“Can I get you something to drink? Seltzer? Mimosa? Kombucha?” Pilar asked, heading over to the fridge.
Lilah shook her head. “I have that nude shoot tomorrow, I should probably skip the bubbles. God forbid I bloat.” She delivered the last part with a self-deprecating eye roll.
“Oh, right. Bummer. Want a green juice, then?”
“No. But I’ll take one anyway.”
Pilar laughed, sticking her head in the fridge.
Annie arrived just then, looking a thousand times calmer and better rested than the last time Lilah had seen her. The dark circles had disappeared from under her eyes, the locked-in-the-library pallor gone from her complexion. She was even dressed in color, surprisingly—a pale blue sundress—with her light-brown hair, usually pulled out of her face, falling loose and curly down her back.
Annie refused Pilar’s offer to make her coffee, instead buzzing around the kitchen to make it herself, complaining good-naturedly that Pilar had rearranged everything since the last time they were all there.
Yvonne reached over the counter to pluck a cube of mango from the fruit plate before turning to Lilah. “You’re doing a nude shoot tomorrow? For what? The show?”
“Yeah, forReel. The cover of the fall TV preview.”
“Just you?” Annie asked.
Lilah sighed. “Me and Shane.”
Yvonne’s nose crinkled. “Did you try to get out of it?”
Lilah shook her head. “Everyone already thinks I’m difficult. And it’ll be good exposure.”
“How much exposure?” Pilar laughed.
“Based on the deck they sent over, I think it’s going to be one of those things where we start out clothed and end up naked.”
Lilah didn’t have many reservations about nudity. Her bodywas her tool, and she wasn’t shy about stripping down for work when it was required. It wasn’t the getting naked part that bothered her—it was the getting naked with Shane part.
Annie blew on her coffee. “That sounds like porn. Are you sure you’re not just doing porn?” she deadpanned.
“Dario Rossi is shooting it, so unless he’s switched industries…”
Yvonne’s eyes widened. “Oh, IloveDario. He’s shooting my next album cover. He’s gonna take such good care of you. I bet those pictures will behot.”
Lilah felt a flash of anticipation shimmer over her, which she quickly pushed away.
“Yeah, maybe. So, wait, what’s this new album?”
Yvonne filled her in as Pilar put the finishing touches on the fruit plate, standing on top of a stool to get the perfect overhead shot. Lilah felt her social battery recharging as they fell into the rhythm of their familiar chatter, the four of them weaving in and out of various side conversations without missing a beat.
It was sometimes surprising to Lilah that they were still in touch at all, let alone as close as they were. Most of her other friendships in the industry felt shallow and transactional, people whose cheeks she kissed at parties but whom she never saw in daylight, whose small talk felt like a calculated investment they were making in her that they would eventually try to cash out in the form of a favor.
But the four of them had been thrown together at exactly the right time, in exactly the right situation. They’d rubbed calamine lotion on one another’s bug bites, held one another’s hair back after drinking too much cheap beer, and passed out on one another’s shoulders after long, sun-sick days of shooting. Every time they reunited, Lilah would be filled with nervousanticipation that they’d finally grown too far apart to have anything to talk about, but within minutes, she’d be wheezing with laughter at some wordless inside joke that she’d forgotten until that exact moment. They spoke the secret language of old friends, that unconditional love and acceptance that could only come from years of shared history.
It made her even more bitter about the situation with Shane. The fact that she had to fight so hard to find time for the people she loved, while someone she hated was allowed to monopolize such a large chunk of it. Even after she’d done everything she could to diverge her path from his, fate—and the whims of the UBS executives and the viewing public—had shoved them right back together again.
“So, how is it? Being back on the show?” Pilar asked once they were seated at her dining room table, French doors thrown open to let in the breeze off the pool. She’d outdone herself on the meal, laying the table with fresh-cut flowers, homemade pastries, and a mouthwatering quiche. They’d all filled their plates except for Lilah, who had her green juice, which she begrudgingly had to admit was pretty good.
Lilah groaned, flopping her head dramatically onto the table. The others laughed.
“Is it just Shane being Shane? Or is it everything?” asked Yvonne.
Lilah lifted her head and settled back against her chair. “It’s everything. All the new cast members hate my guts, too.” She turned to Yvonne. “How do you manage working with Adam all the time? Do things ever get weird?” Yvonne’s ex-boyfriend still produced all her albums.
Yvonne shrugged. “Not really. Well, not anymore. But we never had the kind of drama you two do.”
