Triangles, Part Twenty-Two

Lee dropped onto his couch in exhaustion. He had spent the day at the top of a gorgeous, flooded and nearly frozen waterfall in upstate New York, and the day before at the gorge’s base. The entire time they were shooting, Charlie had grumbled about and cursed the noisy water until Lee had finally agreed to bring everyone back into the studio Saturday morning for a few hours to re-record the entire dialog in one of the sounds booths.

By the time they had finished the day’s shoot, changed clothes and packed up, and then finalized the details with the State Parks office, it was already after two. Then, the return trip, one which should have taken around six hours to complete, was extended an extra hour and a half when they hit a late season, lake-effect snow storm between Jamestown and Erie. Yet another hour was lost in unloading all the film gear, along with the four crew members who’d car pooled with Lee. Thirty minutes more, and he was finally home and could unload his own stuff. Now, at almost midnight, he sat and stared at the darkened screen of his television, too tired to move but too buzzed from the stressful drive to sleep.

He was tempted to turn on the news in case the bit about him had been repeated during the late newscast, but even that seemed too much effort. Instead, he closed his eyes and brought to mind the mental calendar he used to track his days. Tomorrow now had him going to the studio rather than moping around the house. Eyes still closed, Lee frown and sighed at this change.

“Damned microphones,” he muttered.

The week coming up had its own challenges. Monday was a final casting call for the new episode they were going to start shooting the week following. Tuesday he’d be meeting with four different writers to review and complete scripts for the remainder of the season. The rest of the week was slotted for filming. But, you never knew when an unforeseen problem was going to come along and ruin a perfectly planned week.

Yeah, that nagging voice in his head piped up. Just look at last week.

Lee grunted, acknowledging the truth in his alter-self’s words. Still, he was looking forward to the coming week. There was more than enough work to keep him busy and, hopefully, keep his mind off a certain pair of eyes.

Green eyes, to be exact. And, the lips that went with them; lips that poured honey in the form of a thick, slow, sweet voice. It was a voice that could ensnare his mind and he wondered idly if those lips were as sweet as the voice they contained. Then, there were those hands. The brief contact, despite the shirt sleeve barrier, had been enough for him to long for more of that gentle touch. Even now, his arm tingled where her fingers had rested last Saturday.

Gods, Lee moaned as the woman of his dreams appeared wholly before him. I’ve lost my mind.

The woman smiled as if she were amused by his self-diagnosis, her gaze centered firmly on him. Nervously, it seemed, she licked the lips Lee had just been drooling over and then drew a long, deep breath. She opened her mouth slightly but hesitated.

“Lee,” she finally sighed.

That one word, that one sound, in that very voice, turned Lee’s world on its ear. His heart stopped and then started again with a loud thump. He was suddenly sick to his stomach in that jittery sort of way that only happens when your insides have just been flooded with adrenaline.

Please, he silently begged Eros, sure that the flitting god must somehow be involved with the current events. The woman, the vision, tilted her head quizzically at him. At any cost, he vowed.

Then, there was nothing. The woman who had fascinated him since he first met her, who had appeared before him as if his very thoughts had summoned her from the ether, vanished. Lee’s entire body still hummed as if recovering from an electrical shock as he stared, unseeing, at the TV.

Slowly, Lee blinked in consternation, and then blinked again. Something wasn’t quite right but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Lee let his eyes wander about the living room as he tried to identify what was wrong.

In the same instant that Lee’s focus fell on the large liquid crystal numerals of his digital clock, a piercing chirp shattered the silence and nearly sent Lee’s already overcharged body into arrest. As he tried to calm his heart and breathing, he continued to peer at the clock. Finally, the time displayed registered on his scattered brain and he sprang from the couch as if stung.

10:20

“Shit!”

It was morning. That’s what was out of place. And, he was nearly an hour late. He was supposed to meet Charlie at the studio at 9:30. Now, by the time he got there, it’d be nearly noon before he could get his part started. As he headed toward the stairs to his room, he was already planning out how to recover from his unexpected and unprepared slumber.

Lee had a foot on the first step of the staircase when that piercing beep broke the silence once again and halted him in his tracks. He could feel his brows furrow as he stared blankly, with his head cocked and his hand resting lightly on the knob of the handrail, and tried to reason out the source of the noise. “Cell phone,” he finally muttered as he turned and headed for the room divider where it and his truck keys lay.

Lee snagged both, then turned and headed back to his loft, flipping open his phone as he did. There were two text messages waiting for him. The first, sent at quarter to ten from Charlie, made him smile.

“Did you forget about today? The folks here are starting to say you’re quitting the show,” it said.

The second, also from Charlie, was sent at quarter after ten and said, “Just let me know if you’re not coming today. I’m getting everyone else’s tracks individually, so I can always do yours later if I have to.”

Lee sighed. He thumbed through his contact list until he came to Charlie’s number and hit send. By the time the call connected, he was in his room and nearly undressed.

“It’s about time you called,” Charlie admonished as soon as the line opened.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lee replied. “Sorry about that. Somehow I fell asleep on the couch. I only just woke up.”

“Great.” There was a hissing noise as if Charlie had muffled the phone with his hand. After a moment, Charlie continued, “So, are you planning to come in today?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Lee told him. “But, it’ll probably be almost noon.”

“Okay, good.”

“Just keep pressing forward with what you’re doing.”

“I figured. It’ll be easier for me this way anyways.”

“Great,” Lee nodded, even though the motion couldn’t be seen. “Well, let me get going so I can get ready.”

“Alright. See you later.”

“Bye.”

Once the called disconnected, Lee closed his phone and tossed it on his bed. He stood a moment staring out the wall of windows that opened to the sky opposite the railing to his loft. For that short bit of time, his mind was blessedly blank, though his body still seemed to tingle with vestiges of the dream that had awakened him. Finally, Lee took a deep breath, turned and headed for the shower.

~Continued in [an error occurred while processing this directive] Part Twenty-Three~
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