“Will you please get my friend free food from your café?” Maisie asked her girlfriend with a puppy-dog expression.
“Use your powers for good, not evil, my love,” India said. “And yes, I can go over with you and use my badge to get you whatever you want with my discount.”
“I’m okay. Thank you. But I’ll be back for the book one day,” she said to Maisie.
???
“Dana, you’re here. Great. We’re running behind,” Josh, her boss, said. “I need you to triple-check those lists and inventory everything we bought for Samara. It’s all over there on the counter. That’s just for today and tomorrow.”
Dana looked at the stainless-steel counter covered completely in newly purchased food.
“That’sfor two days?”
“Well, obviously, some of it will last longer, but I only bought enough for the two days’ worth of recipes she provided so that I can make sure she likes everything before I buy more. Plus, rumor has it, she can tell fresh from a mile away, so I’ll need you or someone else to go to the shop daily, most likely, and maybe hit up the farmer’s market for certain things. She seems to have a thing for kale and spinach, so we’ll need tons of that.”
“Okay,” she replied, dropping her purse on a table. “No problem, I guess. Where’s your list?”
“Over there.” He pointed with a knife he’d been using to chop onions. “That will be her counter.”
“Hercounter?”
“She said she doesn’t want her food to touch anyone else’s.”
“I think she just meant she didn’t want to have to eat out of the chafing dishes we use. She’s got a weird temperature thing, according to the email I got.”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances.”
“We’ve worked with some big-time celebs before, and I’ve never seen you look this worried.”
“They’ve never beenthisdemanding,” he replied. “And this is our first job with this production company. I don’t want to screw it up by having their lead complain.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll get started.”
“Thank you. Oh, if you see anything out of place, move it to the other counter and make a note. I have to go check on everything else.”
“Sounds good,” Dana said, thinking that it reallydidn’tsound good, but she didn’t have much of a choice, either.
CHAPTER 3
“There’s no money for it,” her assistant said. “And you didn’t ask Walter to include a specific hotel in your contract.”
“He has been my manager for literal decades. He didn’t think to include that automatically? I have three lawyers that read the thingandan agent, and none of them caught the fact that lodging wasn’t specified?”
“I guess not,” Kyla replied. “Do you want me to call the EP and ask if there’sanythingthey can find in the budget to get you moved?”
“Yes, obviously. I called for an update. Iaskedfor that last night,” she said.
“You called me at nine at night, Samara. I was already asleep.”
“What? At nine o’clock? Why?”
“I’m seven months pregnant,” Kyla returned. “You’re lucky I’m even awake for more than four hours at a time. I’m having twins, and the doctor now has me on bed rest until I deliver.”
“Bed rest?”
“Yes. I’m only allowed to get up to pee and bathe, and even then, she wants me to have my husband help. It’s boring and ridiculous, so the good news for you is that I’m ready for a fight with someone. The bad news for you is that you called me at six in the morning.”
“It’s eight here,” she replied.
