El was waiting for him in her pajama's the next morning before sunrise. He showed up with a London Fog style raincoat.
"You are over-dressed," she smirked at him.
"Am I really?" He took off his raincoat. He was wearing his pajamas also.
Her eyes went wide. "How did you know I was going to be wearing my pajamas?"
"You were going to tell me to I had to wear them too, but this time you would let me change in the trailer while you waited outside."
Her jaw dropped. That's exactly what I was going to do! She thought.
"Will you be teaching me the Jedi mind tricks too?" She was still smirking.
"When you know you're opponent well enough it will seem like you can. Thanks for appealing to my nerdy Star Wars nature"
"I hate to think I was that transparent. You had nerd written all over you."
"Not to anybody else, you aren't my first starlet I've trained. And I guess you know a nerd when you see. one."
"I want to apologize again for my insult yesterday."
"Unnecessary. But thanks, I'll take it. Sometime today you'll regret you apologized.
El couldn't think of anything he could say that would make her regret it. She had struck a nerve with him. She'd feel like crap for a long time thinking about it.
Mike turned on his equipment so their conversation couldn't be listened to.
"I should have let you put on something more substantial for a top yesterday." Their hands flowed together in an hand ballet that was mezmerizing to her, she tried not to concentrate too much on it.
"Oh? Why."
"I'm afraid that your nipples are the star of a few web pages." He said keeping the flow.
"Ha! You almost got me." She'd been expecting some kind of distraction, but she recovered quickly.
"I'm not kidding, I can send you the links"
She faltered but was able to parry his index finger in the last second. "I told you before it goes with the territory."
"So I take it the bathing suit photo goes with the territory also?" The flow was smooth.
"What bathing suit photo?" Her mind was racing, when was the last time she was at a pool or the beach?
"The one that clearly shows the outline of your pussy."
She dropped her hands shocked. Her eyes wide and her mouth open.
He touched her forehead.
"Ok, this time you can go fuck yourself. Buh bye, asshole."
"Sorry." He said looking down.
She stomped off to go complain to her producers and director to dump this idiot. He did not get to talk to her like that.
She didn't even bother to look behind her to see if he was packing up his shit so he could get the fuck out of her life. Fucking asshole. She thought.
XXXXX
Her producers told her otherwise.
"Well at least have our lawyers send him a cease and desist order for that shit. It's inappropriate."
"Are you going send a lawyers letter to the guy who's call you a bitch, or worse before he attacks you?"
"Mike told you to say that? Didn't he?"
"Mike? Yes, Mr. Wheeler did. If you ever came down here to get him shitcanned. This is the second day of training, he got to you that easily? We have some tough shooting scenes, scenes that you wrote, if you are going to give up that easily..."
"Fine. Don't bother with catering for me today, I'm going to be eating crow for the rest of the day."
On a hunch she walked back to the hill behind her trailer. Mike was sitting there, cross legged. Staring off to where the sun would be if it weren't for the storm clouds rolling in.
She stood behind him. "Is there really a photo of me out there… showing that?"
"Probably."
She was getting pissed off again, "What do you mean probably? "
"Miss Ives, you are a fast tracking, up and coming big celebrity. You are being followed everywhere. These guys use $3000 telephoto lenses. I wouldn't put it past them. They'd probably airbrush in what they wanted. Then wait for you to sue and retract it months later."
They immediately went back into their flow of hands.
"If they airbrush it, I hope they give me a tight one."
"At tight one?" Mike was concentrating on speeding up their movements.
"Pussy. A tight pussy. Guys love a tight pussy when they are fucking it."
This time it was Mike that faltered and El was almost able to touch him. He looked horribly embarrassed, but he was still able to counter her moves.
"I'm really sorry about that Miss Ives. I only meant it to distract you."
"I get it Mike, obviously I'm too easily offended by this stuff. I need a tougher skin. Please call me Jane."
"I'm finding it hard to keep track of what to call you."
"We're the same age Mike, call me Jane… I may call you asshole, apparently. But it's not personal… ok it is. But I'm sorry in advance. You were able to get under my skin too easily."
"You don't look like a Jane to me." Mike said matter-of-factly.
"Oh? What name do I like?" El kept the flow going.
"I haven't really thought about it. Just that Jane doesn't feel right. To me you are more of an Eleanor or Ellen, but obviously El for short."
El stopped her flow of hands at the exact same time as a bright flash of lightning and Mike touched her forehead.
"Ok, you might think that shouldn't have counted but it does. External or environmental influences can affect your situation. We train an hour harder now."
There's no way he could have known my name. I pay a lot of money to keep that secret.
"A little rain won't bother us."
"I don't like storms."
"You're safe." Mike said as a loud crack that made him cringe. He looked at Jane to see if she was alright, and saw the tears streaming down her face.
"Ok, you really don't like storms. I didn't know. I'm sorry." He put his raincoat over her, and gathered up his things. This raincoat is stormproof, I'll walk you to your trailer to make sure you get in ok.
The storm rolled in fast, the thunder and lightning becoming more and more frequent.
They were able to get to her trailer before the rain started. A very loud crack that rattled the entire trailer.
Mike could see that Jane was almost catatonic. "Are you going to be ok?"
"No." she said in a small voice, "will you stay with me?"
Mike didn't think it was a good idea, but then the power went out. With the exception of the rain and wind, all he could hear was her soft crying.
Using cushions from the bench chairs at the table, and blankets from her bed, he made a quick blanket fort and guided her inside. He put another blanket around the two of them and sat very close to her. She scooted up close to him and put her head on his shoulder.
Mike didn't know what was going on but this girl was genuinely scared. He put his arm around her. Not part of his contract but Mike shrugged mentally, if he could help calm her down he would.
"My name is Eleven."
"So it is El for short."
"Yes. You can call me El."
"Um, you say that now, but you may change your mind again on our next day of training."
"No Mike. Please call me El."
"Uh, Ok El. um, geez I hate to say this but I'm not going to go any easier on you for the next time we train. And you still owe me for an hour of training."
"I would expect you to keep your promise to me. A contract is a legal promise, but to me it's still a promise. And you promised to train me."
"When you put it that way, yes I did promise to train you." Mike said gently.
"And you always keep your promises?" She asked.
"I always keep my promises."