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‘Ruby Bell.’
‘Ruby.’ A pause. ‘Good afternoon.’
There was no point pretending she didn’t recognise that voice. Her disloyal body practically shivered in recognition.
‘How can I help, Mr Cooper?’ she asked with determined brightness, her eyes not wavering from her laptop screen, although the email’s words and sentences had somehow become an indecipherable alphabet jumble.
Even so, she tapped randomly on her keyboard. For her benefit, mostly, a reminder that she was a busy film professional who received phone calls from famous actors All The Time. She was working. This was her job.
No need for her mouth to go dry or for her cheeks to warm.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I have a problem.’
‘Yes?’ she prompted, with some trepidation.
He’d been scrupulously polite this morning. Allowed her to take him from appointment to appointment. He’d chatted inanely about the weather, and charmed every person she introduced him to.
But...
Occasionally he’d slant a glance in her direction that meant...she had absolutely no idea.
It wasn’t about last night any more. She was sure. No question he’d long lost interest in perfectly average Ruby Bell by now.
Definitely.
‘I can’t figure out how to use the wireless Internet in my cottage.’
Oh. Her skin went hotter. Of course his phone call had nothing to do with her. Of course it didn’t.
Hadn’t she told him—what, three hours ago?—to call her any time?
Ruby took a deep breath. She really needed to pull herself together.
‘I’m sorry to hear that, Mr Cooper,’ she replied. ‘I’ll get that sorted for you straight away.’
‘Appreciate it,’ he said, and then the phone went silent.
Carefully, she placed her phone back onto her desk, darting her gaze about the room. She half expected everyone to be staring at her, to know exactly how flustered she was, despite all her efforts to not be. To somehow know that Dev had all but propositioned her outside the salubrious Lucyville Motel, even though she’d told her intrigued friends she hadn’t seen Dev after she’d left the pub last night.
To know that chaperoning Dev around set this morning was stupidly difficult, despite her constant mental reminders that it was so not a big deal, and that she was a professional and they were both adults who could work together professionally despite the running-into-him thing, or the not-recognising-him thing, or saying-no-to-the-most-eligible-bachelor-in-the-world thing.
But no. Rohan worked quietly at his desk. Cath stood in front of the large whiteboard calendar, studying it with fierce concentration and a marker in her hand. Selena wasn’t even in the room—she was out, busily signing in extras.
Ruby bit back a sigh. She was being ridiculous.
So she tilted her head left to right, rolled her shoulders a few times, wriggled her toes—and told herself she was cool, and calm and collected. She was!
And then she got back to work.
Less than an hour later, Dev stepped out onto the deck at the back of his cottage, sliding shut the glass door firmly behind him. Inside, one of the more junior members of the production office was busily fixing his ‘broken’ Internet.
He pressed his phone to his ear.
‘Ruby Bell,’ she said when she answered, sounding as brisk and polite as she had earlier.
‘Ms Bell,’ he said, ever so politely, ‘thank you. I now have Internet.’
Well, he would once the guy inside realised the router had been unplugged.
‘Oh, good,’ she said. There was a beat or two of silence, and then she added, ‘Can I help you with anything else?’
Dev’s lips curled upwards.
‘Yes, actually. I need a new hire car.’
‘Is something wrong with your current car?’ she asked.
No. Assuming you disregarded the fact that he had Graeme-the-warden driving him everywhere. Dev’s suggestion he drive himself to set from now on was not warmly received. If Dev had access to the keys he never would’ve asked at all.
That would’ve made Veronica happy. About as happy as she’d been in her email this morning, and her many missed calls on his phone.
Turned out Graeme had passed on his trip to the pub.
Security—my arse.
‘My current car is too...’ he paused, as if in deep contemplation ‘...feminine.’
‘Pardon me?’
‘Too feminine,’ he repeated.
The line remained silent. Was Ruby smiling? Frowning?
‘I see,’ she said, after a while. ‘I’m sorry you find your black four-wheel drive so unsuitable. Can you explain to me what it is that you dislike about the car?’
There was nothing overtly discourteous in her tone—quite the opposite, in fact. Yet Dev heard the subtlest of subtle bites. He liked it.
‘It’s the upholstery,’ he said. ‘It has pink thread in it.’
‘Ah,’ she said, as if this were actually a valid complaint. ‘Fair enough. Don’t worry, I’ll have a new car to you by tonight.’
‘At the latest,’ he said, just like one of the many delusionally self-important actors he knew who made these types of requests.
‘Not a problem, Mr Cooper.’
‘Appreciated, Ms Bell.’
Then he hung up with a smile on his face.
Ruby sat alone in her office, the Top 40 show on the radio her only company. It was late—really late, and she’d sent everyone else home fifteen minutes earlier.
But she had to get everything done—well, an hour ago, really—but Dev had really screwed up her day.
Losing Rohan for an hour to fix Dev’s wireless had meant she’d had to run the call sheet alone; and unfortunately the runner she’d assigned to sort out the new hire car was young, and new, and seemed to ask Ruby a question every five minutes. Then, of course, there’d been Dev’s email, asking for directions to every amenity in Lucyville. After she’d gritted her teeth and carefully replied to it—and therefore losing another thirty minutes—he’d blithely replied with one word: Thanks.
Thanks!
She’d silently screamed.
She’d had no idea Dev was like this—normally talent of the high-maintenance variety came with clear advance warning via the industry grapevine. Put two people who worked in film together, and guaranteed that stuff like ‘Dev-Cooper-thought-his-car-was-too-girly’ got talked about.
But—until the last twenty-four hours—she’d never heard a negative word about Devlin Cooper.
Oohing and ahhing about how he was just as gorgeous in real life—which she now knew to be true—yes, she’d heard that. But unreasonable, prima-donna carryings-on? Not a whisper.
Her phone rang, vibrating against the pile of sides—the scenes being filmed the next day—it rested upon.
Of course it was Dev, and reluctantly Ruby swiped her finger across the screen to answer the call.
‘Mr Cooper,’ Ruby said, setting the phone to loudspeaker so she could continue to work on the latest updates to a transport schedule. She was not going to let Dev distract her. ‘How can I help you?’
‘I was wondering,’ he said, not sounding at all apologetic for calling so late, ‘if you could recommend anywhere good to eat in Sydney.’
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