‘Those areverybright trousers,’ says Art. ‘Are they blueandpink?’
‘They’re blue with a fine fuchsia check,’ I say.
Art shakes his head. ‘It’s all very … vivid.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment coming from you,’ I say. ‘Are you actually allergic to colour?’
‘I don’t need colour to draw attention to myself,’ says Art loftily.
‘Is that why you dress like a 1930s art student who ran off to fight in the Spanish Civil War?’
‘Is that meant to be an insult?’ says Art.
‘More an expression of deep concern,’ I say.
We’re back to normal! Insulting each other’s clothes! It’s like the whole … incident on Friday never happened.
Brilliant. Great.
I sit down at my desk and turn on my laptop.
‘Is your script present and correct?’ says Art.
I try to hide my relief when I see that it is. I’d backed it up anyway, but it’s good to know no one tried to mess with it. ‘Yup. How about you?’
‘Mine’s fine,’ he says. ‘I knew it would be.’
Of course he did. I put on my headphones and set to work. I do my best to ignore the nervous energy still coursing around my system, and I almost succeed.
Shortly before one there’s a knock on our office door and Simon comes in.
‘We’re going to the canteen,’ he says. ‘Want to join us?’
‘Sounds good,’ says Art. ‘I could do with a break.’ He closes his laptop and stands up.
I need a break too. But suddenly the thought of hanging out with Simon and Nora and making polite conversation while worrying if they secretly hate me, or if I’m doing something weird to make them hate me, is simply too much for me.
‘I think I’ll keep working,’ I say. ‘I’m kind of in the zone right now. I’ll get some food later.’
‘No worries,’ says Simon. ‘Oh, by the way, did you hear about Adam Pender?’
‘The guy who plays Ritchie?’ says Art.
‘Yeah,’ says Simon. ‘He fell off the fire escape of the hospital set yesterday. Don’t worry, he’s basically fine.’
‘What?’ My stomach churns.
‘Jesus, what happened?’ says Art.
‘He found out about the kidnapping scene,’ says Simon. ‘God knows how.’
‘What do you mean?’ I swallow. ‘Did … would Bernard not have told him about it?’
‘Tell Adam?’ Simon grimaces. ‘No way! God love him, he’s such a liability we never give him any story details before he gets the actual scripts. Especially when it comes to action scenes. Everyone knows he might lose the run of himself again.’
‘And did he?’ says Art.
‘Yup,’ Simon says. ‘He found out Ritchie jumps off the fire escape when Louisa attacks him, so he decided to see if he could do it.’ He shrugs. ‘Turns out he couldn’t.’