Sequel to: MAU: More Than Meets the Eye

Jenna discovers that an aspiring female action star dealing with a macho male star is more trouble than she expected.

Note: This is Jenna's story, separated from Sadie's ( Robot in Disguise ). The two stories in one story became too unwieldy and seemed to make more sense --to me-- as stand-alone. They will merge again near the end, but seen from their own POVs. For the folks that have read what I previously had posted with Sadie's story, I have the first six chapters of this one written, but I'm not sure how much of it will be new content.

Jenna sighed with relief as she stumbled into her private dressing room, really a camper trailer.  Fifteen hours of non-stop filming filled with stunts wore a person out. Thankfully, her regeneration kept her feeling somewhat human, but with a touch of guilt because her co-star and the other members of the crew looked positively dead on their feet.  If she thought being an actor, or actress, was going to be easy compared to construction work, that idea flew out the window over a month ago.  She missed her friends, family, and especially Natalie. 

Jenna stripped out of her clothes and tried to enjoy a shower in the trailer’s cramped bathroom.  “I know this beats Iraq, but what I wouldn’t do for a full sized shower right about now!” She muttered as she struggled with her hair.  She realized she didn’t have much room to complain because Jill, her hair and makeup artist, would take care of it in the morning, but she still had to get all the muck out of it.

It had been three months since she changed into Jenna for Natalie. The first month as Jenna was more part time. There was the inevitable ‘girl-time’ with Natalie, followed by the audition and finishing with more legal stuff as Hector worked on getting his affairs in order.  After a few hours of answering questions and coming clean about Natalie to Agent L, she provided him an ID and full background for Jenna. 

Natalie convinced him to come clean with his family about his powers and he took the opportunity to also introduce them to Natalie. He wanted them to meet the woman whom he thought might be the ‘one’. However, he didn’t think his papa would understand his ability to become Jenna, but since he was going to be away for a few months filming as Jenna, he figured he needed to, at a minimum, tell his mom.  

At first, she flipped out, but once she calmed down; she tearfully welcomed Jenna with open arms. “Your Papa, he not need to know about Jenna, but when Jenna is around, you’re my sister’s niece from Florida, comprendre?”

Jenna was glad she got all of Hector’s affairs squared away before she left the States because once they were flown out to the remote Pacific island that served as the set for the diabolical villain’s lair, the filming was brutal and almost non-stop. She thought Hector had a long schedule in Iraq, but working on a movie put his tour to shame. The actors and crew worked twelve to sixteen hour days with one day per week off and most people spent the day sleeping instead of enjoying the island’s scenery.

The island was another problem. As a remote island, it was also very lightly populated and lacked all the modern amenities, hence the camper trailer instead of a real hotel room.  No TV, barely any radio and certainly no internet, but with the brutal schedule, no one would have had the time to enjoy any of those conveniences. So, it probably didn’t matter.  

The only concession the production company made was to provide everyone with a satellite phone to make calls to their loved ones. The phones helped a ton, but they were limited to 100 minutes per week and with the time difference, it was hard to coordinate her schedule with Natalie’s. However; she had an extra 90 minutes saved up and  she intended on trying to talk to Natalie for at least an hour before she went to bed.

It was mid-morning in California and a weekday, Natalie should be awake, but she might be in class.  No answer. She left her a mushy message letting her know how much she missed her.  After hanging up, she decided to try Sadie.

“Rogers Technology Incorporated, Sadie Williamson speaking…” Sadie’s voice trailed off as Jenna stifled a laugh. “Oh, crap. Sorry Jenna, I just started a new job and I’m kinda in the zone.”

Jenna knew how down her friend was about not being able to find a job. So, the fact she was working was great news. “Nice! Congo-rats! You found someone willing to hire on a new accountant?”

Sadie sighed. “No, Executive Assistant for the CEO of Rogers Technology, International.”

“No shit?” Jenna gasped, simultaneously grateful that her friend found a job and surprised by the fact she accepted a job that sounded like a glorified secretary.

