Page 25 of Hearts Adrift
“It’s not difficult to draw conclusions.”
“Is that what you want me to do?” Finn meets my eyes. “Draw conclusions?”
I look at him. “No.”
“Then I need to know what happened,” he says. “What actually happened. I … I think you owe me that.”
“I owe you that?”
“I need to know if my family and I should be worried. Our business, specifically. Is Hopewell Resorts and Rentals harboring a criminal? Is the reputation of Dreamwood Isle at risk? Or is this whole thing blown out of proportion and you’re actually some kind of … of hero? Just give it to me straight.No!” he shouts when I’m about to open my mouth. “No, no. Not yet. I’m not ready.” He takes a breath. “Okay. Now I’m ready. Tell me.”
I take a breath. “I’m not a criminal.”
“Okay.”
“Technically.”
“Technically?”
“He hasn’t pressed charges. He could, but hasn’t.”
“The director you knocked out?”
“Punched. In his smug jaw. Didn’t quite knock out.”
“And he’s not planning to press charges?”
“Who knows what he’s planning? His only plans are likely just to kick back and eat popcorn while social media devours my career and assassinates my character, despite the efforts of my astoundingly ineffective PR people.”
Finn paces away from the counter, circling the kitchen once before coming to a stop by the table. “No one knows you’re here? No one at all?”
“No one except you has seen me.”
“Is this ‘Cal Mason’ name traceable?”
“Maybe to Sherlock Holmes. Or whatever slightly less dated reference there is.”
“And … whydidyou punch him?”
Here we go. “To explain … I’ll need to tell you about a lovely young woman named …” I stop suddenly, thinking of Lexi.“Maybe I … shouldn’t say her name.”
“What do you mean?”
“It feels wrong, to say her name, to ‘out’ her.” Now it’s me who’s slowly pacing. “This isn’t her fault. None of this. I don’t … I don’t want to imply that even indirectly. And it’s not for me to identify her. We’re friends,” I explain to him. “Met at an audition many, many years ago, very first audition I landed after moving to LA. Neither of us were cast. We got lunch after. Laughed it off. Since then, we’ve been likethis.” I cross my fingers. I stop at the other side of the table from Finn. “Eventually, I got my big ol’ break. Career took off, I guess, and unlike all my other ‘friends’ who turned bitter or downright jealous and mean, she was an angel. Supportive. Happy for me. Always a text away, no matter how big I got.”
“Sounds like a great friend.”
“Fast-forward to a month and a half ago. Got a role in this major motion picture. I drop her name, snap, she gets hired on as some sort of assistant’s assistant to the director. Trent Embers.” I let out a huff after saying the ridiculous name. “Sounds like a rejected comic book hero concept. IfI’veever heard a worse stage name …”
“What did that director do?” asks Finn, picking up on where this is headed.
I underestimated how much saying this out loud would stir up the fire inside me that motivated me to punch Trent in the first place. “What gets me is how I didn’t even see it. What was happening behind the scenes. I was so consumed in my role, not paying attention to anything. Let alone … her, the one I brought in, who I thought I was giving a leg up to. I imagined doors opening for her. Opportunities. All the director saw … was …” I’m suddenly unable to say “a piece of ass” about my friend Lexi, my jaw tightening as I grip the edge of the table. “Someone to take advantage of,” I finish instead.
Finn lets out a sigh of disgust.
“She didn’t speak up,” I go on, “but she shouldn’t have had to. It shouldn’t have been a situation she was subjected to at all. Being the one who brought her into the project, I should have been more aware. Or noticed when the director kept asking for her to do this and that. Catching her alone here and there on the set. Asking her inappropriate things. I should’ve seen the signs. I should’ve …”
“It isn’t your fault.”
