The Fourth Side of the Triangle

Chapter 3.

3.

Although filming is thrilling, James feels more tired than he ever has done before by the end of the first day. He has always known that it would be draining, but the twelve-hour days of constant work is more than he bargained for. He loves it: the interaction with the cast and crew, the advice he gains and when it is his turn to have his one on one meeting with the director, David, he hangs onto every word the older man says.

He misses home, but at the same time, it feels good to get away from the hustle of the city. Suffolk is beautiful, with beaches and moors and although he has never been a great walker, James has taken to strolling along the beach in his spare time, revelling in the soothing sounds of sea against sand and the soft calls of the birds.

The house where they are filming is absolutely stunning. It had actually been on the housing market when David had found it- (“I love it,” he will tell anyone who listens, “I want to live here forever.”) Nobody can blame him; the house is absolutely gorgeous and looks almost impossibly clean, with near to 15 acres of land stretched around the magnificent buildings.

What James does enjoy is the hotel they are staying in. Despite the fact the whole cast and crew have taken up nearly all of the rooms in the small hotel, the members of staff have been nothing but welcoming and are always keen to improve their services, forever asking questions of,

“Are you sure you have everything you need? Are you sure?”

James is staying on the first floor of the hotel, where there are three other rooms, belonging to his co-stars: Nancy O Malley, Alice Butler and Oliver Haydon. It is true, Oliver isn’t nearly as bad as James first thought (not that he will ever mention this to Amy) but he finds that the other man’s constant cheer is almost unnerving. Of course everyone loves him, he’s just so enthusiastic it would be hard not to. He is also fabulous at his job, which makes James grind his teeth together- he had been secretly hoping that he would be the stronger actor of the two of them, but Oliver is so focussed and so genuinely believable at what he does it makes it hard to compare the two. James has already had to up his game and the most frustrating thing about the whole situation is that James knows that in the long run, it is good for him.

The only thing that James feels he truly beats Oliver in, is wit. He knows that he has a quick sense of humour (well, he grew up and lives with with Amabelle Clare, if he doesn’t retaliate then she will gladly eat him alive) and he fires comebacks at the other man over the dinner table until either Nancy or Alice kicks him under the table and tells him to,

“Stop being mean to Ollie, poor Ollie, James, don’t be a bully.”

However thrilling, however new, it really only takes fourteen days for things to start going downhill.

It starts with a headache that slowly becomes a cold which rapidly turns into a fever and before he knows it, he’s running off set to vomit into a nearby bin.

That’s the worst of it. After that he still feels sick but he manages to soldier on with limited complaining and if his temper is slightly shorter than usual, nobody says anything.

“David told me to give you these.”

The clock has just hit eight thirty in the evening and James looks blankly down at the two, white pills and the glass of water that are being held out to him, a suspicious expression fixed upon his face.

“What are they?” he asks in a monotone, blinking against the sudden glare of light coming from the hallway, “Bloody hell... Nancy. I thought that you of all people would have more tact when it came to trying to drug someone.”