Page 46 of Falling Like Stars

“I just…I saw The Scandal Sheet article and you wouldn’t answer my calls or texts…” Tears fill her eyes, but she takes a steadying breath.

I clench my jaw. “What the fuck do you want, Eva?”

“It’s not what you think. If you like that girl—”

“We’re not going to talk about her.”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Eva says quickly. “It’s not about her. It’s…” The tears come again and this time they spill over. “Will you please sit? I can’t talk to you with you standing over me, so angry…”

“I have every right to be so angry,” I say. “I’m at the end of a project that means a lot to me, and I don’t need this drama. It’s actually insane that you’re here.”

“Please, Zach,” Eva says, her voice a whisper. “Just give me five minutes.”

I resist for another moment, but she’s looking up at me, her blue eyes swimming and without their usual spiteful glare.

I sit down. “Five minutes.”

“Thank you.” Her smile is full of warmth and gratitude. She looks like she did in the early years, before the Godsent fame morphed her into a stranger. “I’m here because…if it’s not too late…and it might be, I realize that. I’m not here to get in the way of whatever is going on with that woman, I swear.”

Eva’s nervous rambling is a stark contrast to her usual biting sarcasm and throws me off. I have to remind myself this is just a performance from a really good actress.

“Get to the point.”

She heaves a breath. “I’m here to ask for a favor.”

“A favor?” I bark a harsh, disbelieving laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Look, I know the last few months were rough between us.”

“Months? Try years.”

Eva swallows hard. “But I need to be honest with you. Things have not been great for me. Professionally.”

My voice is stony. “Sorry to hear that.”

Eva’s tears fall again. “This is really hard, okay, Zach? But if you could find it in your heart to hear me out, for old time’s sake, without being so hateful…?”

I sigh and lean forward, scrubbing my hands over my face. “Fine. Okay, I’m listening.”

“Thank you.” She takes a shaky breath. “I haven’t had a job since that terrible horror movie I did last year, and I only took that because it’s all I’ve been offered. The jobs are drying up and so is the money. After Godsent, I thought things would be different. They are for you—and that’s great,” she adds quickly. “I’m so happy for your success. And now you have the Oscars coming up and I just know you’re going to win.”

“That’s not what you said on the phone in LA,” I remind her. “Back then, I was ‘wanting the chance to be worshipped and adored.’”

“You should be,” she says. “You deserve it.”

Her smile is disarmingly familiar. It belongs to the old Eva, the girl who used to rest her cheek on my shoulder while we watched movies in our shitty little apartment. Who used to gaze up at me with love, her every action promising us a future…

“There’s no role for you in Midnight Skies,” I say. “This film is nearly in the can—”

“That’s not why I’m here,” she says, and squares her shoulders. “I’m here to ask if you would take me to the Academy Awards.”

I blink and sit back. “Say again?”

“Just as friends,” she adds quickly. “I need the exposure, Zach. I need to be on a red carpet with the paparazzi and photos and all of Hollywood watching. To remind them of who I am and what I’m capable of.” Fresh tears fall but she wipes them away quickly. “I saw the photos of you and that other woman, and I got scared you would ask her. And maybe you have. Maybe I’m too late, but I had to try.”

I let out a sigh. “Eva…”

“She’s very pretty,” she says, offering a wavering smile. “Are you…taking her?”

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