“We do the movie premiere.”
“So far so good.”
“But we leave as soon as possible. Just show our faces at the after-party long enough to satisfy the studio execs and our publicists and all the people who’ve been bugging me all damn day, but then we go.”
I think of all the reporters we’ve met the last few days. Of the endless interviews and photo shoots and everything that’s been demanded of us to get here. It’s easy to miss how big this moment is. Easy to go through all the motions and not let it sink in. Sneaking off with Canon sounds like the perfect way to end this night.
I tip up onto my toes and press a quick kiss against his lips. Canon’s hands tighten at my hips, and he pulls me closer, bends as if to recapture my mouth. I intercept the kiss with one raised finger.
“If you ruin my lipstick,” I whisper, “Takira’s gonna whup your ass.”
He chuckles, shaking his head and settling for a kiss to my temple.
“Okay. I’ll save all the kissing for after the premiere as soon as we can get out.” He pulls back to peer down at me, brows lifted. “But do we have a deal?”
I pass a finger over the faint smear of gloss coloring his lips and grin. “Deal.”
Canon
The entire audience stands to applaudDessi Blue. It’s the end of a journey that started on a rural Alabama road. Started with me squinting through the summer sun at a tiny plaque much too inconsequential to commemorate the life of such a fantastic entertainer. The injustice of Dessi’s obscurity stung so sharply it compelled me to make this movie about her.
It also led me to the love of my life.
Neevah and I didn’t arrive together for the premiere. No photo ops of us holding hands or shouted demands for us to pose together on the red carpet. We didn’t sit beside each other in the theater. Neither of us wanted to distract from the movie or from the rest of the cast by sparking more speculation about our relationship.
The invisible thread that runs from her heart to mine, though, pulls taut all night. Straining when she moves, agitated by the distance as if not being with her is the most unnatural thing in the world. Miraculously it is.
It sounds sad now, but devotion to my work was the closest thing I’d experienced to true love.
Until her.
And now not even the craft I’ve poured my life into comes close to what I feel for Neevah.
It was so gratifying to watch all the photographers and reporters scrambling to get photos of her when she arrived. She was breathtaking, and the light I saw in her from the very beginning shone so blindingly tonight, she’d halfway won over the skeptics with her presence alone. But then they saw her become Dessi Blue. There is such a melding onscreen of Neevah and Dessi that it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. She embodies the character. Neevah found the role of a lifetime, or rather this role found her. I found her, and I’ll never let her go.
“It’s not creepy at all the way you watch your girlfriend like a stalker,” Monk says from beside me, taking a long draw of his old-fashioned at the after-party.
“WhereisVerity tonight?” I crane my neck, pretending to search the crowded room. “I thought I saw her talking to that agent from—”
“Okay.” Monk’s expression morphs into an irritated frown. “One day it won’t work, you know. Using Ver to get me off your back.”
I slide a smug smile his way and knock back what’s left of my Macallan. “But today is not that day, my friend. Today is not that day.”
“How’s it feel to have a hit on your hands?” he asks, steering us further from the subject of him and his old flame. “That standing O. The critical response so far. Early Oscar buzz. You worked hard for this. You’re always so intense, but I hope you’re savoring it.”
“I am.” I nod, allowing a brief smile. “It’s one of the biggest nights of my career.”
“Then why do you look like this is the last place you want to be?”
Because I’d rather savor it with Neevah and no one else around for a little bit.
I grunt a nonresponse and try to catch Neevah’s eye so we can get the hell out of here. Our lives have been chaos leading up to this night. Between the aggressive shooting schedule, Neevah’s health issues, getting filmingbackon track, post-production, and now all the promotion and release hype… it’s been hard to find a rhythm for our life together. But that ends tonight.
“Neevah’s family made it?” Monk asks.
“Yeah, they did.” I glance across the room where Neevah and a few cast members chat with a reporter fromVariety. “Her mama, sister, niece. Hell, even that brother-in-law she used to date came.”
“Shit, therapy works wonders, huh?” Monk lifts his brows, obviously impressed by the progress her family has made.
