Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 95: Still Cuts And Sketches.

Chapter 95: Still Cuts And Sketches.

Still disconcerted by all she had heard in the past hour, Avery unconsciously fell behind Stuart and Jodi as three of them walked back to the large tent, where the others were waiting for them.

"This pictures are perfect!"

At Jodi’s excited scream, Avery was forced out of her disoriented state, and she quickened her steps to join the former up front.

"They truly are beautiful," she mused, smiling in spite of herself when she finally saw the pictures.

"I took them. What were you expecting?" Stuart chipped in, his voice heavy with a smug tone that attracted weird glances from his audience. Before any of them could counter his words, he hurriedly added, "I’ll need some of those pictures for publicity purposes. And don’t worry about what the captions will be, my assistant is good at handling stuffs like that."

"As much as I want to disagree..." Jodi released a loud sigh, "I can’t. It once made wave online that your assistant kinda contributed to your fame with her skill of inciting the public’s attention in a good way."

Stuart cocked his head sideways, his index finger tapping his chin like he was looking for appropriate words to counter Jodi, and sighed dramatically when he failed to find any, "As much as I also want to disagree, I can’t. My assistant really did contribute to getting me to where I am today. Speaking of public attention, one of them might get your Instagram handles later so you two can be tagged on the posts."

Jodi flashed a wide smile, her attitude taking a sharp 180° turn as she said, "I’d have given it even if you didn’t mention this. Who doesn’t want a tiny fraction of Stuart Salvador’s fame? Definitely not me—"

"Me too," Avery interrupted.

They soon got to the tent, where Leroy approached them with Valentina closely following behind him. Brows furrowed with uncertainty, she didn’t bother hiding the fact that she was so displeased with Avery’s presence.

"I talked with Valentina about this," Leroy began, his eyes alternating from one person to another until he had gone round, "And we decided all this is our teams’ fault. We went straight into shooting without proper introduction and at least, a dinner or lunch meeting where we let go of our barriers and get to know each other. I apologized to her already."

"And she will be apologizing to Ava?" Stuart spoke up, his firm tone showing that he didn’t want a negative answer.

Fatigue crossed Leroy’s face and he prepared to lunge into another round of explanation, "About that..."

"It’s alright. What happened earlier was all my fault. I will try to make sure nothing of the sort happens again," Avery interjected, knowing what the older man’s answer would be. Hell would break lose the day Valentina decided to apologize to someone she wronged, so even if she didn’t do this, there was no way she was getting an apology.

Why not turn the situation into a new chance to make Valentina think she was a simp?

"You literally did nothing, Ava. What exactly do you want to stop from happening?" Jodi asked.

Avery shook her head, "I just meant...I’ll try my best to act up to standards. Valentina is already so strong. For her to be able to act so soon when she lost half of her family not long ago, I should be applauding her instead of expecting apologies."

"But—" Jodi and Stuart chorused, cutting themselves off almost immediately.

"Thanks for being understanding, Ava. Stuart, sorry this took your time too. We will have to shoot the later part of the scene now and then continue, is that alright?" Leroy hurriedly said, before any of them could spark another argument.

"As long as there’s no unnecessary incident or break like before," Stuart nodded.

"It won’t," Leroy promised half-heartedly. It wasn’t like it depended on him to stop any ’unnecessary incident’ from happening. The actors and actresses had their own minds.

"That would be appreciated," Stuart stated.

He turned to step into the tent, moving closely with Leroy as he changed the topic of discussion, "My assistant will be needing some still cuts shots of the scenes from earlier. Can I get it today?"

(Still cut :- pictures taken of the actors and actresses while they are in character.)

★★★

Archie’s hand paused, the pencil he was holding between his thumb and index finger digging into the sketch board beneath it. His eyes glued on the incomplete drawing in front of him, his ears perked up to listen to the footsteps approaching him from behind.

"Neil?" he called, when he finally recognized the sound of the footsteps. Without waiting for an answer, he directed his attention back to the sketch board, and his hand resumed movement.

"Where have you been?"

"I completed all necessary arrangements with the As Thetic Orphanage Homes. You can visit tonight," Neil’s reply came, followed by the sound of him slumping on a low sofa right behind Archie. "What are you sketching today? A gift for the kids?"

"A gift for myself," Archie replied.

Neil’s interest was piqued with that short reply, causing him to lean forward to glimpse the board over Archie’s shoulder.

"Miss Ava? You stopped sketching her for weeks now," he pointed out, quickly adding when Archie turned his face to raise a questioning brow, "I didn’t see any crumpled paper in your office trash basket."

"Because I had the real person waiting back at home?"

Neil snickered, "So what changed today? Did she leave home?"

Archie took his time in replying, drawing one last, long stroke that that completed the sketch.

"I woke up today and remembered how beautiful she looked in a wedding gown; albeit a bloody one," he finally replied.

"What?" Neil scoffed in disbelief, unable to believe his ears.

Archie ignored him.

Unhooking the paper from the board, he rose to his feet and started on the short journey towards the nearest wall. All of his houses deserved to have a sketch of their co-owner in them, and it was his mission to make that happen.