Chapter 28: Thanksgiving
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Dennis knew about a waiter’s job better than anyone else because he worked in a coffee shop for a year. Therefore, he proposed to Adrian that he could explain the job to Kate in detail. In any case, there was not much of a difference between a coffee shop waiter and a bar waiter. He already had an opinion when Adrian simply found someone to play the waitress’ role, but since Adrian was the boss, he kept his opinion to himself and only decided to bring it up now.
Anyway, Dennis wanted to redesign the scene at that bar, whereby he would specify the emotions needed for the job to Kate. After considering the idea, Adrian agreed to give it a try.
In the end, the outcome proved that the suggestion was effective. Although Kate still caused a few NG takes in the following 2 to 3 days, she was much better than she was in the beginning. With that, Adrian was more relieved as the female supporting role only had three scenes, which were at the bar, her house, and a restaurant. As long as Kate kept up the good work, the shootings would be done after a week.
However, Adrian who was very immersed in the shootings neglected something until Dennis reminded him.
“I think you should take a look at Kate, Eddy. She hasn’t been in a good mood for two days.” On the third night of their shooting, Dennis approached Adrian when he was packing up.
Adrian was startled, and realized that he did scold Kate quite a number of times—alright, he did not exactly scold her, but he repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction to her, which was quite a big blow for her. After all, she was still 17 years old and was his lover.
“Thank you, Dan, I’ll go now.” Adrian nodded to thank him. He knew that the others could tell too since a few crew members worked with him in London, and they were aware of his relationship with Kate. Despite that, Dennis was the only one who confronted him, and it was obvious why.
Adrian stood up after putting some items aside, then turned around again. “Oh right, Dan. I’d like to thank you by allowing you to have some meat tonight, but don’t eat too much, and pray that the shooting will end by the end of this week.”
Dennis was stunned for a few seconds, then cheered as he ran toward the others. Adrian shook his head with a smile, he knew that the nutritious meals had been very torturing for Dennis. Subsequently, he quickly went inside the building. They were shooting the scenes for the female supporting role that day, hence he quickly found Kate in the kitchen of the rented house. She was holding a water bottle at that moment and was staring blankly at the street that was about to turn into nighttime.
“Are you angry?” Adrian leaned against the door as he asked gently.
A few seconds later, Kate turned around, then shook her head with a bitter smile.
“Then what is it?” Adrian who was curious walked over to her and hugged her from behind.
“I’m so dumb, I couldn’t help much, I kept causing NG takes, and… Dan had to teach me how to act… I initially thought that since I watched my parents act, I had some experience in drama acting, and I also played a small role in your film. I won’t do too terribly no matter what, but…” Kate lowered her head and sighed deeply.
On the other hand, Adrian laughed and kissed the back of her neck. “Silly, everyone starts somewhere. You think that I’m a genius who produced a low-cost film with less than a million dollars, which even grossed tens of millions of dollars, but everything was forced out of me—do you remember how hard I worked in the editing room when we were in London?”
“I know, but…” Before Kate finished her sentence, Adrian cut her off. “Don’t worry, my love. If you can’t do it in the first take, try a few more times, and you’ll eventually succeed after repeated practice. It was the same for me. Without watching films and reading books in the past, I couldn’t have produced ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’. The key is that you have to understand why you failed. Don’t always think of the times you failed, but instead, tell yourself that you’ll definitely succeed the next time. Look, didn’t you have lesser NG takes the past two days?”
Kate turned around to look at Adrian with her clear eyes, but something was shining inside them.
Adrian grinned, then planted a kiss of her lips before he pinched her chin. “Your makeup already made you look ugly, it’ll be terrible if you become uglier because you’re upset.”
Kate finally laughed, then she punched his chest lightly. “You were the one who asked for this makeup!”
“Alright, alright. If you think that my words hurt you, I’m sorry.” Adrian exaggerated, but he quickly added, “Honestly, Kate, you look more beautiful after you cut your hair short and dyed it black.”
“You like it? I leave it like this then.” Kate smiled brightly.
