Philautia || Amour Éternel Series BOOK ONE ||

Ten - CALLIE

January 2015

MONDAY

Callie shivered as she walked into the large sound stage at Pinewood. The cold winter air lingered around her as her personal assistant took her coat. The cavernous space wasn't much warmer as the space heaters struggled to keep up with the arctic chill. The set was a flurry of activity as the crew dashed around to get things set up for the day's shots.

"Here's your hot chocolate," a voice said, holding a warm paper cup in front of her.

Olivia, her personal assistant for the film, seemed to carry a countless number of things which she produced as if by magic out of nowhere. She was older than Callie by three years and had dreams of becoming a director some day. Callie wasn't used to having her own assistant, as still felt strange about giving someone orders.

"Oh - thanks," she said, taking the cup and sipping carefully.

"You still feel weird, don't you?" Olivia asked, draping Callie's coat across the back of her chair.

Callie nodded. "I'm not used to it. On Sanctum we have a smaller budget. Three of us share one assistant," she chuckled nervously.

"Well now you've got your own," Olivia smiled. "Here are your script pages for the day," she said, slipping back into business mode. She handed Callie a stack of pages.

"We're not shooting these scenes today, though," Callie said in confusion.

"The call sheet says we're shooting a scene with the baby today, but I haven't seen them on set yet, so I don't know if that's still the case. I brought the other pages just in case," Olivia explained.

"This is why you're a brilliant woman," Callie said with a smile. She flipped through the pages. "Wouldn't Sam have told everyone if the shoot schedule had changed though?"

Before the assistant could reply, one of the Assistant Directors called the room to silence. "Listen up everyone!" he called, clapping his hands together. "Change in schedule. The twins are too sick to shoot today so we're picking up with scene ten."

Callie looked over at Olivia in amazement. "Its like you've got magical powers."

The assistant shrugged, pleased that she had been correct. "You study your lines. I'm going to check with Costumes to see if you need to change."

Callie looked down at her pages as the assistant walked off. She was halfway through memorizing a monologue when a familiar male voice met her ears.

"Morning," Tom said cheerfully. He was holding his own coffee cup and a blueberry muffin he'd gotten from the Kraft Services table nearby. "How are you?" he asked.

Callie shrugged. "I'm good I guess. A little frustrated that I need to learn all new lines," she said.

He smiled. "It'll be fine. They'll feed them to you if you need it," he assured her. "It happens more often than you think." He sat down next to her. "Did you go out with Emily and the crew last night?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I went back to my room and slept. I didn't have the stamina after yesterday."

The head of the Makeup department had invited everyone in the cast and crew out to a club downtown to celebrate her birthday. Callie had gone back to her hotel room and taken a long hot shower before collapsing on her bed. In addition to spending half of the day doing research and talking with a mother who had lost her son, Tom had invited her out for a run that evening and it was more than she bargained for.