Page 73 of He's The Reason Why

She sat down at the table and pulled out her phone. “First, food. We’re both loopy. Then, talk to me about your to-do list.”

They debated what Piper considered his speed bumps over deli wraps. His list was more like a series of sticky notes, which she didn’t find useful at all.

“How do you even keep track of things like this?” She waved a pink note at him that had the word catering scrawled on it. “Sticky notes don’t stick.”

“It’s all in my phone too. Those are just visual reminders.” He took the note from her and crumpled it up.

“Let’s see if I have this all right.” She’d written an extensive liston a pad of actual paper they’d managed to find at the bottom of his desk drawer, and now she ticked each item as she spoke it out loud. “You’re having issues with catering, you can’t find a ranch replacement, you need a bar but not just any bar, one with a,” she put air quotes with her fingers, “Vegas-cool guy vibe, not a hooker vibe, and you haven’t signed anyone for costume design yet, and you’re iffy about set design. Plus casting calls for the secondary characters were never finished, the script still isn’t final, you need to cast the girlfriend now that Jessica’s out, and Marshall has a whole list of locations you still haven’t nailed down. That about it?”

“Feels like there should be more, but it’s plenty to start with.” He took Jessica’s picture off the whiteboard, crumpled it up, and tossed it into the trash can by his desk. It hit dead center.

“You’re right, there should be more. You don’t mention music anywhere, and you are absolutely going to need it.” She added that to the list.

“You would notice that.” It had been in the back of his mind to contact Grant Withers, the guy who’d done the score for one of his mother’s biggest hits, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet because the man insisted on a final script before he started work. At the rate they were going, their script wouldn’t be final until after the movie was in the can.

“What about hair and makeup? Do you have go-to people for that?” Piper wrote it down on the list.

“I have ideas. I was going to call the sisters who did my last three movies.”

“Do you know everyone in Hollywood?”

He considered that. “Not everyone, no. There’s new people coming in all the time.”

She rolled her eyes and continued her brainstorming. “You have special effects lined up, and stunts. I couldn’t help with those anyway. Camera, electrical, sound, etc. is all yours. Okay, I think Isee where I can help, especially with costume design. I know someone who’s absolutely fantastic.”

He pictured the videos he’d pulled up of The Bellamy Sisters’ last tour and inwardly cringed. Piper had worn a silver-sequined bodysuit that emphasized every curve and made her sparkle like some sort of celestial disco ball.

He wondered if she still had it for reasons that he refused to admit to himself, but that amount of flash wouldn’t work well on camera. “This is for a movie, remember, not a stage show. Although I suppose we do have that one scene where boas could come in handy.”

“Orry Kurland is a genius. She designed everything for all of our videos, plus she’s done a few indie films since we split up. You’d be lucky to have her. What’s your budget for that?”

“I was hoping to keep it under sixty grand. I want it to look classic and elegant when they’re in Vegas. Real high rollers. But in the town they can look more low-key. Except for me of course.” He brushed imaginary lint off his T-shirt. “My character’s always cool and swanky.”

“Sixty. Wow. We didn’t spend that on an entire tour, even with the dancers, but okay.” She picked up her phone.

He dialed Marshall and waited for him to pick up while Piper greeted Orry, the design genius, with genuine affection.

“I know, it’s been way too long. How’s Adrian?” She listened and murmured polite noises for a while.

Marshall finally picked up. “Hey. Just a sec.”

In the background, he heard Marshall say, “I don’t see why the price would stay the same when half the buildings are gone.”

A familiar feminine voice answered him.

Marissa, he thought.

Blake leaned back in his chair and listened in on Piper’s conversation while he waited for Marshall.

“Listen,” Piper said, “I was just talking with a friend of mineand got to wondering if you were still wanting to break into Hollywood?”

He perked up at her use of the word friend. She could be simply picking up the lingo. Everyone was a friend in Hollywood.

Then again, she wasn’t from LA originally, so maybe she actually meant it.

“I’m back,” Marshall singsonged.

Blake forced his attention away from Piper and back to Marshall. “Hey. Where are you? I thought you were negotiating the ghost town.”

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