Page 30 of Hot Set

But if I attempted to find a replacement, that would be like admitting that Alex was leaving. Bile rose in my throat. I was acting childish. Alex was right. Ishouldgo ahead and hire a make-up artist or, at least, begin vetting potential candidates, but thus far, I hadn’t even made the token gesture of posting an ad on Craig’s List.

It was so, so selfish to want Alex to stick around, and it was foolish of me to be so attached to someone who had no hope of liking me the way I wanted him to. What had I been thinking in even hiring him? I’d literally just befriended some guy who rejected me in a bar and gave him a job! Sure, I’d thought of it as just doing a nice thing, but I probably should’ve thought through the consequences of hiring someone I was already attracted to.

“So, I really think—” Alex began.

“I will cross that bridge when I get there,” I replied. “If you don’t get the job because the FBI are a bunch of no-talent hacks or something, you’ll still have a job here. And if you do landa spot on the art forgery team, well, it won’t be your problem, right?”

“Right, but—”

“Then, you don’t need to worry about it,” I said, waving my pen. “I’ll figure it out. I always figure these things out. The only thingyoushould be worrying about is the cost of rent when you have to move out of your mom’s house and land in New York, or D.C.”

“I’ve been saving for it,” Alex replied. “I doubt the FBI would take ‘I can’t pay rent’as a valid excuse for not taking them up on their job opportunity right away.”

“Maybe not.”

“I’ve heard D.C. rent is absolutely horrifying,” Alex said, “And that’s where they’d want me to go. I might have to spend the first few weeks living in my car until I get a paycheck.”

“Now, I would hope the FBI would have some sort of contingency before you had to resort to allthat.”

“We’ll see,” Alex replied. “God knows the drive would be soul-killing.”

Alex pulled over a stool and sat it beside me. I tipped my face down, towards the marked-up script in my hand. It seemed strange that Alex was staying. I’d expected him to say good-bye and leave. My heart hammered in my chest, as dozens of completely irrational thoughts jolted through my mind. Maybe this was just guilt.

“So, what were you working on?” I asked.

“I needed to repour some latex,” Alex replied. “Bioncia carved out this great shape earlier today, but the latex tore when we pulled it out of the mold. She promised to stop by the store or something for her mom, so she couldn’t hang around. I figured I’d finish up, so she could head on home.”

I nodded. “I’ve seen your latex work,” I replied. “You’re pretty great with an airbrush, too.”

Alex’s smile was so radiant that I couldn’t help but smile back. “Well. I wouldn’t say allthat,” he replied. “I’m only good with an airbrush if I have a model standing right in front of me. When it comes to painting something that’s on a stand or a table, I’m terrible. Bioncia really has an eye for the way that lighting will look. She can just visualize it, and I really can’t.”

“I’ve never noticed,” I said.

“What? That Bioncia covers all my mistakes? Sure, she does. She’s really good, too. Like,reallygood. She should be working on multi-million-dollar Hollywood productions.”

“A lot of people here should be working on things greater than my little movie,” I said.

And Alex didn’t read anything into the comment about himself. Instead, he nodded and smiled quickly. “There are,” he said. “You, too.”

“Me?” I asked.

Alex idly looked down at his make-up case and toyed with the latch. “Well,” he said, “I mean, you’ve had a lot of problems with this film, but that’s mostly because you aren’t used to being a director. And you’ve still managed to solve the problems you’ve run into. That’s pretty impressive on its own.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“Well, I just mean that if you had actual prior experience in all this, you’d probably be really good at it,” Alex said. “I imagine it’s something that comes with a learning curve.”

“It definitely does.”

Our eyes met, and my breath came in an embarrassing, little flutter. For a moment, I sat as if spellbound, trapped in some beautiful and crystalline moment. Then, Alex looked away, and the spell broke.

“I really do think you should go ahead and look for a replacement,” Alex said. “I mean, I don’texpectI’ll get the job with the FBI, but I really want it. If someone is going to get it,why shouldn’t that someone be me? I don’t want to sound cocky, but—”

“You’ll get it. You’re confident, as am I.”

“Something like that.”

God, if I could be more like Alex, so driven and focused, my father would be thrilled. He’d have liked Alex. That is he’d have liked Alex if he’d had money and all the right connections.

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