It's You [H.S.]

5.1 | You without me

18th March 2016

"And cut! Reset and we'll go again. Let's go back to the other lens", Walter, the First Assistant Director, calls.

Eloise ducks past him and steps past the lights, behind the camera, to slide into their booth at the back of the diner.

A runner passes her a bottle of water with a straw through the cap as the make-up artist checks her over.

She roams her eyes over the crew and equipment crammed into the narrow set, always amazed at quite how big a village it seems to take.  And Baby Driver isn't even a massive production.

After an initial two weeks back in February, she'd been back on set for this block of filming for almost two weeks already, and still has two more left to go.

Hers is only a supporting role, so the rest of the cast have a way longer and more intense schedule than her, but she's enjoying it and soaking up the experience.

Digging in her bag for her phone, she frowns to see her notifications littered with missed calls and texts from Harry. They miss each other all the time when they're busy working, but a single message always suffices. This is odd.

She scrolls through his messages first, but they don't elaborate. His voicemails worry her. He sounds tired and anxious, increasingly fraught.

'Babe, it's me. Call me back when you can, please. I, umm, I love you'.

'Baby. Please call. It's urgent'.

'El, we really need to talk'.

'Shit...'.

Oh God, what on Earth?

She pulls up her favourite contacts and taps his name at the top, lifting the phone to her ear with a shaky hand and a deep breath.

She frowns as it rings out and his voicemail greeting kicks in. 'Don't even bother...' he dissuades with a wry chuckle. Hanging up, she tosses her phone between her hands.

"Everything okay?", Ansel asks quietly, eyeing her warily.

"Umm, I'm not sure actually", she replies weakly, rubbing her neck before picking her phone back up and redialling.

It's about to ring out again anyway when Walter calls them back over.

On the ten metre walk back to the set, she physically tries to shake it off and put it out of her mind. "Debora, Debora, Debora", she whispers to herself, trying to get her head back into character.

>

It doesn't work. She's feeling anxious and distracted. And grateful the camera was focused on Ansel for these takes; she would have bombed.

As soon as they're on the next quick break to touch up Ansel's hair, she dashes to check her phone again.

"Oh, fuck!", she grumbles, seeing he'd tried returning her call twice.

Jabbing at her screen, she chews her lip nervously as it rings again.

She's losing hope when it suddenly stops ringing and there's a muffled fumble.

"Harry? Are you there?".

"Fuck, shit, sorry! Dropped my phone... El, baby? Hi".

"Sorry, we're in the middle of shooting. I've literally got ten seconds. I can't talk, but I saw all your calls and I'm worried. Just tell me, is everyone okay?", she asks quickly, fearing the worst.

"Yes, everyone's okay. Sorry I missed you, I was with the lawyers again...".

"Eloise!", Walter calls.