I can do the work on my own . . . except the math. The math is hard.”

“So, thinking about your life choices . . . ?”

“Yeah yeah, send the tutor away after I do math next time.”

“It’s good to learn from our mistakes.”

An hour later I walked on set, then realized I was holding my phone. I hadn’t had time to stop by my trailer in my rush this morning. I panicked but Faith held out her hand with a smile.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

She tucked it into her pocket, and I joined Grant.

“Oversleep this morning?” he asked.

My eyes shot to Remy, who was busy inspecting a headstone with the art director. This was our last day at the cemetery. Tonight everything would be packed up and moved to a church. “How did you know I was late?”

“Because Leah did my makeup at a time when she should’ve been doing yours.”

“How much mascara does she use to get your lashes that long?”

He let out a faux gasp. “This is all me, baby.”

Despite his jokey tone, he was being honest. He had long eyelashes, which I knew weren’t enhanced. He probably only got a dusting of foundation and a bit of eyeliner. And a whole lot of hair gel. “What’s your favorite part about this job?” I asked.

“About this particular acting job? Or acting in general?”

“This one.” Even though Amanda said he’d taken the job to win back some fans and redeem his reputation, I wondered if that was the only reason. His salary was probably half the budget, but it still couldn’t have been anything close to what he was used to.

“You, of course.” He winked.

I rolled my eyes. “You say that to all your costars.”

“And I mean it every time.”

I laughed, then stopped and lightly touched my face. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re going to make my chin fall off again.”

“That wouldn’t be my fault. That would be Leah’s. Your chin should be more secure than that.”

“My chin is very secure.”

Remy raised his voice so everyone could hear, “Who broke the headstone?”

“The headstone?” Grant asked.

“A big chunk of it is missing,” he said.

The fake headstone was obviously Styrofoam or something, because the part he was referring to was now white and someone with paints was adding gray to it.

“People,” he said, “be careful on set.” He looked at me when he said this for some reason. I just smiled, hoping to give him a positive image to associate with me. I realized too late that with my zombie face on, it would be a creepy sight.

Remy walked over the mound of dirt and then stopped in front of us. “You two ready?”

“For over an hour now,” Grant said.

“Yes,” Remy said. “Sorry about that—makeup mishap.”

Grant wiggled his eyebrows at me. I just nodded at Remy.

He picked up my hand and inspected my modified nails. “Very undead, right?” he asked with a smile.