I have never seen so many flowers in my life.

 The thought of coming into work at eight in the morning after having to drive around Beverly Hills and Hollywood with an inconsolable Holly until three in the morning was not appealing. But when I opened the door into the make up trailer, I was not expecting to see it transformed into a florist’s.

 “What the hell?” I ask to no one in particular. It seems flowers have taken up every available space and I almost miss Holly sitting in one of the make up chairs, trying not to cry.

 “Holly, are you okay? Care to explain the flowers?” How am I going to do make up when there are dozens of bouquets of wildflowers, roses, and other flora covering my work space?

 “He’s so sweet,” is all Holly can muster as her bottom lip trembles and she reaches out and gently strokes a rose petal. She yanks her hand back quickly when the petal falls off the rose – I’m pretty sure there are fifty more sitting in this trailer.

 I walk over to the nearest bouquet, disposing my purse in one of the free chairs. There’s a card sitting between a bunch of tulips and hydrangeas and I pick it up quickly.

 Holly – I’m sorry for last night. – J

 “Each card is different, you know,” Holly says when I look up and give her an incredulous look, “its just such an incredible gesture.”

 I try not to scoff as I put the card back on the bouquet I found it. I’m pretty sure Justin does this kind of stuff to all the girls that he’s pissed off in the past. I’m sure he’s going above and beyond right now because I came out of nowhere and gave him a huge telling off.

 “While it’s sweet,” I begin as I take my things off of the chair and shove them under the counter, “we need to get this stuff clear so we can actually work today.”

 I’m about to find my walkie-talkie to alert some production agent about the garden growing in the make-up trailer, but the door opens and I smile when I see Jude step up, pulling sunglasses off his face while he tries to adjust to the light.

 “Whoa, where the bloody hell did the rainforest come from?”

 I open my mouth to answer, but someone steps up behind Jude with yet another bouquet of flowers. I can only stare at the deliveryman with my mouth wide open as he looks about awkwardly for a place to set this recent acquisition. Holly merely reaches out with her hands and he walks in her direction, depositing the bouquet in her open arms.

 “I’ll explain once I find someone to help deforest this place,” I tell Jude as I reach down to grab my purse. I really don’t want to stay in here and look at all of these flowers – an empty apology from an empty man.

 “Want to visit craft services along the way? You look like you could use a coffee,” Jude says with a charming smile as I stifle a yawn. I nod in agreement, shoulder my purse, and follow him out into the early morning sun.

 “Dammit. I forgot my glasses,” I turn around to head back for the trailer, but my way is blocked by Jude offering his own. “Thanks,” I mumble as I unfold them and place them on the bridge of my nose.

 “So what’s up with the botanical garden in the trailer?”

 I hesitate as we walk in between the soundstages. I don’t really know how to bring this up. I don’t really want to talk shit about Justin in front of one of his cast mates, I don’t want to create any tension between them when the majority of them are already so against Valora. Jude walks a bit closer to me and gives me a little nudge to break me out of my thoughts. I look up at him and suddenly I find that I’m relaying everything that happened the night before.

 I can’t help it, Jude is a friend.

 We round the corner and see the beautiful craft services truck parked in all its glory by the actors’ trailers. A few of the crewmembers are in line to pick up breakfast or a morning cup of coffee. I spot Valora’s personal assistant looking like he might cry as he carries two trays of coffee towards one of the larger trailers on the lot.

 The man deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor.

 Jude and I step in line behind some of the boom operators and, thankfully, the subject changes to Jude’s young children instead of Justin’s intentions of sending every single species of flower into the makeup trailer.

 We order our coffee and turn to one of the picnic benches when I notice Justin heading over towards the craft services truck. He waves in our direction with a smile and Jude immediately returns the greeting.

 I act like I haven’t seen him. I watch through the protective lenses of Jude’s glasses as Justin lowers his hand and almost looks dejected that I ignored him.

 Good. I don’t care.

 “You can’t be mad at him forever. Sure he might have led Holly on and was a bit of a prick, but maybe he is sorry,” Jude points out. I bite my lip and take a sip of my coffee.

 I suddenly don’t really want to talk about this. I mean part of me wants to believe that Jude is right and Justin is really sorry for putting all of us through so much crap last night, but I don’t know. I think I just find it easier to put Justin into the category of a Hollywood brat. Aside from this recent gesture, he’s given me no reason to suspect otherwise.

 Jude and I finish our coffee in relative silence before he heads off to his trailer and I go in search of a production assistant who can get the flowers out of my hair and my trailer.

 I have work to do.