“Yeah, turns out that the guy I almost ran over outside our hotel rooms is a CEO and I ran him over again in the lobby of his own company. So, he offered me the job as his assistant and today is my first day.  So, what’s up with you, little Miss Movie Star?”

Jenna heard the minor note of jealousy in her friend’s voice and a month ago, she would’ve felt the same. Now, she knew better. Starring in a movie was damn hard. “Pffft, I wish!  Just got done with a fifteen-hour day and thought I’d call Nat, but she wasn’t available. I got you instead, happy?”

“Ahhh, you say the nicest things…” Sadie gushed with mock affection.

Jenna giggled in spite of her exhaustion. It felt so nice to talk to her friend. “How’s Michelle?”

“Oh, she’s doing great. We still have another month before we go in for her first ultrasound, but, well, it’s awesome.”

Jenna could hear the wonder in her friend’s voice and hesitated to ask her for a selfish favor. “Well, I’ve still got another 2-3 months of filming here and I’m guessing since you just started, you probably won’t have any time off, but I really miss Nat and was wondering if you would be willing to fly her out for one of my days off?”

“Umm, it would have to be during a weekend, and not this weekend, but I could probably sneak out in two or three weeks, but wouldn’t someone notice?”

“Oh, this place is pretty damn remote, but last week, I found a cool cave with a nice sandy grotto, complete with its own underwater entrance. You could come in and out without anyone spotting you.”

“Hmm, okay, shoot me the coordinates the next time you have Internet access and I’ll check with Michelle to see what day works best for me to sneak away with Natalie for ya, okay?”

“Great! Hey, when you come, can you bring me Hector’s swimsuit? I’m so tired of having to deal with tits that it will be nice to be me for a few hours, ya know?”

“Sure, no problemo and no, I don’t know, ya know?” Sadie chuckled as she reminded Jenna of her own situation.

Jenna grimaced with embarrassment. “Yeah, shit, sorry bud.”

“Hey, de nada, I know what ya meant. I was just giving ya shit. I could always scan myself a smaller chest, if I really wanted to.”

“Ha! Yeah, so, umm, could ya send Nat a text for me? Let her know I love her?”

“Okay...sent!  You should get some sleep dude and well; I gotta get back to concentrating on work. Mr. Rogers’ email and schedule is an f’ing mess!”

Two weeks later, Jenna struggled to contain her excitement as the streamlined shape of Sadie, in jet mode, surfaced into the hidden cave with Natalie waving happily.  She wanted to change back into Hector before the cockpit canopy had a chance to start opening, but she held back. Rubbing Sadie’s nose into the fact that she couldn’t change back into her old male self wouldn’t be cool. Besides, today, she would have tons of alone time with Natalie and that would give her plenty of time to do what she planned to do.  She prayed Sadie was able to find the ring Hector had bought for Natalie before he left and keep its existence a secret from her.

As soon as the cockpit opened, Natalie jumped out and bowled Jenna over, onto the sandy beach of their hidden cave and smothered her with kisses.  Sadie transformed into her robot mode and blew raspberries at the couple as she set down the full picnic basket with a lunch for two prepared by Momma Vasquez, complete with a bottle of sangria and two wine glasses.

“Here’s your bag with an extra towel and Hector’s swimsuit. We will need to leave in six hours to make it back in time for me to make it work tomorrow morning, okay?” Sadie asked as she waded back into the water and turned back into a jet.

Natalie rolled away from Jenna and propped herself up to face Sadie. “Awww, you should stay Sadie. It’s not fair that you fly me out and not have any fun yourself.”

Sadie turned back held up her hands and emphatically shook her head. “Oh no, that’s perfectly fine. You two haven’t seen each other in almost two months and I’m pretty sure Hector will wanna make an appearance. I don’t need to even think about what that will mean for you two love birds.  Besides, I can just fly up to low earth orbit, remote into the office and get some work done while I wait, no biggie.”  She turned her back on her friends, switched back into jet mode and sunk into the water; leaving behind a few bubbles and a brief whirlpool pattern in her wake.

