‘Please,’ Rafa presses. ‘I need Austin. I promise that you guys can talk about the movie as much as you want with the media who’ll be there. Use it for your own publicity.’
I sigh. ‘Fine. I’ll do my best to talk him into it. But Raf, I’ve seen this guy dance. You might want to think about increasing your public liability insurance.’
CHAPTER 10
Kye
I stroll past the packed booths lining the wall of the Italian eatery, my eyes snagging on two boys fighting over a last slice of greasy pizza. The younger kid smacks the older one on the back of the neck, and the woman sitting opposite snatches his wrist and hisses a reprimand in his wide-eyed face.
Rewind time by a couple of decades and take the drugs out of my mother’s hands, and me and Jace could’ve been those boys. I watch the brothers elbow each other, the younger one breaking out into convulsive laughter, and I glance away, ignoring the blade jammed in my chest. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I used to go whole months without thinking of Jace, and all of a sudden, I feel a sharp pang in my torso every time I see a pair of boys.
You could set your clock by the ever-reliable Mike, and there he is—in the last booth, hunched overhis phone. His eyes spring from his screen to my face, and he lifts off the seat to wrap a solid arm around me, giving my shoulder a pat.
‘You planning to eat?’ I ask as I slide onto the sticky vinyl bench across from him.
‘Nah, just having a tea,’ he says, pulling off his glasses and tucking them inside the pocket of his faded flannel shirt. ‘I’m trying that intermittent fasting thing everyone keeps harping on about. I’m not more energetic or sleeping better yet, but I’m fucking hungry.’
I chuckle and fold open one of the plastic menus. ‘Precisely why it’s not for me.’
My eyes roam across the overwhelming selection of pizzas and pastas before I clap the menu shut. I can’t eat in front of this guy while he’s starving. He’s been too good to me.
We flag down a server and order—a flat white for me and an Earl Grey for Mike—and he sits forward, setting his crinkly, warm-brown eyes on me. ‘So, how are things?’
Such a casual question, yet I don’t know how to answer it.
‘Still really busy with the movie,’ is what I decide on. I bring Mike up to speed on the shoot, telling him how Buzz is trying to prove to the world, and undoubtedly himself, that he’s as creatively gifted as his legendary uncle. ‘Except he’s failing,’ I add. ‘Spectacularly.’
A smile tilts Mike’s lips. ‘I’m gonna need some examples of that.’
God, where do I even start? ‘He does a diabolical number of takes for every shot, even though each one is exactly the same. He’s got half-naked female extras lingering in the background when there’s zero need for them. Yesterday, he shot a scene through the reflection of a windowpane, and after that, when he was filming the two leads having a deep conversation, he directed them to stare straight ahead instead of at each other. For what reason? Nobody knows.’
Mike snort-laughs as a server sets down our steaming cups. ‘It’s good to have you back, Kye.’
I just pass him a contained smile because the expected response would be, ‘It’s good to be back’, but I can’t seem to make those words leave my lips. Iwasfeeling good about being back until I found out that Jace is now living twelve kilometres from my apartment.
Islivingthe right word to describe someone who’s locked up in prison?Being incarcerated? Institutionalised?
Mike wrenches me off this thought train by catching me up on how his lovely wife and teenage boys are doing. He then turns silent and draws in a breath. ‘I know we’re here for our usual catch-up, but there’s something I’ve been waiting to talk to you about.’
‘Yeah?’ I lift my drink to my lips.
He grips his mug with both hands. ‘A new position has opened up at Angel Care. Senior communications and publicity manager for the foster care division. The thing is, it’s based in Melbourne. Do you think you’d be interested in it?’
My spine straightens. Now and then, over the years, I have wondered what it might be like to leave the cutthroat entertainment industry for something more charitable, like helping kids in foster care. But I’ve never seriously considered it.
‘This sort of role doesn’t come up very often there,’ Mike goes on. ‘So, I think you should give it some real thought. It’s mostly publicity and marketing. Trying to get more people in the community to sign up as foster carers. Social media stuff, partnerships, fundraising—’
Reality snaps me out of the fantasy, and I shake my head before he can even finish. ‘Mike, you know I can’t. I appreciate you thinking of me, I really do, but I’m still tied up in this gig with Austin. At least until this film is done and we see how it goes.’
He plants his fingers on the table. ‘If the job with Austin is something you enjoy and want to do, no one will support that more than me. But Kye, I don’t think that’s why you’re doing it.’ His knowing eyes drill into my own. ‘I think that Austin’s guilted you into this job because of what happened. And I assume he’s still planning on heading back to the States after this movie is over. Didn’t you tell me not that long ago that you weren’t keen to move back to LA?’
He’s spot-on about everything, of course, but the idea ofactuallygoing through with it—walking away from my life, my job with Austin, everything that has come to feel safe to me—is making me feel as if someone doused my skin in iced water.
‘I know you think I’m being a giant coward,’ I mumble.
‘Hey.’ Mike throws up a hand. ‘You must believe by now that I willneverjudge you. But I also know you—you are a beautiful person who has been through so much, and you deserve to be happy. Okay, Kye?’ His eyes seek mine, but I keep my gaze lowered. ‘You deserve to live the lifeyouwant, and you don’t have to sacrifice your own desires to please someone else. Or to make up for one mistake you made.’
Something sharp and tight grips my lungs. The wordmistakeis a gross understatement of what I did.
