Chapter 40 – Smalltalk

The pain in her abdomen wasn’t just a normal slight burning sensation after prolonged sex, which could happen sometimes, but a deep, stabbing cramp that felt like someone had driven a hot nail into her abdomen.

The PA with the box braids she had admired earlier appeared with a towel and wiped the cum from her stomach and breasts. The touch was gentle, but even the light rubbing made her flinch.

“Here, Chloe.” The PA handed her a fluffy white bathrobe.

Chloe tried to sit up, but the movement made her wince again.

Shit. This isn’t normal.

She somehow managed to pull on the bathrobe and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. When she stood up, her legs buckled briefly as she felt another painful twinge.

One foot in front of the other. Just walk.

She moved slowly, carefully, toward a folding chair at the edge of the set, each step sending a dull throb through her lower abdomen. She sank into the chair and exhaled sharply.

DaShawn came over to her, already in sweatpants and a T-shirt. He had obviously got dressed again in record time.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Chloe lied, forcing a smile.

He nodded. His gaze slid over her briefly, probably registering her pale face and the way she sat hunched over, but his expression remained neutral.

“Do you want me to get you a soda or something?”

“Water would be great.”

He disappeared in the direction of the craft services table, returned shortly with a bottle, pressed it into her hand, and patted her briefly on the shoulder.

“You did well, it wasn’t easy today.”

Then he was gone. No further words, no sympathy. Just wham bam, thank you, ma’am, and on to the next job. She didn’t even know why she had expected anything else.

The clatter of geta sandals announced Lucia’s arrival before Chloe saw her. The director approached her from the side with her arms crossed, looking as annoyed as ever.

“You delivered,” Lucia said bluntly. “The intro scenes were really good, actually. You understand what happens in front of the camera, I liked that.”

“Thanks,” Chloe said.

Lucia nodded briefly. Her eyes behind thick glasses scrutinized Chloe for a moment, but not like someone you worried about, more like how you’d have looked at your car when you were not sure if it would make it to the repair shop.

“Whatshername can show you… hey, PA! Show her the showers!”

Then she turned around and was already back with her cameramen, shooing them off to the editing room.

No question about whether Chloe was okay. No acknowledgment of what her body had just been through. The performer had served her purpose.

Chloe sat there, slowly drinking her water, waiting for the pain to subside.

Which didn’t happen.

She had never had cramps like this before and had this nasty, uncomfortable feeling, as if something wasn’t right, like back in her sophomore year when she had pulled a ligament.

A hot shower should help. Please, please, please.

She just wanted to go home.

In the shower, she let the hot water run over her as she tried to wash the tension out of her muscles and massage the pain out of her abdomen.

It helped a little, or at least she imagined it did.

But the cramps in her abdomen were still there, a dull throbbing that turned into a sharp sting with every wrong move. She moved carefully, avoiding bending over or turning.

This isn’t normal. This is definitely not normal.

She thought about all the scenes she had shot so far. Throat Me had been pretty brutal, but even after that she hadn’t been in such pain. Bound.com had pushed her to her limits, but the pain had been different, more superficial, and Buck had been careful not to hurt her too much or leave any lasting damage.

But DaShawn…

She turned off the water, grabbed the towel, and walked to her clothes, very slowly, as if she were walking on eggshells. She dried herself off and put on the sweats she had brought with her.

And the best part is, I haven’t even found out anything about Samantha.

The thought gnawed at her as she stuffed her things into her bag. She had let this giant fuck her, had pain that felt like someone was poking around inside her with a red-hot poker, and what did she get for it? A thousand dollars and the realization that Lucia DeVries was socially incompetent.

Fucking great. Mission accomplished.

She slung the bag over her shoulder, which made her wince again, and headed for the exit. The studio was quieter now, most of the crew already busy dismantling the set or working in post-production.

“Hey! Chloe, wait up!”

She turned around too quickly, causing the pain to shoot through her abdomen again, and saw a young guy in a Dark Desires T-shirt running toward her. One of the runners, if she remembered correctly.

“Sorry, but there’s a problem with your paperwork.” He waved his hands apologetically. “We gave you the wrong release form at the beginning. You have to sign again.”

There’s always something.

“Sure,” she said, forcing a smile. “Where do I need to go?”

“Office area, second door on the left. Tasha is there, she’ll take care of it.”

~

The office area was a small room with two desks and a bulletin board covered with production schedules and Post-it notes. A young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, was sitting at one of the desks and looked up when Chloe entered.

“Oh, hi! You must be Chloe, right? I’m Tasha!”

Tasha was the exact opposite of Lucia DeVries. Where Lucia was cold and angular, Tasha radiated warmth, and her friendly face was almost constantly in motion. Her fingernails were painted a bright bubblegum pink, her curly dark hair was tied back in a high ponytail, and her smile was so wide that it was contagious, even to Chloe in her current state.

