The assistant led Addie back to the room where she could change into her street clothes. “Congrats, Miss Stewart. We’ll get in touch about costume-fitting soon, and then go over the details of everything else with your manager.”
In a few short minutes, Addie was back in a car headed home, clutching her phone, awaiting a call or text from Toni.
Everything is finally working out!
She had a new role, a new start at something wonderful. Now, she just had to get the woman!
Chapter 13Toni
Toni stared at the assorted clothes in her hotel closet. She’d brought what she’d dubbed “author clothes,” which worked for the meetings and stock signings she had to do, but they felt wrong for a date. This was adate. What was she thinking? She didn’t date, but it didn’t feel like a hookup after she’d named a character after Addie and now she was in the show and—
A tap on her door had Toni panicking, but then she heard Emily’s voice. “Open the door.”
“What if I’m half-naked?” Toni called back. She dropped the blouse she’d been holding and went to open her hotel room door.
“Unless there’s someone in there with you, I don’t care.” Emily’s laugh was the kind of thing that washed away Toni’s worst moods. Friends for life. Sisters since childhood. And now, her agent. How in the hell didthateven happen?
“You better hope no one with mimicry skills ever knocks at your door,” Emily teased as she brushed past Toni. She looked over her shoulder. “Did you even look through the peephole?”
“Nope.”
Emily glanced at the chaos on Toni’s bed. “Did your luggage explode?”
“Maybe.” Toni sank into the desk chair that she’d left in the middle of the room earlier. “What am I doing, Em?”
“Having dinner with a beautiful woman you’ve been emailing for ayear,apparently, even though you never told me.” Emily picked up the one pair of jeans Toni had packed. “Or having a business meeting with the lead actress in your book adaptation?” With her other hand, Emily held up a pair of trousers. “You tell me.”
Toni sighed. “So we met at the bar that last night in Scotland.”
“I know.”
“And we messed around some.…” Toni snatched the jeans from Emily. She wasn’t going out with Addie in business trousers. “And for the last thirteen months, we talked. A lot. But just on email.”
And I lied to her, hid my name, hid the book news.
“Which is weird for you now because she’s in the show,” Emily guessed.
“No.” Toni pulled on the jeans as she weighed how much to confess. Until Addie, Toni had always told Emily everything—from her first fumbling attempt at oral to the time her father’s gambling meant a late-night visit from a man with a gun. “So I invited her to my hotel that night.”
“And? Was it bad or something? Too drunk to stay awake for you…?”
Toni leveled a glare. “No. She ran away.”
“Isn’t that usually your signature move?” Emily sorted through Toni’s clothes and pulled out a black sleeveless top that Toni typically wore under a blazer or button-up. “Here.”
Silently, Toni pulled the top on as her best friend in the world started refolding the remaining clothing on the bed.
“She ran awayinsteadof coming to my hotel.” Toni squirmed, feeling like a bit of cad in the retelling of that night. “We were in the garden by the bar and then she took off, and I was there with my pants around my knees. And I worried, so I sent an email.…”
“Hmmm.”
“‘Hmmm’ what?” Toni wasn’t ready to unpack the way she felt, but Emily was never a fan of waiting until Toni was ready.
“You like her,” Emily pronounced, staring at Toni as if daring her to disagree. “Tell me why.”
“She’s sexy—”
“This is me, sweetie. There are always sexy women willing to fall into your bed or go to the garden with you—” Emily gave Toni a wry grin. “Tell me you’ll use that in a book? It sounds like an excellent euphemism.”