Jenna and Natalie spent a few minutes catching up to confirm that Sadie wasn’t coming back and that they were truly alone before Jenna stripped and initiated the change back into Hector.  Wearing only his swim trunks, it took Hector longer than he expected to get used to baring his chest, having hairy legs, short hair and hearing a man’s voice coming out of his own throat. Much to Natalie’s amusement, he absently kept trying to adjust a non-existent bra strap and clear his throat, but he refused to give into the months of conditioning and wear his t-shirt.

Hector enjoyed Natalie’s presence and the lunch his mom had provided for the pair.  Eating a home cooked meal with the love of his life almost made him cry, but he held the traitorous emotion in check and covered it by hugging Natalie tightly against his body.  It was the delicate floral scent of her hair mixed with the familiar scent of her favorite perfume that caused him to finally break down and shed a tear. “Oh my god, I love you and I’ve missed you so much!”

She turned and kissed away his tears.  The pair lost all track of time as the shed their clothes and made up for lost time.   The unexpected beeping of an alarm interrupted the pair.

Hector sighed with regret as looked down at Natalie. “Damn, I guess it’s time to clean up and say goodbye before Sadie gets back.”

While Natalie dressed and repaired herself, Hector surprised her by not shifting back into Jenna. Instead, he re-donned his swim trunks and pulled out from his bag, a t-shirt designed to look like a tux.  “What are you doing?” She asked, suspiciously.

“Simply attempting to maximize my time with you, my love.” Hector innocently smiled.

Natalie skeptically crossed her arms. “Yeah, right…”

Hector reached into his bag and palmed something in his hand before approaching her.

Natalie turned white and anxiously glanced down at his hand. “What is that?”

Instead of answering directly, Hector dropped to one knee and held up a small box, displaying a ring to her. “Natalie, I love you more than mere words can say and there is, absolutely no one on this earth that I would rather spend the rest of my life with than you. Will you marry me?”

Natalie opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out until tears began to stream from her eyes. “Yes, oh my god, yes!”  Natalie’s hand shook as she accepted his ring before dropping down to her knees and kissing her kneeling fiancé.

A few minutes later, a slight low humming sound mixed with gurgling water came from behind them as the sleek form of Sadie in jet mode, rose up from the pool. “I take it she said yes?” Sadie asked as she transformed into her robot form.

With a grin from ear to ear, Hector stood and helped pull Natalie to her feet.  He hugged her tightly to his side as the pair faced their friend. “Yep! Now, all we need to do is start planning the wedding!” He looked down at Natalie’s happy, tear streaked face. “Right, dear?”

Natalie turned to her fiancé and numbly nodded with agreement. “Uh, huh…”

Natalie turned back to look at Sadie and found her changing into her human form.  “What are you doing that for?”

“Gotta give my friends a hug before we go, right?” Sadie’s voice in mid-transformation sounded digital and robotic compared to her normal voice. 

Not wanting the moment to end, Natalie turned and buried her face in Hector’s strong, muscular and all male chest.  She inhaled his manly, slightly musky scent and found herself loving the man even more. “I love you, Hector Vasquez!” She hugged him tightly, not wanting the moment to end.

Hector’s eyes were still a little misty as he looked up and spotted Sadie standing politely, yet anxiously a few feet away. He leaned down and affectionately kissed the top of Natalie’s head before he gently disentangled himself from her.  “It looks like Sadie has something she wants to tell us.” He gestured with his eyes to Sadie.

Sadie took a deep breath to calm herself, causing both Hector and Natalie to grow concerned. Since they both knew she didn’t actually need to breathe, it meant she was very nervous. “Well, two things and Michelle wished she could be here to congratulate you two and we know it might be a little too soon, but…” She shrugged apologetically. “Okay, so, first thing, we got the results from our ultrasound yesterday and we are going to have twins and-”

Natalie interrupted her by breaking free from Hector with an excited scream as she rushed to hug Sadie. “Oh my god, Sadie! I’m so happy for you two!”