“Sorry about the mess with the forms!” Tasha jumped up and began rummaging through a stack of papers. “That was totally my mistake, I gave you the old form that we haven’t been using since last month, and now I need your signature on the new one, it’s really just a formality, but the legal department insists on it, yawn, you know how it is….”

She talked without pausing for breath as she pulled out the correct document and held it out to Chloe.

“Here, just sign at the bottom.”

Chloe took the pen Tasha handed her and signed her name. As she leaned over the desk, she flinched again.

Tasha noticed immediately.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” Her voice went up an octave. “You look a little… I mean, not bad or anything, you’re gorgeous, but… was it rough?”

Chloe sat up carefully. “A little.”

“DaShawn, right?” Tasha grimaced and nodded knowingly. “He’s, I mean, I’ve never… I mean, I could NEVER… but I’ve seen… you know. HUGE.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

Tasha giggled and pointed to a chair next to her desk. “Have a seat, I need to copy and file this anyway. Would you like some coffee? We also have this weird herbal tea that Lucia always drinks, it tastes a bit like weed, but not the good stuff. Or would you like some water?”

“Water would be great.”

While Tasha went to the water cooler, Chloe carefully sank into the chair. Sitting was better than standing, but the pressure on her abdomen was still uncomfortable.

“Here.” Tasha pressed a plastic cup into her hand and sat back down in her seat. “I have to say, I respect the hell out of you. Your first time with us and then with DaShawn? That’s hardcore.”

“Yeah…”

“He’s not the most fun person to be around right now, I guess.” Tasha lowered her voice conspiratorially, even though they were alone in the room. “His girlfriend broke up with him a week ago. Want to know why? He forgot her birthday. For the second time in a row! I mean, come on, there are calendar apps! I think the guy just didn’t give a shit, you know what I mean?”

Chloe sipped her water and sensed an opportunity opening up. Tasha was clearly the talkative type.

Time to bring out Chloe Heart.

“Oh my God, really?” She leaned forward a little, ignoring the twinge in her stomach, and put on her most interested face. “That’s wild. No wonder he was so aggressive and brooding. I thought he was just… distant? His way of being professional, I thought, but maybe he was just somewhere else with his mind.”

“Nah, he’s always like that.” Tasha waved it off. “But hey, at least he’s not pushy, which is more than you can say for some male actors.”

“True.” Chloe laughed softly. “Hey, speaking of creepy… can I ask you something?”

“Sure, shoot.”

“Lucia. Like, is she always… I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but is she always so… weird?” Chloe made a vague hand gesture. “She really came at me before the shoot, asking if I’d ever been with a black man, wanted to know if I had something against black men. Just like that, out of nowhere. I didn’t even really know what to say.”

Tasha sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Yes, that’s… that happens sometimes.”

“Often?”

“Yeah, pretty often.” Tasha admitted with a crooked grin. “But she doesn’t mean any harm, you know? She’s just super protective when it comes to the brand. We get so much hate from people who think that interracial content is automatically problematic or whatever, and then of course hate from people who don’t like our content because they’re actually racist. And in the current political climate…” She shrugged. “She’s just gotten a little paranoid.”

“That makes at least a bit of sense, I guess.”

“She’s just really afraid that she or her work…” Tascha’s gaze became more thoughtful. “There was this one thing a few years ago that really affected her.”

Chloe held her breath.

“There was this performer, Samantha Sparkles.” Tasha looked at her questioningly. “Have you heard of her?”

Oh God. Oh God, yes.

“The name sounds vaguely familiar,” Chloe said as casually as possible. “Wasn’t she pretty successful for a while?”

“Yeah, totally. Lucia was, like, obsessed with her. Thought she was incredibly talented, not just as a performer but also as an actress and she really wanted her for Dark Desires.” Tasha played with a pen on her desk. “But Samantha Sparkles turned it down. She just said she didn’t do ‘race play,’ that she thought it was silly.”

Chloe said nothing, just waited. Tasha was obviously not someone who could stand long silences.

“And Lucia… I mean, she took it personally. Really personally. She felt attacked, as if that girl was saying that Lucia herself was somehow racist for producing that kind of content. And then Lucia… well.”

“What?”

Tasha lowered her voice even further. “She started telling people that Samantha was racist. Which was totally unfair because… I mean, saying no to a certain type of content doesn’t automatically make you racist, right? But Lucia was hurt and just… fought back.”

Chloe’s heart was pounding, but she kept her face neutral. “That sounds rough.”

“It was.” Tasha nodded. “But here’s the thing, and please don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“Of course not.”

“Lucia felt really bad about it afterward. She tried to contact her several times to apologize, to clear things up. But Samantha Sparkles didn’t want to talk to her anymore. She blocked every attempt.”

