Genre: Romance
Location: Mountain summit
Object: Nail clippers
Synopsis:
Hollywood's always looking for the next big thing, but Megan's just looking for the next big job. Little does she know, this film may deliver the biggest surprise of her life.
THE NEXT BIG WHATEVER
Behind her, the film crew prepped the final scene for tonight, something involving an explosion and a staged avalanche. What a fiasco. A film called the "next big romance flick", Titanic meets Mission: Impossible. In Hollywood, everything was the next big thing.
Megan needed to stop moping and just get over there. What if their big star needed another touch-up for his big scene? Apparently, the make-up artist was the star's favored tool.
She shook her head, took off the engagement ring, and held it in her hand. Her finger felt naked. She hadn't expected that.
She looked over the edge of the slope, past the hills of snow and rock to the bottom, where the rest of the film crew stayed in their trailers.
Tonight. She had to tell Hugh tonight.
They should never have seen each other again, not after the first film. But she'd accepted a job on another film and lo and behold, it turned out he was their stuntman. They'd continued their liaison, happy to have a familiar bedfellow. Then they had ended up on the next picture, together again, and for some reason, he'd decided after a year of working together he didn't want it to end.
Why now? Why, of all times, did he ask when she had just been offered the biggest job of her career as makeup artist on what studios were calling the next Lord of the Rings?
She gritted her teeth. So dumb. Why hadn't she just said--
The crew set off an explosion, rocking the mountain. She threw up her hands as she fell. She had to stop or slide off the edge of the slope to a thousand foot drop. Desperate, she grabbed at the snow, dug her hands in deep, and slowed herself.
Safe. If she had fallen over--
The ring glittered as it flew over the edge to the next level of the summit. It landed in the snow and disappeared.
"Oh, shit," she said. She started down the slope, careful not to lose her hold and fall again.
Once at the bottom, she dropped to her knees and clawed at the snow. The cold bit into her skin, but she didn't care. She felt her tears turn to ice as her hands came up empty. Nothing. She held up her hand, naked, and if there had been any hope of breaking the engagement but continuing to see him, it was gone now. Not if she couldn't find the ring.
On the way back to the film set, she stopped at the star's trailer. Bad enough "the next Tom Cruise" insisted on them hauling the trailer up the mountain every day of shooting. The least they could do, he had said. Well, he'd been pissed when they said fine, then doubled it as the makeup artist's and prop-master's office.
She had one hope. She pushed aside a slew of useless props and jumbled makeup tools: lipstick, a ski mask, nail clippers. Tomorrow morning's scene called for their star to propose to the film's love interest, and they'd spared no expense, leased a Harry Winston diamond ring, and YES, there it was. The lock box, and inside, the ring. She used the nail clippers to jimmy the lock, slipped the ring onto her finger, then left to join the shoot.
Hugh greeted her with a hug and a kiss. He wore torn jeans and nothing else, about to double for the hero as he jumped clear of an explosion. Megan gulped, shaking as much in worry as at the sight of his muscled, half-naked body.
Hugh's eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Where you been?"
She shrugged and gave a weak smile. "Just... thinking."
"Let me see that finger," he said.
Her stomach churned, but she held up her hand.
He didn't even look at it, just kept his eyes locked on hers. "Looks beautiful," he said. He frowned, noticing something in her expression. "When you said you were thinking... You didn't mean--"
She shook her head. She could have told him then, but she didn't want to. Maybe didn't want to tell him at all.
"Listen," he said. "I know it was sudden. But..." He closed his eyes. "I was jealous."
She cocked her head. "Jealous?"
He nodded. "You're moving on to the big job. I'll still be in the slums of the next big 'whatever.'" He pulled her to him. "I mean... Haven't you ever done something crazy because you loved someone?"
She looked at the ring, then back at him. "Never," she murmured.
He caught her glance at the ring. "I know it's not expensive," he said. "But you make it beautiful." He lifted her hand to kiss the ring, but stopped. "Something looks... different--"
She grabbed his face and kissed him. "I love you," she said.
He smirked. "You do?"
"Yeah. You're my next big 'whatever.'"
He laughed. "Gotta go," he said, and left to finish the scene.
They finished in three takes and called the day a wrap.
That night, in bed, Megan whispered, "Maybe you could come with me."
"What do you mean?"
"They're going to pay me a boatload of money. We could make do."
"What about afterwards?"
She smirked. "We'll figure it out. I know it sounds crazy, but..."
"Then I guess we're both crazy," he said. He laughed and kissed her.
Once he was asleep, she lay next to him, listening to his gentle snore, remembering that same question.
Haven't you ever done something crazy because you loved someone?
She slipped out of bed and back into her clothes. She had six hours before sunlight. Six hours before they needed the ring on her finger. She looked at the expensive diamond and shrugged. It didn't mean anything.
She just wanted the ring Hugh had given her. She grabbed a flashlight and started up the mountain.
In the end, she just wanted him.
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