Dragon's Clutch (Sanmere Shifters Book 3)

five minutes and I want to go back to make-up and make sure I won’t look washed out in this color.” She paused to give Brianne a disgusted look. “And I suppose now I’ll have to do that before I have my coffee.”
With that, Valerie flounced out of the trailer. Considering she was wearing a fairly tight dress and skyscraper heels, she moved quickly and seemingly effortlessly. Brianne hurried after her, struggling to keep up with her even in her sneakers.
“The door,” Valerie said, glancing back over her shoulder at Brianne. “You didn’t lock it.”
“You told me not to lock your dressing room door on the last set. You said it was annoying having to unlock it every time you wanted to go back in,” Brianne pointed out.
“Nonsense, Brianne,” Valerie said. “Why would I need to worry about unlocking it? That’s why I have you.”
Brianne just stared at her for a moment, and Valerie rolled her eyes again. She made a shooing gesture with her hands.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Go and lock the door. Quickly now,” she said in a tone that made Brianne feel like she was five again.
She turned away quickly before she said something she knew she might end up regretting. She ran back to the trailer and grabbed the key from the hook beside the inner door. She locked the door and turned back. Valerie had already disappeared from her sight and she sighed as she began to run toward the set.
She hurried through the winding corridor toward the hair and make-up department. She spotted Valerie sitting in front of a lighted mirror, a member of the make-up team touching up her blush. Valerie spotted her in the mirror and gave her a wry smile.
“Ah. Nice of you to join us, Brianne. Did you bring me a bottle of water?” she said.
“I… no. You didn’t ask me for any water,” Brianne pointed out.
“I thought it would be obvious I would want it,” Valerie said. “You know, Brianne, a good assistant can anticipate their boss’ needs.”
Brianne gave her a stiff smile and turned away, heading to the cafeteria. No one could anticipate Valerie’s needs unless they were psychic. Brianne still remembered the last time she had brought Valerie a bottle of water without being asked for one. Valerie had gone off on a rant, asking her if she thought she looked dehydrated and then giving her a lecture about how she wasn’t a child and if she wanted something, she was perfectly capable of telling Brianne what it was.
I so need to quit this job and just take my chances that I’m allowed to do that, Brianne thought to herself as she opened the large fridge in the corner of the cafeteria and pulled out a bottle of water. Reconsidering, she grabbed another one so that Valerie had the choice between still and sparkling. If she chose for her, the choice was bound to be wrong. She hurried back to the make-up department to find Valerie gone.
“Do you know where Valerie went?” Brianne asked the make-up artist.
The woman gave her a sympathetic smile.
“She said she was going to the set for her first scene,” she replied.
Brianne thanked her, more for the sympathy than the answer to her question, and she hurried back the way she had come. She found Valerie on the set, arguing with a member of the camera crew. Unlike Brianne, he made no secret of the fact that he didn’t much like Valerie, and as Brianne got closer, she heard a little of their exchange.
“Don’t you think the shot would have a better angle if you filmed from over there?” Valerie said, pointing.
“Nope,” he replied. “If I thought that, then I’d be over there, wouldn’t I?”
“But…” Valerie started.
“Listen, I’m not going to tell you how to do your job, so don’t you try and tell me how to do mine, okay?” the camera man said. He winked at Valerie, who looked taken aback by his audacity. “The last person who tried that got a hell of a lot of footage of her bad side.”
Valerie opened her mouth and closed it again. She spotted Brianne and stormed over to her. She snatched the bottle of sparkling water from her hand without so much as a thank you.
“Did you hear how he spoke to me? This place needs to really rethink their hired help,” she snapped.
“I think around here, lady, you’re the hired help. We can find a thousand pretty women to stand and recite lines. This job actually needs a bit of skill,” the camera man called out.
Valerie made a humph sound and grabbed Brianne’s arm, pulling her away from the man. Brianne looked over her shoulder and smiled at the camera man, who gave her a thumbs-up.
As they walked, Valerie took a sip of the water. She spat it out instantly and threw the open bottle on the ground, spilling water everywhere.
“Sparkling? Are you kidding me?” she gasped.
“I didn’t know which one you wanted so I brought both but you didn’t give me a chance to tell you,” Brianne said as Valerie turned to her and snatched the other bottle away from her.
“Whatever,” Valerie said. She pointed over her shoulder at the spilled water. “Clean that up before someone slips in it.”
Brianne could feel tears in her eyes again as she rushed off to find a mop. She was so angry at the way she was being treated and she knew the answer to her musings from yesterday now. Being one of the stars of the movie was definitely making Valerie worse. She was already at the point of being unbearable and she hadn’t even filmed her first scene yet. And no one could say Brianne was being paranoid. The make-up artist had seen it and the cameraman had seen it too.
* * *
Having cleaned up after Valerie’s tantrum, Brianne had spent the rest of the morning running around grabbing her things (all of which brought a complaint in one