Howling at a Starless Sky

The scene was later put into the credits, with Will's reluctant agreement, along with a

subtitle saying who Will was and that Lauren was learning to dive for the film, along with a couple

of other outtakes to give the quite erroneous impression that the cast and crew had a lot of fun while

making the movie, instead of the miserable reality of dealing with a monster of a director.

Two days of coaching became five days of work including messing around with bikini tops

to make them come off with apparent spontaneity after a dive. Even for a strapless top the

procedures proved far from simple, at least not for the effect that the mercurial Amato wanted, but

eventually they succeeded.

"I'm sure you'll understand when I say this," said Will to Lauren, as they collapsed by the

side of the pool after Amato finally declared himself to be satisfied, "but I'm so over getting your

top off in a pool."

Hamilton and the first assistant director, Hans, a tall, blonde, Aryan-type with whom he had

bonded over a mutual dislike of Amato also collapsed nearby and nodded sadly.

"Will I do understand," said Lauren. "I'll say right here that I'm scarred by all of this. When

I meet the guy of my dreams and he wants to take my top off, I'm going to have this bad reaction

and reject him out of hand. My love life is ruined."

This was passed onto Meghan who offered to help Will heal by letting him take her top off

which he did. The by-play also resulted in Meghan being questioned about Will by Lauren and a

stuntwoman while they were waiting for one of the volleyball scenes to be set up.

"What us single girls want to know, Ms Chalmers," said the stuntwoman, "is where did you

meet Will?"

"Yeah," said Lauren. "Will's sweet, helpful and fun to work with, not to mention tall and

hot. He also seems supportive. He's with you in the hotel. You don't get many guys like that on the

dating scene."

"We met as plus ones for other people in a Hollywood bar," said Meghan, amused, "and I

rang him the next day, 'cause he made comments about things that were causing me trouble at the

time and I wanted to hire him as a consultant. But I was so down on telling him that I was not

romantically interested in him he wouldn't even comment on what I was wearing for months. I was

with Robin Hawke at the time."

"Who proved to be a total jerk," said Lauren.

"Yep," said Meghan. "Anyway Will was around for months before anything happened, and

he's still working for me. He also does his own stuff, but a lot of that's writing which he can do

anywhere."

"Maybe I can hire a boyfriend?" said Lauren. "Are they expensive?"

"Not Will. Robin cost me a lot of money until I stopped investing in his crazy schemes."

That week Meghan and Will went to one of Surfers Paradise's top restaurants with Hans and

his partner, a pretty English girl and aspiring actress Ella who was visiting Hans for a few days and

was over-awed to meet Clarise Chalmers.

"You know, the other girls on the film want to have Will's babies," said Meghan, over

dinner.

"Yeah, right, that's what they say," said Will. "I've been down that road before and it's all

female bravado. If I try doing anything about this talk, it'd be 'you animal!' 'What's the problem,'

I'd say. Then they'd say, 'Why don't you talk to me first.'"

"Yeah, talking," said Ella.

"We'd been talking all evening. So I'd say, 'what did you want me to do, bring a thesaurus',

then I'd do something really crass like look at my watch. Which I can say, right here, does seem to

be a mood killer for the girl."

"Oh you didn't look at your watch, Will," said Meghan, giggling.

"There are time and achievement goals to be met," said Will.

"A guy has a schedule to keep," said Hans.

With such idle conversation, a discussion of the rich saga of getting Lauren to lose her top in

the pool plus some bagging of Amato, the evening passed pleasantly enough. On the weekend Will

and Meghan drove up to Brisbane and wandered around the state capital's central business district

with a local bodyguard in discreet attendance. Meghan was recognised but the locals mostly

contended themselves with waving and asking for the occasional selfie. A news photographer also

turned up and caught Will in the background, although he was labelled as entourage. One result of

this was that Will's mother, Mrs Isla Moreland, called to find out why her son, whom she had not

heard from for some weeks, was in Australia.

"Why did Clarise Chalmers drag you all the way over there?" she said. "I thought you were

just one of a big staff."

"Sometimes she brings people so she can push them around," said Will, who was not ready

to tell his own family about recent developments, "and I ended up helping out with the film."

This led to an explanation of the saga of Lauren's top which amused Mrs Moreland, and the

revelation that Will was a sort of fashion brand liaison for the star made her laugh outright. In all,

she was sufficiently diverted not to probe any further about what Will was doing in Australia,

although she later thought that she was not being told everything. A few days after that, Amato's

antics led to one of the assistant directors walking out and Will was reluctantly dragged back to the

project.

"Do you know what an assistant director does, Will?" asked Hans, doing his best to be stern.

"He slavishly obeys the first assistant director and the photographic director?" guessed Will.

"His answer works for me," said Hamilton.

As it happened on that project, Will's job as a very junior assistant – he ranked under Jake –

was mainly about rounding up the film's male and female volleyball teams, herding them towards

the make-up people and then onto the sand courts. This occasionally included Meghan who had to

be coached in volleyball, this time by sport champions, although a stunt double was used for any

shot that required skill. Will, who had played the sport, was of some assistance in dramatising the

shots, and often interceded with Amato when he started bullying cast members. His efforts,

appreciated by the cast members, were helped by the fact that he didn't care if he was sacked.

