The Silver Screen Wars

10 - Demonstrating

 "You've never had duck before?"

Kodi shrugged. "I think the Chinese take out place near me sells it, but never tried it."

"Nah, home-cooked is where it's at. Not that I have any hope of breaking into the chef profession, but Liz tells me it's easy to cook once you get the hang of it." Jason sliced off a portion of the poultry and had the gentlemanly generosity to place it on her plate for her.

She flashed him a smile in return. "I'm not home often enough to cook. Always grinding. Though the money I end up spending on take out probably offsets all the money I make, so I'm just playing myself in the end, I guess. But either way, duck costs more than I can spend."

She decided to stop there and forego any mention of her family and their troubled financials, at least for the time being. Bishop was sitting just across from her and watching them both with a raptor-sharp intensity in his eyes, and she was not going to give him the opportunity to make jabs at her domestic situation in addition to everything else.

She wondered how long it was going to be before he said something rude and invasive anyway, though, seeing as how he had been quiet and therefore uncharacteristically more polite than usual for the last five minutes while Liz had been getting everyone situated around the dining table.

"Is it really that expensive?" Jason was asking, and Kodi broke the unintentional staring contest she had almost fallen into with Bishop. Damn if it wasn't an ingrained habit by now, to take hold of any conceivable opportunity to challenge him.

"Uh..." She turned her thoughts back to grocery shopping and budgets. "I guess? I don't remember because it's always more expensive than chicken anyway. I've got no reason to look."

"Ah..." The man nodded and made a vague humming sound before carrying a portion of the glistening duck over to his own plate.

That was the trouble with the rich, Kodi thought. He was such a nice, funny, good looking man, but he would never understand the trouble of having to choose from options at a grocery store simply because of limited funds. To him, the idea was probably unthinkable that anyone could be so conflicted. Why not both, he'd ask. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it?

Rich people.

She stabbed her fork into the duck a little too hard, but thankfully Bishop began to speak at the same instant and masked the clink of metal on ceramic.

"How'd you two meet?" he asked, holding his fork aloft and leaning over the table on one elbow. His blue eyes darted between Jason and Kodi with a challenging glint as if daring them to lie. "You two meet for drinks one night? Or did she just corner you one day and schmooze it up until you caved."

She suppressed herself only because she was not going to reach over and throttle a man at someone else's dinner table. If for no other reason, she really needed to invite Bishop over to her place one day. She'd make sure to have gloves, a tarp, and maybe a trusted friend to help roll up his body after she was done.

"Actually," Jason replied when he caught her eye and understood instantly that the next word out of her mouth would be a graphic death threat. "We met at the Riot Theatre last month. Fun times."

"Why were you there?"

"Keynote speaker for the event. One of the acting schools, I forget which, but it ended up devolving into improv scenes due to...popular demand. I have no idea how that event ended, actually." Jason shrugged and began chewing on a cut of his duck, fork and knife stationed by his plate at the ready.

"And...?"

Jason couldn't speak with his mouth full, but apparently that wasn't a good enough reason for Bishop to display a little patience. Kodi watched with narrowed eyes as he continued to stare at the other man until finally, he jabbed his fork in Jason's direction in an impatient gesture. Really, she thought incredulously. The man was trying to eat in his own house, but Bishop was still acting like he was the king wherever he went.

"Jason and I did a couple scenes," she snapped. "A demonstration. That's all."

The blond man's gaze slid over to land on her now instead. Fine, she thought, and she lowered her fork and knife to the tabletop and leaned forward a little as if she were preparing to - well, she didn't know what, really. An argument? A brawl? Well, whatever it was that he tried to hit her with, she would grab it and hit right back.

"A demonstration of what?"

"Does it matter?"

He tilted his head. "If it didn't, would I be asking?"

"Maybe. You ask unnecessary questions sometimes." Like what cup size bra she wore, for one.

But Bishop evidently disagreed with her deadpan assessment, and his lips bared slightly in what might have been the beginning of a snarled insult - just in time for Jason to hastily swallow his mouthful of food and force out a few words to stall the thirteenth brewing argument of the day.

"It's fine, no big deal," he said. "I was talking about how different experiences reflect different portrayals and how they're received. Like you know, a character intended to be one way, but people interpret them differently when they hit the screen."

