Page 5 of One Life to Loathe

She wasn’t wrong. “You’ll get used to it.” I moved past her and headed toward the luggage carousel. “I don’t know about you, Samantha, but I think this is going to be a fun shoot.”

“Sam,” she corrected. “Nobody calls me Samantha except my mother when she’s gearing up to yell at me.”

“I think Samantha is more adult. I’m going with that.”

“You just have to be contrary, don’t you?”

That was how I burned things down. I disagreed on absolutely everything. “I kind of do,” I admitted.

“Well, I’m not going to let you get to me. Just so you know, whatever you do to irritate people, it’s not going to work on me. This is the thing I’ve been waiting for my entire life. I’m not going to let you ruin it.”

I didn’t want to ruin it for her. I would, though. I ruined it for everybody all the time. That was my gift. “I guess we’ll have to see about that, huh?”

“I guess we will.”

THE PRODUCTION COMPANY SENT A LUXURY SUVto pick us up. Sam kept making huffy noises for the duration of the thirty-minute ride. I, however, was quiet for a change. I was used to West Coast life. The East Coast foliage was quite beautiful and it helped me relax.

Salem was only a half hour outside of Boston, so when I saw the signs that we were approaching, I leaned forward. I’d never been to Salem before. I hadn’t even spent a lot of time in Boston. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but the town was much smaller than I was envisioning, and I was flummoxed when the driver pulled onto the main drag.

“This is where we’re filming?” I didn’t mean for it to sound as derogatory as it likely sounded to Sam.

This time when she huffed, though, there was some grit to it. “You’ve seen exactly one block of the town. How can you possibly have a problem when you haven’t even seen the town?” She sounded exasperated.

“It’s just… I expected it to be bigger.”

“Bigger isn’t always better.”

“Well, if you want to place a bet on that…” I trailed off and instantly regretted it when she peeled my skin off with a single glare. “Never mind.” I went back to looking out the window. I should have kept my mouth shut. I didn’t, though. “Where are the witches? I thought this town was full of witches.”

“It’s the end of August.”

I waited for her to expand. When she didn’t, I lifted a hand. “And?”

“And the seasonal stuff starts in September, which you would’ve known if you’d bothered to research anything.”

My smirk was back. “You research a lot of stuff, don’t you?”

“It’s called being prepared.”

“You’re one of those people who still has a paper planner, aren’t you? Even though your phone is better and easier, you still get colored ink pens and fill out planners. I can tell.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“It was just an observation.” The SUV stopped in front of the only hotel on the strip. It said Hunter Hotel on the front and looked to be a three-star at best. “Is this where we’re staying?”

“Oh, you’re just going to be a ray of sunshine wherever we go, aren’t you?” Sam threw open her door, not waiting for the driver to come around and open it for her and was standing impatiently by the hatchback when I managed to catch up.

“It was just a question,” I said, fighting hard to keep from laughing when she looked anywhere but at me. If an individualcould pull a muscle rolling her eyes or avoiding eye contact, it was Sam. “Sorry to have upset you.”

Her eyes narrowed but there were hints of life there. “Are you talking about now or on the plane?”

“Actually, I was being sarcastic.”

The light went out of her eyes as quickly as it had come, and I hated that I’d snuffed it out again. Yet I did nothing to fix it.

The driver handed Sam her suitcase first, and she smiled as she tipped him. I watched her go, enjoying the extra sashay in her hips, and when I finally turned back to the driver, he was studying me with unreadable eyes.

“What?” I demanded.

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