“Please. It’s Emma. You’ve read my book six times, so we’re definitely on a first-name basis.”
Ally beamed. “Alright. Emma. I really do hope you get Darren Cole.”
Emma blinked. What the . . .
“I’m sorry?”
Uncertainty crossed Ally’s face, as if she’d said something wrong. “For Lucen? For the show?”
“Oh.” Emma exhaled. “Well, nothing is decided yet, but thank you.”
The girl nodded quickly, then hurried off toward her table.
Emma stared after her, stunned, then looked back at Leah. “Shut up.”
Leah took a slow sip of her cappuccino. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face is saying things.”
Leah sat back, a sly smile curling. “Well, now that we’re on the topic...any thoughts you want to share about potential Darren Cole sightings today?”
“No.” Emma popped a strawberry in her mouth, trying not to show how her pulse jumped just from hearing his name.
They’d had a brief meeting at a party full of people who were literally there to mingle. He probably wouldn’t even remember her.
“Okie-dokie,” Leah said. “But you know, blatant flirting aside, it’s not a bad thing for you to get acquainted with him. You wouldn’t actually mind him playing Lucen, would you?”
Emma reached for her coffee again, lips pursed. “I don’t think that’s something I can influence. There are probably about twelve layers of Hollywood bureaucracy before my opinion even makes it onto the table.”
“He’s not a mannequin, Em. I’m pretty sure Darren Cole makes his own decisions on what roles he wants. And getting to know the brilliant, talented, gorgeous author behind a character who’s right up his alley—that might be just what tips the scales. People don’t base decisions on logic. It’s about gut feeling. Relationships. A sense of connection.”
Emma gave her a look. “That’s great. In theory. But he’s a movie star, and I’m a controller from Minneapolis with two cats and a lot of voices in my head, and at least twice a week, I forget to brush my hair in the morning.”
Leah sighed. “Don’t do that, Emma. Trust me, you’re the biggest star in this room. I don’t understand why you keep...”
Something in Emma locked up. She stood abruptly from the table. “I’m getting more coffee. You want anything?”
“I . . . no,” Leah said, eyebrows knitting together.
Emma grabbed her mug and headed for the machine, shoving every Darren Cole-related thought from her mind. It was busy enough as it was. A panel to get through. A reading after that. Likely a few low-grade disaster work emails in between.
That was it. That was her job for the day.
Realistically, she wouldn’t even see Darren Cole again.
And that was probably just as well.
Chapter 11
The countdown is on. Welcome to backstage limbo.
The green room was too cold.
Or at least it felt that way to Emma. Her limbs were stiff, though she couldn’t quite tell if it was the air conditioning or just her nerves locking up.
She perched on the edge of a folding chair, trying to keep her hands away from her headset. A sound guy had fitted it a few minutes earlier and then promptly vanished. The plastic hooks dug behind her ears, but she didn’t dare adjust them.
The room looked exactly like every other backstage space she’d seen so far: grey carpet, bare white walls, and a lonely plant sulking in a corner, reminiscent of her near-Keanu Reeves incident.
