Every Woman's Dream... But You.

One

I should introduce myself. I'm Lily, I'm 35, fiery red hair which isn't my natural colour at all, slightly overweight but I think I carry it well on my 5 foot 10 frame. I was married to a wonderful man called Brett but he died 5 years ago so now I'm a widow, old before my time.

I work as head writer on the set of the hottest new trilogy series. A fact most people don't know is that I also wrote the novels but refused to let them create movies without me having a lot of creative control. So along with being head script writer, I'm also going to be assistant director.

It's a lot of work and I've not been in this industry before, I've always remained anonymous, using a pseudonym and enjoyed the privacy so this was a risk. A handful of people know about my author status, the director, producer and 2 other script writers were the only people and had agreed to keep my privacy.

We've been here just over a month already but today the main actors are arriving and we have a first meeting and a brief get to know you, ice breaking type of session which I'm nervous as hell about. I'm a total introvert and these actors are decidedly not.
Kate is the director and she's amazing, I have learnt so much from her already.
Tom Hiddleston and Jennifer Lawrence play siblings who raise their children together after tragedy means they both lose their partners in the first film. Ryan Reynolds is playing Jennifer's love interest and Ian Somerhalder is playing Tom's love interest after coming out late.

It's a very A list cast and I'm extremely flattered that they thought so much of my books that they wanted to be in the films.
I know Jen, Ian and Ryan are all married and their partners are coming with when we film abroad on location which is for 8 weeks and the rest of filming will be done on set.
They all have young kids they're bringing too and along with the kids that will be on set, there's a school / daycare centre being set up.

I have parental responsibility for my 2 nieces Elsa & Esther who are 9 and 12 since my older sister Amy passed away 4 years ago and their father has been on drugs since they were both tiny and they're very excited about going away. They helped get me through my husband and sisters deaths, they were close together and it nearly killed me. They're also one of the very main reasons I keep my anonymity a priority, they don't need their lives any harder than it's been.
They live with me but my older brother James lives next door and is around a lot to help in spite of having a wife and 4 kids of their own, he's been amazing with them. He is my role model as well as theirs and he and his wife Katie are my best friends.
One of the few good things about my success and wealth was I got to build a huge family home and my brother and his family a home next door so we are all very close. It also means we can rely on each other to look after all the kids when we need to. We're really an unusual and amazing family unit.

My novel was loosely based on mine and James' life so I'm pretty protective of my characters.
Everyone else I have met already but Tom Hiddleston had been too busy to meet me and only met with Kate so I'm feeling a tiny bit hostile towards him and desperately hoping he's a good fit for the character.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"Lily, meeting time." Kate smiled at me amused when I jumped from the disturbance of my thoughts as I swung back and forth on my desk.
"Oh thanks Kate, I'm coming!" I had jumped up quicker than I should've and almost tripped over in my haste to get to a meeting I knew from a glance at my smart watch that I was late for.
"I'm going to buy you an alarm clock." Kate chuckled as I caught up with her.
"Make it two." I laughed, waving at Ian and Jennifer as they went into the meeting room. They waved enthusiastically back and waited for us to go in.
"Hi Lily, it's so good to see you again." Jen hugged me.
"And you, I've been looking forward to you all arriving." I grin, Jen has to be one of the nicest people I've ever met. She's so bubbly and friendly and welcoming. It feels instantly like I've known her forever.
Ian's a tad more reserved but still pretty extroverted in my world.
"Hey Lily." He reaches over and hugs me briefly but tightly after he's hugged Kate.
"Is everyone else here?" I glance behind them into the meeting room.
"Everyone but Tom." Jen said, "I think his driver was running late." She shrugged it off as if it was normal behaviour.
"Ok, we'll start without him then." I say, my annoyance slightly heightening.
We all find a seat and just as we're about to start, he makes his entrance.

"I'm so sorry I'm late." His apology is addressed directly to Kate.
"I'm sure you know what London traffic can be like." He sighs and glances around the room.
He's already met everyone except me before too, on various projects. His deep blue eyes briefly stopped on me before returning to Kate.
"Don't worry Tom." Kate hugged him and he sits down on an empty chair next to me at the end of the long circular table.
"Ok so I'm pretty sure we've almost all met before but for those who haven't, let's just quickly let's run around and tell everyone your name, role and a fun fact about yourself." Kate grins,
"I'm Kate, I'm the director. I have 27 animals."
"I'm Tom, I'm playing Richard and I'm ambidextrous." He smiles and turns to me.
"Ok, I'm Lily. I'm assistant director and head script writer and I have 6 nieces."
"That's not a fact about you Lily." Ryan smirks at me, he knows I'm introverted and I can see him pushing.
"Ok, I love to sing. But never in public." I reply, hoping this won't get dragged up at the first karaoke, I know how fond Kate is of them.
Everyone else introduces themselves quickly and we get on with talking about the script but I notice through the entire meeting that Tom keeps looking at me and I feel myself getting increasingly annoyed at him.