The director leaned back and smirked. "Don't need a demonstration for that. Just means one of them is wrong. Either the creative team f****d up their own work, or the people watching didn't understand what they were seeing. Nothing else to it."

Kodi waited for Jason to come up with a fine rebuttal, but she frowned when she realized none was forthcoming. All he did was smile and shrug and return to his dish while Bishop tapped the edge of his own plate with his fork.

Alright, she thought sourly. For the sake of peace. She had to remember that it was harder for Jason Monlavia to give up an argument in his own house just to appease their dark overlord than it was for her to keep her mouth shut as a guest. But god if it wasn't getting damned annoying to have to bite her tongue so much...

"So you did some improv and then you bonded over it? Just like that?"

Jason shrugged. "She's good. Hard not to. You brought her to the site for a reason, didn't you? Wanted to show her off?"

Kodi frowned again, especially when Bishop didn't fling back an insult at her expense. Well...good, but the sudden pleased expression that came over the director's face was a little confusing. Unsettling, actually. She wasn't sure she could recognize him without his ever present sneer. Oh, and it looked like he was going to say something now - if his phone didn't start vibrating on the table at that instant.

"Boyd's here. I told him the door's unlocked."

Kodi checked the time on her own phone and noted the time. Wow. Ten minutes exactly. She wondered how many speeding limits the man had violated to get here so soon, but she supposed 'Boyd' was more afraid of his boss than the local police. Made sense, considering that apparently law enforcement fawned at Bishop Cassius's feet as well.

Sickening.

And just as she had suspected earlier, she instantly recognized the nervous looking, bespectacled man that came creeping into their midst. Poor guy, he looked like a nervous wreck. He hadn't looked that bad this morning, so she could only assume his harrowing appearance was a direct result of whatever hell he had driven through to beat the midday traffic.

"Hey, Boyd," Jason greeted him. "Come on in and sit. There's plenty to go around. We can talk business after we eat. You haven't eaten yet, right?"

The man flattened his mussed black hair against his head with an anxious pat, but the warm smile the actor gave seemed to put him slightly more at ease. "I - sure," he stammered, and he pushed his glasses up his nose with a jittery forefinger. "I'll just...leave this here then."

But instead of putting his briefcase down, he looked to Bishop who was watching him with a raised eyebrow. The director said nothing, and after a few seconds of strained silence, the other man appeared on the verge of visibly sweating.

Kodi grit her teeth. Of all the vomit-inducing, rude, self-important, and clearly abusive men she could have been saddled with for her next job, it had to be that man who was evidently enjoying watching his employee squirm under his scrutiny. Really? Did she really want this job? She hadn't been certain of it even from the beginning, but this just compounded her frustrations. She couldn't imagine allowing herself to be treated that way, but to watch someone else suffer the same indignities...

Well, she wasn't going to just sit here and let him keep taking it.

She lifted her hand and beckoned at the man, catching his attention with a flick of her wrist. "Hey, Mr. Boyd," she said. "Sit here next to me."

She patted the empty seat to her right, knowing full well that Jason was probably staring at her from the left. Oh, well. He could stay silent if he wanted to, but she had other ideas. And besides, this wasn't antagonizing Bishop. She was just being - friendly.

"You can set your briefcase by the wall here. I'll go grab another plate from Ms. Liz."

She stood up without waiting for a reply and pulled out the chair next to her, looking wordlessly at him until he finally began to inch forward. He did glance at Bishop twice, but all she did was pull the chair out even more. And she was infinitely, incandescently, sublimely pleased to spot the director staring at her now from across the table.

When finally Boyd was seated in place and had scooted himself in under the table, she finally turned her gaze to fix it on the bane of her existence instead, the demon at the table, the blond-haired, blue-eyed, walking stereotype of a Hollywood tyrant.

When they locked eyes, she didn't even flinch. Why would she? She had so little to lose.

"I hope I like your guy a lot more than I like you," she said flatly. "Because if he can't convince me that it's worth...you? Then I don't want the job..."

She let the last word dangle off the tip of her tongue with the utmost concentrated hostility she could muster up in one syllable:

"...Sir."