Bye Jake

Ryan finished up a few things at work and then made his way to the set. It was nearly lunch time but he had some things to attend to at the admin building. He walked in the door and Sarah looked up at him with a big smile on her face.

"Mr Atwood. What a pleasant surprise. I didn't realise that we were expecting you."

"That's because you weren't Sarah. But I was just wondering if J.B. was in and could spare me a few minutes?"

"I'll just check for you." She picked up the phone. "Um...Mr Atwood is here sir and wondering if you could spare him a few minutes?" She had scarcely put the phone back down when J.B. walked purposefully in to the reception area and shook Ryan's hand.

"Ryan. What can I do for you? Come on through. Sarah can you organise us some coffees….. And maybe some of those poppy seed muffins I like." he looked up at Ryan "What'll you have?"

"The coffee will be just fine. Thanks."

"How do you have it?" J.B. asked.

"I know how you like it." Sarah stated and looked shyly at Ryan and smiled.

J.B. laughed as they walked in to his office. "I don't know how you do that?"

"What?" Ryan asked.

"You must know that you have every girl in this office under your spell. Sarah actually has a reputation of being difficult to deal with but when you've around she's sweet as sugar."

Ryan shook his head. "I have no idea. I just try to be pleasant. I hope I've never given her the wrong idea?"

"No that's just it. I suspect you're about the only one that hasn't. She is a very attractive young lady and I suspect that a number of the people that come through that door, actors included, probably hit on her. You're probably the only one that doesn't. But then from the photo in this morning's paper, I gather that maybe you're no longer on the market?"

Ryan smiled. "So you saw it too?"

"Uh huh. I hope there's no problems. I mean, I know you're not keen on being in the limelight but if there's any credence to this then it will be better publicity for the film than anything that I could have organised and it'll save me a fortune in PR. So I guess I owe you again."

"Well maybe that's good. Because I need a favour." He looked up as Sarah brought in their coffees and a muffin and placed them on the table and left and closed the door behind her.

"Anything I can do, it's yours." J.B. replied.

"Well, I guess I need to tell you a little about what happened this morning first so that you'll understand why I'm asking."

Ryan related to J.B. the incident from the morning.

J.B. sat there listening and when Ryan had finished he said "Ryan, what would you like me to do? If you want the film closed down, then I'll do it. I don't care how much it costs. I owe you that. You've saved me more than that a few times over. Or if Marissa wants out, I can make that happen too."

"Well, when I suggested to Marissa that she quit she was pretty definite that she didn't want to do that. She is keen to finish the project so I was hoping that there might be another way."

"Well, I'm more than happy to get rid of Jake, if that's all you want? This isn't the first time that I have had complaints about him. I think one of the other studios even had to pay somebody off to keep them quiet before. He won't ever work for us again. And if he goes anywhere near Marissa then I can make sure he never works in the industry again."

"Thanks, J.B. I really appreciate your help."

"Don't mention it. I'm glad that I can finally repay you at least a little for all that you have done for us. Although, maybe you're just doing us a favour again?"

Ryan looked at him puzzled.

"Well, getting rid of Jake before he does something that would cause us even more problems. Come on let's go do this. There's no time like the present."

---

A short time later, Ryan and J.B. left the admin building and made their way to the 'Fashion Victim' set.

"So …am I allowed to ask?" J.B. asked.

"Ask what?" Ryan looked at him puzzled.

"Whether you and Marissa are an item?"

"No." Ryan stated.

"No what? Is that no I can't ask or no you're not an item."

"No you can't ask. I'll tell you when you can." Ryan smiled.

"What about if I tell her to take the rest of the day off. Would that help?"

"You don't have to do that." Ryan said.

"It's no big deal. It sounded better than it really is. It's just that once I sack Jake we are going to have to find a new lead and I expect that will take at least a couple of days. Until then, they can probably go ahead and film the scenes without him but I'm sure they'll need at least this afternoon to reorganise their schedules."

"Well in that case, then sure." he smiled at the thought. "I'm certain I could look after her for the afternoon." He thought that maybe this would be an ideal opportunity to have that talk with her that Sandy had suggested.

"I thought so." J.B. smiled and looked at Ryan and then burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Ryan asked.

"You…..you look like a little boy on Christmas morning. I've never seen you like this. Old school friend my foot. That she may be but I'm thinking you'd like her to be a whole lot more than that."

"You'll just have to wait and see." Ryan smiled.

"I'm looking forward to actually meeting her. She must be something really special."

"That she is."

---

As soon as they got to the set they made their way inside. They stood to one side watching the run throughs until the director called for a break for lunch.

J.B. turned to Ryan. "I'll just go and sort a couple of things out. If you wait in Marissa's dressing room, I'll join you shortly. I think it's time I meet this young lady." He smiled and made his way towards Jake. Ryan hesitated just for a moment until he saw the look on Jake's face as J.B. called him back and they made their way to the production offices.

Marissa was off to one side practising her lines. She looked up as Ryan walked towards her. She could feel her heart start to race at the sight of him. She didn't know what to do. She desperately wanted to go to him and feel his arms around her, but she knew they were supposed to be keeping their relationship (whatever it was) quiet. As he got closer, her eyes locked with his. She just stood there, unable to move. Ryan walked up to her. "Hey." He smiled at her.

