Above, the clip of Ana running off the crale began to play. AJ felt the blood drain from her face. She still had never watched the full scene. One look at Noah confirmed he hadn’t either. Were they going to have to watch it now? In front of all these people? In front of each other?
AJ started to babble. “Em had told me Rho was up the beach about to drown, and I just…ran. There was a camera ready on a dune buggy, and Em caught the whole thing. I could picture what was happening in my mind, and I knew I wouldn’t make it, and it came to me as I knelt—rightthere.After, I told Em what I’d been picturing, and I marked the place in the sand where I thought the horses should appear, and he had them added in post.”
Otto nodded. “Third part: the scene where Ana finds Rho is one of the most underrated performances on television. What was going through your head as an actor?”
“That’s very high praise,” said AJ, as an image of her younger self arrived at Noah’s inert figure, soaking wet in the sand. The sound cut out, replaced with desolate strings. Ana lunged forward, her face raw with anguish as she attempted to drag Rho from the water’s edge.
AJ watched herself kneel down and collapse, bawling on Noah’s chest. She felt disembodied, as if encountering a very real part of herself that was still living inexorably in that moment.
She glanced at Noah. He was watching their performance, his lips pressed tight against the index finger of his right hand.
Otto leaned forward expectantly. “And what were you thinking?” he prompted.
In a flash, AJ was back there, soaked, on her knees. The sand was grainy, raised like braille messages from the brine.Eyes, look your last,they said. Noah in her hands, in her lungs, the moment of their separation bearing down with a tidal force. If it had been AJ, she would have choked on it. But as Ana, such sounds broke from her as to burn the land and boil the sea.
Onscreen, AJ watched herself howl.
“Stay with me,” she whispered. She cleared her throat. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Up above, Ana turned from Rho, crying into the ocean.
“And what do you remember about this sequence?” said Otto. “Noah?”
Noah had gone rigid, transfixed by AJ’s bereft form onscreen. He lowered his hand, flexing his fingers wide. “I remember everything.”
The room was silent as Rho revived, and Ana realized, and then he kissed her. As AJ watched Noah’s thumb press against her jaw, she could feel the sensation as if it were still happening. It was one kiss, but it wasn’t chaste; it was a kiss between two people who had had sex three times in the last twelve hours and would have gone for a fourth if not for the camera crew.
The crowd emitted an excited “Aww.”
As the clip ended, AJ looked over to find Noah staring at her with a haunted expression, and she felt their energies grasp for each other, trying desperately to connect. For an instant, AJ thought she could sense that large black mass in the throes of a terrible tremor.
Then it was gone, leaving AJ to wonder if she’d felt something or if she just wanted to so badly she was inventing things.
“It’s just so real,” said Otto, tears streaming down his face. “Thank you both so much for doing this. Your love…shaped me.”
The room shook with applause.
Dazed, AJ got to her feet, and she and Noah embraced Otto. As they turned to face the crowd, Noah’s hand found hers. Warmth surged through AJ’s body as they took a bow. When they straightened up, their hands stayed clasped. AJ looked up into his eyes.
It’s you.
Then Otto was stepping forward, inserting himself between them, and now they were each holding hands with Otto, taking another bow, while Oona aggressively snapped photos from the front row. As the episode played out on the projector screen, Otto indicated for them both to exit the way they’d entered. Reluctantly, AJ left Noah and retreated down her assigned stairs.
As the darkness engulfed her, all AJ could see was a ghost image of his eyes.
Holy fucking shit.
She needed air. As she made her way to the back of the auditorium, thousands of upturned faces devoured Ana and Rho’s final stand on the projector screen.
It’s just so…real.
The exit was in sight now. AJ had almost reached it when she heardsomeone call her name. She turned to find herself face-to-face with Eudora.
“My dear, you did a fine job,” she said, offering AJ her hands.
“You did too,” said AJ, pulling her old mentor out of the aisle. On the projector, the pilot episode ofInto the Bluewas kicking off an all-night marathon.
Eudora looked down at the ring on AJ’s finger. “When’s the big day?”