--

 I thought the flowers were a pretty good idea. An awesome idea. It seemed like Holly really enjoyed them, and she even hugged me and accepted my apology when I came in to the trailer this morning. In fact, Corbin and Raven were so excited over the flowers that the voted to keep a few bouquets when a production assistant came to take all of them out. Everyone loved them.

 Except Penny.

 And I don’t know why she’s having this much of an affect on me. I don’t know why I care so much about my image when I’m around her. I mean, it sucked when she showed up at that party last night and ripped me a new asshole – and I kind of deserved it. I have been getting a little crazy with the women in my life, but can you blame me? No, I don’t think you can.

 Maybe I’m so worried about what she thinks because she just doesn’t buy into the whole Hollywood mindset. I want to prove her wrong – that not all people in this industry are pricks. The girl is so anti-Hollywood it isn’t even funny. At least that’s what it seems like.

 But I know I should not be thinking of these things in the middle of a scene.

 Especially when the scene is with a Miss Valora Francis.

 “Nathan, you are so stupid. Do you really think Mom and Dad and Grandpa would let you bring music like that into the house?”

 Shit. What was my line?

 I cast a look over towards Rachel and Jude who are also in the scene, but I know they’re waiting for my line. Shit.

 Valora repeats her line and stares at me with her perfectly manicured eyebrows raised. I see that she’s still making Penny keep her makeup flawless when she’s really supposed to look like shit.

 Stop it. What is your line?

 “Okay, seriously, can we cut?” Valora is suddenly not Lucy anymore and is looking like she is ready to nuke me out of existence. “Can you not remember your lines? Or are you going to break into song? Should we get some back up dancers here for you, Justin?”

 “Valora, what’s the problem?” David shouts from his position behind the camera. I can see most of the crew holding their breath. It seems like Valora is having a problem every minute of every day.

 “Well, David, how am I supposed to do the scene when he isn’t in it?” Valora demands. It’s like I’m not even here. “How do you expect me to put in my best performance when he’s blowing the whole scene?”

 “Wait a minute,” I begin. This is bullshit. How many times has she been out of character in scenes? “How many times have we had to do takes twenty times because you aren’t in the moment?”

 “How dare you! I am always in the moment! Maybe if you stuck to boy bands and music videos you wouldn’t be in this film and out of your depth.”

 God she is such a venomous bitch.

 “Okay everyone, let’s take five,” David sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can I get makeup please?”

 A bell rings in the distance and most of the crewmembers scurry away to avoid falling subject to one of Valora’s many rants. The makeup team surges forward, Corbin heading to Rachel, Holly to Jude, Raven to me, and Penny, of course, to Valora.

 “I cannot believe this,” Valora seethes, “how fucking unprofessional can you get? Penny, what are you putting on my face?”

 “This is what David directed me to put on you, Valora,” Penny explains and her voice is so even tempered it’s hard to believe she was yelling at me last night. I wonder why she’s never done it to Valora.

 “Well this isn’t his face, it’s mine. And you’ll do as I say. Whoever made you head artist should be fired. I mean, Jesus.”

 “Seriously, Valora would you shut the hell up?” Did I just say that? Did that just come out of my mouth? The other actors and makeup artists fall silent from whatever conversations they were having. They are so blatantly eavesdropping, but I don’t care.

 “What did you say to me?”

 I don’t know why I’m saying these things. Me, Justin, wouldn’t really try to say this shit. I just want to make this movie, get the experience, do a project I really believe in and move on to the next one. Why should I care what some actress starts spewing at a member of the crew?

 But dammit, this Nathan character is growing on me.

 “I told you to shut the hell up. Penny’s just doing her job so you should shut up and leave her the fuck alone.”

 It is deathly silent on set. You could probably hear a pin drop outside and this soundstage is big enough to house a jet. And then Valora gasps in shock and steps away from Penny. Her mouth is opening and closing as if her brain is trying to form words but no sound is coming out. She looks like an emaciated fish.

 “You dare, you dare….” And instead of laying into me, she turns on her heels and storms off the set without another word. I half expect to hear people applaud my efforts, but everyone else is still silent.

 I turn to look at Penny who looks white as a sheet while she stares at Valora’s foundation container. She’s shaking her head and taking what seems to be a very deep breath.

 “Thanks Justin, for making it worse,” she glowers at me before she takes off in Valora’s direction.

 I was just trying to help!

 I’m about to call out after her, but a hand clamping down on my shoulder stops me. I turn around to see Jude and Rachel standing there. They both seem to be impressed with what I’ve just done, but there’s also something else.

 “Emergency cast meeting when we wrap for the day. We need to figure out what to do with Valora.”