Page 61 of Nothing But the Truth

The text was shorter so she read it first.

Hey! I’m in the makeup chair on set and we’re behind schedule. Come to the studio if you need to talk. Or call Francine.

She texted Lucy the studio name and stage 6.

Lucy would go to Mars if an A-lister summoned her. And she didn’t want to talk to Lily’s agent; it was too important to risk anything getting lost in translation. She knew she had to go.

But first she had to make sure the reason for her visit was greenlit.

She opened Monica’s email with her breath high in her throat.

Lucy,

This is incredible. Thank you for trusting me with it. I had to get internal sign-off, but I drafted a full piece, and we’re ready to publish today if you’re still in.

Talk soon.

—M

Lucy jumped up from the bench. Her hands shook. She was used to being on the initiating side of breaking news, but the news never concerned her. The situation suddenly pressed down on her with the weight of seven years. Ever since the day she walked into J&J and Jonathan’s smile was a tad too friendly. The reckoning, she hoped, was now just on the other side of an email.

She clicked Monica’s attachment and scanned her additions. It was perfect.

“Good news?” Adam asked.

Her heart pounded and her thumbs trembled as she typed, I’m in, and hit send.

“Yes. Very good news. That scandal I mentioned is about to blow sky-high, but in a very good way.” Her voice shook. A sharp memory of the moment before she walked onstage to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as a ten-year-old at her class recital pierced through her. Same as then, the exposure terrified her. And she hoped, like back then, that her courage would blow everyone away. “I have to go.”

Adam had stood up from the bench. If she hadn’t been so preoccupied with texting Lily, On my way! Lucy would have noticed the anxious look on his face that she was about to slip out of his hands.

“Do you need another ride?” he asked, hopeful.

The thought was tempting, Lucy had to admit. The idea of pressing herself up against him again made her dizzy. But getting to where Lily was involved freeways, and she did not have the guts for that on a motorcycle. She would know that even on a day she wasn’t forced to tell the truth.

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I can handle the 405 on my first day on a bike. And it’s not a matter of trusting you”—she pressed her hand to his chest because she couldn’t completely cheat herself out of touching him again if the offer was on the table—“it’s one hundred percent the fact that I would pass out or throw up. Maybe both.”

His chest bounced with a laugh just as her phone let out another ding! She pulled away at the same time he reached for her hand. He reeled her in like a dancer until her whole body pressed up against his. What little breath it didn’t knock out of her he stole when he pulled her into a full kiss.

It was very, very real, and her mind went blank. His tongue slipped warmly against hers, and if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around her, she may have fallen over. The shape of him was new and different; the pattern of his breath against her face distinct. She wanted to memorize it all right there on that sunny sidewalk.

He pulled back after a dizzying moment that was equally eternal and brief, and smiled. “Just in case we don’t run into each other again. Good luck with your scandal, Lucy Green.”

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