This was the scene Darcy Heffernan had been waiting for.
It had been five years since she had moved to the States, and two years since she landed the gig on UBC's "Scarlet Beach." In her days at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Darcy imagined herself performing Shakespeare on Broadway one day, not appearing as the lead actress in UBC's third-highest-rated soap opera. However, the gig paid reasonably well, and her colleagues were unfailingly polite and professional.
The new storyline had her character, Annie O'Shea, the wife of Scarlet Beach's most powerful businessman, Martin O'Shea, seeking a divorce after finding her husband in bed with his mistress, the tanned blonde socialite Brittany Donoghue. She sought the counsel of the best attorney in Scarlet Beach, Adrian Washington, a ruggedly handsome African-American played by a charming young Julliard graduate named Brandon Williams.
Darcy couldn't stop staring at Brandon during their scenes together. Sometimes she would miss cues gazing into his dusky eyes; on other occasions, she would intentionally flub lines in order to extend their time together. The producers and directors were ticked off—time was money, especially in the soap opera business—but they couldn't do anything about it: firing Darcy would be the equivalent of killing the show.
The interactions between Darcy and Brandon during (and between) takes were filled with sexual tension. Brandon was slightly more professional than Darcy, but he, too, seemed to get lost in her looks, captivated by the combination of her long dark brown hair and vivid baby-blue eyes. Whenever he put his hand on her shoulder, he didn't want to let go.
After filming wrapped, Brandon would tease Darcy about her natural Tasmanian accent occasionally slipping past her affected American one. Darcy would quickly lick her lips at him in response, as if to suggest that there was something she wanted to do with him that wouldn't involve talking.
The producers exploited the tension between Brandon and Darcy, leading their characters to a passionate love affair that was always on the verge of being consummated. Adrian Washington was conflicted about sleeping with a client, while Annie O'Shea sensually suggested that going to bed with him would be just another form of attorney-client privilege.
While UBC's executives were a bit nervous about whether "Scarlet Beach's" viewers would reject Darcy's character being involved in an interracial relationship, their concerns were quickly allayed by the positive response on social media. The show's largely female fanbase wanted to fuck Brandon too, and couldn't wait to see Adrian and Annie between the sheets.