Hector followed at a much more reserved pace. As Natalie stepped back, he also gave his friend a quick hug. “Congrats.” He whispered before stepping away, back to Natalie’s side.  “And the second…” He prompted.

“Yes, second, and you two don’t have to say yes or anything and you don’t have to answer now…” Sadie nervously glanced at the faces of her two friends before taking a second calming breath. “But, Michelle and I talked it over and we are wondering if you two would mind being our children’s godparents?”

It didn’t take much for Hector to know what Natalie thought of the idea. He felt her excitedly tense up and caught her glance up at him from the corner of his eye.  He nodded once and gave her body a squeeze. “Of course, we would be both honored and delighted to be their godparents.”

Sadie looked to Natalie for confirmation and received a mutual hug from both her and Hector in response. “Thank you both so much!”

Hector chuckled and affectionately mussed Sadie’s hair. “Hey, No hay problema hermana. Somos una familia, ¿no?”

Sadie’s hair fixed itself as she blinked away some oily tears and gratefully smiled at Hector. “Si, familia, gracias. Damn female programming or whatever...” She grumbled.

Sadie backed away from Hector and Natalie. “I’m sorry that we need to leave now if we want to make it back to the States without causing the Air Force to get curious…” She smiled apologetically before turning her back to her friends. “So, I’m going to change back while you two say goodbye.”

Natalie gazed up into Hector’s eyes. “Mr. Vasquez, I love you and can’t wait until you and Jenna are done filming here. It’s been hell not having you around.”

“What, you’ve missed not having Jenna around to go shopping with you?” Hector smirked mischievously to cover his concern that Natalie might want him to be Jenna more than himself.

“Silly man…” Natalie sighed before looking up and focusing her full attention on him. “No, while I love being with Jenna and having Jenna around, it’s you,” She tapped him on his chest. “I love and you, who I started falling in love with when I thought you were Jenna.  I would never choose to be with her over you. You are the person I love and who I want to be with. Please, never doubt who truly holds my heart.”  She began to softly cry into Hector’s chest.

Hector felt relieved, but also more than a little ashamed for doubting her feelings for him. He pulled her even tighter against his body. “I’m sorry for feeling like you might like Jenna more than me, but,” He held her out at arm’s length so he could see her face and she, his. “Well, acting, being a woman, dealing with guys.” A smirk betrayed her amusement to him. “And surprisingly, dealing with ‘other’ women as a woman, but worst of all, being away from you. It’s all been harder than I expected.”

It took Natalie a couple more minutes of kissing and hugging before she was willing to let him go. Hector didn’t complain and thankfully, neither did Sadie. He sadly waved as Natalie and Sadie sank below the surface and disappeared from his sight. He waited in case she forgot something and needed to come back. After a few minutes with only the sound of his own breathing and the water gently slapping against the rocky cave walls, he sighed with resignation and began the Jenna transformation process.

Once complete, Jenna picked up her clothes, but instead of feeling a sense of resentment, she found himself looking forward to being Jenna again. For Hector, Jenna no longer felt like a threat to his relationship with Natalie.  His subconscious fear and anger was gone and in its place was a new sense of self-confidence, peace and dare he say, excitement.  He, well, Jenna was going to be in a movie and maybe even a star someday. How cool was that?

Jenna made her way back to her trailer and stowed her bag containing Hector’s swimsuit and t-shirt.  She still had a bottle of her momma’s homemade sangria.  It needed to be drunk soon and she decided to bring it with her to the chow hall this evening. Maybe share some with her fellow actors and workers as a way to celebrate her friend’s engagement to Hector.  The irony made her giggle, but it also made her wonder how her co-star would react because she was sure that he thought that Jenna and Natalie were a couple.

Mike was actually ‘the’ star of the movie and she was a co-star, but since this was her first and maybe only movie; she didn’t consider herself a star.  Her role in the movie was more of the sexy, plucky and competent sidekick to the ultra-male, badass martial artist, super spy Mike was portraying.  She still didn’t know how it would end for Olivia, her character.  Mr. Stevens was a little vague on that little detail, but she guessed Olivia would probably be killed off in the final scenes by sacrificing herself to save Mike’s character, her sometimes lover, sometimes enemy for the greater good.

