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“This is becoming the industry standard,” Zoya said.
“So it’srequired?”
Interesting. Cole had never seen Tasha be this difficult about anything other than her willingness to do her own stunts. The woman was fearless.
So Zoya thought they needed some extra help during the love scenes. What was the problem?
Maggie was watching Tasha and Zoya’s exchange without any emotion. They might as well have been discussing something that didn’t affect her at all. Her eyes—they were light green—shifted to Cole, and she caught him watching her. She tipped her head to the side, and while she didn’t smile, the lines around her mouth grew deeper.
Cole’s answering grin was reflexive, and it made him feel like a doofus, but he couldn’t have smothered it if he’d tried. Maggie was really pretty, and she’d absolutely caught him checking her out.
Beyond the hint of amusement, though, Cole couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She was better than he was at keeping her expression neutral.
Cole’s cheeks were heating now, apparently unaware that he was too old—way too old—to get a crush on a coworker.
She wet her lips, and he—
“Don’t you think, Maggie?”
Maggie startled and turned back to Zoya. “Yes.” She said it firmly. It wasn’t a question; it was an answer. A confident answer. Maybe she was better at multitasking than he was and she actually knew what she was committing to, because he didn’t have a clue.
Her conviction was pretty hot.
“So let’s just sit down and talk through the process,” Zoya said to Tasha. “Then you, Cole, and Maggie can figure out how to move forward from there.”
Tasha harrumphed, but, like, in a chic way, and they all took seats around the conference table.
Maggie folded her hands on top of a stack of scripts. Little colored paper flags stuck out of them, and he’d guess she had an entire system. Blue probably meant one thing and red another and green somethingelse. He wanted to ask about it, just as a matter of professional curiosity, but next to him, Tasha was a gray cloud, threatening a thunderstorm.
Right, he had to smooth things over with his best friend, who seemed spooked for some reason, and then he could have a completely Drew-approved conversation with the intimacy coordinator.
“Whatever happened to ‘You’re doing them a favor’?” he muttered to Tasha.
“You’re looking at it.”
“You okay?”
“Fucking peachy.”
If the peach had grown prickles and a bad attitude, sure.
But across the table, Maggie was proceeding as if everyone in the room was totally on board. “Before we get into the details of how you’d like to work, I wanted to hear about what drew you to this project.”
She looked at Tasha expectantly. Tasha just glared.
“I’ll go first.” For a beat, Cole imagined sayingIt seemed really cool, and it’s super popular but also bookish, and I think that would be good for me. He liked to be honest, but that was obviously too honest. “Zoya’s approach sold me,” he said instead. “The show’s fresh and different, and I wanted to be involved inWaverleyin one way or another as soon as I saw it.”
“What do you find compelling about Geordie?” Maggie asked.
“At the start of the season, he’s selfish. He lets his friend take the fall for their smuggling operation. He breaks Madge’s heart, and he gets Effie pregnant and doesn’t marry her at a time when that’s, like, really bad. But he’s going to grow—to accept responsibility for his actions, to become a husband and father, and to take his place running the family estate. It’s his growth that made me want to play him.”
“That’s great, Cole,” Maggie said. “I agree that Geordie and Effie are fascinating, and we can use the love scenes to show their arcs. How they go from being two volatile people who share intense chemistry to being two people who’ve matured and are making a commitment to each other. At the end of the season, I believe they’re in love and aregoing to parent their baby and build a life together. I mean, I know it’s sexy and thrilling, but it’s also really moving.”
That was everything Cole wanted for his character ... and probably also for himself. Maybe not the love part, but definitely the growth and redemption.
Next to him, Tasha’s posture had softened. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she was at least following the conversation now.
Maggie must have picked up on the shift, too, because she said, “I was thinking we could begin by talking through the nudity and the love scenes. Zoya can walk us through the rough blocking and costume stuff, and you can red-flag anything that you have concerns about. Obviously we’ll go through these in greater detail later, and you can always come to me if any worries pop up, but we wanted to take a five-thousand-foot view to start. I have them marked.”