In the midst of this, Meghan was scheduled to shoot a steamy sex scene with her screen

boyfriend, hunky Czech swimming star Jakub Beran, as they reconciled following the attempted

seduction by Lauren's character. All the cast girls were drooling over Jakub, who was engaged to a

beautiful Czech model, but the guys who knew him detested the star as an arrogant piece of work.

Will had wondered how he could cope with seeing Meghan at least semi-naked in bed with Jakub.

However, Meghan solved the dilemma by banning Will from the set for those scenes.

"I have to concentrate on acting passionate and I can't do that with you around," she said.

"Not after you ambushed me in the pool that time. You'd be too distracting."

Will suspected that he was being given a compliment but that still meant he was free for a

day or so and was happy to take up an invitation from Lauren, and minor co-stars, Christian and

Molly who were not needed on the set that day, to mess about in Surfers Paradise proper which

included a visit to a video arcade, and its competitive driving machines, lunch and checking out a

beach side street market.

Molly happened to tell Mia about this idle, fun day who told Meghan on her way back from

the shoot. The star then asked Will about his day on the town.

"Sure, while you've been getting passionate with your hunky screen boyfriend, I've been

hanging out with some friends," said Will. "You banned me from the set, remember?"

"Those scenes are a pain to do," said Meghan. "I've been slaving away on set, not even

getting topless this time, while you've been ignoring my work in favour of having lunch with my

hot co-stars."

"As a group, sure, along with Christian who has an interest in Lauren. The girls helped me

in one way, however, by choosing a pendant for you from a market." Will produced the pendant for

Meghan to inspect. "It's a keepsake. A couple of years from now when you're going through your

jewellery and find this, you'll ask Mia about it and she'll say, 'don't you remember, that writer you

dated for a while gave it to you before you fell in love with a hunky co-star'. And you'll say, 'oh

yes, now what was his name?'"

"That's terrible dialogue Will," said Meghan. "I would never say such things. But it is

sweet, put it on."

"You might thank Molly and Lauren who consulted extensively on the choice," said Will, as

he hung it around her neck, "and remember it has another use. When you're disgusted with me for

whatever reason, you can rip it off and fling it at me. That's more dramatic than simply firing me.

It's a multi-use object."

Meghan, who had been given diamonds by admirers, often wore the pendant when she was

not being a super star, telling friends and her mother who commented on the "sweet pendant" that

Will had bought it for her as a keepsake – an explanation which Mrs Kowalski noted with interest.

In the meantime, Meghan having been mollified by the pendant she and Will settled down

for their routine of taking dinner in. This meant that Meghan would eat a bowl of a salad kit sold

through the supermarkets which Will mixed for her, plus pieces from the takeaway meal which Will

ordered through the hotel in preference to the room service menu.

To eat this they pulled a sofa cushion onto the floor in front of the television and sat on that,

Will with his back to the couch and Meghan sitting between Will's legs and leaning back on him,

while they watched a streaming service movie.

Will tempted Meghan with chicken nuggets.

"You are evil, Will Moreland! Evil!" she said, as she took one. "I want to try that other

sauce please…"

The doorbell rang.

"Are we expecting anyone?"

Meghan shook her head. Will got up and opened the door to find Meghan's co-star Jakob

outside, holding flowers. His face fell when he saw Will.

"I thought this is Clarise's room – Will is it," said the star. His English was excellent,

although he still spoke with a slight accent.

"It is her suite as well as mine," said Will, then called "Meghan honey! Someone for you."

Meghan came to the door.

"Jakob, what are you doing here?" she said. "There were no plans to meet."

"I just thought," said Jakob, giving her the flowers, "that we sort of connected today."

"Did you give him your room number?" asked Will of Meghan.

"No, I never give the room number unless necessary."

"That's what I thought," said Will, then turned back to Jakob. "So how did you get the room

number?"

Despite his colossal ego, the star was beginning to realise he'd completely misread

Meghan's attitude to him.

"One of my staff got it. He might have paid someone ..."

"I see," said Will, putting his arm around Meghan to remove any doubt about the

relationship between them.

"I did not know you two were together," Jakob said.

"Maybe it's not generally known," said Will. In fact, the connection was well known but

Jakob had managed to completely miss all the gossip and failed to take the basic precaution of

checking with someone, anyone, beforehand about his co-star's availability.

"Can we ... offer you coffee?" said Meghan, flustered.

"We were just in the middle of dinner, and Mr Beran does not have an appointment," said

Will firmly. "Go back to the film, I'll be there in a moment."

After Meghan had left Will said, "there's no need for anyone to refer to this meeting ever

again or say anything about it." Jakob nodded. "And we can all meet later as good friends." The star

nodded again. "In the meantime perhaps you could spend this evening catching up with friends.

Maybe you could call your fiancé? I'm sure she'd love to hear from you."

With that, Will closed the door gently and went back to dinner. He later told Meghan that

she, especially, should not offer unexpected visitors coffee like that, whether she knew them or not.

"Guys are basically evil and will take advantage," he said. "If they turn up unexpectedly

don't offer them coffee and don't invite them in."

Meghan, however, barely listened.