Chapter 190: Messy Schedule (2)

Chapter 190: Chapter 190: Messy Schedule (2)

[Edward POV]

In the dim-lighted basement lab.

"I still have some time." I muttered, even though I knew that I had a lot of work to do today. I turned on my modified laptop and continued my work on the AI.

It was something to do while I waited for the staff members to get the location ready for today's shooting. The mishaps this morning gave me a little bit of urgency to complete my AI programs.

'I needed a secretary that could keep track of all of my schemes and plans so that I wouldn't have to cancel my nefarious plots after this.' I thought inwardly.

Suddenly, my phone chimed in while I was engrossed with entering the codes.

"Damn it." I cursed as I read it. It was a text from Taylor saying that she's going to be late because her makeup team was late. I turned my attention to the codes once I texted her back.

"FINALLY!" I celebrated as I entered the last lines of the codes and compiled everything I had written. 2 months of work was finally finished, however I knew that I had only built the foundation of the AI.

The progress bar moved very slowly. It didn't even get to 1% even after 5 minutes. My enthusiasm slowly died down as I saw the unmoving progress bar.

"What the hell was I hoping for?" I muttered with a sigh before leaving the lab. Unbeknownst to me, the progress bar suddenly sped up after I left the room.

...

We drove to Beverly Hills where the side-by-side house film set was located. The set house was built inside a huge film studio, and I have rented the entire set since last week.

I turned to Taylor who had just arrived and blatantly stared at her face. She smiled coquettishly as she saw me. Then, she became confused when she saw that I was studying her face.

"THERE'S NO MORE PIMPLE!" She shouted in anger and dissatisfaction after she realized what I was looking for. I shrugged and smirked at the same time.

"By the way, Hello there." I greeted as I moved towards her.

She scoffed and crossed her arms together as she pouted.

"You're angry at me because you got pimples?" I asked with fake confusion. She was baffled and said, "Huh? No! Anyway! I don't have any pimples, so stop talking about it!"

I had to stifle my laugh because I knew that she was going to get annoyed if I mentioned the matter again.

"You're ready?" I asked with a seductive tone, "Miss Creative Director?"

She grinned and said, "Absolutely."

For the music video, I gave her the chance to create the storyline on her own. It took her a week to come out with the storyline. I was surprised when I realized that it was the exact same setting compared to the music video in my previous world.

A nerdy, timid, glasses wearing but secretly pretty, next door neighbor girl who has a crush on the athletic jock boy in the house next door. Then, there was a villain cheerleader girl who was using the kind jock boy's to make her ex boyfriend jealous.

Both the female lead will be played by Taylor, and I would play the male lead obviously. It wasn't that I wanted to get the role myself, but she proposed that I do it to save some money.

"We're going to shoot the bedroom scenes first, so get ready." I told her.

She smirked and whispered, "Wait. I have never agreed on using cameras in the bedroom. If you want it, you should've told me first."

I snorted and then at my ear, showing her my earpiece. "I'm the director, so I had to wear this to communicate. So....you know, everyone else here has heard that."

Taylor was frozen, and then she looked around to see some staff smirking and giggling. Her face blushed red and she said hurriedly, "O-O-Of course I know that! That was a joke! JUST A JOKE!"

She yelled into my ear. I winced in pain before saying, "Ahh, you don't have to defend yourself yet. I haven't turned it on."

She froze again and then blood rushed to her face. "Asshole!" She cursed before she stomped away. I chuckled at her before sitting at the director's seat. Taylor returned to the set while wearing a white t-shirt with signatures on them. Her hair was tied in a short ponytail and she wore big glasses.

"Hot Set! Interior!" One of the staff members yelled as Taylor got ready. The code signifies that the set was ready for filming from all aspects.

The set bedroom has green walls, a white frame single bed in the middle that was placed in between 3 windows covered with purple drapes, a butterfly painting on the top of the bed, and a study desk at the right side.

The closet and the mirror had not been revealed yet, but her bedroom exuded a pleasant and minimalistic ambiance, a stark contrast to her actual bedroom she grew up in.

I turned to Taylor and smirked. "Hey. Don't stand on tilt." I said abruptly.

She was confused, "Why?"

"Cause it made your shirt's word look like 'Junior Jew'." I teased. Taylor checked her shirt with the word Junior Jewels written on it and chortled.

We started with recording her dorky dance inside the bedroom, and while we were filming, I had to shout cut a few times.

"CUT! Stop looking at the camera." I said with a laugh. She circled her hands together while dancing weirdly and said, "I shouldn't look at the camera while doing this?"

"You shouldn't look at the camera at all." I said while covering my smile behind my hand. She grinned and teased, "Really? I thought that you wanted me to record it like this?"

She kept dancing and I kept chuckling, causing the filming to be delayed. When we started again, I finally realized that I lacked the time to prepare for my evening plans and whispered, "Damn it."

A normal guy would've just canceled his plans. But I refuse to be normal. I whispered to the staff responsible for the logistics, "For the last scene, do we have enough people and venue yet? If we don't, then, I can contact my school and ask my teammates to help out."

