Worth the Wait by Karelia Stetz-Waters

Author:Karelia Stetz-Waters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

It was five days before Avery got to film another scene with Merritt. She didn’t know how she had stood the wait. Now Avery hoped she could get Merritt alone before they started filming, but Merritt was sitting on a retaining wall chatting with Meg, the boom mic operator and one of the few women on the crew. Avery felt a tug of jealousy. Merritt leaned in, her dark hair falling over her eyes, her posture loose and confident, as though she had spent her life on television sets. Her crisp white blouse opened to reveal a hint of her coral bra. Avery loved the contrast between Merritt’s masculine style and that edge of lace. She did not like the way Merritt looked at Meg with a smile that seemed to say, Smother me in your aftermarket boom mic windscreen. She didn’t like the fact that Meg, with her kangaroo vest and crew-cut hair, could ask Merritt out on a date, take her downtown, hold her hand without once looking over her shoulder to see if Dan Ponza was watching.

“All right,” Greg called out to the assembled crew. “You’ve all read your call sheets.”

Avery hadn’t looked at her call sheet.

“We want Avery, Merritt, Mike, Tom, Setter, Chris, Tami, and Colton in van one. You’re going to the Peculiarium. Don’t ask. Avery, remember the line is ‘keep Portland weird.’ You’re decorating a city that ties plastic horses to the tethering rings left in the sidewalks from 1890 and gives walking tours of the ‘installation.’” He held up his fingers in double quotes. “Now, Alistair, Beth, Sean…” He continued his instructions.

Avery caught up with Merritt as Merritt hurried to the van.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“I have ball bearings in my hair.”

“I liked your friends,” Avery said.

One of the cameramen jostled by them. “Coming?” he asked.

Alistair called, “Be good,” from the open door of his van.

Merritt climbed nimbly into her van.

Sean, the assistant photography director, had been learning to play guitar. His acoustic followed them everywhere. He plucked a few chords as they set off, and everyone groaned.

“Play ‘Free Bird,’” Merritt said, leaning over the back of her seat and grinning. “I love ‘Free Bird.’”

It was like she had been with the crew forever.

“No one loves ‘Free Bird,’” Setter protested.

Sean struck the first chords. The crew let out a collective “nooo.”

“Sean, I think your friends really support you,” Merritt said. “They want to hear you practice.”

Sean sang, “Biiiird,” a few notes too high.

“Freeee,” Merritt chimed in, actually hitting the note.

The crew laughed, and Setter and Chris joined in. Then the whole van was singing.

It was like watching Merritt at the reunion, all the linen-suited women fluttering around her. The men had crushes on her already. And so did Avery. A hopeless, teenage crush. The kind that saw no reason. The kind she should have had at eighteen when, instead, she’d sensibly agreed that no one married their high school sweetheart and it wasn’t worth ruining her chances on King & Crown for a girl.

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