“You’re exasperating!”
“I am?” Fuming now, I try to calm down before continuing. “You started freaking out the second I mentioned you coming to California with me when we finish here. Looking for a reason to run. I’m the exasperating one? Should I remind you that I’m not the one insinuating her boyfriend is making her feel like a whore!”
She had her mouth open to interrupt me before I stopped talking, but the protest she had been ready to throw back dies on her lips. With the color still high on her cheeks, her eyes are wide with shock. She stands before me now looking unable to form another word when for the last half an hour she’s had no issues with that whatsoever.
“What is it now?” I ask with the anger still present in my tone. I ready myself for whatever ridiculous bullshit she’s going to throw in my direction next and try to think of what could possibly be her next excuse for why she can’t come to California when we wrap at the end of the week for our Georgia filming. Why is she trying to leave me?
I brought this up when we finished the filming at the school two weeks ago, but she easily brushed it off. She said we would talk when filming was over at the next few locations here in Georgia, which just so happens to be now.
“What did you just say?” she timidly asks.
I move from the kitchen counter I had been resting on and stalk toward her. She doesn’t move, and her shocked expression doesn’t dim.
If I didn’t want her so desperately, I would throttle her right here.
“Which part? About you trying to think of anything you can to run?”
Her eyes heat. “I’m not running!” she yells.
“Then what do you call this bullshit about you going back to New York to ‘find a job’ and not coming to California like I asked when I offered you a job?”
“It’s not bull, Kane! Let me paint a picture for you. I was brought here under the ruse of a job. One that you and I both know I really wasn’t needed for. You did what you needed to do to be able to explore what you felt when you met me. I get that, and now, I’m thankful that you did, but you know Kirby doesn’t need me. She might have had a demanding schedule, but between Grant and the other two artists you had come in last week, she doesn’t need me. And, hello! I know nothing about makeup.”
I move to explain myself, but she stops me. Her eyes still hold a little of that anger when she continues. “I’m here, Kane, but besides a few comments when you ask my opinion about a scene and helping out whenever I can find a place to help so I can pull my weight, the only thing I actually seem to be doing is sucking your dick and begging you to have sex with me! Which, I might add, you keep refusing me. So how do you figure that isn’t me being a glorified whore when the paychecks you sign hit my bank?”
My anger drains from my body instantly when the real reason for her resistance becomes clear. “Willow,” I breathe. “Come here, baby.”
She lets out a loud sigh before she walks around the island she’s been using as a physical barrier and stops in front of me. I reach out and lightly hold her biceps, holding her gaze so she can hopefully see the honesty I feel for her.
“First and foremost, you’ve been invaluable, Willow. You’ve spent every day for the almost whole month running between helping Kirby maintain her schedule and helping me keep my shit together. Don’t you dare undervalue yourself and make light of just how much work you’ve put into this. You might not see the enormous help you are, but trust me, others do. Myself included.”
“Kane, be reasonable.”
I tighten my grasp, making her shut her mouth and see how serious I am.
“Let me paint you a picture now, Willow. You’ve been running the call sheet schedule, catering orders, production schedules, and at the same time you’re doing all of that, you also make the time to see if Kirby needs help, and if she does, you do everything in your power to make it happen. When Alessandra was struggling to find the emotion she needed to hit the big breakthrough scene, the most important scene in the whole film, who helped her work through it? When we couldn’t figure out what was missing in the scene from yesterday, who offered the one piece of advice that actually helped? You do a lot more than you can even imagine. Don’t insult yourself and say you don’t. I saw early on that you were effortlessly, and without direction, making my life easier. Why do you think I’ve been having you chat with Sam, syncing up with him and learning all you could? I had done that way before I offered you his job.”
“If Sam’s mother wasn’t sick, then you wouldn’t need me to do all of that. He would be here doing it for you,” she weakly protests. I can tell she is finally starting to understand that her claims are ludicrous.
“Baby, Sam isn’t coming back. I told you that a half-hour ago when I offered you his job. Those little phone chats and FaceTime calls have one hundred percent been about him slowly giving you the reins. I hadn’t planned on bringing up the job offer quite yet. I wanted to wait for filming to officially wrap for Impenetrable, but clearly, your beautiful little mind is up to no good, which is why my offer came today. Not because we leave in two days, but because the second I asked you to come to California and not go back to New York, you started to panic.”
I pull her closer to my body; her hands come up and rest on my chest, and I finish explaining myself. “Willow, I had a feeling back at the Logan Agency that you were much more powerful than just a secretary. My gut feeling is that Dominic was intimidated by you and put you in that position to make you feel the way you do now. Like you aren’t capable of a job with huge responsibilities. But you also told me about your degree in business administration and how much fun you had when you interned during your final semester as a personal assistant. When Sam’s situation made it clear I would need to find someone I trust to replace him, the only one I wanted was you. So, my love, you are most definitely not a whore. You’re the woman who is becoming just as invaluable to my professional life as you have become to my personal life. You, Willow, have managed to weave yourself so firmly into my life that I don’t really give a shit what excuse you come up with next. I’ll fucking kidnap you if I have to.”
“What did you just say?”
That shocked expression is back, and I play back my words, trying to figure out what tripped her up this time. I feel like I’m running in circles.
“Did you just say my love?” she says, awe apparent in not just her tone, but her expression as well.
I give her a smile I hope is reassuring, but I don’t answer her question. I will, but not yet. “Willow, be honest with me. Do you not want to continue here? Have I given you reason to feel like you need to back off and run?”
“I’m not running, Kane! I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on and at the same time letting you know how I feel. For the last month, I’ve had no official job title, yet a paycheck has hit my account twice. I help out around set because I want to feel like I’m earning the money. The only thing I can say with absolute certainty is that with no real job, I’m being paid to pleasure the man who pays me. Just like a whore.”
“You aren’t a fucking whore, Willow! I won’t say it again.”
“You’re serious about the job?”
“Fuck yes, I am!”
She sighs and drops her head to my chest.
“Think about it, Willow, and you will see exactly what I’m saying and why I know you would be the best PA I’ve ever had. Not just because you’re beyond capable of it, but also because I know you care about me. And trust me, that’s important. You haven’t been getting paid for nothing. You’ve been working your ass off. Twelve to fifteen hours a day while you make sure everything not nailed down got another slam from your efficient hammer. One mention from me in passing about our delayed schedule—time I couldn’t afford to add to an already stretched budget—and you managed to find the solution. You not only took two days off production time, but in doing so, you saved me a couple million I had already been prepared to sink into this film. Now, we’re finishing ahead of schedule and under budget. Things are running so smoothly, I don’t know how I managed without you.”