“I know. I don’t want to talk about it. Do you think the driver would take us through Del Taco?”
“Never hurts to ask.” Lilah turned to Natalie. “Wanna come?”
Natalie grinned. “Sure.”
Head held high, Lilah left the party flanked by Natalie and Annie, pretending she didn’t notice Shane glowering at her from the corner where he stood alone.
13
Three and a half years ago
TheDeadlineannouncement had dropped at dawn, the only thing anyone on set had been able to talk about all morning. Shane shouldn’t have been surprised Lilah hadn’t told him herself. They hadn’t spoken an unscripted word in months.
Still, when he’d seen the article, it felt like something in his brain had fried, erasing his ability to process the written word. But no matter how many times he looked at it, it still said the same thing.
He’d tried his best to push it out of his mind as he’d gone through hair and makeup, but it consumed him, like a needle trapped in a record’s groove, unable to move past the same section and repeating over and over.
Sitting in his trailer, failing to absorb the revised script pages in front of him for thirty minutes straight, he knew he had to talk to her. It was the only way to clear his head, get it out of his system. He wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to say, but he’d figure it out in the fifteen seconds it took to get from his trailer to hers.
He strode over to the door and flung it open—only to find Lilah already standing on the other side, her feet staggered sideways on the stairs, like she was talking herself into (or out of) knocking.
They froze, staring at each other.
What are you doing here?was what he meant to say. What he actually blurted out was, “You’re leaving?”
She didn’t say anything at first. She didn’t have to. Her cheeks went pink and her eyes dropped to the ground, and Shane felt like his chest was about to burst open.
“Can I come in?”
He stepped to the side without a word. She shut the door behind her then hovered in front of it, arms crossed. “I got another job,” she said, her mouth tight.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Must’ve slipped my mind during our last heart-to-heart.”
“It’s professional courtesy.”
She cocked her head, her brow creasing with a faux-confused expression. “Professional courtesy? You mean like when you sent Dean in to play the back of your head last week?”
Shane felt heat creep up his neck, but he said nothing. Neither of them moved for a long moment.
“I assume you weren’t on your way to congratulate me,” she said.
“So you’re going.”
“I’m going.”
“And I’ll just…be here. Still. Without you.”
She met his eyes, her face placid and impenetrable. “That’s really none of my business anymore.”
Her stoicism only made him more agitated. He shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “This is pretty fucked up, Lilah. Even for you.”
“I thought you’d be happy about it,” she shot back, which made him start. Whywasn’the happy about it? Why had his first instinct been to barge into her trailer like she owed him an explanation?
“Iamhappy. It’s just hard to put together a parade on such short notice. Still trying to work out the permit situation, might need to call in a favor.”
The corner of her mouth quirked up, and something wound tighter inside him, ready to snap.
