Free Reap What You Sew by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

accommodate the hot chocolate she’d be drinking alone. “I guess I’ll take that as a no,” she mumbled to no one in particular.

Chapter 6
     

     
    It was doubtful she’d ever be able to look at the act of walking in quite the same way ever again.
    Walk this way.
    Stop.
    Do it again.
    No, no, no.
    Too fast.
    Too slow.
    Again and again, the crew moved the extras around the southern end of the Green like chess pieces on a game board, directing everything from their facial expressions to the pace of their walk, to the aura they exuded. And when they finally got that stuff down, there was more to absorb.
    Come from around the gazebo.
    Lean over the fence.
    Touch the tree.
    Look happy.
    No, that’s too happy.
    Being a part of the process, Tori couldn’t help but wonder how movies ever got made. Especially when common everyday people were part of the mix.
    “Okay, guys, you’re doing good. Real good.” Margot held up her hands and gestured the scene’s extras into a huddle. “The guys have what they need, which means we’ll be doing the actual shoot soon. Let’s break for lunch in the tent and be back here in thirty. Sound good?”
    A heavyset man shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Mind if I eat the lunch my wife made me? Fruit and cheese doesn’t really go all too far with me.”
    “Fine. Fine. But keep it in the tent, will you? The last thing I—or any of my coworkers—need is a dressing-down for unapproved food being too close to…” Margot’s voice trailed off, her words drowned out by the sound of Tori’s cell phone.
    She felt her face warm. “Oh, wow, I’m sorry. I thought I had it on vibrate.” Pulling the phone from her back pocket, Tori glanced at the caller ID screen.
    Margaret Louise.
    “If we’re breaking for lunch, is it okay if I take this call?” she asked.
    For a split second she thought Margot was going to protest, some song and dance about the need for total focus all but visible on the tip of the girl’s tongue, but, in the end, all Tori got was a begrudging shrug. “Make it quick, will you? And if Kelly gives you any grief about not being with me, just show him your name tag. That guy’s a little over-the-top where his job is concerned and I have enough to deal with without adding RoboCop to the list.”
    “He’s still here after letting Pooky through?” one of the extras asked.
    “He won’t be for long if the short-lived careers of his predecessors are any indication,” Margot mused. Motioning for the group to follow her to the food tent, she continued, her voice taking on an almost recitation quality as if the matter at hand was fairly routine. “Once he’s outed as the chink in the armor, though, his fate is sealed. That’s a given.”
    Tori stepped to the edge of the sidewalk to allow her fellow extras to get by, their excitement for lunch and a half-hour break bringing a much-needed bounce back to their steps. She glanced down at the phone again, Margaret Louise’s name replaced by a missed call icon.
    Without waiting to see if a voice mail had been left, she flipped the phone open and dialed the familiar number. It was answered on the first ring.
    “There you are, Victoria, I was hopin’ I’d get a chance to chat with you. How’s it goin’ over there?”
    Wandering over to a nearby bench, she sat down, the warmth of the afternoon sun and the sound of her friend’s always-cheerful voice making her smile. “It’s going. This movie stuff is a whole lot of waiting with little bursts of nuttiness tossed in.”
    The woman’s hearty laugh started in Tori’s ear and traveled to her various tension-filled spots, relaxing her in seconds. “Were you hidin’ behind the cupboard in my kitchen this mornin’, Victoria?”
    “Nooo, why?”
    “’Cause you took that phrase right outta my mouth, that’s why.”
    “Phrase? What phrase?”
    “That part about little bursts of nutti—”
    Tori looked up as Todd and Glenda walked around the far side of