Chapter 5: Not Working Part 2

Outside, Rome took some deep breaths, wishing he could be breathing in the clean, salty ocean air near his home instead of the warm, polluted air of the city. He walked along the back of the building for a bit, lost in his thoughts. Before he knew where he’d gone, he heard the noise of a battle leaking out of a door to the large sound stage he’d come to a stop in front of. The door was slightly ajar, so he looked in without going too close. This had to be where Henry was filming the superhero film he actually planned to make money off of.

Inside, he could see two well-known actors attached to harnesses, laughing between takes as they tried to get their battle scene correct. They were wearing familiar costumes, one in red and blue, the other in a dark green that denoted he was the bad guy. Rome shook his head and stepped away. He would’ve given anything to be in that movie instead of the ridiculous one he was stuck filming now. Slowly, he started to drift back toward his own sound stage.

Behind him, he heard footsteps and turned to see Henry and one of his many assistants coming out of the building. Henry was barking orders at the man in French. Rome had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded as if the fellow had either screwed something up, or Henry just assumed he would screw up whatever he was supposed to do next if he didn’t get handled very harshly to begin with.

Since he had absolutely nothing constructive to say to Henry Caron, Rome turned back around and continued walking, hoping not to be noticed. His dream shattered when Henry shouted his name. “Verona!”

With a deep breath and the slip of a swear word between his lips, Rome turned, not smiling, but also trying not to throw daggers at the bastard with his eyes. “Caron,” he said as Henry closed the distance between them. If he expected a handshake, he could go to hell.

Henry stopped a few feet away from him, his hands deep in the pockets of his expensive dress pants. “Why are you out here? Aren’t you filming today?”

“Bob is having issues,” Rome explained. “You’d know that if you gave a damn about that crappy movie.”

Henry snickered, clearly glad that he had gotten under Rome’s skin. Rome needed to try harder to hide his anger. “I check in, but Jeannie seems to have things under control most of the time.”

Deciding no response was better than the only response that sprang to mind, which was riddled with curse words, Rome only nodded, wishing Henry would go ahead and slither away now, maybe find a rock to die under.

“I’m seeing a friend of yours tomorrow night.” He made his announcement with a devilish grin. Rome felt his stomach roll over. A friend? Is that what she was now?

Of course, Henry had no idea he was actually seeing Rome’s wife the next night, and he wasn’t about to tell him, either. She’d gone to such great lengths to keep this man from recognizing her, even changing her voice when she spoke to him. Rome had to play ignorant. “Who’s that?” he asked, hoping he could resist the urge to punch him in the face once he answered.

“Juliet Montague. You know her, yes?”

Rome nodded. “I do. I helped her get her business going, but we hardly stay in touch.” All lies, obviously, though Rome had disassociated himself from Montage as soon as Ella had it running independently, which hadn’t taken long at all. If she were to have a chance to carry out her plan to get back at Henry completely, Rome couldn’t be a part of it, not on paper anyway. “How is she? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“She’s great,” Henry said. “Beautiful as ever. Busy as hell. But she makes time for me.”

It was easy for Rome to smile at that since he knew that was an even bigger lie than the few Rome had told. “Great to hear. She’s a good person, I think. I certainly appreciate the fact that Ella was her inspiration to get into graphic design. That’s why I agreed to help her.”

“Yes, Ella was quite an inspiration to everyone who knew her well. Like we did.” Henry held Rome’s eyes for a moment before dropping his to the ground and shaking his head, the memory of Ella seeming to overwhelm him. It was an act. Rome knew that. And the fact that he’d just alluded to the idea that he knew Ella as well as Rome did was comical. He knew her well enough to not recognize her when he asked her on a date. Yeah, they were practically best friends…. “Anyway, I’ll tell Juliet you said hi if you’d like. I’m taking her out to Chavet.”

“Great. Yeah, that’d be nice, thanks.” Rome didn’t know what else to say at the moment. It was obvious Henry was trying to make it seem as if he and Juliet were dating when Rome knew that wasn’t the case, not yet anyway. What he would do when it was true, he wasn’t sure. He just had to keep reminding himself of the reasons why Ella was doing this. “See you later, boss.” Rome had taken to condescendingly calling Henry “boss” whenever he got a chance, sort of as a reminder that he had no choice but to work for the man.

“You know, Verona, there’ll be a sequel to this movie,” he said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder and gesturing at the sound stage where the superhero film was being shot. “If you do a good job with the one I’ve given you, perhaps we can find you a minor role in the next one.”

“Wow--I’ll… be waiting with bated breath.” He spun around, trying not to roll his eyes where Henry could see and ignored the chuckle that slipped from between the Frenchman’s teeth. Rome hurried back to his own sound stage, praying they were ready to start filming again. When he stepped inside to see Bob was still having issues, he wasn’t surprised at all. It had to be five o’clock somewhere, so he grabbed a drink from his designated area and gulped down too much too quickly, leaving him gassy, uncomfortable, and ready to rid the world of Henry Caron once and for all.

Frenchie was fortunate that Rome wasn’t the sort of person who acted so rashly or else he would find a way to solve this dilemma a lot more quickly than Ella had. A lot more quickly.