The week after Natalie’s visit was a blur to Jenna and she felt uncommonly good about her scenes, but she looked forward to her day off and spending some time in production’s small training gym using the elliptical and working on her katas.  It had been a couple of months since she felt like trying them and now she was feeling extremely foolish for letting her skills get a little rusty over something silly like her feelings about Natalie.

Jenna was in the zone and had just finished her final kata when she heard someone softly clapping with approval. She turned to the sound and spotted Mike standing off to the side with a smile on his ruggedly handsome face.  She grimaced with mental pain at the realization that he was a handsome man. “Maybe I’ve been spending too much time as Jenna?” She thought.

“Bravo, excellent form Olivia!”  Mike used her character’s name.  After three months, pretty much all of the actors referred to each other using their character’s name instead of their own. It made getting into their character a touch easier and they just got used to calling each other by those names.

Jenna smiled at him as she grabbed her gym towel and wiped the light sheen of perspiration from her forehead. “Thanks ‘Roger’, it’s been too long since I pushed myself.” She also used his character’s name, causing him to chuckle.

“Well, I just got here, but from what I could see, you looked great.” Mike glanced over at the cleared area with foam exercise mats that he often used to spar against his trainers. “We should spar, maybe I can show you a couple of tricks.”

“I dunno, aren’t we supposed to be enemies?” Jenna wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of sparring against him.  He was the big name star of the movie, what if she accidently hurt him?

Mike laughed and his eyes twinkled with mischief. “Yes, but former lovers too.”

“Oh, that could be bad.” Jenna smirked at his veiled pickup line.

“Why’s that?” Mike feigned concern.

“Well, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and since I’m sure Roger scorned Olivia, well…” Jenna shrugged her shoulders apologetically.

“How do you know it wasn’t Olivia who scorned Roger?” Mike cocked his head to the side and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Jenna found the underlying message amusing, but also a little confusing. Until this week, the big name star of the movie had kept himself fairly aloof, only speaking to her when he had to during a scene.  The only thing that had changed was Natalie being engaged to Hector.  “Are you flirting with me?”

Mike held his hands up with mock surrender and chuckled. “Whoa, Nelly.”

Jenna dubiously crossed her arms over her chest. “Go on…”

“Miss Vasquez, I would never risk a production by attempting to enter in an unwanted romantic relationship with my beautiful co-star or anyone associated with the film during the filming of said movie. That would be both risky and unprofessional.”

Jenna relaxed a little, but she still didn’t know what his motivations were. He was a man and Jenna knew exactly how men thought. If he wasn’t trying to get her in the sack, then there was something else going on.  Was he trying to get her kicked out of his movie? She nodded slowly, as if she agreed with him. “Yes, I could see how something like that could make things more difficult, but why now?  Except for the two scenes we’ve filmed together, you’ve barely said a word to me.”

Mike exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair as he considered his response. “Hmmm, I guess that’s a fair question.  Spar with me, I need to know if you have what it takes or if the past week has just been a fluke.”   He reached into a large rucksack, pulled out a pair of gloves and tossed them to her.

Jenna frowned as she put on the red, padded sparring gloves.  They fit her perfectly.  Why did Mike have gloves in her size and what about headgear?  “Okay, but I’m not sure what’s so different about this week…”  She bowed slightly to him while keeping her eyes on his face in case he was thinking about attacking her before she was officially ready.

He returned her Japanese style bow, but finished it with a Chinese style salute by bringing his right fist into his left palm.  The pair of them dropped into ready stances, his favoring the fluid kung fu style over the more rigid karate style.  In response, Jenna shifted from a hard, karate style front stance into a looser kick-boxing stance to allow for faster footwork.

