Chapter 7

Todd Stellar tripped over a cord as he entered the set. A light flared and then tipped. Todd reached out to try to stop it from falling, but bumped into one of the tech's backs. The guy turned and shoved Todd back. The light casing hit the concrete floor and burst like a bomb. Glass exploded out across the concrete and the plastic of the filter popped up into the air before drifting back down like a jagged piece of leaf.

People all around the set screamed out in surprise. Everyone turned and looked at Todd.

The director said, "Get out ... You, get out. And cut. Reset. Hurry up before we go over budget and I murder someone. It's a damn butter commercial. This should not be this hard."

Todd backed away. His wife Stephanie spotted him and her eyes went wide. She was one of three buxom beauties in tiny bikinis on the set with a guy wearing some cross between a racing fire suit and something that Todd imagined Elvis or Liberachi wearing.

Stephanie covered her face and Todd felt ashamed.

He slinked back into one of the corridors under a set of empty stands. This set seemed to be one that was used for some talk or variety show when it wasn't being used to film a commercial. It provided a dark place for Todd to hide after his major blunder. This was not how he wanted to celebrate his wife's twenty-fifth birthday ruining her commercial shoot. If he stayed hidden, maybe no one would connect her with him until they were already gone.

The director rubbed at his forehead. Todd saw that the man was older with hard lines to his jaw. Todd guessed under fifty with a permanent tan. His dark hair was teased up and then combed back in sculpted curls. His muscles stood out on his arms where his sleeves were pushed up. Todd was a bit heavy around the middle. Sitting in an office chair all day every day handling accounts had not done much for Todd. Stephanie worked out regularly as an actress. Todd really had no excuse. Being a director was not a job with heavy lifting involved, but this guy was muscled to the point that veins stood out through his skin. If he wasn't calling cut, he looked like he could be a body-builder.

Make-up had come back onto the set as the crew swept up glass and hauled up another light.

The director shouted. "Get that all up. I don't need the girls cutting their bare feet. That is the last thing we need. Don't give me that look. Just do it. Triple check and sweep it again. Let's go."

The make-up team sprayed another layer of gelatin on the dude's chest inside his open racing suit. It made him look sweaty and greasy. They dabbed moisture off the girls and smeared on golden accents to appear like tan in the sunlight. One of the girls wore a golden bikini. Another had a silver bikini. They were so narrow and showed so much tit and ass that Todd couldn't imagine what channel would carry this commercial. His wife wore a stars and stripes bikini. She had a star over each nipple. Not very subtle at all. There was hardly enough material to put the red and blue stripes on.

Stephanie had long, dark hair. Her eyes were dark too. She had on smoky eyeliner that accented the deep, sultry look. Her full lips were painted blood red for the commercial. She was all tits, ass, and muscle.

Her tight curves again made Todd wonder why she had ever married a guy like him. He had gotten bigger since they got married three years earlier. She had gotten hotter. She was brand new to Los Angles right out of college. She rode a bus out to Hollywood with no prospects. Todd was ten years older than her. He had a steady job as an accountant and they ended up together before Stephanie really realized she could do better. She was better than he deserved. The sex was mind blowing, but he wasn't sure he was always doing the same for her. Seeing her around hot actors every day worried him. He tried to double down on the oral to make up for what he lacked in manliness with extra enthusiasm. God knew he appreciated what he had in her.

Todd thought he might be the only guy in history that jerked off to thoughts of his own wife. Sometimes it was thinking about her with other men, but it was almost always her. He could not imagine a hotter woman in all the world.

One of the make-up girls was pointing at Stephanie's chest and talking. Todd couldn't hear what was being said on the set. Stephanie nodded. She reached down and pinched her nipples through the narrow material of the bikini top. She reached inside the cups and toyed at her bare nipples underneath. She straightened the top again and her nipples poked through the material hard and visible. That was the finishing touch apparently, Todd thought.

The light came back on and after the actors were reset, the director called, "Okay, quiet this time and I mean it, assholes. Places and roll. Action."

The women pawed all over the actor. Stephanie's hand traveled down the man's sequined belly very near his crotch. Todd saw the fake stick of butter on the dish very near the man's crotch like a bar of gold. It was angled out like it was meant to look like his golden cock. Todd couldn't help but to imagine that this was on purpose.

The actor said in a deep, booming voice, "I only butter my buns with the very best – Holsom's Best Real Butter. Nothing says America like Holsom's Best. Melts evenly. Spread perfectly."

The girls ooed and ahhed as they pawed on him and kicked up their feet. A wind machine lifted a white scarf in the air behind him and stirred the girls' hair.

Todd whispered. "Oh, for God's sake. The butter is actually named Holsom? Really?"

Todd stepped out of his hiding place and tiptoed up the hall to get back to the parking lot to wait on Stephanie. He bumped into a stack of scaffolding off to one side. A pile of loose pipes rolled loose and clattered across the floor behind him.

The director spewed out a string of curses that Todd was pretty sure were in at least three other languages besides English. He followed the curses by screaming. "Cut. Whoever that was this time, bring him to me so that I can cut off his balls."

Todd ran up the hallway in the dark and rounded the corner. He made it to the exit door and hit the crash bar stumbling out into the bright, Los Angeles sunlight. He made his way around the building back to the parking lot. Todd sighed and leaned against the door of his car.

After about another hour, people started to filter out of the front doors of the studio. Todd moved around to the other side of the car and turned his back. He hunched over trying to hide himself from anyone that might recognize him from his two disruptions on the set. The door opened again and Stephanie walked out next to the director. He was taller than Todd had realized. In the sunlight, the man's skin glistened with real sweat. He leaned down and gave Stephanie a kiss on both cheeks very near her mouth. She smiled. She patted his butt as she walked around him and the director returned the favor.

Todd looked away again as Stephanie approached. Todd opened the door and she sat down in the seat. She was wearing loose sweat pants and sandals. Todd licked his lips. Even her toes were sexy to him. Her sweat shirt was zipped down in the front far enough to show plenty of cleavage. She wasn't wearing a bra. From the smooth curve of her ass on the seat, Todd suspected she wasn't wearing panties either.

She looked up at him and smiled. Todd felt himself melt inside from her giving him that smile. She said, "You made quite an entrance and quite an exit, Todd. I'm supposed to be the diva. Remember?"

Todd grimaced and shrugged. "Sorry, Steph. I really am."

"I know you are," she said. "Let's get on the road. Hal gave me the code for his gate. We're supposed to go get comfortable before we start."

Todd closed her door and grimaced again. His legs shook as he walked around the back of the car. He was more than a little nervous about what came next.

Todd opened his car door and sat down next to his wife. He started the car and gripped the steering wheel.

After a moment, Steph said, "You okay over there, Todd?"

He swallowed and said, "I'm a little nervous. I'm not used to being in front of the camera at all, much less like this."