𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓, finn cole

iii. real life

It was barely 10 in the morning and Cassie had four cups of black coffee, hoping that she might just not fall asleep in her Olivia costume after rehearsing all night. And then, a member of the crew handed her a script.

"What is this? You've already emailed me those." She said, slightly shocked.

"Sorry, Cass. It was a last minute change." He turned to leave with an apologetic smile on his face.

To her relief, there weren't many changes. Just a few extra interactions between Olivia and Michael. To be clear, Olivia was the young daughter of a richman in Birmingham and she hated the Shelbys with all her heart. So when her family starts doing business with them, she is forced to tolerate and afterwards work with them. As Cassie was reading through the script, she realized that most of her scenes included Michael.

Her first thought was to go straight to the writer's room and start presenting all the arguments why Olivia is an independent character whose story isn't about falling in love with a guy she used to hate. But then, she met Finn's eyes from across the room, warning her against the very thing she was about to do. He knew as well as her that contesting the director's authority would end up badly. Don't, His eyes were saying. The same script was on his table and he seemed just about as shocked as she was. Cassie looked away, still in deep thought.

*:･ﾟ✧

"Alright guys. So, a few changes have been made to the scripts, but don't worry, you'll have enough time to learn your lines." The director tried to reassure them, but she couldn't help but feel herself shake at the thought of failing to get everything done in time.

After filming her first scene with Finn, she realized something was wrong. And when the director wanted to have a word with her in private, she started to freak out.

"Okay, Cassie. What is going on?" She tried to think of a reply, but nothing came.

"It's like you're afraid of him. Olivia does need to inspire fear, but not fear of acting."

"So you're saying my acting is bad?" She shouted angrily, and noticed a few heads turning in her direction.

"Well, I'm not the one who changed the scripts just the day we started filming! So you have no right, no fucking right to tell me I'm afraid of acting!" Just then, realized how loud her voice was and how everyone in the room was listening. Before she had the chance to say anything, the director spoke.

"That was damn good, Cass. But could you try it with a British accent." She let out a breath of air she didn't know she had been holding.

"That was a British accent."

*:･ﾟ✧

After that little performance, things went surprisingly well with Finn and they actually started being friendly with each other, while their characters were growing from enemies to lovers. Cassie would never say it out loud, but she was afraid of the time Olivia and Michael were going to kiss. She has read it in the script for episode 6. And she was afraid she was going to blow it. Because while Olivia was a dominatrix, she has never dominated anyone emotionally or sexually. Not even in a role in a tv show.

All kinds of embarrassing scenarios started playing out in her head and after a while, the thought of kissing Finn - even just on screen - started being much more appealing than she'd like to admit.