Page 26 of Nothing Like the Movies

Regarding Lizzie, I had all the intentions in the world.

CHAPTER TEN

“I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.”

—When Harry Met Sally

Liz

“Any questions?”

I shoved my laptop into my backpack as Elaine Lowell, my Forensic Musicology instructor, waited for questions—questions that would not be coming. I’d taken one of her classes before, and she was absolutely brilliant yet utterly terrifying.

The building could be on fire and no one would dare ask that woman where the extinguishers were.

She’d just assigned a huge amount of reading—reading that was sure to put me to sleep. It was important information that I’d definitely be using in the real world, but there was only so much a person could read about music copyrights before their eyelids got droopy.

I’d probably go to the music library later to read the text, because my roommates were far too noisy to make the comprehension of boring material possible.

“Okay, then, you’re free to go.”

I followed the rush to exit and was almost to the door when I heard her say, “Liz? Can you hang back for a sec?”

“Sure.”Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.I swallowed and walked over to the lecture podium, where she was packing up her things, wondering what this could possibly be about. “What’s up?”

She smiled—a warm smile—and I was taken aback, because I’d never seen her smile before. She was a high-powered entertainment attorney with that whole I-don’t-have-time-for-anything vibe, so I just assumed she didn’t know how.

That she’d never cared enough to learn.

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m always available for questions and extra discussion. Lilith Grossman is a good friend of mine, and she reached out to let me know her intern is in my class.”

Oh.I’d emailed my schedule to Lilith like she’d asked, but I hadn’t expected her to look at it and actually interact with it.

Or reach out to an industry professional to make a connection.

“Thank you,” I said, nodding and smiling—basically gushing. “I really appreciate that. I’m positive I’ll take you up on the offer.”

“You definitely should,” she said, still smiling. “I’m happy to help anytime.”

I left the classroom totally energized, and as I exited Schoenberg and put in my AirPods, a burst of gratitude popped through me. The fact that I was even there, in LA, taking music classes in such a gorgeous place—it was more than enough.

But now I was making connections in my dream career? Before I was even a senior?

It was huge.

I assigned “Unwritten” to this moment (I was always looking for a reason to steal it back fromThe Hills, anyway), cranking it as I headed down Bruin Walk toward Morgan for my meeting with Lilith. I was visualizing a movie scene in my head as I walked through the busy crowd of students going to class, the music playing as the protagonist crossed the picturesque campus with a cheesy smile on her face.

Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it—

“On your left!”

“Gah!” I squeaked and jumped out of the way as a scooter buzzed past me, so close to running me down that I could literally feel the breeze when it passed.

Jackass.

I wasn’t surprised to see it was an athlete at the helm. I wasn’t sure why, but they were the ones I always saw using scooters. I watched the guy zip in and out of foot traffic like a NASCAR driver, fast and unfazed, and I gritted my teeth when I saw the height of the dude and his Bruins Baseball backpack.

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