Chapter Fourteen

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“No, no, no! This isn’t going to work! Why does he get so much more time on camera?” Everyone on set had dropped whatever it was they were working on to watch the scene that unfolded on the beach.  I hadn’t quite heard how the argument started, but it must’ve had something to do with Megan not getting what she wanted.  The director pointed at his clipboard and said something softly. “I don’t care! Why do you get to decide? Check my contract, you little-”
    Tom stepped between Megan and the director and said something I couldn’t pick up. She tried to push past him and jabbed her finger at the director, shouting expletives.  This had gotten out of hand really quickly.  Two bigger crew members rushed to Tom’s aide as he tried to hold back the furious woman waving her arms around.  Just before they got there, however, Megan turned her aggressions towards Tom. I heard the slap before I saw it.
    I dropped the cables I was wrapping and ran down the beach. The two men were dragging Megan away and the director was talking to Tom, his hand on his shoulder.
    “-get someone down here right away,” I heard the director telling him as I reached the pair. They both turned at my arrival.  “Oh, good. Did you bring any ice?”
    My eyes were assessing Tom’s pink cheek and the question didn’t register right away. I was breathing hard. “I… what? No. I just…” I glanced at the director and then back to Tom, slowly realizing how this must have looked to everyone else. “Are you okay?”
    He took a step closer to me, completely cutting off the director who seemed to realize his presence was both unnoticed and unwanted.
    “I guess I’ll go grab some ice then,” he muttered as he trudged back up the sand.
Tom’s eyes never left mine as I brought a hand up to his cheek.  The whole left side of his face was a deep pink color, as if he had been standing outside for too long on a Wisconsin winter day and got wind burn.
“Ah!” He made a face as my thumb traced over a bump that had already started to form under his eye.
“Sorry.” I dropped my hand to his shoulder and sighed. “She got you pretty good.”
He moved his jaw around, wincing at the pain. “Yeah, well, better me than the director.”
“Somehow I don’t think he’d say the same. It’ll take a lot of makeup to cover that bump. Come on,” I put a hand on his back and guided him back toward all the equipment, rubbing my hand up and down as we walked, “Let’s go find you some ice.”

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