So she supposedly tried to apologize and make things right.

That wasn’t the image of a cold-blooded killer. That was the image of someone who had made a mistake and couldn’t cope with it.

“That’s a wild story.” Chloe slowly shook her head.

“What I’m trying to say is, Lucia is complicated and sometimes quite difficult.” Tasha smiled sadly. “But you shouldn’t take it personally, she’s just super insecure about so many things and doesn’t know how to express it, like, emotions just aren’t her thing.”

“Seems like it. Thanks for telling me that. It reassures me a little.”

“Sure.” Tasha gave her a serious look. “But seriously, keep this to yourself, okay? Lucia would kill me if she knew I was telling people.”

“My lips are sealed.”

Tasha grinned again and then looked at her watch. “Oh man, we’ve completely lost track of time, even though your paperwork is long done!” She handed Chloe a copy of the form. “Oh, and Lucia said we’d love to have you back. If you want.”

Chloe stood up carefully, the cramps returning immediately. “I… I’ll let you know.”

“Sure, no stress.” Tasha waved her off. “Take care of yourself, okay? And maybe take a hot bath tonight. It helps with… you know.”

“Thanks, Tasha.”

Chloe left the office and made her way to the exit.

Doesn’t sound like a murderer, but gut feelings aren’t proof.

Mentally she mov Lucia into the category “probably not, but.”

~

The walk home was hell.

With every step from the studio to the bus stop, she wondered if she shouldn’t call a taxi after all but decided against it in the end. She moved slowly and cautiously, like an old woman with hip problems. A few passersby gave her strange looks, but Valley City was full of people who looked strange or did strange things, so no one really cared that much.

On the bus, she sank into an empty seat with relief, but the vibration of the engine sent small shock waves through her abdomen, and she gritted her teeth.

Only twenty minutes to go. You can do this.

The stairs to her apartment were the worst. Each step was like a small stab. She clung to the railing and practically pulled herself up, step by step, sweat beading on her forehead.

When she finally closed the door behind her, she simply dropped her bag where she stood, yelped in pain as she kicked off her shoes, and dragged herself to the bed, where she carefully lowered herself onto the mattress.

Of course, the damn thing squeaked.

Motherfucking moaning bitch of a bed.

She rolled onto her side, pulled her knees up to her chest, and tried to find a position that didn’t hurt, but there wasn’t one. Every movement sent a sharp pain through her lower abdomen.

Oh God.

Her cell phone vibrated and she carefully took it out of her pocket.

Steve online

Hey! How was the shoot? Home yet?

19:12 PM

I’m home. More or less alive.

19:12 PM

That doesn’t sound good. Was it that bad?

19:12 PM

The guy was so fucking big and he was pretty rough. I’m in quite a lot of pain. Probably have to go to the doctor tomorrow.

19:13 PM

Damn, that sucks. Is there anything I can do? Should I come over?

19:13 PM

No, I just want to lie down. But thanks.

19:13 PM

Okay, I understand, of course. But let me know if you need anything. I mean it!!!!

19:14 PM

I will. Thanks, Steve.

19:14 PM

Warmth spread through her chest, despite everything.

She put her phone away and curled up again.

It was strange how much it mattered to have someone around who cared.

Do I like him? Like, like like him?

She shook off the thought. It just wasn’t the right time for something like that. Besides, it was probably just gratitude, loneliness, and the need for human contact in this nightmare anyway.

Focus, Chloe.

She forced herself to think about the investigation, about Tasha and what she had said about Lucia.

With a quiet groan, she sat up, reached for her laptop and leaned carefully against the headboard.

She opened her investigation document and began typing.

FILE EDIT VIEW INSERT FORMAT TOOLS HELP

Lucia DeVries (Dark Desires):

Lucia wanted to book Samantha for interracial content. Samantha refused, calling it “race play” and “silly.” Lucia took it personally, feeling attacked, as if Samantha was accusing her of racism. Lucia then told everyone that Samantha was racist, which damaged her reputation and, according to Ben, was a “PR disaster.”

BUT: According to Tasha (office worker, talks a lot), Lucia regretted it afterwards and tried several times to apologize to Samantha. Samantha blocked her.

Assessment: Someone who feels so much remorse over a rumor is unlikely to kill anyone. Lucia is impulsive, socially awkward, and, to be honest, quite a bitch, but I don’t see her killing someone in cold blood. My gut feeling tells me that she’s probably not involved. But I don’t have any clear evidence for or against it. I can’t completely rule her out (yet), but I would give her low priority for the investigation.

She closed the laptop and put it back on the nightstand. The pain continued to throb relentlessly.

I absolutely have to go to the doctor tomorrow. And I’ll tell Ben that I’m never shooting with DaShawn again.

She closed her eyes and just lay there in bed waiting for sleep.