Everything Leads to You(63)

“You don’t have to like him just because he’s famous,” I say. “Or because he’s your costar.”

“It’s not that I don’t like him. Like I said, he seems nice. It’s just that in movies he’s so sexy. I don’t find many guys that attractive, but even I understand the appeal. Like his role in Call Me Yesterday? When he’s all brooding and misunderstood? But today he was just kind of . . .”

“Oh, we totally understand,” Charlotte says.

“It’s the collapse of the fantasy,” I add.

Ava cocks her head.

“It applies to almost anything. You know that scene in Call Me Yesterday that takes place in the back room of the school?”

“Yeah?”

“You know how it’s super-dark and claustrophobic?”

She nods.

“That room actually had no ceiling and only two walls. It’s in a giant warehouse. Nothing claustrophobic about it. And you know that fight scene where Benjamin’s all shirtless and sweaty? I bet between takes he put on a robe and drank Perrier. You’ll see how it all happens. We work so hard to create an illusion and to make it seem real. But for us, the more you know about what happens behind the scenes, the more difficult it is to maintain the fantasy.”

“Does it spoil things a little?” she asks.

“You just have to make an effort to forget.”

“Which doesn’t work a lot of the time,” Charlotte says. “Watching a movie with Emi is like getting a tutorial on how films are made. Look at that shot! They must be using natural light. That backdrop is so fake.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“You’re pretty bad.”

“But when a movie is really good, it’s easy to forget.”

Charlotte nods. “That’s true.”

Ava closes her script and looks at the cover.

“I think our movie is going to be really good. Don’t you guys?”

I nod yes and this moment almost feels like a premonition. Here we are, in the room where we will shoot the first scenes, with the girl who will play Juniper working on her lines and the beginnings of the set in place. These portraits are everything I wanted them to be; I can already picture how they will look on Toby’s wall. And even though we still don’t have George’s house or the grocery store, even though I’ve been starting awake most nights worried about all I need to do, there is a calm in this room that assures me that we are exactly where we are meant to be.





Chapter Fifteen



Theo and I have appointments at five potential locations for George’s house.

The first one is infested with rats. The second has a terrible, unidentifiable smell and I end up coughing so hard that Theo says, “Let’s get out of here. Run for your life!” The third one has such cramped rooms that it would be impossible to fit everyone inside with our lights and the cameras. The fourth is too modern with high ceilings and stainless steel everywhere.

We are desperate by the time we pull up to the fifth.

We park and walk up to it. Paint is peeling off the walls of the house in thick strips, but we try to stay optimistic.

“I don’t think we could use it for the street-view shot,” I say.

“Nope,” Theo says. “No way.”

“But we could choose a different house for that.”

“Right. No big deal.”

A middle-aged woman pulls up in a dirty car and sits there for a moment, digging through a giant purse.

“You figure that’s her?” Theo asks.

“Probably,” I say, but she doesn’t look over at us or appear to be in any kind of hurry.

Eventually, though, she gets out of the car and crosses the street toward us.

“Patricia?” Theo asks. “Hello.”

“You have an accent. Are you legal to live here?” Patricia asks, scrutinizing his face.

“Yes, in fact, I am. But as I said on the phone, we’re only looking for a one-week rental for a film.”

She looks at me and then back to him.

“How old is she? I can’t rent to minors.”

I laugh but Theo tries his best to keep his composure even though this woman obviously suspects him of some statutory rape–immigration scandal.

“This is Emi. She is eighteen years old. But it wouldn’t matter anyway because she is not interested in renting the space. I would be renting it and only for a week to shoot a film.”