A tiny matching scowl emerged on her blue forehead. She looked like an indignant, cute Smurf. “Who made user89384 the police, I ask you? No one. I decide what I do and how I do it. Not you, user89384. Okay, the instructions say the mask should be on for ten minutes.” She adjusted a timer next to her. “The other kind of question I get asked a lot starts withshould I, and that also worries me. Honestly, I don’t need anyone’s approval or opinion, and in return, I don’t want to force my approval on anyone else. That’s so much pressure on me. What if I tell you the wrong thing! Everyone should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies and their lives.” She wrinkled her nose, the mud creasing. “I think this mask is making my skin dry out, ew. I don’t think I’m a fan, but let’s wash—”
“Dev?”
Dev looked up and turned off his phone with all the speed of someone watching a far more illicit video than a modestly clad woman wearing a face mask. “Yes?” He cleared his throat. “Yes. Hello.”
The man standing in front of him beamed at him. Hudson Rivers—his real name, he’d assured Dev—was a rising starwith a chiseled jawline and sun-kissed brown hair. He was the star of the show, the beleaguered single father trying to raise a daughter on his own. Dev played his sidekick friend, and not a very good one at that. His character had cheated with the man’s wife.
Dev had never done an infidelity arc. A romantic lead hero was supposed to be just that—a hero, and heroes didn’t cheat.
He’d like to think that the writers were trying to create a layered, nuanced character, but he was starting to think he’d been slightly misled, and he wasn’t one of the heroes of the show at all.
It is fine. Close your eyes and think of the money.
Hope Streethad offered more than anyone else, and it did have some big American names in it. Like Hudson.
“Sorry to bother you. We haven’t gotten to talk much. I was hoping to have time to chat with you at the party yesterday, but Richard monopolized me for most of the night.” Hudson’s good-natured shrug complemented the humblebrag.
Richard Reese played Hudson’s father in the show and was the top-billed actor. He didn’t seem to care much about anyone on the show, especially Dev, whom he’d dismissed on sight at their first table read.
Dev had wanted to politely explain to the older man that he’d had richer and more famous actors at his seventeenth birthday party, but his mother hadn’t raised an asshole. “Not an issue,” he said to Hudson. “How are you doing?”
“Well, thanks. Glad we’re getting this show on the roadfinally.” Hudson leaned against the chair next to his. “I’ve been traveling a lot for features lately.”
Another humblebrag.
“It’s nice to work close to home sometimes. My kids are still young, I’d like to see them more. You got kids?”
“I’m raising my niece, Luna.” Dev braced himself, but Hunter didn’t change expression at all. It was kind of refreshing to meet people who didn’t know the tragic circumstances that had led to his taking care of his niece. “She’s thirteen.”
“Nice. My eldest is around her age. Where does she go to school?”
“We’re still looking.”
“Ah, well, Marymount is the best. It’s where my kid goes.”
Dev had slowly warmed to the thought of public school. If part of coming here had been to get away from his privileged name and the baggage it entailed, Luna was right. He had to take apart his own classism.
Hudson dropped into the chair next to his and examined his face in the brightly lit mirror. “This makeup job was terrible, huh? And they didn’t even do yours.” He raised his voice and called out to no one in particular. “We need makeup over here!”
Dev rubbed his chin. A smear of brown makeup came off. “I already had mine done, actually—” he began, but a young South Asian woman had already materialized, her brown cheeks flushed.
She looked at Dev. “I’m so sorry, sir. Can I help you?”
Dev hooked his thumb at Hudson. “I didn’t call for you, sorry.”
Her face fell. “Oh.” She turned to Hudson. “Yes, Mr. Rivers?”
“Mr. Rivers is my father,” Hudson drawled, his smile blinding. “Call me Hudson. And what’s your name?”
“Kalpana.”
“Well, Kalpana, this other little girl did my makeup in my trailer and I don’t think she got the blend right on my hairline here.”
The woman snapped to attention and grabbed a brush off the vanity. “Oh yes. She’s new, I’m training her.”
“Would have been a shame if we’d gone on camera like this, yes?” Hudson gave her a meaningful look and she nodded furiously.
“I’ll talk to her, I promise.”
