There he was again. On the chair opposite Chloe's desk. Lately, that chair had only one purpose: punishment.
He received a short text message: 'My office, 09:00 am.' She had just landed the night before, and her first thought was to send him a message. As if he did something wrong.
His only intention was to speed things up. Soon enough that Christmas girl should leave.
Chloe was piercing him with laser eyes. He would just ignore her, looking in every other possible direction. He wouldn't grant her even a single glance, not even to appease her authority.
Why was I summoned here just because I assigned her as my assistant? Big deal...
"I was away for seven days. It took you so little to create a total mess. Is it just me or do you constantly need a babysitter?"
She had begun preaching.
"You brought me a toy. I had to play with it," Luca replied, trying to provoke her. If she was to understand how pissed he was with the intern's presence, Chloe would at last decide to kick her out.
"But I did. I left you with three babysitters. Two full-time and one part-time. What have you done to them? How on earth did you bewitch them again?" Chloe said like she hadn't heard a word from what he'd said.
Come on Chloe. See the problem. Don't let me struggle here alone, please. I'll do more stupid stuff if you don't solve this.
"Lexi. I thought she was ready, but no. She is not there yet. She can't handle you alone. And Noah? He selects the finest moments to disappear," she continued like talking to herself.
She can't possibly think that I would listen to what those two were to say, does she?
"We always say that you are not much of an actor, but at times like this you prove us wrong!"
"You just wanted to believe it so much, so you saw what you wanted to see," Luca replied. They were finally in the same conversation.
"Luca, you always brag that you are professional. How does your behavior last week prove that?"
"I wanted to try an assistant for once. Never got one. It turned out to be handy!"
"That's not what I'm referring to, even slightly. That is a totally different subject. What happened at the set on Friday?"
Chloe apparently had not called him for the reason he had in mind. She was still downplaying the situation with Christmas.
"It wasn't the first time. I've told you a million times. He has to be out of my set. But here he is again! At the very end of the filming, he appears. I dealt with him for four weeks, now it is time for him to go."
"Ok, let's redefine what being a professional means. First, you have to keep up with many people at work. With most of them you will disagree. Second, there is no room for bad feelings. We don't take anything personally. Third, if there is any problem, any problem at all, discuss it with your manager!"
"I am a professional artist. We artists sometimes react emotionally. And I can deal with problems on my own."
"No, you can't deal with anything. Your 'dealing' cost us thirty thousand dollars. That is the penalty for every hour of unjustified delay for filming. That is written in your contract, the one you never bothered to take a look at!"
It was an important amount. Maybe not that big for other high-profile actors, but quite big for his case, considering he had to make good use of every single dollar he was earning.
He felt a chill on the back of his neck. He wasn't aware of the penalty. If he was, he wouldn't have resorted to such an extreme act. Not for that price.
He coughed lightly, straightened up and declared proudly: "Ok, I take the responsibility for that. You can keep it from my stipend."
"If I keep it from your stipend, you will hardly get anything to eat for the next six months. That is not the solution. I need to get you a new small job to make up for the loss."
"I will do that. I can take whatever project you choose," he confirmed as indifferently as he could.
"It's too early for a new contract. Do you think that it's easy to quickly find jobs that match the profile we spent years building? Or do you want to do cute commercials again, like the Hype Soda campaign you did five years ago? Or maybe you want to film a low budget zombie movie? Zombies always do well, don't they?" she asked, mockingly.
Vampires. I prefer vampires.
He was so tempted to say that out loud, but instead he just said: "I'll do the song that you've been asking me. Let's go for the single." That was a complete concession for him, but it was time to give something to get something back.
"Oh, that's something! There is some clarity left in your head. Now, let's jump to the next highlight of your performance!"
Finally! We are getting to my problem!
"What exactly were these photos?" she asked.
Photos? What photos? She can't possibly mean those photos…
"What photos do you mean?"
"Friday's photos. Remember? Noelle's photos, stepping in Camilla's trailer and then stepping out, totally freaked out?"
The description was too detailed to deny it. "How do you know about them?"
"You obviously have completely forgotten that about a year ago you came complaining that you can't continuously send us the pictures we want for your social media. You specifically mentioned it was time-consuming and not practical. You came with a proposition to give Lexi access to your cloud, so she could directly see all shots and select the ones she liked."
Oh shit, why did I ever do that?
"So, she has access to all my photos?" he asked, feeling completely exposed.
"Yes, she does. Although to protect your privacy she opens only pictures taken during your working hours. And guess when these pictures were taken. And guess how shocked I was when Lexi asked me on Friday evening, what to do."
"And what did you do with the pictures?" Luca dared to ask.
"The sane thing to do. Delete them without trace! Photos taken without consent. On your phone."
He made a mental note to check if these photos were also deleted from his device. He was never going to use them. He felt victorious, and uneasy enough to never look at them again.
"I spent the whole weekend trying to confirm no damage was done. How did you come up with that? What for?" Chloe asked.
"What else? For her. To leave."
"You thought that she could be scared away. But she didn't even get scared of Isabella. Yet, you had the nerve to set up that trap. I must praise your creativity, but the severity of your actions don't let me celebrate that. You managed to risk her mental health."
"People call worse things a prank," he said without thinking too much. "Her mental health? Trust me she was perfectly fine afterwards."
"I am responsible for her, as much as I am for you. She is tough, but I don't know when she can break. What bothers me more is that you never considered the consequences of your actions. What if she was to report you? What if you were to publish these photos with whatever ridiculous context you had in mind… We could be ruined! Not only could the show be cancelled, but the lawsuits that we would face... Oh, the lawsuits..!" Chloe said with just a slight hint of her usual composure. She closed her eyes and buried her face inside her hands.
"I would never post or circulate anything! I am not crazy! I just wanted to... persuade her," Luca responded. 'Persuade' was not the appropriate word, but Chloe would shiver if she was to hear the word 'threat'.
"God, you are taking everything so lightly! I thought you'd have matured a bit by now. You are still that child. Don't you understand what every choice you make does to us all? We have struggled so hard to get here, and now that we're rolling, now that we have paid off the bigger part... Why are you being reckless?" she asked, sounding a bit desperate.
"I know we are almost there, that is why I want to keep up and have no distractions."
"Noelle is not your problem. You are."
"She is investigating me. She will find out everything," he said.
"She is writing about your achievements that are publicly known, and she is reading only the material I am providing. She will find nothing there," Chloe confirmed.
"She is smart. You'll not be able to keep her from finding out about the debt, about… other things."
He didn't dare to say anything else out loud. He ran his fingers through his hair, exhaling sharply, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"I'm more scared than you, apparently," he said.
"We are both equally scared. Our asses are equally in the fire. We both signed a deal with them. And another agreement. With him. You have agreed to trust me on everything. Why don't you trust me with that?" Chloe asked.
"She is dangerous! Can't you feel it?"
"No, I can't. If your behavior is driven by these feelings, then they are strong. But definitely wrong. I have to step in and handle this again. Last time I forbade you to come over."
"And then you sent her where I work. Was that fair?" he asked.
"I am bound to show her the business. She will of course go to the set. I don't understand why on earth you wanted her close to you. Why did you arrange with Lexi to act as your assistant? Was it to let her guard down and lure her into Camilla's trailer?" she asked.
"Not in the beginning," he said, realizing that somewhere along the way his goals had changed. He was enjoying having an assistant after all. And torturing her had become disturbingly easy and… entertaining.