After they talked and giggled for a while, she put on a serious face again. “Frankly, Eddy, I suddenly want to… I’m thinking of applying to the California Institute of the Arts after I graduate next year.”
“Really?” Adrian was slightly surprised. He knew that Kate “used to” study literature for two years at Oxford, then quit because of her film career. Whether the decision was worth it or not, she was the only one who knew.
“Have you really decided, Kate? You have at least half a year’s time to consider. Besides, didn’t you say that you want to go to Oxford?” He asked her seriously.
“I already considered before I came over, and I’m sure of it after these few days. I really lack the detailed knowledge in acting. As for Oxford, it’s nothing compared to what I truly like to do,” Kate answered firmly, then wrapped her arms around Adrian’s neck.
“I want to stay with you, Eddy. I want to see you when I wake up in the morning, not waiting for your call across the Atlantic Ocean,” she held his face as she mentioned.
Without saying a word, Adrian lowered his head to kiss her.
In the next 5 to 6 days, there were still many hiccups throughout the shootings, so they did not manage to finish everything before Thanksgiving. Even when Adrian was more lenient, and was less strict with Kate, they could not make it.
Nonetheless, Adrian was not too concerned since Kate did not have many parts. In a short summary, Kate played a bar waitress whose boyfriend was a drug dealer that joined hands with the policeman played by Joe Pantoliano. After a deal that they made, Joe wanted to keep the 200,000 dollars’ worth of stolen money for himself, thus he used Dennis the anterograde amnesiac to kill the drug dealer—he previously helped Dennis find the man who raped his wife, whom Dennis later killed, but he forgot that he had taken revenge due to his condition. As such, he kept searching for the rapist, and Joe who was aware took advantage of it.
Subsequently, Dennis noticed Joe’s problem after he killed the drug dealer, so he changed into the dealer’s clothes and stole Joe’s car. He also took a photo of Joe and wrote on it that Joe could not be trusted. Afterward, a few factors led him to drive to the pub Kate worked at, who mistook him as her boyfriend, resulting in a small conflict. Eventually, Kate found out about his condition, hence he brought him home out of sympathy, but another conflict occurred.
Following that, Kate was left beaten up by another drug dealer who partnered with her boyfriend. Since Dennis forgot everything because of his illness, he pitied her and decided to take out that drug dealer for her. Later, another series of events led to Dennis confronting the drug dealer together with Joe. In order to repay Dennis for his help, Kate found out the car’s owner for him, who was the policeman played by Joe. As such, Dennis lured Joe to the place he killed the drug dealer—Kate’s boyfriend—to kill him. Unfortunately, a new cycle would begin because of that.
As mentioned before, Kate’s scenes were mostly indoors, which were the bar, her house, and a restaurant. Hence, more work needed to be done to the lighting and the scene cuts, but it was fine to be less strict about them. On top of that, Dennis’ scenes were mostly done 3 weeks prior, thus it would not be a problem to continue after Thanksgiving. More importantly, it was a rare moment for Kate to be in Los Angeles, so Adrian wanted to spend the holiday with her.
“Hey, don’t run so fast, Kate. You’re just like a lively rabbit,” Adrian said to Kate who was hopping in front of him on the street. After having an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner where they ate a turkey prepared by Mrs. Galen, he decided to take a stroll on the streets with Kate the next day.
“Are you saying that I look like it?” Kate shook a stuffed rabbit beside her face. She bought it from a flea market, which was very likable even though its workmanship was not as fine as those sold in stores.
“I just wanted to say that I’m carrying a lot of stuff.” Adrian raised the bags in his hands. Kate had bought a number of things from the flea market, and he naturally became the one to carry them.
“Are your legs hurting because of a few bags? You’re a man, Eddy.” Kate stuck her tongue out playfully.
“Hey, I was just saying, did you have to exaggerate?” Adrian sounded helpless.
“Alright, alright.” Kate walked toward him, then clung to his arm. “How about we go eat now, Eddy? I’m hungry.”
“Here?” Adrian looked around him. ‘There’s a decent restaurant around the corner, but this area is quite near to… Forget it, we’ll leave after our meal, it’ll be alright.’
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