Page 74 of He's The Reason Why

“I’m in Virginia City with Marissa. She says the ranch wants the same money even though half of it would work better for a dystopian sci-fi.”

“Screw that.” Blake pulled up the budget spreadsheet on his computer and deleted the ranch off the list.

“That’s what I told them.”

“So what about the ghost town? Is it worth the extra expense?”

“The ghost town’s a bust,” Marshall said. “It’s a tourist trap and they refuse to let us shut it down for less than five million. Besides, I think we might have something better.”

“That’s good to hear,” Piper said, startling Blake. It was almost like she was responding to Marshall instead of her designer friend. “So how would you like to work on Blake Ryan’s next hit? They kick off in January and they needeverything.”

Blake swore he heard someone squeal his name on the other end of the line.

“Who’s that?” Marshall asked. “Is that Piper? Whereareyou?”

“In my office,” Blake told him. “And yes, that’s Piper.”

“What’s she doing there?” Marshall sounded suspicious.

“She offered to help us out.” He clicked over to his list of possible locations and puttoo much $in the note field for the ghost town.

“Help. Right.” Marshall snorted. “She’s the reason we have to rework the third act. Again. That’s not help, that’s interference.”

“Great,” Piper said, looking excited.

“No it’s not great,” Marshall scoffed. “Jostling the entire third act just so you can have sex is not great.”

“Would you stop?” Blake whispered to Marshall.

“I’ll stop when she does,” Marshall said.

“He’ll be so excited,” Piper trilled. “It’s a modern buddy caper type of story, kind of a cross betweenOcean’s Elevenand…”

She glanced at Blake.

“Present-dayTheCount of Monte Cristo,” he filled in.

“It’s not going to be either of those things by the time she’s done,” Marshall grumbled.

“Would you focus, please?” Blake said.

“Did you hear that?” Piper asked. “That was Blake filling in the details. Yes, it’s actually him.”

She held the phone away from her ear.

He could hear several people shouting in the background, and he distinctly heard someone scream, “Oh my God, it’s Blake Ryan on the Phone!”

He couldn’t help but laugh.

“I heard that. Why isn’t she usingmyname?” Marshall said, sounding petulant. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone with her so long. You’ve already caved, haven’t you. You broke the deal.”

“No,” Blake said a little too loud.

Piper put a finger to one ear and walked to the far side of the room.

“Iknewit! I knew you’d cave.” Marshall made a triumphant crowing noise. “I can’t wait to see you with Rachel.”

“Would you drop it?” Blake gritted his teeth. “She can probably hear you.”

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