“I might want to get some ice on this,” I told them.
I was pretty sure I’d been dinged up much worse playing football.
“Can you continue?” Jessup asked.
Ben looked scandalized, but I could tell Jessup needed to get this done now.
The continuity gal and Jessup talked to Ben and me about how to proceed from here. Basically, I was to begin right after the barbarian had crashed past me. While they figured things out, the CGI guys affixed a new sensor on my shoulder. They got me into position and went through their pre-shot callouts. When Jessup called ‘action,’ Ben and I did our bit. Where the previous fight was brute force as I tried to just survive, this was poetry in motion.
The fight scene was intended to have big sweeping cuts and both of us basically freestyle running through an obstacle course. In the end, I defeated the evil Roman. Cue the music. When they called ‘cut,’ Ben and I laughed like two kids playing at Star Wars.
Today wasn’t about perfection, it was about getting our movements recorded so they could play with it and get ideas for better visual fight scenes.
While we did our fight scene, they had quietly gotten my attacker out of the studio. He’d told them I looked like a candy-assed kid who needed toughening up. He thought he was doing me a favor by not holding back. A little warning would have helped.
MY AFTERNOON WAS SPENT in makeup and then costume. They shaved my head and painted on different tattoo patterns. When Jessup and Janice were happy with the look, they continued the patterns down my neck and then all over my torso. They took photos of what I was supposed to look like for when they’d do it for the actual shoot. They explained they would use henna tattoos to keep a consistent look. It felt weird not having hair. I sent Lily one of the shots with me stripped to the waist with my full makeup on. Janice had encouraged me to ‘leak’ a photo and then pull it down in a few days.
I also got permission to send a photo to Adrienne so she could share it with Dakora. They needed some idea of what I would look like so they could pick out what I would wear for their photo shoot.
THE FOUR OF US GOT dressed up and went out to dinner. Craig’s publicist made sure we had plenty of press waiting for us. The Hollywood Central guy wanted to know what had happened to my hair. I sent him the link of what my character was going to look like. I warned him off camera it would be taken down Monday. Mission accomplished. I was also in Jade’s clothes. I sent a text to Tiffany to make sure they taped Hollywood Central on Monday. That way Ford could show Jade I wore their clothes in LA.
At dinner, Elizabeth made it clear she wanted to spend the night with me. I was glad I’d gotten Kendal a room.
I admit I was disappointed. The sexual chemistry just didn’t seem to click, as far as I was concerned. Unfortunately, she thought differently. The fact that I didn’t get off in the first few minutes seemed to be a vast improvement for her. Don’t get me wrong, even bad sex is better than dating your right hand. Slot A fit attachment B just fine. Elizabeth just wasn’t an active participant. It was like having sex with a blow-up doll.
We tried it three times to make sure. It might have had something to do with her hot body and me being horny, but when all was said and done, I was glad it was over.
Sunday January 4
I GOT UP AND RAN AGAIN. We were flying back home today. I felt much more confident I could pull this off. I went to my regular joint, if that’s what you can call it after only three days. My waitress wasn’t there, but I enjoyed my breakfast.
I got back to the room and jumped into the shower. Elizabeth joined me, and I’m embarrassed to say I used her body to get some relief.
Kendal and I caught a ride to the airport. I had upgraded us to first class because I was in no mood to fly coach for such a long flight. It was a good thing I did because the plane was full.
The flight back gave me a chance to think about what I had coming up for the next few weeks. School started tomorrow. I was scheduled to be in Canada a few times over the next two months. There was one stretch where I’d be gone for eight or nine days. I had made the necessary arrangements with the school. They weren’t complaining about me being gone so much.
The bad news was that I was probably wouldn’t be able to play seven-on-seven football this year. I decided to work on baseball instead, based on my schedule. Moose had arranged for me to use the batting cages over at State. I wanted to get a batting coach to help me prepare. I was going to ask Mike’s dad if he’d help me with my pitching.
I took a power nap and felt great when we got to Chicago. Kendal had had her brother drive her to the airport, so I took her home. When I finally got home, it looked like we were getting new neighbors. The house next to us had finally sold. Mom had listed it and she told me the new buyers had kids about my age.
I went inside to find Duke throwing a fit in the laundry room. Mom and Dad had told Angie that I’d take care of Kyle’s new dog. I was completely fine with that because I had been begging for a dog for years. Mom had just put him in his crate, so we left him to his theatrics. We needed to get him crate-trained as soon as possible.
Mom made me unpack my clothes in the laundry room, saying she’d do laundry tomorrow. I went up to my apartment to check my email. Lily had it set up so that all my tweets and Facebook stuff went to her. Somehow everyone had figured out my private email address. I had one for public use, which Lily monitored, and one for work for Ford and Adrienne. Kendal monitored the work one for me. The girls forwarded anything they thought I needed to see. I had to keep reminding Lily that pictures of scantily clad girls were okay to forward on to me. Then I had a private address for my friends and family. I found several hundred new emails in my private inbox. I would have to get a new private email address, or this would drive me crazy.
I sent a text to Lily and gave her my login and password to my emails. She would sort through them for me. I really needed to start paying her. I put that on my to-do list—AGAIN!
It felt good to sleep in my own bed.
Monday January 5
HAVING A PUPPY MAY not have been a great idea. I got up to go run and went down to the laundry room to let Duke out. He was happy to see me as he bounded out of the crate and made enough of a racket to wake Mom and Dad. I was proud of him, as he hadn’t peed in his crate. He saved it for as soon as he was free and peed in front of the back door. He squatted to do something worse when I scooped him up and put him outside in the snow. Mom was not happy.
She made me come back in and clean up after ‘my’ dog. I thought he was Kyle’s dog. When I was done, I went outside to run and Duke was nowhere to be found. How could a clumsy 12-week-old puppy up and vanish in under three minutes? Fortunately, he wasn’t very stealthy. I heard him yipping at something. He was behind the garage, where the garbage cans were kept. I heard a hiss that sounded like a bobcat. I ran around the corner to witness Duke getting popped in the nose by the biggest cat I think I’ve ever seen.
I expected to see my pup back off, but he was now determined to take the big kitty on. What followed was chaos. The cat decided this pup wasn’t worth playing with and tried to squeeze behind the trash cans. Duke literally seized the moment and latched onto the cat’s tail.
Ever have puppy teeth embedded in your hand? It’s like having little needles dig into your flesh. Duke played tug-o’-war with the cat’s tail and got a reaction! There were soon garbage cans, full of trash, knocked over, as the cat pulled Duke in between the garage and the cans.