Page 24 of One Life to Loathe

“That guy is a tool.” Levi moved his eyes to me and grinned. “I’m glad you joined us. Daisy and I have a lot of questions about how this whole filming thing is going to work. Before we get started, though, this is my boyfriend, Corey. He’s intolerable fifty percent of the time.”

My eyes went wide at the introduction. Corey, however, didn’t seem bothered by the statement. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said to me. “I too have a lot of questions about this show. You’re going to have to fill us all in. We’re not letting you leave until you do.”

“Daisy already told me,” I replied. “I’m not sure hearing about the show is going to be as entertaining as you think it is. I’ll do my best to fill you in, though. This place is great by the way. The view is … just wow.”

“The view is nice this time of year,” Daisy agreed. “Once it gets cold, we don’t get to enjoy the patio much. It’s a bummer.”

Before I could respond, the server walked up to take our drink orders.

“You have to at least try the pickle martini,” Daisy insisted.

I hesitated. “That doesn’t even sound good to me,” I admitted.

“You still have to try it.” Daisy was adamant.

“It’s way better than it probably sounds in your head,” Levi offered. “Just try it. If you don’t like it, one of us will drink it and you can get something else.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll get the pickle martini.”

The next ten minutes were spent talking about the menu. Jax was in a good mood when he arrived. He dropped a kiss on top of Daisy’s head and settled in his chair. Daisy had ordered a cocktail for him. “Pickle martini?” He made a face.

“You know that’s why we come here,” Daisy replied.

“Yes, but I don’t need ten of them a week. I was thinking of sticking to beer tonight.”

“I’ll take it.” Corey scooped up the pickle martini before Jax could mount an argument. “I’m hoping to get drunk so I’ll sleep through Lux’s three o’clock call.”

“She calls you at three in the morning?” I asked. As promised, the pickle martini was delightful. I was certain I’d found my signature drink while in Salem. Well, at least one of them.

“Lux is Corey’s best friend,” Levi explained. “We’re kind of an incestuous little group.”

“It’s because the town is much smaller than it seems,” Daisy explained. “We all grew up together, graduated within a few years together. So even if you don’t like people, you’re still forced to interact with them.”

“Huh.” I had never really given it a lot of thought. “I can go for days without seeing a single other soul I know in LA. It’s lonely despite being surrounded by millions of people. You guys don’t have that here, though.”

“We don’t,” Daisy agreed. “It’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing for us because we like each other. When Lux sees Nevaeh—that’s her arch nemesis if you’re wondering—it’s more of a curse.”

I had to laugh. “I would not want to be on her bad side.”

“She’s actually a good person,” Corey insisted, rushing to her defense. “She’s just dealing with endless back pain. She can’t get comfortable. It will be better when the baby is here.”

“Yes, because getting no sleep will make Lux easier to deal with,” Jax deadpanned.

“Ah, but she has help,” Daisy argued. “My moms have already volunteered to act as night nurses a couple times a week so Jesse and Lux don’t run into trouble during the busy season.”

She turned to me. “The baby is a gift, but it would’ve been more of a gift if he came in January so they had time to bond with him. We’re going into our busiest season, and they have a restaurant and multiple food trucks to run.”

I understood what she wasn’t saying. “They can’t afford to take time off following the birth of the baby.” That sounded like a nightmare.

“Nope.” Daisy shook her head. “The other good thing about knowing everybody is that you have help. Lux has a mentor who is going to babysit in her store some. My moms are going to help. Corey is going to help.”

“Except I’m afraid of babies,” Corey complained. “How am I supposed to help when I’m afraid I’m going to break him?”

“You’re helping.” Daisy was having none of it. “Enough about us, though. We’re boring until Lux pushes out that baby and stops being a demon. Tell us all about the production. There is no detail that’s too trivial.”

“We really do want to know all of it,” Corey agreed. “This is a big deal for us. Make sure you don’t leave anything out.”

I TOLD THEM WHAT THEY WANTED TO KNOW.It was boring to me, but they hung on every word. Explaining how things would work was difficult because I hadn’t even seen thecall sheets yet. I knew they would be utilizing multiple crews to film various scenes at the same time—different players in each scene—but I had no idea how many scenes we would be doing a day or how we were going to handle the outdoors stuff.

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