The Reunion by Kayla Olson(56)
“Let’s just say I’m very much looking forward to doing scenes with you and Ford over the next few days. The whole Sasha-Kate and Millie dynamic is exhausting.”
“Yeah?” He’s thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“Why is it never enough for Sasha-Kate to just, like, appreciate the love she gets from her fans? And why can’t she just be happy for people when they do well? It’s like she needs to be loved the most, and make everyone else as unhappy as she is.”
Ransom’s heard me vent about Sasha-Kate more times than I can count. More times than either of us probably even remembers.
“How has she been around you?” he asks.
I shrug, my mouth full of pizza. “The usual,” I say a moment later. “A little better than usual, actually—she’s used to competing with me for the spotlight, but Millie becoming a massive star overnight wasn’t really on anyone’s radar, so I think she’s preoccupied with that right now.”
It’s like I’m watching a brand-new feud sprout up right before my eyes—I can tell our original distaste for each other still has roots, too, though, like a weed looking to take over everything good.
Ransom sips his wine, studies me. “How was Millie in the scene today?”
“Better than before,” I say, but then I remember everything Attica brought up at dinner yesterday and make a face. “My publicist heard a rumor that they’re thinking about making Sasha-Kate and Millie more prominent in the reboot.”
Which would make me less.
“I… hmmm,” he says, several questions crossing his face. “I’m struggling to find a nice way to say, ‘They want to give Millie more screen time? Really?’?”
I laugh. “My thoughts exactly. She did pretty well today, though, actually.”
“You think you’ll still sign on if they go in that direction?”
I wrinkle my nose, not sure how to tell him I’m on the fence about signing on at all, especially since that decision will affect him, too—what would happen to his character if mine wasn’t in the show?
“I have a lot of potential projects in the works,” I say carefully. “Another film with Vienna Lawson, maybe also an adaptation of one of the books I read recently.”
He has a thoughtful look on his face, one I can’t quite read. “Would those shoot here in LA?”
“The Vienna project is set in a remote cabin in the woods, and she said last night she wants to shoot on location, so I already know I’d be traveling for that one. And the Emily Quinn novel is set in Antarctica—so—yeah. Even if a lot is shot on green screen, I imagine we’ll need to do some stuff in the actual ice and snow.”
“How would those fit with Girl? It seems like they’ll green-light us any day now.”
I know he’s right. My social media following has been growing by the hour, and word around set is that our old episodes are shattering records left and right among Fanline’s streaming catalog.
“I’m honestly not sure,” I admit. “Mars assures me it’ll all work out, if I say yes.” I sip my wine, glance at the glittering blue water of his pool. “I haven’t really told anyone this, but I’m having mixed feelings about returning to the show… like… at all.”
“Oh, wow, Livvie, that’s huge.” He goes quiet for a moment, the look on his face unreadable.
I take another sip of wine, give him some space.
“The reboot wouldn’t be the same without you,” he finally says.
I’m not sure there would even be a reboot without me, but it feels immodest to say so. “Do you—” I start, then take a moment to reorganize the question in my head. “Are you pretty sure you’ll sign on if it happens?”
“It never even occurred to me to say no.” He bites his lip, like there’s something he wants to say but isn’t sure he should.
“Are there any other projects you’re looking at?” I ask when he doesn’t say more. “Whether you sign on for Girl or not, I mean?”
He grins, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “More of the same. I know they’ve got another Hunter Drew script in the works, so I’m probably looking at Belgium or Prague for a couple of months at some point. And I’m sure my dad has a lot on his radar he hasn’t mentioned yet.”
“Like that apocalypse thriller with the velociraptor zombies?” I joke.
He cracks a genuine smile.
“Exactly like that, Livvie. If you weren’t in such high demand, I’d definitely fight to get you cast as my costar,” he says, laughing. “Seriously, though, it’s amazing you have so many incredible roles to choose from.”
Suddenly I’m all too aware of how this is a very specific and fortunate problem to have—too many movies, too many good roles, too many amazing locations that could potentially cancel each other out. Just because Ransom and I had twin career tracks to begin with on Girl, it doesn’t mean we still do, doesn’t mean he’ll relate to every twist and rise in mine. He’s plenty in demand—but for his looks, not for the depth of substance we both know he can bring to the table.
“I’m grateful,” I say. I want to add more, but there’s not a way to add But I don’t know how I’ll choose without rubbing in the fact that I have such compelling projects to choose from in the first place.