“Isn’t anyone working around here?”
I spin to see Sandy standing next to us. She’s wearing—wait for it—an actual printed sundress. Blue flowers and all. Color. I’m so stunned, I’m speechless.
“What are you two chatting about?” she asks.
“Our once director,” I say quickly.
“Ah, Wyatt,” Sandy says. “I prefer not to think of him as once so much as future.”
“Is this about to get personal?” I ask her. Is she finally going to confess she and Wyatt are an item?
“For you, maybe,” she says. She crosses her arms. “Guess who just signed on forCloser to Heavenand wants you for his leading lady?”
I gape at her. “Are you serious?”
“As a sunburn. You start directly afterLockedwraps. Congrats, PG.”
I jump and hug her. Jessica claps next to me. “Yay!” she says, bouncing on her toes.
“What’s all the fuss?” Rainer asks, coming up to us.
“I gotCloser, and Wyatt’s directing,” I tell him.
A wide smile breaks out on his face. “Nice,” he says. We stand there, grinning at each other, until Alfonso comes onto the soundstage and calls us to begin.
I felt so out of place when I first got here. I was terrified one wrong move would send me straight back to Portland. But that’s not true anymore. There is a solid center to this life now. A core that is tangible and steady and unwavering.
This is where I belong. And just like I’m okay without Rainer, I’m also okay without Wyatt. I know August. She’s a part of me. I can play her by heart.
Alexis and Jordan join us on set, and Alfonso directs the four of us through our first scene. Like in rehearsals, he’s sharp, but he’s also kind. I see his attention to detail is not the move of a control freak but of someone deeply invested in a vision for this film. He wants what we all want: to make something spectacular.
Alfonso expects more from us because we can give him more. We’re older now. We’re not the same people who came to this set more than a year ago.
We’ve been to the MTV Movie Awards. We’ve traveled the world. We’ve fallen in love and gotten back up again. And, perhaps most important, we’ve seen these stories through. We know how they end now. Who August chooses. I think she got it right, in the end. Maybe I will, too.
CHAPTER 21
The month flies by. It’s so much fun having Alexis on set. She’s silly and goofy, but beyond that, she’s a great actress. We play off each other easily, and, man, does it feel nice to not be the newbie anymore. I like that I can be the one to help someone else through this massive movie.
I like that I know what time the sun rises and how to get Leilani, who works craft services, to pick up the good sticky buns (bribe her with Rainer time). I like that I know where the editing room is, how to get on Gillian’s good side, and that you can never tell whether or not it’s going to rain. I love that I know Rainer’s and Jordan’s tells. That Rainer bounces on set when he’s nervous or we’re doing a big scene. That Jordan gets quiet, insular. That when he isn’t talking, it means he’s thinking and he just wants to be left alone.
Alfonso is incredibly talented, and the more we get to know him, the more he reveals a warmth that Wyatt, despite how much I love him, never had. He’s collaborative. I understand now that part of the reason he won’t tell us exactly what to do is that he knows this movie is ours as much as it is his.
But it’s only for a month. And then we’re packing up. Rainer and Alexis back to L.A., and Jordan and me to Seattle. They’ll be in and out of this shoot, but for the most part, it’s Jordan and me.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving already,” I say at dinner on our last night. The four of us are out. Tourists have camera phones angled toward us, but from our favorite table at Longhi’s, the one in the corner Rainer and I sat at together so long ago, they may be snapping photos of the ocean. “It feels like we just got back here.”
“There is always movie three,” Jordan says.
Rainer leans forward on his elbows. “Same place, different time.”
“I just want to stay,” Alexis says. She has a long white dress on (something she bought for me, and now exclusively wears), and she’s sitting with her legs curled up under her. I admire her courage more than I could possibly ever tell her. It’s true that the outside world has infiltrated our little island paradise. The press surrounding Alexis has been both radiant and condemning. They have applauded her bravery but hammered her about lying and dating Jordan. Jordan is being cast, predictably, as a bad-boy runaway, scorned by both Alexis and me, not to mention the lingering Britney theories, and Greg and Rainer are still duking it out daily. Ironically, between the four of us, I currently have the best public persona. Nothing stays the same.
“Time to face the music, I guess,” Alexis says.
Rainer puts a hand on her shoulder. “I’m with ya.”
Jordan looks at me. For maybe the billionth time since that day on the beach I feel the anticipation rise up in my stomach like bubbles to the top of a champagne bottle. Ready to burst. All that is still to come. All the things we haven’t yet said. What it will be like when it’s just the two of us, the thing it feels like I’ve been waiting forever for.
