Page 132 of Not Exactly a Small-Town Romance

She might not even be upset that Desdemona overreacted. It made the decision easy for her.

But as the car pulls up to my house, doubt creeps in.

If she’s happy, why is Jester so upset?

I leave my suitcases inside the front door and head to my bedside table, where my old phones sit on chargers.

I power them both on.

The business one goes bonkers, a beeping, buzzing frenzy.

My private one, less so, although there are a lot of notifications.

I sort through them.

Kelsey wrote me a week ago, two days after I left Wyoming.

Back in LA to prepare for a meeting with Drake Underwood. Jason is doing a live audition with Gayle for Limited Fate!

My body flashes hot. She came back? A week ago? How did it go? She has to be over the moon!

And how did that play into her getting fired?

There’s another message the next day, last Friday.

Everything’s going down. Desdemona must have found out I recast Limited Fate. Are you coming in?

Then she put through a call. No voicemail.

She needed me, and I didn’t even know.

I sink onto the bed.

I wasn’t there for her.

I didn’t cover for her.

I abandoned her.

I scroll through the rest of my notifications, but she didn’t write me again.

By then she must have learned I was in Venice with Catalina.

She would assume what everyone assumed—even Jester, when he called me a slathering hunk of hormones.

I’m sure she’s back in Wyoming by now.

Writing her would probably help nothing. She stopped contacting me after talking to Desdemona, which means she doesn’t need my help and maybe even doesn’t want to hear from me.

Jester acted out because he loves her and blames me for her firing, but the truth is, she was already going to leave us. Her intervention on the movie and raising Desdemona’s ire just made it happen sooner rather than later. Maybe that was even her plan—go out in a blaze of glory.

We both know that if Drake Underwood recognizes the brilliance in her pairing, the casting will go through even if Kelsey is gone from the office. Casting directors hold no power to force or prevent a director or producer in making a hiring decision.

I set down my phone.

What’s done is done. I hate that she lost getting credit for her movie casting. But she’s gotten what she set out for on the trip.

I should be happy for her. And despite what happened between us along the way, I’m trying to do exactly that.

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