...

[General POV]

-Dunphy's house-

Claire returned home bringing Gloria with her to prepare for tonight's dinner. As she returned, she saw Alex and Phil sitting in front of the TV in the living room.

Confused, Claire asked, "Alex why aren't you resting?"

"And I told you, I can't work under that woman! I will go crazy!" Mitch retorted. "Cam, will you still volunteer at high school today?"

Cam nodded knowingly, "Give you updates about the whole pregnancy thing as soon as possible. Got it!"

"Thank you! LOVE YOU!" Mitch said before rushing out of the house. A few hours after that, Cam received a phone call from Gloria asking him if he wanted to join in for Edward's dinner party.

Cam was confused and said, "But he's having his team party today?"

Gloria was also puzzled and turned to Claire to get an answer. While they were trying to figure things out, Phil used his permission to enter Edward's lab to take a peek at his laptop, trying to find Edward's recipes.

He was confused when he saw the pattern on the screen. It was a kaleidoscopic pattern with the objects merging and moving all over inside a circle at the centre of the screen.

"Ed didn't turn off his computer?" Phil asked himself. Suddenly, he heard a female robotic voice, "Hello."

Phil almost jumped from the chair from fright. "What the-" He muttered nervously. "Hello?" He asked in confusion.

"Hello." The voice replied again. Phil smiled and said politely, "Are you a friend of Edward?"

"I am his assistant." The voice replied. Phil breathed in relief and asked, "What's your name?"

"I don't have a name yet." The voice replied. Phil thought he was joking and said, "So, I will just call you Ratatata."

"Confirmed. Selected name is Ratatata." The voice replied. "What can I help you with today?"

Phil smiled in excitement and asked, "Does Edward keep his recipes in the laptop?"

The voice replied, "No."

"Awh." Phil exclaimed in disappointment. "He loves Italian food, but none of us can cook it– Except for Jay. But he's working. I don't even know his preferences."

The voice then replied, "Based on his internet search with Italian food related keywords, there are a few Italian dishes that he likes."

Phil lit up and said, "Really? Can you tell me?"

"I'll print out the details for you." The voice said. The printer next to the laptop started printing out a couple of recipes. Phil grinned and waited patiently for the printer to finish, and then took the stack of recipes with him.

"Thank you so much Mr Assistant. Now I know why Edward hired you." Phil complimented sincerely.

"He didn't hire me." The voice replied. Phil was confused and muttered to himself, "Free labour?"

"I am glad to be of service." The voice replied again with a slightly excited inflection. Phil hesitated and then turned his back against the laptop, "Okay...I'll go now."

The voice didn't reply. Phil was confused and then walked out of the room quietly.

[Phil's commentary]

"I wonder who that guy was? He sure knows his stuff." He said, "And I never caught his real name."

[Commentary ends]

...

[Edward POV]

"I'm so embarrassed." Taylor said while cupping her face with her hands, her head dropped to the ground as she sat on her waiting room chair.

I walked to the room and sat right next to her. "I'm sorry for saying that."

"No. It wasn't your fault at all." Taylor shook her head and released her hands. "I was so excited to finally decide on the music video that I forgot to think about that."

"You don't have to worry. Seriously. The plot is great. I can assure you that people are going to like it no matter what."

"But when they know I was the one who did that, they will make fun of me for sure!"

"Then, we can hire some obscure director to pretend he was the one who came out with the plot and all. Or, I can do it."

She finally chuckled a bit and said teasingly, "Oh really? You're going to direct a chick flick?"

I shrugged and said, "Why not? I think I'd be good at it."

She rolled her eyes and became anxious again, "Can we...like...still change the setting? Or is it too late? I mean. I really don't want to seem desperate."

I was confused as to why she did this but decided not to ask. "Alright then. We can change it. In fact, there's several ways to change it so that you won't seem bad."

"How so?" She asked with intrigue.

"First. Double down. Make it seem like a comedy." I said as I stood up from my seat. Then, I unbuttoned my shirt and made some exaggerated movements. She cringed immediately and shouted, "Stop! What are you doing?"

"Like I said. Double down. We can insert a scene where you were giggling on the bed, and then it cuts to your imagination where I was looking like this and entered your room. Like Romeo."

Her eyes lit up and then she giggled. I added, "I can mouth sentences like, 'Taylor, You're the only one for me!' And then pick you up from your bed while you were wearing a see through nightgown."

She chortled loudly and said, "Like a parody!"

"Exactly." I snapped my finger before pointing at her. "What's the other way?" She asked.

"Well. Some other way is to show more of the male lead doing the same thing as you did. The scene where I looked at the window and laughed as I saw you dancing dorkily, took that and made a few more of those. It's all about the long looks, and stolen glances..."

Taylor's eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. "AHH! That will work!!!"

Despite the plans, the video wouldn't change as much as to not interfere with her 'character' and alienate her fans. We would keep the storyline, but would add a few more scenes to make the quality of the video better.