Mike’s eyes briefly flared with respect before he launched himself forward, into a flurry of rapid, but light punches followed by a cautious front snap kick.  He telegraphed his moves far enough in advance that even without her enhanced reflexes, Jenna was able to easily block, deflect or simply move away from each attack.  She returned two counter attacks of her own, which Mike easily blocked, as she expected.

After the initial exchange, she thought Mike would pause and engage her some trash talk or compliment her ability to deal with his initial attack, but he didn’t.  Instead, he immediately initiated a fresh round of attacks, except slightly harder and more complex. 

Mike was performing well below her level and telegraphing his moves. She decided he was either going easy on her because she was a girl or he was testing her. Instead of using her enhanced reflexes and superior strength to destroy him, she used them to make it look like she was barely able to defend herself and only launched one counter-attack.  She made sure it connected, but only with a light, grazing blow to the side of his rib cage versus a solid hit to his body.

“Excellent, now let’s see what you’ve got!” Mike grinned at her before launching a fresh round of attacks.  His third set of attacks was a little on the flashy side and Jenna could have taken advantage of a few of them to stop him cold, but doing so would have given too much away. Only another black belt with a lot of matches under their belts could have hoped to break through his defenses and while Jenna’s resume included some martial arts training, it didn’t include black belt level training. 

Jenna retreated a few steps as she lightly blocked his easier attacks before going for an obvious opening, knowing that it was a trap designed to throw her.  To keep him from noticing her weight, she gave herself a little push to help him throw her, but instead of flopping onto her back like he expected; she rolled with it and sprang back onto her feet, ready for his expected follow-up attack.  This fight was starting to get fun and she enjoyed it immensely because it was more of a challenge to not use her MAU abilities to destroy the martial arts super-star.

“KE-YAH!” She dipped into her MAU abilities and attacked, catching him off guard with the speed of her counter strike, but purposely over-extending herself to give him an opening. He took the bait, lightly tapped her ribs with a backfist and following up with an easy snap kick to the back of her knee, causing her to drop and roll away from him to recover. “Damn it!  Grrrr...”  She snapped back into a ready stance facing him.

“That’s what I’m looking for!” Mike stepped back with admiration and bowing out of the ring. “That’s the Jenna I saw at the party and during the audition, not the Jenna that has been moping around the last couple of months.”

“What?” Jenna hesitantly stood and returned his bow before taking off her gloves.

“This week, your performance behind the camera has been excellent. I was worried that we were going to have to let you go and bring in your understudy, but now, I think we may need to re-shoot your earlier scenes.”

“I sucked that bad?”

Mike shook his head and frowned. “No, not bad, but not good either.” He took a step forward and looked into her eyes. “The spark wasn’t there, but the scene we filmed this week...perfect.  The confident and dangerous woman I met earlier is back and I hope she sticks around.”

“Oh.” Jenna looked down, ashamed at herself. “I’m sorry…”

Mike surprised her by reaching out and tenderly lifting her chin to look at him. “Hey, it’s your first film, you’re on location half a million miles away from everyone and now, your friend is getting married.”

She appreciated his concern, but it also bothered her because his body was only a few inches away and she couldn’t tell what his game plan for getting her in the sack was. He was sending mixed signals to her.  His proximity told her he was testing her physical attraction to him, but at the same time, his eyes remained focused on her eyes versus dropping down and taking in her assets. “Thanks, but that’s not an excuse I’m happy with.”

Mike was one of the few action stars Hector admired and made it a point to watch his movies as soon as they were released. Up close, his presence felt a little overpowering to her. Her enhanced sense of smell took in and processed all of the subtle odors and pheromones his body was giving off. His masculine scent smelled good to her, causing her body to react in a manner that confused and alarmed her.  What confused her even more was the fact that, unlike most of the men she had come into close physical contact with during the stunt work, Mike’s scent was missing that subtle marker she had come to associate with sexual arousal.

Could he really be a nice guy instead of the womanizing playboy the media reported him to be?  “Why are you helping me now?”  She asked as she turned back to face him.

