The Call Sheet

Chapter 5 - Sarah

'YOU SAID WHAT?!" Rachel screeches at me. With each new piece of the encounter related to her, Rachel's voice has gotten higher and higher. To the point I am pretty sure now only dogs will be able to hear what she is saying.

"I know" I groan, curling myself further into a ball in the middle of my bed. Maybe if I squeeze myself together tight enough and small enough I will just completely disappear, that would definitely help ease the flow of waves of embarrassment that I currently feel having returned home.

"Sarah I am all for you empowering yourself and knowing your own worth but 'you can find me first' What on earth were you thinking? You have a West End legend, award-winning, not to mention god-damn beautiful Hollywood movie star asking for your number and you pull that crap? Winona Ryder you ain't my friend." I can hear the exasperation in Rachel's voice as she lectures me on my stupidity and I know without being able to see her that she has thrown her arms in the air in complete frustration.

"Rachel" I sigh "there is nothing you can YELL at me that I don't already know! I am so embarrassed I don't know where my head was at, I just felt like a completely different person." I feel bad for not giving Rachel all of the details, to be honest I'm not really sure why, I just want to keep what happened to myself, a special once in a lifetime moment that only I know about. I keep telling myself that I am doing this to protect his privacy, his life is watched and monitored by so many people. I don't want to be another person who uses his name or status to get attention. I want him to have a normal human moment of interaction that he can keep to himself.

But why do I think I know what he would want and more importantly why do I care?

I can feel the pressure building behind my eyes and spreading over my forehead, I pinch the bridge of my nose to try and relieve some of the tension in hopes this headache will leave. I am trying to focus on Rachel's words but I just keep reliving the last hour in my head. His dark green eyes glistening as he threw his head back laughing, the way it felt so natural to lean up against him, his hand ruffling his auburn hair, the way he stood hands gripping the bar, staring through the tube door, those blue eyes wide with wonder? Intrigue? Or maybe he was just shocked that someone as boring and plain as me thought someone like him could ever be interested in me.

Shaking my head I try to pull myself out of my thoughts, I need to just box these memories away and leave them untouched before I drive myself mad. This was a once in a lifetime encounter that meant absolutely nothing to him and needs to mean nothing to me other than being a good ice breaker in 20 years time.

Thankfully my phone starts buzzing pulling me back in from the ledge I have been standing on in my own mind. I can hear Rachel's words but when I look down at my phone my stomach is tied in knots as I see my boss's name appear on the screen. This cannot be good.

"Eh Rach, I gotta go, Louise is calling me so something must be up, I'll call you later!" I answer the phone not really listening to Rachel's parting words, I've already decided I won't call her back until tomorrow I just need some quiet in my mind.

"Sarah, sincere apologies for the intrusion on your evening" I can't help but roll my eyes as Louise's overly formal tone pierces through my ears.

I am being unfair, Louise isn't a bad boss just stiff, there is no casual level with Louise or chit chat. Everything is polished, precise and exact, our conversations in the last year and half purely focus on the facts and plannings around work. Which is fine but sometimes it would be nice to start a conversation with a Hello or How are you but that is not Louise and she has not gotten to where she is by exchanging pleasantries so why start now.

"I know this is last minute and not part of our plan for this week but I was contacted an hour ago by one of the largest film producers globally, their operations director pulled the contract due to resourcing issues and they need someone to start tomorrow, I -"

"Wait, what? As in tomorrow, tomorrow?" I say cutting Louise off mid sentence. I am praying the next words out her mouth do not involve my name. It takes me at least a month to work out all my scheduling for any film production operations. There is so much to think about and plan for that one night's notice is enough to put me into a coma. This is not how I work.

"Yes. Tomorrow Sarah. That is why I said tomorrow." Louise shakes me from my panic with her short tone "Anyway if you had let me finish, I have already emailed you on all the information required. They are aware this is short notice so may take you a few days to find your feet but to be clear Sarah, this is not me asking you to take the contract this is me telling you. This is a huge opportunity for us and if we impress them we could make millions in profit a year from rehiring with them. I need my best people on this, which is you. Look over the information I have sent you and whatever resources you need they are yours, just tell me and I will get it done. Thanks. Enjoy your evening and good luck for tomorrow." Louise hangs up before I can even respond.

Fuck.

I jump up from my bed and sprint to the living room to grab my laptop, as I power it up sitting at the kitchen island my head falls into my hands. This cannot be happening, I could scream the place down. I am a planner, I don't like to leave things to chance, especially when it comes to work. That's why I am so damn great at my job. I pull up my emails and sure enough Louise has sent me everything, this is a huge production of a film with a multi billion pound budget which means big names and a lot of demands. This is going to be a long night. I scan through the information taking in as much of it as I possibly, attempting to familarise and memorise production schedules, location maps, timings and requirements. I pull up my trusty planning excel sheet and get to work.

It's 3am when my alarm wakes me abruptly from my half sleep. Today is going to be a long day. I get ready and throw on my unofficial uniform, black form fitting suit trousers that pull me in at the waist and give me the illusion of a figure, my black racer back bodysuit, paired with a cropped cream knitted cardigan for warmth and of course my trusty cream converse with a golden sun and embroidered on the side. A pair of small golden hoops, my tortoise shell glasses and a messy bun completes the look.

I run through my checklist one more time to make sure I have everything - I do, obviously - I grab my bag and head downstairs to the street where the company has sent a car to pick me up.

I arrive at the set and am greeted by the team, earpiece and walkie talkie secured, I get to work. Despite my initial panicking, everything is going well, all the timings are being met and the director is happy. This morning has mostly been shooting some of the smaller interlocking scenes and test shots. This afternoon is for some of the main shots and it is time to bring the leads to set, I get word in my earpiece that the male lead is ready and I head to the dressing room to give him a run down of his timings and introduce myself as his handler.

I knock and open the door and as I do this it only then hits me what I forgot to do, check the damn names of the actors.

As I swing open the door I am greeted by the same dark green kind eyes and smile that I have been recalling from yesterday.

Shit.Shit.Shit

Before I can stop myself the words are out of my mouth "I'm not stalking you I swear to God!" I can't help but cringe at how unnatural my voice sounds as I spit the words out. I hope I am not shouting but I can't be sure the pounding in my head and buzzing in my ears are so loud that I'm unable to focus on anything else. I drop my eyes to the floor to avoid getting lost in the depth of the green in his, I can feel the warmth of embarrassment creeping up the back of my neck. "Sorry about this, I will go and grab one of the juniors and ask them to step in for today" I whisper the words out and turn to run out of the room when I hear the scrape of a seat and before I can turn round Tiernan has closed the gap between the two of us and has wrapped both his hands around my wrist and is pulling me gently away from the door.

"Oh no you don't, I've already watched you walk away once this week, I'm not going to let you do that a second time." he says with a coy smile and a twinkle in his eyes. He lowers his voice and concludes "Plus you told me to find you."