"Hey yourself." She looked at him shyly as she realised that a number of the other people on the set had stopped what they were doing and were watching them intently. Obviously many of them had seen the photo in the newspaper. "Um I think we're being watched?" she said as he reached down and took her hands in his. He very gently used his thumbs to rub her wrists where she had put makeup on to hide the bruises.

"Does it bother you?" he asked.

"The bruises or being watched?" Marissa replied.

"Both?"

"The bruises, no and as far as being watched…. Well, I thought you wanted to keep it quiet?"

"Yeah. Well have you seen the paper? That plan doesn't seem to have worked very well." He smiled. "So…"

"So what?" she asked still smiling at him, knowing they were the centre of attention.

"Well. What say we give them something to talk about?" he said as he raised his hand to her chin, tilted her head back slightly and leaned in and gently but thoroughly kissed her, using his tongue to tell her just how much he had missed her.

The moment was broken by some claps and cheers from the assorted on lookers and Summer walked up to them and said "Uh. Would you two like to move this into the dressing room?"

"Why? Summ. Is there a problem?" Marissa asked smiling as she still looked at Ryan.

"Only that knowing you two, there could be clothes flying any minute now and I don't think the papers are ready for that just yet." She said.

Ryan laughed. He took Marissa by the hand and they all walked towards her dressing room. "You know we can actually keep our hands off one another in public." Ryan suggested.

"Well I just wanted to make sure. I mean it has been 24 hours. After what I gather happened on the weekend, I didn't know for sure if you could last much longer." She laughed.

Marissa looked at Ryan thinking that she couldn't get to her dressing room fast enough. They walked in the door and closed it behind them.

"I'm happy to leave if you want me to but I can also just be over here quietly reading a magazine and providing a little cover for you if you want. Whatever you'd prefer?"

"They might just think we're having a threesome, Summ." Marissa teased.

"Ew…sorry guys but ew….I'm outta here…you're on your own." She took off and left the room.

Ryan held out his arms "Come here you."

She walked towards him and he wrapped his arms around her. It felt so good. She didn't ever want to move.

"Are you okay?" Ryan asked.

"I am now." She replied. "But I'm supposed to do a scene with Jake after lunch. I'm not looking forward to that."

"Well you needn't worry because that's not going to happen."

"What do you mean?" Marissa asked still with her head on his shoulder.

"Well. I think about now … Jake is being fired."

"What? But he's the star. Did you do this? I told you I'd manage to cope. I mean does this mean that they'll cancel the film all together. All these people are counting on it for their jobs not just me."

"Hey. Hold on. It was J.B.'s idea. Apparently they have had problems with him before. This was just the straw that broke the camel's back and they are going to cast someone new. The film will still be finished. They will just have to redo some of the scenes. But you want to hear the really good part." He added as he saw the frown leaving her face.

"There's more?" she asked in wonder.

"Yep. You get the rest of the day off. So we can go home and spend the afternoon together." He smiled.

"Home?"

"Yeah home….Okay… Look…. I know you have some reservations about moving in with me. And I don't want to put any pressure on you, if you really don't want to. But can we at least get out of here and talk about it?" he suggested.

"Don't you have work?" she asked.

"One of the joys of being the boss is I can do what I like and right know I'd like to spend the afternoon with you." He thought back to his conversation with Sandy. "Plus we have some things to get sorted out between us." He smiled and pulled her closer to him.

Just then there was a knock at the door and in walked J.B.

"Marissa, J.B Connell. I'm happy to finally meet you, but please let me apologise for what we, inadvertently, have put you through by asking you to work with that man. I'm sorry I didn't realise just what he was like. If you want to proceed with charges, please know the studio will support you in any way we can." He said as he shook Marissa's hand.

"I don't think that will be necessary but thank you for understanding."

"Yeah. Well, if Ryan hadn't brought it to my attention, I might not have ever known. Please if anything like this ever happens again, please come to me. My door is always open. Any friend of Ryan's is a friend of mine." He smiled looking at the two of them. "Although looking at the two of you my guess is that 'friend' is not the right word." He chuckled noticing that they were somewhat uncomfortable with his words.

"But I can see you're keen to get out of here. Ryan's obviously told you that you have the afternoon off. You'll get a call to let you know when you are needed back on set. It may take a day or two."

"I'm sorry if I have caused any problems." Marissa started.

"Nonsense. It's just a minor hiccup. Things will be back to normal in no time. And it wasn't your fault anyhow. Now off you go. Maybe you'll allow me to take you both out to dinner in the not too distant future to make it up to you?"

"Thanks J.B. We'd like that." Ryan said as he looked at Marissa for her approval.

"Yes. Thank you." She added.

"Okay. So are you right to go?" Ryan asked Marissa.

"Just give me 5 minutes to get this stuff off my face and I'll be with you."

"Okay. I'll just see J.B. out. I'll be back in a minute." Ryan said as he kissed her and moved towards the door. He wanted to find out how things had gone with Jake.

"Bye Marissa. We'll make that dinner happen soon." J.B. said as he walked outside.

"Okay. I'll look forward to it." She replied and turned back to her mirror to start applying some cleanser.

---

Ryan walked with J.B. When they were far enough away and he was sure that Marissa would not be able to hear them he asked "So how did it go?"

"Well the man's a total ass. He seemed to think that he had some divine right to harass people. But I have made it clear that if he ever comes near her again then he will be looking for a new profession not just a new role."

"Okay and thanks again." Ryan said.

Just then they heard a scream come from the direction of Marissa's dressing room.