His satisfied, confident smile set off all of her danger alarms and suspicions. The guy had to be playing her because that is what all guys do. She stepped forward, stared into his eyes and spoke in a measured tone. “Listen, I appreciate the match and feedback, but you better not be trying to make me another notch on your bedpost or the next time we spar, I won’t go fucking easy on you!”

“Whoa!” Mike stepped away and raised his hands in an attempt to placate her before it registered what she said. “You honestly think you could beat me?” He smirked self-confidently as he shook his head with wonder.

“Grrrr!” Jenna spun on her heels and walked away from the man before she followed through with her threat and got herself fired.  “I was never that bad, was I?” She muttered under her breath as she considered how well he had played her, but she had to admire his technique. He was almost as good as Hector.

The next two weeks flew past and Jenna’s on screen relationship with Mike was, according to an ecstatic Mr. Stevens, full of fireworks and barely restrained passion.  Off screen, she couldn’t decide if she liked him or if she should kill him.  He constantly addressed her by her character’s name and brought up the made up bits of her character’s background and their past relationship as if it was her own. 

Half the people on the set thought he was banging her and the other half thought she was using sex to get ahead.  After all, she wouldn’t be the first young actress who used her body to get a part. Her understudy went from being kind of friendly to downright bitchtastic.  The only people who still treated her nice was her makeup artist, Mr. Stevens, her stunt coordinator and Mike. 

Natalie wasn’t a lot of help either. She found it hilarious that her fiancé was stuck fending off the sexual advances of one of his favorite action stars.  “Make sure he wears a condom and don’t forget to take your pill.” She helpfully reminded Jenna.

“Nat, you know I’m not interested in men, at all!” Jenna shuddered with revulsion. “And even if I was, it would be cheating on you.”

“Oh, I know, but you have to admit, it’s pretty damn funny!” Nat giggled.  “But, hey, he’s a hunk and I’ve heard he’s good in the sack. You should try it. I’m not worried about losing you to anyone.”

“Not helping Nat…” Jenna growled with frustration as her body and imagination briefly betrayed her by briefly considering what it might feel like to have sex with a man. The mere thought of having sex with Mike made her question her sanity. “Damn it, Natalie! You’re evil, you know that?  I’m taking your Louboutins and never giving them back.”

Natalie dissolved into helpless laughter on the other end of the Pacific.  “You and what Army, bitch?” She managed to gasp out after regaining her composure.

“I wouldn’t do it…” Jenna softly muttered.

“I know babe, sorry. I’m just messing with ya, but did you ever think he’s doing all this to help you get into your role?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, I’ve considered that, but he’s a dude and if he’s not working on some way to get into my panties; it means he’s either dead or gay and I’m pretty sure he’s not either. I mean, for one, he’s clearly breathing and two, he’s made it a point to show me his little black book!”  Jenna growled with frustration. “He even acted proud about his many conquests! Who does that?”

“Wouldn’t Hector?”

“No, Hector wouldn’t. He, I mean, I never kept ‘score’ and I would’ve NEVER shown a chick I was interested in all my past lovers like it was some medal of honor or something!”

“Weeell, I dunno what to tell ya then. I guess you’re just going to have to figure it out, but I have to say, whatever he’s up to, it sounds like it’s working and it’s helping you at the same time. Relax and just go with it.”

“Ha! Easy for you to say, you don’t have a sex scene with the man planned to start filming this week.” Jenna mentally cringed at the idea of kissing a man and pretending like she enjoyed it.

“Oh my, I wonder if Sadie can fly me out tonight…” Natalie’s voice trailed away.

Jenna laughed, despite her misgivings. “Natalie! You’re seriously not helping here, but what are you doing the week after next?”

“Nothing major, why?”

“Wanna meet in Hawaii? We have one big action sequence planned and after that, the set is being reconfigured and most of the cast is getting a week off. Most will be flown to Hawaii, but I’m ‘lucky’ enough to get an invite to ride aboard a yacht with Mike, Mr. Stevens and a few of the other studio bigwigs.”

“Great!  Perfect timing. I’ll check with Sadie and reserve us a hotel room!”