Dean’s expression turned serious. “No,I’msorry. I never should’ve gone home with her in the first place.”
“I get it. I was an asshole. I deserved it. From both of you.”
“Yeah, but…I don’t think I really understood, not until after. The way things were between you two. Even now.”
“What do you mean, now?” Shane asked, his mind immediately flashing to the premiere party: Lilah’s request for a shotgun, how he’d reached his hand out for the joint without even thinking about it, Dean passing it to him without a word.
“Come on,” Dean said. “What about the first table read? Didn’t you drive, like, forty minutes out of your way to get those donuts she likes?”
Shane blinked. “Well, yeah. But I didn’t do it because she likes them, I did it to mess with her.”
Dean furrowed his brow in a fake-pensive expression. “I wonder what it would be like to have someone so obsessed with me that they arrange their whole day around finding incredibly specific ways to rile me up.”
Shane scowled. “I’m not obsessed with her.”
“Whatever you say,” Dean said with an evil grin, standing up and stretching. “You’re just lucky she hasn’t taken out arestraining order against you. But it kinda seems like she’s into it, so maybe you freaks really are made for each other.”
Shane shook his head. “I think that ship has sailed. And sunk. That ship is at the bottom of the ocean, full of seaweed and skeletons in pirate hats.”
“Guess it’s time to get over it, then.” Dean headed out of the room, pausing in the doorway. “When you get back, we’re signing you up for one of those dating sites where they make you answer, like, a hundred different questions about your favorite pasta shape and what you want to do with your body after you die.”
“I’m not doing that.”
“Why not? Worried it’ll just spit out a picture of Lilah at the end?”
Dean was already halfway down the hall before Shane had a chance to respond.
16
When Lilah turned her phone back on after landing in Vancouver, she was greeted by a missed call from Jasmine, her agent. She ducked into a corner of the terminal after deplaning, gesturing to Shane and the others to make their way to baggage claim without her.
Jasmine answered, as always, on the first ring. She’d started as the assistant to Lilah’s previous agent but quickly worked her way up the ranks. When Lilah’s agent had dropped her unceremoniously afterWithout a Nethad flopped, Jasmine, now at her own agency, snapped her up so quickly that Lilah’s ego barely had time to bruise.
“Great news. I have a lead on theperfectpost-show project for you.”
Lilah adjusted the strap of her bag. “Really?”
“Do you knowNight Call?”
“Sure, I’ve read it.”Night Callhad been a true crime sensation a decade or so ago, a nonfiction bestseller chronicling the case of a serial killer who had terrorized Seattle in the early nineties. The book had been optioned before it was even published, but had been stuck in development hell ever since, with one big-name actress after another attached to the juicy leading role of the intrepid local journalist (and sister of one of the victims) who had finally tracked him down.
Lilah’s stomach leapt once she realized what Jasmine was saying. “Wait. Is it finally happening?”
“They’re trying to keep it hush-hush, but it’s happening. And Marcus Townsend is adapting it.”
Lilah’s jaw dropped.
Growing up, she’d dreamed of working with herWithout a Netdirector, but in retrospect, she could admit that his creative peak had come a couple of decades earlier. Marcus Townsend, on the other hand, was undoubtedly still at the height of his powers. He’d made five films over the past dozen years, each more critically acclaimed than the last—the first Black director to be a three-time Academy Award nominee in that category. She’d been burned by her previous grasp at so-called prestige, but starring in a Marcus Townsend movie was the closest she was ever going to get to a sure thing.
“You think you can get me an audition?” Lilah asked, once she could speak again.
“The sides are already waiting for you at the hotel.”
Lilah leaned against the wall. “Holy shit. Okay. How long do I have to prepare?”
“They wanted you to come in next week, but I told them you were out of town. Do you think you can put yourself on tape while you’re out there?”
“Absolutely, of course. Whatever they want.”
